Shootin' Match

For rootin' tootin' Texas, this year's Democratic gubernatorial primary was shaping up as a pretty tame affair. Favored to win without much trouble was Lawyer John Connally, 44, who resigned last December as the Kennedy Administration's Navy Secretary to run for Governor with the support of his longtime friend, Vice President Lyndon Johnson. But last week, just three days before the deadline for filing, two new candidates jumped eagerly into the race. The late entries: Incumbent Governor Price Daniel, 51, and former Army Major General Edwin A. Walker, 52.

At the time Connally announced his candidacy, Price Daniel had not committed himself to run for reelection. But the temptation to become Texas' first four-term Governor turned out to be too much. A small (5 ft. 8 in.), grey-haired man with a winsome smile and a squeaky voice, Daniel hardly fits the image of the flamboyant Texas politician--but Texans seem to like him, and he is a formidable vote-getter. This year he can point to a scandal-free administration and a record of modest achievement in highway construction, industrial development and teachers' pay raises.

As for Candidate Walker, he was an excellent combat officer. He had a distinguished record in World War II and Korea, commanded 101st Airborne Division and National Guard troops during the Little Rock school crisis. Last year, as commander of the 24th Infantry Division in West Germany, he put on a troop indoctrination program that got him in hot water. In speeches he labeled Harry Truman, Eleanor Roosevelt and Dean Acheson as "definitely pink." His "pro-blue" instruction program urged troops to vote for conservative candidates back home. Officially admonished and transferred to a command in Hawaii, Walker bitterly resigned from the Army. Since his return to the U.S., he has appeared occasionally at anti-Communist rallies, disappointed his admirers by his flat, stumbling platform style. But in his primary campaign in Texas, Walker could probably talk in sign language and still draw some right-wing votes.

Said Walker in announcing his candidacy: "National survival is the overriding issue. America's retreat, based on a no-win policy, has put this nation in dire peril . . . There is no hope in sight for relief from the devious feelers of machine politics. America is stronger than the thunder on the left would have us believe."

Last week, after the Governor Daniel and General Walker announcements, few Texans were ready to bet on the outcome. Just one thing seemed certain: the primary campaign would be a real old-style Texas shootin' match.

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