The Battalion
Texas A&M University
Thursday
October 30,1980
Slouch
By Jim Earle
‘Will you promise not to try any more indoor barbecuing?'
Turnout to determine
Texas election outcome
By ROLAND LINDSEY
United Press International
AUSTIN — Texas Democrats claim Presi
dent Carter has pulled even with Ronald
Reagan but an energetic get-out-the-vote cam
paign by Reagan’s campaign still may spoil the
president’s comeback attempt.
Guest concedes Reagan has a solid lead in
urbaq cqnters.such as Dallas and Houston.
The primary problem, Texas Democratic
leaders say, is little enthusiasm among Carter
supporters for their candidate, which may re
sult in traditionally Democratic voters staying
at home on election day.
A party official discussing the campaign at
state Democratic headquarters acknowledged
there are few Carter backers in Texas who are
pushing Carter’s re-election with enthusiasm.
“I think basically we have to offset the losses
we’ll have in Dallas and Harris counties. We’re
going to come out of there some votes behind,
and if we can keep that deficit to a minimum
and pick it up in traditional Democratic areas as
well as in San Antonio and the South Texas
area, we’ll be all right.
“I don’t think anybody believes either side is
5 or 6 points ahead. If you talk to people that
have been in this business a long time, they’ll
tell you that it’s absolutely neck and neck.”
“You won’t find any here either,” the official
responded.
Bob Beckel, Carter’s Texas campaign direc
tor, said: “Our base in Texas is much bigger
than it was in 1976. The question is, do we get
them to the polls? If we get them to the polls,
we win.”
South Texas, where the Mexican-American
vote is concentrated, will be critical. There are
800,000 Mexican-Americans registered to vote
in Texas this year, compared to 465,000 in 1976.
Gov. Bill Clements, the aggressive leader of
Reagan’s campaign for the state’s 26 electoral
votes, claims his surveys still show Reagan with
a 12 percentage point lead in Texas and no
indication that Carter is closing the gap. In fact,
Clements claims, his latest poll showed Carter
losing ground.
Carter received 87 percent of the Mexican-
American votes in 1976, and won Texas by only
a 129,000-vote margin. This year, Clements
contends Reagan will take away 25 to 30 percent
of the Mexican-American vote.
Politicians in the Lower Rio Grande Valley
agree the GOP is making its strongest and most
effective bid ever for the Hispanic vote.
The Republicans are using a telephone bank
operation that is calling 90,000 households a
day to locate GOP voters and persuade then to
vote on Nov. 4, and by election day the phone
operation will have contacted 2 million house
holds — about half the registered voters in
Texas, Clements said.
“I’ve been house to house and in the beer
joints, and I hear old time Mexican-Americans
telling me they’re not going to vote for Carter,
they’re going to vote for Reagan,” said Juan
Hinojosa of McAllen, a Democratic nominee
for state representative.
Democrats are using their own telephone
operation on a smaller scale, and asked former
state party chairman Calvin Guest to head a
special get-out-the-vote effort.
“Quite frankly, there doesn’t seem to be
much enthusiasm for Carter. One of the prob
lems is, and you can sense it, there is a lack of
confidence in Carter. He doesn’t project
leadership, and it turns people off.”
“I am very confident we are going to win this
race in Texas,” Guest said. “Right now it’s even-
steven, and there are more of us than there are
of them, and if we get out people to the polls
we re going to win.”
A visit to the area by Sen. Edward M. Ken
nedy, D-Mass., last week may help Carter’s
chances by enticing more Mexican-Americans
to vote.
“It does help,” Hinojosa said. “It motivates
voters and reminds them again that the Demo
cratic party has always been the party that helps
the Mexican-American people.”
Warped
ABC s straw poll ridiculous
While everyone is still talking about the de-
bates, I’d like to chip in my thoughts on one of ^ | »
the most irresponsible mass media hypes I’ve .S
ever seen.
ABC deserves ample criticism for its straw
poll after the debates.
The telephone straw poll produced an awful
lot of unreliable data, and presented potential
problems for people in crisis.
Locally, telephone lines were tied up until
well past 11 p.m. by people calling the polling
numbers.
Every light in the board was lit up on local
exchanges, an operator said.
ABC had to remind people to dial the “900”
prefix — they were flooding the Long Beach,
Calif, police station with phone calls.
Those two instances, 1,500 miles apart, rep
resent the potential danger in such a situation.
What happens when the telephone lines are
tied up, and there’s an emergency?
The victim, or whoever, can’t get through
because the lines are tied by silly people re-
By Dillard Stone
cording irrelevant votes to help a network boost
imaginary ratings.
