Corralling the Donkey

Before Texas Democrats went to the polls one day last week, they witnessed one of the bitterest political campaigns in Texas' history. In the runoff primary for governor, between Governor Allan Shivers and Austin Lawyer Ralph Yarborough, the big issue was clear-cut: Yarborough, representing Democrats who stayed with the national party organization in 1952, charged that Shivers committed political treason by swinging Texas to Dwight Eisenhower.

In speech after speech, Yarborough told Texans: "You know during that campaign the poor old Democrat donkey got kicked all over Texas, and the person kicking him the hardest was Allan Shivers. He beat that Democratic donkey until he was bleeding around the ears, and he was lame in his left hind leg . . . Nobody much wanted that donkey then, but I took him home and put him in the stable and nursed him ... By this spring you couldn't count his ribs, and his hair was shining like a silver fox. I got on that donkey and started to ride him to the governor's mansion, and who do you suppose it was who wanted to take him away from me? Why, it was Allan Shivers."

For 1952, Shivers made no apologies. Said he: "We won what we started out to win when the tidelands were returned to Texas. But a more important decision remained unsettled. That decision was this: Will the people of Texas support a governor who places principle ahead of politics?"

This week, when the record-breaking vote was counted, Allan Shivers had clear possession of the donkey (by more than 90,000 votes) and an unprecedented third term as governor of Texas.

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