Talking in Texas

They seem to be everywhere: from the Panhandle to the Rio Grande, six Democratic candidates for Governor spread-eagle Texas, taking dead aim on the May 5 primary election. But while the candidates are doing plenty of talking, the voters don't seem to be listening.

Two in the Lead. With the campaign in its closing weeks, the man to catch is still Governor Price Daniel, 51, an unimposing figure in a country judge's black suit and a crushed Stetson, who wants to become the first Texan to win four two-year terms in Austin. A former U.S. Senator, Baptist Daniel is a just-plain-folks politician who occasionally startles visitors to his office by dropping to his knees in prayer; he won by more than 1,000,000 votes in 1960 although he had bolted the party in 1952 to back Dwight Eisenhower.

In hot pursuit of Daniel is one of the most influential politicians in Texas, although he has never before run for major public office: John Connally, 45. Fort Worth lawyer and oil man. who plotted strategy for Lyndon Johnson's campaigns from 1937 right through the 1960 convention. Connally quit as Secretary of the Navy to run for Governor. Backed by 26 Texas dailies and a gusher of contributions, Conservative Connally is staging the most intensive campaign of any of the candidates: in two months he has traveled more than 22,000 miles, made 43 major speeches, appeared on two statewide and 22 local telecasts.

The remaining four candidates are galloping off in all directions. State Attorney General Will Wilson. 49, charged that Connally was Johnson's stooge and (without proving it) that Daniel has made a mint out of questionable real estate deals while Governor. Houston Lawyer Donald Yarborough, 36. claims the support of labor. Former Highway Commissioner Marshall Formby, 50, is a conservative, PRESIDENT-GENERAL DUNCAN Young, but not quite new. but he seems to be a blazing liberal compared to the sixth man in the race: former Army Major General Edwin A. Walker, 52, who vows that he will turn Texas into a fortress against the onslaught of domestic Communism.

Barbecue & Ballyhoo. Yet despite all the huing and crying, neither the candidates nor the campaign seem to have caught fire. Says a Texan in Amarillo: "The whole thing doesn't seem to amount to much this year. I'm not really terribly interested." In Sweetwater. only 25 persons attended a rally for Governor Daniel, although the affair had been ballyhooed for weeks. Connally did get 10,000 to show up at a mammoth barbecue he threw in Floresville, the home of his parents, but more often he found himself talking to empty seats. The politicians blame the obvious voter apathy on the overexposure of the candidates and the lack of dramatic issues; if Daniel's administration has been without great accomplishment, so has it been free of scandal.

In the face of indifference, it seems unlikely that any Democratic candidate will win the primary majority in May, and the top two will have to fight it out in a June runoff. The eventual winner will face Jack Cox, 41, an oil-equipment executive and a leading Democrat himself until he was defeated by Daniel in the 1960 primary. With that, Cox jumped the party to become a Republican and run for Governor this year.

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