[Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, July - October, 1970] Page: 53 of 104

                                
By Bo Byers
A USTIN-The key question coming
out of the State Democratic Con-
vention is what impact its actions
will have on the Nov. 3 general elec-
tion-particularly in the two big
races, for U.S. senate and for gover-
nor.
The guess from here is that despite
the discord which erupted in the final
hour, the convention will prove more
helpful than harmful to Lloyd M.
Bentsen Jr., and Gov. Preston Smith,
the Democratic senatorial and guber-
natorial nominees.
Dr. Elmer C. Baum, the state
Democratic chairman who also
served as- convention chairman, un-
necessarily stirred the initial floor
controversy when he goofed in an-
nouncing the result of a voice vote.
The vote was on a minority report
from the Platform Committee urging
deletion of a statement which sup-
pol-ted neighborhood schools and free-
dom of choice.
An "aye" vote for the minority re-
port would have knocked out the
statement.
When Baum took the voice vote,
the "noes" clearly drowned out the
"ayes." Baum, in an apparent slip,
declared the minority report adopted.
This made most liberals happy and
most conservative angry.
When Baum agreed to a request to
reconsider the vote, it was the liber-
als turn to get unhappy. Their roar of
protest grew still louder when Baum
took a standing vote and declared the
minority report defeated. To most ob-
servers, Baum's evaluation of the
standing vote appeared correct.
Whether a roll call vote, which lib-
erals were demanding, would have
proved Baum wrong is strictly con-
jecture. -
Part of the liberal faction became
still unhappier when Baum ruled on
another voice vote that a minority re-
port to require voter registration by
party affiliation had been defeated.
Possibly 200 delegates walked out
in protest of Baum's ruling and his
refusal to grant a roll call vote on
the party affiliation, or "closed pri-
mary" proposition.
This was a relatively insignificant
number, with perhaps 2500 to 3000
delegates on the floor. (Approximate-
ly half the 5500 delegates had left the
convention before the late afternoon
flare-up occurred.)
More significant was the fact that a
great many liberals, including Sen.
Oscar Mauzy of Dallas, original ad-
vocate of the party affiliation reqire-
ment, did not vote for the minority
report.
Mauzy pulled down his support in
the interest of party harmony and to
assure adoption of the remainder of
the party platform, which incorpo-
rates a number of his liberal and
progressive proposals.
This was a pragmatic move on
Mauzy's part, at the urging of Sen.
Barbara Jordan of    wnho isa
liberalack, and also on the plea of
Robert Strauss of Dallas, a moderate
conservative now serving as treasur-
er of the Democratic National Com-
mittee.

Party discord hasn't
hurt Smith, Bentsen

A number of the more extreme lib-
erals now claim that the retention of
the neighborhood schools section and
the rejection of the party affiliation
requirement has cost Smith and
Bentsen votes in November.
The fact is that those making this
claim went to the Democratic con-
vention in Dallas with plans already
laid to walk out on one pretext or an-
other.
It is doubtful Baum's ruling on the
two controversial issues cost Smith
and Bentsen any votes, even though
it did tear up the harmony effort
which Smith tried to nurture.
If anything really hurt Smith it was
the patently f o o li s h preconvention
decision to have Texas Railroad
Commission Chairman Ben Ramsey
serve as permanent convention chair-
man.
Ramsey, because of his record as
lieutenant governor in the 1950s, is
anathema to organized labor and to
blacks.
The choice of Miss Jordan as tem-
porary convention secretary gave la-
bor, liberals, and, in fact, some mod-
erate conservatives the leverage they
needed to make Smith and Baum
back down on Ramsey.
When Miss Jordan, at the urging of
numerous delegates, sent word to
Smith that she would not serve as
temporary convention secretary if
Ramsey was to be permanent chair-
man, it was inevitable tht Smith
would have to come up with another
choice. He could not afford to alien-
ate Miss Jordan, the most potent
voice in the state for her race.
Miss Jordan is unlikely to give per-
sonal endorsement to either Smith or
Bentsen, but as she told the conven-
tion, "I am in this party to stay, and
I am here to win in November. Let
us work together."
Smith and Bentsen are concerned
about the possibility of a low turnout
of voters Nov. 3, a situation that
would innure to the benefit of their
Republican opponents, Paul Eggers
and Rep. George Bush.
That is why they need people like
Miss Jordan and Mauzy, on the liber-
al side, urging their supporters to go
vote and to vote the straight Demo-
cratic ticket.
Organized labor came away from
the Democratic convention aware
that its platform was more accepta-
ble than that of the Republicans.
The Texas AFL-CIO's Committee
on Political Education (COPE) the
next day gave Smith and Bentsen
COPE's mildest form of approval,
"urging support" rather than endors-
ing or recommending them.
This was about as much as Smith
and Bentsen probably expected from
labor.
The Democratic convention ran
true to tradition when its unity fell
apart at the seams in the final hour.
But it would be incorrect to interpret
this as a development that necessari-
ly will cost Bentsen and Smith votes
in November.

HOUSTON CHRONICLE
SEPTEMBER 20, 1970