The whole process reeks of the kind of super
ficial nonsense which can and has cost lives in
the past.
And for what? The poll, for its tremendous
exposure on “ABC Nightline,” is the most in
valid piece of crap to emerge from any recent
election. Consider:
— There’s no telling how many votes were
incorrectly recorded when the phone lines got
crossed.
— The poll is biased toward people who will
volunteer their time and money (a
cents) to phone in a preference.
— It’s biased to begin with toward [f
who have telephones.
— There’ s no guarantee against m
sponses — some people have more
cents to blow.
— And every Republican and Demn
precinct chairman in the country probali
led in to record a preference.
ABC, if your poll is as random,
and unscientific as you claim it to be, wbi ji
so much exposure in the first place? 11
continued assurances about how it alii
really mean anything — so why have
first place?
Does the gain in ratings merit thesaciij
of all degrees of accuracy in
poll?
Do meaningless facts delivered
taneously outweigh the dangers of peopl
being able to use a telephone in anemerfj
Not by a long shot.
The c
of Johr
Texas,'
It’s your turn
Coaching should be faulted for losses
Editor:
Tom Wilson wake up!
The Ags are 2-5 on the season; we get des
troyed by good teams and get beat by marginal
teams. It is past time to look for something
different.
Who calls the plays during the game? If the
“I” formation allows only 5 different plays (6
including punts) why not get a different forma
tion?
Why do we keep the “I”? Is it because some
one is trying to save face? I would like to chal
lenge Tom Wilson to view any A&M game film
from an opponent’s defensive viewpoint. What
the play formation does not tell, the players’
motions and stances do. Any defense can read
A&M’s “I” like a book.
Why do we not have a working punt strategy?
Why not rush the punter and possibly block it
or make him mess up? Rice, Baylor and Penn
State all seemed to make it work.
Why do we not have a kickoff strategy? There
is nothing magical about a center field kick.
Why not kick from various positions and at
various angles to keep the opponents mixed up?
We have all heard the “reasons” why we lost;
first came drugs, second it was inexperience,
then it was poor execution. Tom Wilson, when
is the “reason” going to be “we got out-
coached.” We have 4 more games.
Ted Arnold ’78
purpose of recycling. ” These students should
look at the situation from a few realistic stand
points.
1) The portion of the University staff respon
sible for the cleaning on the campus is very
small when compared to the 33,000 students
here.
2) It is a health hazard to be digging in trash
cans.
3) Most people who dig in trash cans to recy
cle cans do it for their own personal gain ... on
University time.
Come on people, ecology (and recycling) is
not someone else’s responsibility, it’s every
one’s. If you have the problems with the new
directive, do things much as the Europeans do
... place your recyclable material in one waste
basket and your trash in another then give the
cans to your friendly Aggie maids. I’m sure they
will appreciate it greatly.
Chris Young ’82
Thanks, Mr. Hall
Editor:
I would like to thank Mr. Hall and the multi-
media staff of the Evans Library for doing an
outstanding job under adverse conditions dur
ing the showing of the Oct. 28 presidential
debate.
The students showed up in such great num
bers that the original room was filled to ca
early in the debate. Instead of turning
interested parties away, Mr. Hall contini
make use of every available space wh!
additional screen could be set up. HiseS ;
and those of his stall members exemplifies^ 1
every faculty and staff member should ha# •
goal — that of enlightening the student!®
May Reagan beat the hell outta Cartel'
Richard “Dick” Steveii' ‘
V
Correction
A story on page 1 of Wednesday’s Bal !
said that alcoholic beverages were permit#
on-campus housing. Texas A&M Univef ’
System policy states that alcoholic bevel*
are permitted in long-term leased props
such as the Kyle Field suites or on-cait; ’
houses of University administrators.
Among the places where alcoholic beverf '
are specifically prohibited are Universal
mitory rooms.
Also, in Wednesday’s Battalion, an#
about state senatorial candidate Dr. ||
McNiel incorrectly spelled the
name “McNeil.”
The Battalion regrets the errors.
Can trash be sorted?
Editor:
In The Battalion of Oct. 27, 1980, a few (49)
students complained about the Physical Plant’s
“directive to forbid the maids and janitors from
sorting aluminum cans from the trash for the
By Scott McCultar
THOSE
PIECES
6UT wH'f 00 rwa rnM£ THEM
th wicks if my'KE wever
Could
START over
again AT THE first PANEL?
The Battalion
->r
i
r
U S P S 045 360
MEMBER
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Southwest Journalism Congress
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Editor Dillard Stone
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