George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

in campaign for liberal, Boston Brahmin former Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of
Massachusetts in the Texas presidential primary. Lodge had won the 1964 New
Hampshire primary, prompting Bush to announce that this was merely a regional
phenomenon and that he was "still for Goldwater."
As the runoff vote approached, Cox focused especially on the eastern financing that Bush
was receiving. On May 25 in Abilene, Cox assailed Bush for having mounted "one of the
greatest spending sprees ever seen in any political campaign." Cox said that he could not
hope to match this funding "because Jack Cox is not, nor will ever be, connected in any
manner with the Eastern kingmakers who seek to control political candidates.
Conservatives of Texas will serve notice on June 6 that just as surely as Rockefeller's
millions can't buy presidential nomination, the millions at George Bush's disposal can't
buy him a senate nomination." Cox claimed that all of his contributions had come from
inside Texas.
O'Donnells's Texas Republican organization was overwhelmingly mobilized in favor of
Bush. Bush had the endorsement of the state's leading newspapers. When the runoff
finally came, Bush was the winner with some 62% of the votes cast. Yarborough
commented that Bush "smothered Jack Cox in greenbacks."
Gordon McLendon, true to form, had used his own pre-primary television broadcast to
rehash the Billie Sol Estes charges against Yarborough. Yarborough nevertheless
defeated McLendon in the Democratic senatorial primary with almost 57% of the vote.
Given the lopsided Texas Democratic advantage in registered voters, and given LBJ's
imposing lead over Goldwater at the top of the Democratic ticket, it might have appeared
that Yarborough's victory was now a foregone conclusion. That this was not so was due
to the internal divisions within the Texas Democratic ranks.
First were the Democrats who came out openly for Bush. The vehicle for this defection
was called Conservative Democrats for Bush, chaired by Ed Drake, the former leader of
the state's Democrats for Eisenhower in 1952. Drake was joined by former Governor
Allan Shivers, who had also backed Ike and Dick in 1952 and 1956. Then there was the
"East Texas Democrats for George Bush Committee," chaired by E.B. Germany, the
former state Democratic leader and in 1964 the chairman of the board of Lone Star Steel.
Then there were various forms of covert support for Bush. Millionaire Houston oilman
Lloyd Bentsen, who had been in Congress back in the late 1940's, had been in discussion
as a possible senate candidate. Bush's basic contention was that LBJ had interfered in
Texas politics to tell Bentsen to stay out of the senate race, thus avoiding a more
formidable primary challenge to Yarborough. On April 24 Bush stated that Bentsen was a
"good conservative" who had been kept out of the race by "Yarborough's bleeding heart
act." This and other indications point to a covert political entente between Bush and
Bentsen which re-appeared during the 1988 presidential campaign.
Then there were the forces associated with Governor Big John Connally. Yarborough
later confided that Connally had done everything in his power to wreck his campaign,