L
The Battalion
)1. 82 No. 49 USPS 045360 14 pages
College Station, Texas
Thursday, November 6, 1986
icumbents
in most
»xas offices
QQ Dallas (ap) — a jubilant bui
'lejments said Wednesday the down-
iden Texas economy helped him
ipture the governor’s job from
mocrat Mark White, who ousted
i in an upset four years ago.
8ut the economy apparently
n’t hurt Democrats in other state
ces where incumbents main-
■ied their stronghold, nor in the
le’s 27-mernber congressional del-
■tion where all incumbents of
Ih pat ties were re-elected.
■There’s only one answer to the
Be,” Clements said at a news con
ference in Austin. "1 think that Tex-
jin.d the people of Texas, are con-
Bned about our economy.”
■Vith 99.8 percent of the vote in,
Bments had 1,804,065 votes, or
|)2.7 percent, to 1,575,740 votes, or
■percent, for White. A third candi-
e, Libertarian Theresa Doyle of
i Antonio, polled only 42,346
|es, or 1.23 percent,
fhe state elected its first Hispanic
Statewide office, giving fexas Su-
■me Court Justice Raul Gonzalez,
if Bo was appointed to the bench by
lljBme two years ago, the nod for a
a * nil term on the nine-member court.
in | A oters in the 12th congressional
S .Mtfict elected incumbent Demo-
^JBticU.S. Rep. Jim Wright to a 17th
"m, virtually assuring Wright of
truing speaker of the House, suc-
iding Thomas P. “ l ip" O’Neill.
)S riVVright declared that his likely rise
■ House speaker, combined with
lie! Lloyd Bentsen’s upcoming
Biirmanship of the Senate Finance
Bmmittee, means a return to the
I
H See State Elections, page 14
Lonely At The Top
A worker sandblasts the top of tlie College
Station water tower Monday. The elevated
Photo by Greg Bailey
water tank is located on Texas Avenue seve
ral miles south of Texas A&M.
Lawmakers
in Texas see
‘power elite’
Politicians recall golden age
of Rayburn and Johnson
WASHINGTON (AP) — Al
though no one’s talking about pitch
ing barbecues on the White House
lawn, Texas lawmakers envision a
new power elite in Washington remi
niscent of the days of Sam Rayburn
and Lyndon Johnson.
With the Democrats grabbing a
55-45 majority in the Senate follow
ing Tuesday’s national elections,
Rep. Jim Wright, D-Fort Worth, and
Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Texas, are
virtually assured the posts of House
speaker and Senate Finance Com
mittee chairman.
The combined power of those two
posts makes Texas a key player in
coming policy decisions on a variety
of issues, including trade, farm assis
tance and tax legislation.
“It would not be unlike the days
when Lyndon Johnson and Sam
Rayburn were the two principal peo
ple in Congress,” Wright said shortly
after election returns projected his
party would retake the Senate.
Wright, who defeated Republican
challenger Don McNiel with almost
70 per cent of the vote, said this will
allow a “team effort” for confronting
Democrats are back,’ says party head
■WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats re-
Ijoiced Wednesday in midterm elections that
|restored them to power in the Senate and
padded their majority in the House. Presi-
Ident Reagan offered cooperation with the
jBOih Congress and said his agenda remains
unchanged in his final two years in the White
iHouse.
■ Democratic National Chairman Paul Kirk
declared the results provided a tremendous
(psychological lift for a party twice victimized
|b) Reagan’s presidential landslides.
■ “We can say it all in four words,” Kirk said.
The Democrats are back. It was a dynamic
viuory, one that shifts the momentum in our
(jjiection as we prepare for the next national
election.
B“We expanded our base in the South and
lie West, which was necessary following the
ll84 election.”
■ Democrats will hold a comfortable 55-45
majority in the Senate, and also won at least
25S House seats to 173 for the Republicans,
loi an increase of at least five. That was far
fewer than historical standards would dictate,
aresult that heartened Republicans.
Four House races were still too close to call
long after the last ballots were cast.
Republicans heralded their impressive
gains in governor’s races. They captured 1 1
seats currently held by Democrats, including
Texas, Florida and Alabama for the first time
since Reconstruction, and now control 24 of
50 governorships.
“I think what we did in the South and
across the Sun Belt is indicative that we’re still
in pretty good shape,” said GOP Chairman
Frank Fahrenkopf.
Reagan said the results prove the political
spectrum continues to move the way of the
GOP, and sought to disabuse Democrats of
any ideas that he would serve out his term
quietly as a lame duck.
“You can take it from me; Washington ain’t
seen nothing yet,” he said in a variation of his
refrain from the 1984 re-election campaign.
