Viewpoint
The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Monday
October 20, 1980
Slouch
By Jim Earle
“I’m not upset because you didn't cut the first log. I'm upset because
you put it in my room!''
Campus Election Follies:
No faults — any alternatives?!
The lists which the Corps of Cadets and other
groups circulate prior to each semester s elec
tions — and the controversy that invariably
ensues — highlight the comedy that is the cam
pus election process.
That process provides plenty of incentive for
candidates to conduct superficial campaigns,
often based on nothing more than big signs and
catchy names.
And it’s a process to which students readily
acquiesce each fall and spring, when officer
elections for the major campus governing
bodies are conducted.
But what else is there to do? Especially
among freshmen, campus issues are an un
known quantity. Those running for office may
have a bare idea of what they’d be doing in that
office, but it’s only that — a bare idea.
So what’s left to campaign on? Personality
(friendliness, ability to speak well and look
nice), those big signs, and neat names like
“Rock” or “Outlaw. ” And organizational affilia
tion.
It s legal to pass out campaign flyers with
many names on them, so long as each candidate
Sidebars
By Dillard Stone
catalogues the total expense incurred in pub
lishing the leaflets.
And, as is so often the case, when more than
one member of an organization runs, the leaflet
is no guarantor of victory.
Why shouldn’t cadets vote for cadets? At
least they’ll know something about the person
they’re voting for.
Depending on how big an effort a candidate
makes to get to know his classmates — and vice
versa — it may be the only thing they know.
Corps Staff members make a point when they
say that, if a freshman doesn’t know any of the
candidates, or has no preference, he might as
well vote for someone who’s in the same group
as he is.
After all, a cadet senator will more than
have more interest in cadets’ affairs than
lian student.
And that applies to other organizatii
well. It s just that the Corps, being thel
bloc of potential voters, is the most not*
group when elections roll around.
Concentrating on whether or not cadetij
duct a “bloc vote obscures four
issues underlying the Campus Election^]
First, is the Corps to be faulted foranu
zational structure which permits inform
be disseminated quickly, and whichena
cadets to participate in the extracurrfcq|
toral process?
Second, shouldn’t those who critici
Corps for its high turnout during ele
more concerned about increasing par
from members of their own groups?
Third, is there a less superficial alter
the facades behind which candidates (
for University offices? |
And, fourth, even if a less superficial^
campaign were possible, would stuck:
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Oklahoma appears
wrapped for Reagan
By HARRY CULVER
United Press International
OKLAHOMA CITY — It appears Ronald
Reagan and Jimmy Carter have all but written
off Oklahoma for opposite reasons — challenger
Reagan because he is so sure of winning; the
president because he is an almost-certain loser.
Neither plans to visit Oklahoma in the clos
ing days of a campaign in which Democrats and
Republicans alike agree Reagan has a strong
lead.
“We are fighting overconfidence,” said Betty
Brake, executive secretary of the Oklahoma
Reagan organization. “We have more volun
teers than ever before, but sometimes people in
the leadership seem to think we don’t need to
be doing all this work.”
“It’s uphill all the way,” says Democratic
Gov. George Nigh. “The president’s rating is
improving, but his chances are less than 50-50
in Oklahoma. ”
“I don’t think the president has written off
Oklahoma,” Nigh said, “but I would say in his
judgment that Oklahoma and its eight elector
al votes would have to be given a low priority. ”
“I think Reagan has written off Oklahoma in
an opposite sense,” Nigh said. “He came in and
got his million dollars in one night and left. I
think he is taking Oklahoma for granted. ”
Nigh referred to $1 million raised in a Reagan
visit last spring. This was followed by a second
$ 1 million in contributions for a $1,000 per head
“Prelude to Victory” dinner in late September
featuring a visit by former President Gerald
Ford.
Just five days later. Democrats were strug
gling to attract guests to a luncheon at $25 per
plate.
Carter Coordinator Sandy Turner, who
didn’t open the state Carter headquarters until
Oct. 1, said, “We’re having to rely on old
fashioned barbecues, coffee and cake at the
church and bean suppers. We’re having to raise
our own money locally for the state campaign. ”
Oklahoma has gone Democratic in a pres
idential race only once since 1948 and that was
in 1964 when Texas neighbor Lyndon Johnson
was elected. Carter lost the state to Ford by
12,000 votes four years ago despite a much
greater Carter effort in that election.
Democratic pessimism and Republican
optimism in the presidential contest have spil
led over into the Senate race to fill the seat
being vacated by Republican Henry Bellmon,
retiring after 12 years.
Democratic nominee Andy Coats, 45, has yet
to commit himself on whether he will vote for
Carter, a stance he took in winning a mid-
September runoff primary against Robert S.
Kerr Jr., son of the late senator.
In contrast, GOP Senate nominee Don Nick-
les, 31, has promoted himself as the candidate
“most like Ronald Reagan.”
