Incumbent, in Close Race, Faces Political Fight of His Life : Gov. White of Texas Stepping Up Attacks on Clements

Democratic Gov. Mark White knows he’s got to turn up the heat these last few weeks before the election. He is in the political fight of his life, perhaps the most closely contested governor’s race in the country, and a great deal is riding on the outcome.

So the other day he was on the podium of the Pasadena Convention Center, down the road from Gilley’s of mechanical bull fame, hammering at his opponent, former Republican Gov. Bill Clements. He castigated him for failing to come up with solutions to the state’s Texas-sized economic woes while spending “the last four years criticizing me for everything from old age to acne.”

“That was just an appetizer,” White said later. “The people in this state have a right to know what that man stands for.”

White is battling hard to prevent Clements, the only Republican governor elected in Texas since Reconstruction, from doing it again. The polls show them dead even going into the last weeks of the campaign.

GOP Sees Close Victory

“I think we’re going to win, but it will be razor-close,” said George Strake, the chairman of the state Republican Party.

For Republicans, the race is an opportunity to make inroads in the Democratic dominance of the country’s governorships. Despite Republican presidential victories in four of the last five elections, a Democrat occupies the governor’s mansion in 34 states. A win in Texas, as well as in half a dozen key states, would go a long way toward evening the lopsided numbers.

The Democrats, meanwhile, are anxious to keep White in office, because they will need him to help their presidential candidate carry the state in 1988.

The race is a rematch. In 1982, White, who was then attorney general, turned Clements out of office after one four-year term. Now, Clements is the challenger at a time when the Texas economy is flagging, unemployment is just under 10%, with no relief in sight.

The climate seemed ideal for a Clements runaway. Three months ago, Clements was leading White by such a large margin the governor seemed almost out of the race.

But White has rebounded remarkably in recent weeks, to the point where political pollster George Shipley described it as “like Lazarus come back from the dead.”

Helped by Special Session

White called a special session of the Legislature in August and carried it over another 30 days in September to deal with the state’s economic problems. The Legislature gave White what he wanted--a sales tax increase and $511 million in budget cuts--and in the process, the governor demonstrated leadership and moved to within striking distance of Clements.

“White has gained some from the special session,” said political analyst George Christian. “He crowded Clements off the front pages.”

White is proud of his record as governor, which included landmark education reform. He alludes to his education package often, even though its strict rules about teacher competency tests aroused the ire of educators, who were some of his staunchest supporters in 1982.

“Bill Clements doesn’t know the future is going to be built around a classroom and not an oil well,” he told his supporters in Pasadena.

Even with his record, though, White fell from favor because he did not act swiftly and decisively on the state’s economic slump. And he did not work well within the Legislature, until the special session, to get things done that would help pull the state out of its fiscal hole.

“White’s been generally good on the big issues, but awfully weak on the tactical political side,” said University of Houston political analyst Richard Murray.

Clements, for his part, has the reputation of being fiscally tough. He has tried to paint White as a spendthrift.

“Under the loose management practices of Mark White, he has been spending more money than he has been taking in,” said Clements in a recent interview.

Clements’ solution is massive cuts in the budget and state programs. He also points out that the average price of oil, Texas’ mainstay, was less during his administration than in White’s.

To which White replies: “Anyone who doesn’t know the difference between the average price when it’s going up and the average price when it’s going down doesn’t know the difference between ‘come here’ and ‘sic ‘em.’ ”

Clements has on occasion been put on the defensive by his own verbal gaffes and a reputation for being gruff and mean-spirited.

Some of his remarks have been corkers. He said he did not know a housewife qualified to serve on the state Public Utilities Commission (White appointed one). He said the American hostages in Iran were expendable. His answer to a massive oil spill along the Texas coast was to pray for a hurricane to wash it out to sea.

Clements is a self-made oil millionaire. The governorship was his first elective office, but he was the deputy secretary of defense in the Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford administrations.

During this campaign, he has tried to shed his crustiness.

Hilary Doran, Clements’ former chief of staff and campaign adviser, said much of the former governor’s curtness had to do with a bad hip, a “hitch in his get-along” as he calls it, that has now been corrected.

“When you feel bad, you get short and curt with people,” he said.

The bulk of the Clements’ television ads so far has been aimed at discrediting White, calling him, among other things, guilty of “prevarication” in his 1982 campaign promises. Doran said that in the last weeks the TV spots will focus more on Clements and polishing his image. He also said it would be foolhardy to agree to a second debate with White because Clements acquitted himself well in the first one against the more urbane incumbent.

“Why crawl back in and give the other team a chance to throw a Hail Mary pass,” Doran said.