The View from Texas

Before the Miami Convention it was a foregone conclusion that Democrat Dolph “Daddy” Briscoe would be a shoo-in for governor to replace the scandal-tarnished Preston Smith. Texas, after all, has been electing Democrats and only Democrats to this office since 1873. And Dolph Briscoe—although known as a liberal when he was in the legislature—now insists he is a conservative. The truth is that Briscoe is an opportunist who has responded to the winds of Texas politics with all the constancy of a weathervane.

Democrats weren’t the only ones who felt that Briscoe was a sure thing once he won the primary. Republicans, who had indulged themselves for the first time in a primary contest for the gubernatorial spot, were equally willing to concede his inevitable victory. It has even been suggested that the large number of entrants in the Republican primary was designed to dilute the vote and prevent the nomination of the one Republican who really wanted to win, spunky, articulate Henry “Hank” Grover, the state senator from solidly Republican Harris County (Houston). Grover, a tireless campaigner, stumped the state, led in the primary, and captured 66 per cent of the vote in the run-off. Only those who knew Grover were not surprised. He is a man with a Patton-like sense of his own destiny. He inspires immense personal devotion. Like James Buckley in New York, he baffles the liberal media by attracting hordes of dedicated young people who toil with preternatural zeal in his behalf.

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Val Victorson

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Before the Miami Convention it was a foregone conclusion that Democrat Dolph “Daddy” Briscoe would be a shoo-in for governor to replace the scandal-tarnished Preston Smith. Texas, after all, has been electing Democrats and only Democrats to this office since 1873. And Dolph Briscoe—although known as a liberal when he was in the legislature—now insists he is a conservative. The truth is that Briscoe is an opportunist who has responded to the winds of Texas politics with all the constancy of a weathervane.

Democrats weren’t the only ones who felt that Briscoe was a sure thing once he won the primary. Republicans, who had indulged themselves for the first time in a primary contest for the gubernatorial spot, were equally willing to concede his inevitable victory. It has even been suggested that the large number of entrants in the Republican primary was designed to dilute the vote and prevent the nomination of the one Republican who really wanted to win, spunky, articulate Henry “Hank” Grover, the state senator from solidly Republican Harris County (Houston). Grover, a tireless campaigner, stumped the state, led in the primary, and captured 66 per cent of the vote in the run-off. Only those who knew Grover were not surprised. He is a man with a Patton-like sense of his own destiny. He inspires immense personal devotion. Like James Buckley in New York, he baffles the liberal media by attracting hordes of dedicated young people who toil with preternatural zeal in his behalf.