The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, November 06, 1986, Image 1
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.