Nation: Deep in the Heart of It

• Share

Texas' Republican presidential primary was low-key and lackluster. Practically no bandwagons, billboards or ballyhoo enlivened the political landscape. They weren't needed, since the state already was buttoned up for Goldwater. In the Republican voting, he got 100,823 votes, 75% of the total cast. Following him was Write-In Candidate Lodge, with 11,803. Rockefeller, who tried to keep his name off the ballot, got 5,998.

The Republican Senate primary was more lively. Four men ran—each trying to sound more devoted to Goldwater than the others. Houston Oilman George Bush, 40, the son of former Connecticut Senator Prescott Bush, finished first with 62,574 votes, must vie in a June 6 runoff against Democrat-turned-Republican Jack Cox, 42, a Houston businessman, who got 46% of the 1962 gubernatorial vote against Democrat John Connally. This time Cox got 44,080.

The winner of the Bush-Cox runoff will face Senator Ralph Yarborough, who beat Radio Station Owner-Announcer Gordon McLendon, 43, after a cactus-nasty campaign in the Democratic primary. McLendon, who bills himself on-air as "the Old Scotchman," made shameless use of his radio outlets to boost his own candidacy, rattled on for months before the primary about the liberal tendencies of "Smilin' Ralph". The vote: Yarborough 903,211, against 671,806 for the Old Scotchman.

In Texas' Democratic gubernatorial primary campaign, Governor Connally allowed as how he would keep things going pretty much the way he had during his first term. His opponent, Houston Attorney Don Yarborough, a liberal who is no kin to the liberal Senator, belittled the Governor's achievements, ended up buried under a Connally landslide—1,124,700 to 471,874. Connally faces no meaningful Republican opposition in November.