On to the Alamo

Cried Texas' Democratic Attorney General Will Wilson: "John Connally's candidacy is a move by Lyndon Johnson to oust Price Daniel, oust me, oust Senator Ralph Yarborough, and gain complete control of the state government." Wilson's charge was pretty sweeping--but he just may have been right. For the announcement last week by U.S. Navy Secretary John Connally, 44, that he was resigning from his Pentagon post to run next year for Governor of Texas certainly seemed to carry Vice President Lyndon Johnson's political fingerprints.

Wildest Battle. The Texas Democratic gubernatorial primary next May figures to be the wildest battle since the Alamo. Attorney General Wilson is an announced candidate. Incumbent Governor Price Daniel is wistfully weighing his chances for an unprecedented fourth term. U.S. Senator Ralph Yarborough, the leader of Texas' liberal Democratic wing, has notions about standing for the governorship. And now comes Connally--a longtime Johnson protege.

John Connally was a law student at the University of Texas in 1937 when he first enlisted as a campaign aide in Johnson's successful race for' Congress. After that, he served as Johnson's congressional secretary in Washington, as his Senate campaign manager, and as a leading light in Johnson's unsuccessful run for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination. At the Democratic nominating convention in Los Angeles, when L.B.J. was plainly losing out to J.F.K., Connally held a desperation press conference--wherein the claim was made that Kennedy was suffering from Addison's disease, was being kept alive only by massive doses of cortisone, and could not realistically receive the party's nod. Even though this was just a normal campaign maneuver, it understandably did not endear Connally to Kennedy. But when Johnson became Kennedy's Vice President. Johnson's man Connally was in line for a high federal post.

A Fresh Face. Kennedy named Connally Secretary of the Navy--and it turned out to be a first-rate appointment. As a naval officer during World War II, Connally had served as a fighter-plane director aboard the carriers Essex and Bennington, won the Bronze Star and Legion of Merit. In the Pentagon, he fought hard for Navy programs he considered worthy and scrubbed those he considered impractical (he concluded that after the new U.S.S. Enterprise there should be no more nuclear aircraft carriers). Deciding to return to Texas, he carried with him President Kennedy's respect, and L.B.J.'s brand.

Last July, when he was sparring with reporters over the upcoming Texas gubernatorial race, John Connally mused over the prospects: "I will say this: I believe that the next Governor of Texas will be a fresh face in statewide politics, a new name on a statewide ballot." The only man in the running fitting those specifications is John Connally.

Named by the President to succeed Connally as Navy Secretary was another Texan: Fred Korth, 52, a lawyer who is also president of Fort Worth's Continental National Bank. A lieutenant colonel in the Air Transport Command during World War II, Korth, too, is a longtime Johnson follower. He knows his way around the Pentagon: he was the Army's deputy counselor in 1951, later became an Assistant Secretary of the Army. In Fort Worth, his name is almost as well known as that of his family's longtime, locally beloved housekeeper and cook, Emma Victoria Elizabeth Mary Katherine Virginia Smith--better known as "Mammy."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.