Jack the Giant Killer

A chub-faced little man--one who likes to kick off his shoes and relax when he sits down to talk--went to Washington last week. He was John Goodwin Tower, 35, Republican winner of the Texas Senate seat long held by Democrat Lyndon Johnson (TIME, June 2). And for all his 5 ft. 5 in.. Tower loomed high in G.O.P. eyes.

More than 100 Republican leaders turned out at the airport for a whooping welcome. Arizona's Senator Barry Goldwater pumped his hand. Republican National Committee Chairman Thruston Morton slapped his back. Senate Republican Leader Everett Dirksen hugged him and breathed: "Good to see you!"

Good, to Republicans, it surely seemed. For not only had Jack Tower toppled Johnson's interim successor, Democrat William Blakley, to become Texas' first G.O.P. Senator since Reconstruction days, but he was sworn to battle the Demo cratic New Frontier straight down the line. "In general. I'm completely opposed to the New Frontier," said Tower. "I am categorically opposed to [its] farm program. I am against federal aid to education, medical care for the aged, higher taxes, foreign aid both economic and military, and wasteful domestic spending."

As if that were not enough, Tower had a word about the Cuban mess: "I am dead set against the tractors-for-prisoners exchange with Cuba. Instead, we should completely blockade Cuba. The time may be imminent when -we should militarily occupy Cuba. And if the Organization of American States will not support us, we should act unilaterally."

Winning the Cities. With such ideas, Texan Tower had cracked a Democratic fiefdom. A year ago, he was an obscure assistant professor of political science who dabbled in Republican politics but had never won elective office. He plucked the nomination for last November's Senate race largely because brighter-name Republicans wrote it off as a lost cause. But he surprised everybody by capturing a remarkable 41% of the vote in the race against Lyndon Johnson. Because Johnson won election both as Senator and Vice President, Tower got a second chance--a chance that never would have come had Johnson been confident enough to run only for the vice-presidency.

Then the small but zealous G.O.P. organization really went to work. Republicans concentrated on winning the two groups that they usually lose: city folk and Negroes. They rang doorbells on virtually every block in Houston, and they made 90,000 phone calls in San Antonio (pop. 500,000). Result: Tower swept the cities, got a good chunk of the Negro vote, won by a margin of 10,000.

Losing the Liberals. Reverberations of the upset shook both parties. Democratic conservatives shuddered, and wondered how long they could preserve their one-party system in the Deep South. Tower's good friend, Barry Goldwater, fully expected the presidential endorsement of the big Texas delegation in '64. For the nearer future, Texas Republicans were planning to put up candidates for Congressman, mayor and councilman in cities where they had never before dared to run in the 20th century.

In this effort, Texas Republicans looked for support from disgruntled Democrats. In Texas, Democratic conservatives were snarling that the Democratic liberals had deserted right-winging Bill Blakley--and perhaps 100,000 did. In a counterprotest, many conservative Democrats were threatening to switch to the G.O.P.

Far above and away from such rumblings, John Tower sprawled out in his Washington hotel room, rubbed his stockinged feet and drawled happily: "The people of Texas obviously responded to a new face." Next week Lyndon Johnson will swallow hard and swear him in as the newest and youngest U.S. Senator.

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