The House: Two Veterans Find Trouble Back Home

Fission in Fort Worth

He has served in Congress for 25 years, gradually rising through the ranks and in the esteem of his Democratic colleagues. Now, bushy-browed Jim Wright of Texas is completing his second term as majority leader, and he yearns to follow in the footsteps of fellow Texan Sam Rayburn by becoming House Speaker when Tip O'Neill retires. Wright, 57, has tended his Fort Worth constituency in ways open only to a veteran Congressman. He claims his district has more defense contracts than any other in the country, including at least $18 billion for construction of 1,388 F-16 fighters at the local General Dynamics plant. He also helped persuade the Air Force to keep open nearby Carswell Air Force Base, which employs 1,050 civilians.

But at the same time, Wright's voting record has alienated many of his conservative constituents, even though he is still the least liberal member of the Democratic leadership. That is why he is now in the toughest re-election fight of his career--and why his Republican opponent, Jim Bradshaw, 40, last week could hold the attention of 300 people at the Woodhaven Country Club who otherwise would have been watching the televised season's opener between the archrival Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins. Said Bradshaw: "Jim Wright voted against the B-1 bomber. Jim Wright voted for funding the Panama Canal treaty. Jim Wright voted to give foreign aid to a Marxist government in Nicaragua. It's time for a change."

Bradshaw, an auto-parts-company millionaire and former city councilman, is the candidate of Eddie Chiles, 70, a colorful self-made oil baron and major stockholder in the Texas Rangers baseball team. Chiles has achieved notoriety by sponsoring "I'm mad" TV ads from New Mexico to Montana that assail Government bureaucracy and liberalism. Chiles once supported Wright, but now says of him: "Jim Wright is a socialist. We had a parting of ways. One day I told him I was going to beat him and get him out of Congress." Responds Wright: "Maybe he feels a guy who owns a ball club can buy a Congressman." The race has deeply divided Fort Worth's establishment of millionaire oilmen and ranchers, who have supported both politicians in the past.

The candidates are equally matched in budgets ($500,000 apiece), and each cites polls to show that he can win. But local political experts are betting on Wright, if for no other reason than his reputation as the most powerful Texan in Congress. Says Fort Worth Star-Telegram Publisher Amon G. Carter Jr.: "I don't agree with the way Jim Wright votes half the time, but I know how important he is in Washington, and he's the only thing we've got up there."

Busing in Van Nuys

Ten-term liberal Congressman James Corman of Van Nuys, Calif., last found himself in a close contest for election in 1964 because of a decidedly local issue: open housing for blacks and Hispanics in his mostly white district. Democrat Corman, now 59, made it back to Congress by a 1,300-vote margin and has not faced another serious challenge until this year. Again the issue is local: busing that was ordered by the California Supreme Court in 1977 to desegregate public schools in Los Angeles County.

The Congressman's opponent in the election, Republican Bobbi Fiedler, 43, mother of two children, has made a political career out of the issue. She used it to win a seat on the city's school board in 1977. She decided to run against Corman last year, when he refused to push for an antibusing amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He also declined to back California's Proposition 1, which limits the power of state courts to order busing and was approved by 81% of the voters in his district. Insists Fiedler: "Corman is completely out of touch with the people in the district. He has voted for 31 pro-busing measures in Congress." Replies the softspoken, white-haired Corman: "I've never had anything to do with ordering school busing. That's done by the courts. But I believe that we have to comply with the law."

In addition to busing, Fiedler flays Corman as a big-spending supporter of wasteful social-welfare programs. Unlike many incumbent liberals elsewhere in the country, Corman does not flinch at the attacks. Says he: "I am no more liberal than I have been in the past 20 years, and no less." Indeed, his staunch support of organized labor has won the backing of Local 645 of the United Auto Workers, 2,600 of whose members have been laid off at the local General Motors plant. They soon will begin receiving $270 a week in Government benefits, largely because of Corman's efforts to get the money appropriated by Congress. But labor's support may not be much help in November. Says Sal Menchaca, the local's secretary-treasurer: "The problem with Corman is that people know the name, but not the person."

To remedy that deficiency, Corman plans to spend most of the seven weeks before the election hopscotching around his district. But he is an uninspired, uncomfortable campaigner. In contrast, Fiedler relishes politicking and avidly works shopping centers, factory gates--anywhere that large numbers of voters congregate. She plans to spend $400,000 on her race, which Corman will try to match. Though Fiedler trails Corman in the latest polls, she stands a good chance of gaining so long as busing remains the chief issue. Corman's backers are doing their best to change that. Says Menchaca: "We are telling our members that though busing is a big problem, there are more important issues."

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