Reagan traveled over 25,000 miles in a bid
to retain the Republican majority in the Sen
ate, and he conceded, “This is not the out
come we sought.” But, he added in a White
House speech to his staff, “Our agenda re
mains unchanged, and we look forward to its
attainment.”
Most of the attention was focused on the
Senate races, where GOP Leader Bob Dole of
Kansas said, “We took a hath.”
Republican leaders blamed their loss on
negative advertising, a low voter turnout and
defeats in extremely close races that GOP
candidates had won six years ago. Final re
sults showed that seven first-term Republican
senators fell on Tuesday, most of them nar
rowly elected in 1980 on the strength of Rea
gan’s coattails.
Democratic Leader Robert G. Byrd of West
Virginia said, “We look forward to cooperat
ing with the president.” But he also made it
clear Democrats intend to pursue their own
legislative agenda, and said he means to enact
farm and trade measures even if the presi
dent resists.
“I would hope that the president would
read the message that was sent by the Ameri
can people,” Byrd said. “And that message is:
Look, your economic policies have not
worked in so many instances.”
The new Democrats in the Senate included
Rep. Wyche Fowler in Georgia, Rep. Richard
Shelby in Alabama, Rep. Tom Daschle in
South Dakota, former Rep. Brock Adams in
Washington, Gov. Bob Graham in Florida,
state Tax Commissioner Kent Conrad in
North Dakota, and former Gov. Terry San
ford in North Carolina, all of whom ousted
GOP freshmen seeking new terms.
Rep. Barbara Mikulski in Maryland and
Rep. Harry Reid in Nevada won seats being
vacated by Republican’s. Rep. John Breaux
held an open Democratic seat in Louisiana,
and Rep. Tim Wirth kept Gary Hart’s seat in
the Democratic column in Colorado.
Former Missouri Gov. Christopher Bond
and Rep. John McCain of Arizona are the
only Republicans in the Senate Class of’86.
In a key statehouse race, former Gov. Wil
liam Clements ousted Democrat Mark White
in Texas in a reversal of their 1982 race. Wis
consin Democratic Gov. Tony Earl also was
defeated.
Former Democrat turned Republican Bob
Martinez won in Florida, the first Hispanic
governor of that state, and Guy Hunt was the
first Republican elected in Alabama in 112
years.
President Reagan during the final
two years of his presidency.
The congressman vowed to revive
trade legislation vetoed by Reagan
during the last Congress and to do
See related story, page 13
the same with a clean water bill the
president has also threatened to kill.
“It would let us put legislation on
the president’s desk instead of the
House initiating ideas and seeing
them die in the Senate without any
vote,” Wright said.
Bentsen, who is in the midst of his
third Senate term and won’t face re-
election until 1988, has already an
nounced that passing a trade bill is at
the top of his agenda as chairman of
the Finance Committee. The com
mittee has jurisdiction over all trade
and tax legislation in the Senate.
“The president didn’t want the
political responsibility of facing up
to a trade bill,” Bentsen said. “He
wanted to pursue his own agenda
without the Congress being a part of
the process in trade. Yet our consti
tutional responsibility is such that
we’re very much a part of it and
should and will remain that.”
Wright said the one-tivo punch of
himself arid Bentsen recalls the
1950s, when Johnson served in va
rious Senate party leadership posts
prior to becoming president, a time
considered to be the state’s golden
political era.
Johnson’s cohort in Congress at
that time, and the last Texan to serve
as House Speaker, was the wily Sam
Rayburn, who spent a total of 48
years in the House — 21 as speaker,
a record that still stands.
Rayburn, known as “Mr. Demo
crat,” is considered to have been one
of the country’s most distinguished
and powerful legislators. He fol
lowed by less than 10 years another
Texan as House Speaker, John
Nance Garner, who became vice
president under Franklin D. Roose
velt.
During the time that Rayburn and
Johnson worked together in Con
gress, Texas pulled down the con
tract for the NASA headquarters in
Houston and a steady diet of other
political prizes.
“I’d say that with Jim Wright as
See Power, page 14
Biblical scholar says
finding casts doubt
k on Bible’s authorship
■ COLLEGE STATION (AP) — A
biblical scholar said Wednesday he
has identified the signature of a man
who wrote or edited at least eight
ks of the Bible — including Deu-
ttronomy, one of the five books long
attributed to Moses.
\ ■Dr. Richard E. Friedman, profes-
^\sor of Hebrew and comparative lit
er,ture at the University of Califor-
\ nil at San Diego, said a 5th century
scribe named Baruch ben Ne-
rih probably wrote most of Deute-
rlnomy, Joshua, Judges, 1st and
||)d Chronicles and 1st and 2nd
Kings.