Coats goes into the general election as a
slight favorite, with statewide support and a
solid following in populous Oklahoma county,
site of state capital Oklahoma City, where he
won a reputation as a hardline prosecutor in
four years as a district attorney.
Both candidates have campaigned as staunch
conservatives, promising to balance the
budget, chop federal regulations, boost defense
spending and make the United States number
one. Nickles proposes to abolish several
Washington departments outright, including
energy and education.
Nickles, campaigning as a “born again
Christian,” has built an organization around
the “Moral Majority,” a politically oriented
church movement. But a bitter runoff primary
campaign with Tulsa industrialist John Zink
left scars.
A third Senate candidate, former state Attor
ney General Charles Nesbitt, 58, a Democrat
running as an independent, is given little
chance of winning but could be a spoiler.
Oklahoma’s 5-1 Democratic-Republican
ratio in the House is expected to stand al
though there will be a change in the 4th
District, where Democrat Tom Steed is retir
ing after serving 32 years. Democratic new
comer Dave McCurdy, 31, appears to have the
edge over Republican Howard Rutledge, 52,
former Navy pilot who spent 87 months in a
Vietnamese prison camp.
Democratic incumbents Jim Jones, Mike Sy-
nar, Wes Watkins and Glenn English are fa
vored in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 6th, respectively,
and Republican incumbent Mickey Edwards in
the 5th. Synar concedes he faces a hard race
with Republican Gary Richardson in the 2nd
District. Edwards is confronted by a spirited
effort by Democrat David Hood in the 5th.
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Nobody loves bearer ofbad news
Reagan taking flak on tree statement
By DICK WEST
United Press International
WASHINGTON — All journalists soon learn
the truth of Shakespeare’s observation that
“The first bringer of unwelcome news hath but
a losing office.”
Or if they don’t learn that, they surely come
to agree with Sophocles that “None love the
messenger who brings bad news.”
Through this occupational hazard, I long ago
absorbed the painful lesson Ronald Reagan has
just been taught the hard way: Never knock a
tree.
Had the Republican presidential candidate
consulted me, I might have spared him the flak
he has been catching from environmentalists
and others since asserting on the campaign trail
that trees contribute to air pollution.
As I could have predicted from bitter experi
ence, negative reaction to his allegations has
been fierce and intense.
Sample: A Californian newspaper proposed a
comparison test in which the head of the Sierra
Club would be locked in a room with a tree and
Reagan would be locked up with an automobile
emitting exhaust fumes.
Another sample: At a college where Reagan
made an campaign appearance, someone
draped a tree with a banner reading: “Chop me
down before I kill again.”
One reason I could have foreseen this type of
backlash is because much the same thing once
happened to me.
In the course of trying to look out after the
public interest, I came across a report that cited
trees as a major source of certain air pollutants.
At the time, I was a shocked as anybody else.
Having been reared in the Kilmeresque tradi
tion, I subscribed to the view that trees could
do no wrong.
But, as journalists must, I put aside personal
feelings and became a messager of this unwel
come news. I proposed that anti-perspirant
companies undertake the development of an
under-limb spray that would prevent trees from
befouling the air.
I was only trying to be helpful. Yet the reac
tion was vilifying and abusive. Readers accused
me of slandering innocent trees, being disre
spectful of Mother Nature and other heinous
deeds.
I was, of course, only a bringer of the news. I
had no part in preparing the report; nor had I
The Fri
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ifluirsday
planted any of the trees that reputedly “efit Texa
giving off noxious vapors. , TheF^
Nevertheless, it was a losing office. 0rient ^j 1
Well, such is a journalist’s lot. BuI Kamu ^
dreadful it would have been had I been ru[ Services
for president. For that report on arboreal?
tion likely would have cost me the ever f v V.*J|/f4
vote, and probably the deciduous voteas'^
Reagan, who is running for president 1 ;,
now be in exactly such a pickle. If so, pt j
there still is time for him to smooth thingst]
Fortunately for his campaign, there b
become available a government
sort the tree lobby loves. It finds that apart
their ‘grace and beauty,” trees can “signif
ly reduce heating bills in the winter anc
costs in the summer.”
Let Reagan quote that report on tltf|
paign trail and voters offended by his pollj
comment might forgive if not forget. It’slil'
Bible says: “How beautiful upon the mom 15
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidfe
Warped
By Scott McCullar
STopyiNG FOR THIS
CHEMISTRY TEST AWD
STAYING o/V A PIET IS
REALLY STARTING To GET
CAROLINE, DO YOU
THIS LAST PIECE
IK
NO THANKS, l'V£ ALREADY
GAINED TOO many ELECTRONS
THIS WEEK...
OH MY GOD,
STARTING TO
'M EVEN
TALK LIKE
The Battalion
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