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O n December 30, 1971, a reflective Jim Wright wrote in his journal that a change had come over him in terms of his career goals: “No longer do the fires of ambition burn so brightly. A person begins to accept himself, to be content with lesser gains, to moderate his demands on himself. Maybe just in the last year have I really acknowledged that I won’t ever be President . Conceivably, I’ve known it subconsciously for several years, but only in this year have I said it to myself, and you know, it’s kind of a relief.” He continued, “Probably I could win the Senate race against John Tower this year. . . . [But] I’m no longer willing to pay the price I once would gladly pay for escalation up the political ladder. I’m not willing to humble myself, to go hat in hand to the fat cats and beg for money. It’s false pride, I know—a weakness, not a strength. But there it is, and that’s me. I’m unwilling to go through the sheer physical torment of a statewide campaign. Then, too, a sort of personal conservatism creeps in with middle age. There’s the comfort of familiarity in my Congressional Office, the gradual accumulation of seniority (that crutch I once vowed never to embrace) and an unwillingness to venture boldly and risk the relative security (financial and otherwise) of my present job.” These entries were revealing in ways that Wright perhaps did not understand himself as he wrote them. No longer would he pursue political ambitions outside of the House as he had when he ran in a special election for the Senate in 1961. And though his ambition had been tempered, the seniority that he was building in the House would allow him a different sort of pursuit, leadership in the House of Representatives. In short order, he would become deputy majority whip and would move up in seniority on the Public Works Committee where by 1976, he would be in line to be chair. Then, in December of 1976, he would find an outlet for his political ambition in the chamber where he had, by that time, spent twenty-two years. And though his ambition had turned inward, his biographer John CHAPTER 8 JIM WRIGHT THE LAST TEXAN ★★★ ★★★ ★★★ ★★★ ★★★ ★★★ ★★★ ★★★ ★★★ ★★★ 220 C H A P T E R 8 Barry concluded that “ambition burned in him as fiercely as in anyone in Washington.” In the most hotly contested majority leader race in history, he would win that post. In so doing, he would continue in the political tradition of his Texas predecessors John Nance Garner and Sam Rayburn and would eke out a narrow victory, continuing the Austin-Boston connection for one last time. The contest would maintain the old Democratic coalition against the reform agenda of Wright’s principal challenger, Phillip Burton of California. The Field of Four The year 1976 was a year of the improbable election. Jimmy Carter had emerged miraculously onto the national stage to become president. The election of Carter, the obscure former governor of a southern state, would set the stage for a majority leader election with another improbable victor . With the retirement of Speaker Carl Albert in 1977, Majority Leader Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill had no challenger for the top position in the House. In an ordinary year, Democratic Whip John McFall of California would be next in line for the majority leadership, but this was no ordinary year. As the contest unfolded, four principal contestants emerged. McFall, a native of Buffalo, New York, was a moderate Democrat from the Central Valley of California who had been elected to Congress in 1956. He had served on the Appropriations Committee where he had been a close ally of Wright’s Texas colleague, Appropriations Chairman George Mahon. He had been appointed whip, the third-highest position in his party, by Speaker Albert four years earlier, showing himself to be an “inside player” in House politics. As whip, he had been “a very charming and able fellow, but no boat rocker.” His leadership status came by remaining loyal to the leadership and waiting his turn to move higher in the leadership . As whip, though he had been well-organized and hardworking, he had been labeled an old-style Democrat and had been unable to build a constituency among the new breed of Democrats who came to the House following Watergate. Not only...

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