Ogling the Ayes of Texas

With 169 delegates at stake, the Democrats brace for High Noon

Few things in this world stir Texans more than a brawl, whether between high school football teams, gamecocks, refinery workers or Democrats. Texas Democrats have more warring factions—from Big Oil to Boll Weevil to Prairie Populist—than just about any other political party west of Italy's Christian Democrats. Lone Star politicians relish their infighting so much that when State Representative Ben ("Jumbo") Atwell was asked a few years back if he was thinking of leaving the legislature, he responded, "What? And give up show biz?"

Riding into this prickly cactus patch are Presidential Contenders Walter Mondale, Gary Hart and Jesse Jackson, for whom the May 5 caucuses loom as a High Noon. Actually, a more apt Texas metaphor for Hart might be the Alamo. Reeling from his defeats in Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania and, last week, Missouri, he vowed to start winning again in the West. A bad loss in the Lone Star State could start the vultures circling. For Jackson, the state's large Hispanic vote tests his ability to make his "rainbow coalition" a bit less monochromatic than it has been so far. For Walter Mondale, Texas— with 169 delegates at stake—offers a chance to widen his delegate lead over Hart (1,114 to 590, with 1,967 needed to clinch the nomination) and to prove his electability outside of Big Labor's shadow.

Appearances do not favor Mondale. A buttoned-up Norwegian who drinks diluted Scotch, and only sparingly at that, he is no cowboy. Lanky Coloradan Hart comes a lot closer, at least to the urban variety. He wears cowhide boots and an oversize brass belt buckle, and is the only Democrat who can wear a ten-gallon hat and look as if he means it. Nor does the territory offer fertile turf for the former Vice President. Texas is a right-to-work state where unions are about as popular as taxes and Big Government is loved even less than the Washington Redskins. Hart's anti-Big Labor, pro-energy-development stands should play better than Mondale's traditional New Deal politics.

Yet if Hart beats Mondale, it will be a major upset. The main reason: Texas' arcane caucus system. To qualify, voters must first cast ballots in the congressional and local primaries during the day, then return to the polls in the evening to choose presidential candidates. It is a system that favors organizations with the proven ability to turn out party regulars. In other words, the Mondale machine.

"They're organized," admits Hart's Southwestern coordinator, John Pouland. "And they'll have the opportunity to be disproportionately represented in the caucuses." Complains Hart: "The caucuses are stacked against us." In 1981 and 1982, before Hart even announced, Mondale had visited Texas 14 times, methodically lining up the endorsements of almost every important party leader.