| Transcript |
incumbent on the city council. He was
the only incumbent to be defeated, but
he was also the most blatant in his bigotry toward certain groups in the community—namely women and gays. The
public ridicule of women's needs such as
maternity benefits and homosexuality finally caught up to him. This is not to
suggest that there were no other issues
such as ethics which brought about Mann's
defeat, only that his positions on the issues were contributory.
Although the other incumbents remained in office, the ideological profile
of the newly-elected representatives from
the single-member districts suggest that
the people of Houston wished to have
representatives who had a solid track
record of caring about people. Eleanor
Tinsley, Lance Lalor, Ben Reyes and
Anthony Hall certainly have such a
record.
It is almost a certainty that the 1980's
will be ushering in a new era in Houston
city politics. The change in the structure
of representation, from an at-large to a
mixed system with single member districts undoubtedly increased the pace of
the change. Politicians being what they
are, the surviving incumbents will pick up
on the temper of the times as reflected in
the new faces on the city council. The
good old days of the "old boys club" are
gone. It started to crumble with the 1977
election of Kathryn Whitmire as City
Controller. Her opponent tried to make
an issue of her feminist involvements. It
didn't take. Either the public was uninterested, supported her stance, or felt that
her ability to do the job should be the de
ciding factor.
An effort by Christin Hartung's male
opponent to make her marital status a
relevant campaign issue also failed to capture the public's interest. On the other
hand, the women running for office treated the matter of their gender as a non-
issue, as it should be.
It seems that the public is, in many
ways, more progressive in their thinking
than the people who represent them. In
other words, there is some question as to
just who are the leaders and who are the
followers. There is a logical explanation
for this condition.
Apparently the "thrill of victory" is
such a positively indelible experience that
the victors put a freeze on their election
tactics and issue positions. The power of
incumbency, bringing repeated victories,
confirms in their minds that they and
their constituents hold similar values and
ideas. In reality the tremendous benefit
of incumbency comes from the ability to
utilize the media in establishing name
identity The advantage that it generates is
so great that it allows the gap between
is more compatible with the public on
issues.
Theoretically, at least according to
government textbooks, elected officials
are supposed to be opinion leaders. This
does not, in fact, seem to be the case. It is
the public who leads the officials and
the attitudes of the public and elected
officials to widen considerably before any
given official is replaced by someone who
occasionally, when they prove too inflexible to be led, they are defeated at the
polls.
Students credited with $22,000 gift to shelter
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By Sandy Long
When Hill Petroleum Company decided
that they would start making contributions to charitable organizations, they
chose a unique and educational manner
in which to do it. A representative from
Hill talked to T.J. Gaines, a government
teacher at Westbury Senior High School.
They made an arrangement with Gaines
for his two government classes to investigate local charities and select two of the
most worthy, based upon low administrative cost and number of people served.
Each would receive $1,000 from Hill Petroleum Company.
To carry out their assignment, the class
divided into groups and each selected one
charity to investigate. One of the groups
selected the Houston Area Women's Center. A young woman, Gina Fribley, visited
the Women's Center's headquarters and
gathered information about the center
and its shelter for abused women. Another member of Gina's group, Sandra
Hill (no connection with Hill Petroleum),
gave an oral presentation to the classes
about the Houston Area Women's Center.
The students' work must have been
very impressive, because the classes voted
to give the entire $2,000 to the Women's
Center's Shelter for Abused Women. Furthermore, the representative from Hill also became very interested in the Women's
Center's program. Her additional investigation resulted in a $20,000 contribution
from Hill to the Houston Area Women's
Center.
"The shelter had just moved to their
new facility and that money could not
have come at a better time,", says executive director Nikki Van Hightower. "We
hope it's an omen for the 80's."
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DECEMBER/JANUARY 1980 |
