Rain & Rebuff

Despite--or perhaps because of--President Johnson's declaration of noncandidacy, primaries in Texas and Florida last week resulted in a repudiation of his policies and a rebuff for his associates.

In Texas, both Johnson and his longtime ally, retiring Governor John Connally, were set back when their gubernatorial candidate, Eugene Locke, 50, former Deputy Ambassador to South Viet Nam, ran a poor fifth in the ten-man Democratic race. With the support of both labor and the Latin and Negro minorities, Don Yarborough, 42, a liberal Houston lawyer* who was twice defeated in the gubernatorial primary by Connally, topped the Democratic ballot. But without a majority, he was forced into a runoff on June 1 with Lieutenant Governor Preston Smith, 56. An archconservative, Smith will probably gain the right-wing votes that were shared with other candidates in the first tally, and thus must now be counted a slight favorite. The runoff will bring the two wings of the Texas Democratic Party into direct confrontation. As a result, the Governor's mansion and all of its powers of patronage might conceivably go to the G.O.P. for the first time in the state's history. Republican Paul Eggers, 49, a Wichita Falls lawyer who was virtually unknown when he was picked for the race by Senator John Tower, will in any event gain from the Democratic split.

In Florida, voter apathy--together with a torrential rainstorm--may have cost another Johnson man, former (1955-61) Democratic Governor LeRoy Collins, 59, his expected senatorial nomination. While the downpour (2.27 in. in Miami) in the state's populous southern tip kept many of Collins' supporters home, good weather in the rest of the state did nothing to hinder his conservative opponent, Attorney General Earl Faircloth, 47. Collins missed a majority by a mere 1.2%.

Faircloth made a thinly veiled appeal to racism, chiding Collins for his role in bridging the races as L.B.J.'s former director of the Community Relations Service. "This isn't the same Collins who was Governor," he said, "and he helped to bring on the tragic lawlessness of today." Faircloth attacked the federal open-housing bill, praised Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's "maim or cripple" order for looters, and denounced the Administration for "coddling criminals and rioters."

Collins ran a low-key campaign, depending on his name and his progressive record (as Governor, he modernized state government, promoted industry and tourism) to gain him the nomination. He still has the edge. If he wins the second primary, in November he will face Republican Congressman Ed Gurney, 54, a handsome, telegenic conservative.

*No relation to Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough.

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