Bentsen Spares Bush in Courting Texans

Lloyd Bentsen had intended to spend this month campaigning for reelection to his Senate seat from Texas. And so far, his selection by Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis as a running mate has hardly changed his campaign plans.

A week ago, Bentsen made a quick trip to Corpus Christi to address a Mexican-American veterans convention. When the Senate adjourned Friday, he left Washington for an eight-day campaign swing through Texas.

Except for a brief stop today in Arkansas and a speech Saturday in Florida on the way back to Washington, Bentsen will spend the week courting the same Texas voters who have enthusiastically backed him since 1970--when he won his Senate seat by beating a Republican congressman named George Bush.

Works to Win Home State

Perhaps more than any vice presidential nominee in recent years, Bentsen has a single mission: Win his home state and its 29 electoral votes.

His strategy recognizes an unwritten rule of Texas politics: In a national contest, be careful what you say about another Texan.

The Democrats in Atlanta rarely missed an opportunity to ridicule Vice President Bush while sparing President Reagan direct criticism. But Bentsen in Texas does the reverse: He attacks Reagan and spares Bush. His stump speech includes a jab at the Reagan White House as a place run according to “cue cards, astrology and old movie scripts.” Last week, he also accused Reagan of “poisoning” the debate over national defense by vetoing a bipartisan $299-billion defense authorization bill.

By contrast, Bush is never mentioned. When asked Saturday about the omission, Bentsen said only: “He is part of this Administration, so the criticism applies to him too.”

Bentsen campaign spokesman Michael McCurry acknowledged, however, that the focus on Reagan was intentional. “There is a sort of a sense of collegiality here so that you don’t get anywhere by attacking another Texan,” he said.

Hands-Off Approach

Bush’s campaign aides in Texas say they will follow the same hands-off approach toward the popular Democratic senator.

“Lloyd Bentsen is an institution here. We’re not running against him,” said Bush spokesman Mark Sanders. “We’re running against Mike Dukakis and his liberal philosophy.”

Texans are also seeing an unusual political ad on television this week. In the 60-second spot paid for by Bentsen’s Senate campaign fund, the senator seeks to “explain why I’m a candidate for reelection to the U.S. Senate.”

Texas “has its own rules,” Bentsen says, one of which would require his seat to be “forfeited” to his Republican opponent should he now withdraw from the race. If he is reelected and then resigns to take the vice presidency, a special election will be called to fill the Senate seat.

The ad, which makes no mention of the vice presidency or Dukakis, concludes with him saying: “Join me in my campaign for reelection.”

‘Vote Twice for Bentsen’

Asked how Texas voters should react at seeing his name twice on the November ballot, he had a ready reply: “Vote twice for Bentsen,” he said.

At weekend campaign stops before primarily Latino audiences in South Texas, Bentsen plugged Dukakis as a “man who speaks our language, and I don’t just mean Spanish.” Texas in general, and South Texas in particular, have not enjoyed the prosperity of the Reagan years, he notes, but Dukakis can help transfer the “Massachusetts miracle” to the depressed communities along the Rio Grande Valley.