Hie finding casts doubt on the
ailhorship of much of the Old Tes
tament, Friedman said.
Presenting his findings at a na
tionwide science briefing hosted by
Bxas A&M and sponsored by the
Njitional Science Foundation, Fried-
Kin said a day seal more than 2,500
years old bearing the scrihe’s signa
ture, confirms Baruch lived and
ikes it possible to link his writings
4th Old Testament scriptures at-
tr buted to Moses and others.
|“This presents an even greater
IcHallenge to fundamental Chris
tianity and Orthodox Judaism than
the argument over evolution be
cause it is a challenge to the texts
Bemselves,” said Friedman.
B“It goes to the very nature of the
writings, not just the first few chap
ters of Genesis which deal with the
creation.”
^■The seal was turned over to an Is
raeli archaeologist several years ago,
Friedman said, but its significance
was not realized. The seal is now
part of a museum exhibit.
Baruch ben Neriah, which means
Baruch, son of Neriah, is identified
in scripture as a secretary or special
assistant to the prophet Jeremiah,
who warned the nation of Israel
more than 500 years before Christ to
turn from disobedience and return
to God. Friedman said Baruch wrote
most of Jeremiah’s prophecies.
By analyzing the style, language
and construction of Jeremiah and
comparing it with the other books
believed to have been written much
earlier, Friedman said it is clear that
Baruch also wrote Deuteronomy,
Joshua, Judges, both books of the
Chronicles and both books of Kings.
He said the analysis also re
inforces modern scholarship that
casts doubt on the authorship of the
first five books of the Old Testament
that were believed to have been writ
ten by Moses.
“I don’t know of any serious
scholar today who continues to be
lieve that Moses wrote those books,”
Friedman said. “They were probably
compiled by a Hebrew priest in exile
in Babylonia during the fifth cen
tury by weaving together the work of
two or three other authors.”
He used as an example the story
in Exodus of Moses parting the Red
Sea to show that there are at least
three distinctive writing styles to the
account.
Barton credits victory to his record,
says voters didn’t buy negative ads
By Dawn Butz
Staff Writer
Democratic challenger Pete Ge-
ren conceded victory to Republi
can incumbent Joe Barton in a
phone call early Wednesday morn
ing, but it wasn’t until later in the
day that the 6th District precincts’
final tabulations showed Barton
the winner by an 11.8 percent
margin.
Barton received 85,415, or 55.9
percent, of the 152,824 votes cast
in the district. Geren received
67,409, or 44.1 percent.
Barton said his past record and
the good things he had done while
in office were responsible for his
victory.
“I think in spite of the money
and the campaign that my oppo
nent ran, the voters just didn’t buy
it,” Barton said.
“Some of the negative attack
stuff the last two or three weeks
was just not well received,” he said.
“They (the voters) looked at my
real record, not at what he said.
“They chose to stay with a pro
ven performer.”
Barton also gave his volunteer
organization credit for his victory,
saying the Texas A&M Aggies for
Barton were “just phenomenal.”
He said Sen. Phil Gramm’s in
volvement helped his campaign a
great deal.
“He’s really respected in the dis
trict and that helped me,” Barton
said.
In a statement released by Ge-
ren’s press secretary, Jeff Cosby,
the defeated candidate thanked
the people who had shown confi
dence in him by voting for him
Tuesday, and also thanked his vol
unteers.
“We knew going in that this wa,s
going to be a tough race,” Geren
said in the statement. “We carried
the majority of the counties, but
we needed to crack Montgomery
and Tarrant counties to win.”
Crosby said Geren received 40
percent of the student vote, which
he said was much higher than
what Dan Kubiak received in 1984
when he opposed Barton.
Crosby said the student vote was
not a significant factor because of
the light turnout.
Brazos County precinct tabula
tions were delayed because of nu
merous computer malfunctions
and unprecedented voter turn
outs, a spokeswoman at Barton’s
local campaign headquarters said.
Ellis County’s counting machines
broke, she said, so the votes had to
be counted by hand. She also said
Montgomery County had trouble
handling an unexpectedly large
turnout.
When final votes were in
Wednesday for Brazos County,
Barton had received 689 votes to
Geren’s 543 votes, a spokeswoman
at the County Clerk’s office said.
Barton said he doesn’t plan to
make any significant changes dur
ing his new term.
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” he
said.
Photo by Tom Ownbey
Joy Anderson, a campaign worker for Pete Geren, watches the
tallyboard as the late-night election returns show Geren falling
farther behind in the District 6 race.