Speaker Jim Wright by J. Brooks Flippen

Author:J. Brooks Flippen [Flippen, J. Brooks]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 2018-03-07T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

The Struggle for Unity

THE CARTER YEARS (1978–1980)

No one prepared harder for the 1978 congressional elections than Jim Wright. As the year began, the press suggested that Phillip Burton, still seething from his loss to Wright, might try to unseat the majority leader. “The return of Phil Burton?” asked one columnist. Burton was coy. Asked if he planned another challenge, Burton replied that he was “headed in that direction.”1 Soon Wright allies reported that Burton emissaries were canvassing members. Wright, of course, was having none of it and launched an aggressive campaign of fundraising and favors.2

Wright’s fundraising, reported the Dallas Morning News early in the year, appeared to be more “formal and ambitious” than in his previous campaigns.3 First was a $1,000 per plate fundraiser at Washington’s Madison Hotel that promised $300,000 for the Wright Majority Congress Committee. Wright would spread the money around, the Houston Post added, which “won’t hurt his own effort to get himself reelected majority leader” when the Democratic caucus met in December.4

When the day arrived, the glare was bright. Wright arrived “with a retinue of people who always seem to follow people in power,” read one report. He appeared “a little embarrassed to find his fans lined up at the stairs.” Wright was the star, the “fund-raising dean,” with his dinner the “Super Bowl of fund-raising.”5 In a more critical assessment, the dinner was a “lobbyist delight.” To Common Cause Wright was hypocritical, raising unprecedented cash even as he denounced its influence. There was no choice, a prickly Wright replied. “There is nothing either new or cynical in this activity,” he said, citing the Republicans, and he had nothing “for which to apologize.”6

The dinner was only the beginning. Wright organized campaign seminars for colleagues, invited pollsters to speak with the Democratic caucus, and warned constantly of a rightward shift. When pollster Louis Harris noted that organized labor was in “the public’s dog house” and that cynicism about government was rampant, Wright claimed that Harris had “put his finger on the problem.”7 Wright frequently dispensed advice, suggesting the party create block captains and “town hall style” meetings. Candidates should be collegial, Wright said, but the foreboding outlook demanded “low-cost, hard-hitting campaign radio spots.”8

Given all this, perhaps Burton’s ultimate decision not to challenge Wright was smart politically. As Burton faded, however, Bedford engineer Claude Brown announced for the Republican nomination in Wright’s district. Wright, Brown declared, was a “big spender” who had forgotten about people back home.9 The latter charge, of course, was ludicrous to Fort Worth’s voters, and Wright recognized that Brown was no James Garvey, whom he had vanquished four years before. A group of farmers organized as the American Agriculture Movement promised to “take a hit at Jim Wright,” because they were frustrated by Wright’s efforts to find a compromise on a farm bill that Carter would not veto as inflationary.10 Most farmers, however, understood that Wright had gotten them as much aid as possible. In the words of one Wright supporter, such opposition “would never be able to make a very big dent in the tremendous vote Jim always racks up.

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