The Battle of San Antonio

A special congressional election in Texas' 20th District, centering in San Antonio, last week drew the absorbed attention of politicians all over the U.S. At stake was the House seat of Democrat Paul Kilday, who resigned to accept a federal judgeship. The candidates were evenly matched: State Senator Henry Gonzalez, 45, a liberal Democrat, and Lawyer John Goode, 38, a conservative Republican. Beyond the battle between conservative and liberal was an even larger question: Was the election last spring of Republican John Tower to Lyndon Johnson's Senate seat just a fluke, or did it mark a G.O.P. trend in Texas politics?

Poor Little Mexican. Gonzalez, a suave stumper who likes to drop tidbits from classical literature into his speeches, bore down heavily on his pocho (Mexican born in the U.S.) background, tried hard to represent himself as an underdog. It was a difficult ploy--especially in a district that has a large Mexican-American population and that hasn't sent a Republican to Congress since 1920--until Dwight Eisenhower arrived to stump for Goode. Then Gonzalez opened the tear ducts: "They brought down their big 50-megaton bomb to drop on this poor little Mexican."

Goode, who was Bexar County's Republican chairman from 1956 to 1961, was handicapped by a flat speaking manner that was no match for Gonzalez' Latino effervescence. But his unabashed conservatism appealed mightily to many voters.

It was a no-holds-barred campaign. Attention was called to the fact that Gonzalez had spent World War II as a draft-deferred military censor, while Goode was a twice-wounded marine, the winner of both the Bronze and Silver Stars in the Pacific. After Gonzalez boasted of his perfect attendance record in the state senate, Goode dryly reminded him that he had somehow managed to miss 70 roll calls. Moaned Gonzalez: "I never figured they'd check that."

The Eyes of the World. Goode's campaign was backed by such heavy artillery as John Tower, taped TV speeches by Barry Goldwater and, finally, by Ike's barnstorming trip last week. Said the former President: "In this special election, I am very concerned with trying to help establish a two-party system in the South and particularly in Texas, the state of my birth." With Ike's prestige on the line, the Democrats responded by wheeling Lyndon Johnson into San Antonio on election eve. L.B.J. pulled all the stops. "The eyes of the whole world are upon us," he cried. "They want to see whether we're bigots, whether we're going to be prejudiced, or whether we'll go all out and vote for a good American." And Gonzalez would be elected "if the poor people, the working people, the businessmen and the federal employees know what is good for them."

Deciding that Gonzalez would indeed be good for them, the voters elected him by a substantial margin, crushing Republican hopes for another breakthrough in Democratic Texas.

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