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Between 1971 and 1974, the political status quo in Texas was challenged from several angles. In these tumultuous years, Texans witnessed widespread scandal and corruption, intraparty factionalism at the national, state, and local levels, intensified challenges to partisan loyalties, and the infusion into the political culture of new and controversial challenges to existing social traditions and moral codes. Contextualized within this political culture was the critically important and simultaneous maturation of antiliberal and antigovernment animus, made more potent by the racial and social revolutions that had gripped American youth and seemingly destabilized American society in the preceding years. These widely held antipathies toward both liberalism and established power manifested not in a refortification of partisan defense, but rather as ideological poisons through which Democratic loyalties were weakened, growing less secure and ultimately less important. If the 1960s witnessed the ignition of America’s late twentiethcentury social and political upheavals, then the 1970s—and particularly the campaigns of 1972—saw Texans adjust to these new realities.1 The Politics of Scandal Throughout the early 1970s, images of bribery, theft, tax evasion, conspiracy , election fraud, hush money, and an array of other unethical activities undermined Texans’ faith in government, politicians, and the civic process in general. At the same time that distrust in government seemed to be on the rise, the ubiquity of scandal and corruption contributed to a statewide reconsideration of partisan loyalties, opened the door for liberal advancement within the state Democratic Party, and lent credence to the most central tenet of populist conservatism—that government had replaced big business as the chief obstacle standing between the American people and honest opportunity. In short, the politics of scandal and corruption hastened ideological reconsiderations in Texas, confused the public’s partisan Poisons Chapter 5 Establishments in Crisis 127 128 Cowboy Conservatism loyalties, and contributed mightily to the breakdown of support for established leadership. Other than Watergate, the scandals most Americans remember from the early 1970s are former State Department employee Daniel Ellsberg’s leaking of the so-called Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in 1971 and the resignation of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew in 1973 following his conviction for tax evasion. Nonetheless, national scandals, though highly influential, were only partly responsible for Texans’ growing distaste for the political status quo in the early 1970s. There were plenty of scandals deep in the heart of Texas to bring the issue closer to home. The most infamous example of Texas-grown corruption became known as the Sharpstown Stock-Fraud Scandal. In January 1971, attorneys for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit through federal court in Dallas alleging that former state attorney general Waggoner Carr, former state insurance commissioner John Osorio, and Houston-area banker Frank Sharp had conspired to commit stock fraud. Over the next several months, the scandal dominated the media’s coverage of Texas politics and threatened to stain virtually the entire conservative wing of the state Democratic Party. What the Texas public learned throughout the reporting on this scandal in 1971 and 1972 was that Frank Sharp, the chief executive of the Houston-area Sharpstown State Bank, had illegally granted more than $600,000 in loans to state officials, who then used that money to buy stock in another of Sharp’s holdings, the National Bankers Life Insurance Corporation. Sharp then managed, through various illegal means, to artificially inflate the value of the stock, allowing investors to reap profits in excess of $250,000. The case’s bombshell, however, came when the SEC revealed that Texas governor and state Democratic Party head Preston Smith had actually been bribed by Sharp into manipulating a special session of the Texas legislature in 1969 during which legislation favorable to Sharp and his corporate holdings was passed.2 The immediate impact of the Sharpstown scandal appeared to be a boon primarily for state liberals. As the sordid details permeated the state’s political culture in the early 1970s, liberals took the opportunity to champion reform legislation, including bills requiring state officials to fully disclose all sources of income. Texas liberals, though reluctant to go so far as to call for federal intervention, did articulate a belief that the “good ole boys” club in Austin had grown far too corrupt to govern effectively and needed dismantling. Many across the state agreed.3 With both liberals and Republicans circling the Texas Democratic establishment like sharks in a bloody ocean, it soon became clear that the [3.140.186...

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