East Texas voters undecided on Perry, Sanchez

MARSHALL, Texas - Royce Brown is a loyal Democratic Party man but says he's worried for his candidate Tony Sanchez for governor in these parts of East Texas.

"Some folks have told me that I'm gonna vote for Sanchez in the primary, but we're not for a Hispanic-surname governor. Except most of them put it worse," said Mr. Brown, a lawyer. "Can we overcome that the prejudice of the name?"

Wanda and Lowell Conder are staunch Republicans quick to say they're for the incumbent, Rick Perry. But they're unsure about his ability to win largely because of who he's not.

"He's just not the strongest candidate," said Mr. Conder, a retired teacher. Added Mrs. Conder, a college dean: "It's hard to follow in George W.'s footsteps. It'd be hard for anybody."

Such are the political challenges in the highly charged governor's contest in an important region that, residents say, neither man has locked up.

Interviews with two dozen voters suggest that both the governor and Mr. Sanchez, a Laredo businessman, are making inroads. But many said the race may hinge on whether Mr. Perry is more buoyed or swamped by his predecessor's popularity and whether a white-dominated region so rural and Southern in sensibility will support a Hispanic for the top job.

"This is not an election cycle where people ought to go to sleep. It's going to be unusually interesting," said Harrison County Judge Rodney Gilstrap, a Democrat not running for re-election after almost four terms.

"As far as who wins, I don't think the story's been written yet," he said. "The issues they focus on and how much time they spend here, those are probably going to make the difference."

Like all of East Texas, this was solid Bush country in the 1998 governor's race. Despite its history as a Democratic stronghold and a tradition of electing Democrats to local offices, Harrison County also narrowly swung to George W. Bush in his 1994 victory over Democrat Ann Richards.

The county is in the northeastern quadrant of East Texas, a sprawling area of small to medium-size towns and piney woods rimming the Louisiana border.

The county seat of Marshall began as a cotton-farming center, grew as a railroad town and prospered with the East Texas oil field. Its population of 62,110 has grown little since 1990, but its small Hispanic population has more than doubled in the last 10 years rising to 5.3 percent of the population.

As recently as the early 1980s, Harrison County voters were solidly Democrat. Some Republican stalwarts ruefully tell of driving halfway across the county in the 1970s to find the lone Republican polling place for presidential primaries.

But the county and all of East Texas has swung Republican in the last decade. A recent poll by Montgomery and Associates, an Austin research firm, that showed Mr. Perry ahead statewide also indicated he was leading Mr. Sanchez by 15 percentage points in East Texas.

The Democrat's campaign says its man is doing better than that, and Mr. Sanchez is scheduled Monday to make another bus tour, starting in Texarkana and ending at a new campaign office in Tyler. Mr. Perry also has visited often and has backing from many officials.

Leaders from both parties say the November election could be heavily influenced by a hot local race for county judge, featuring a former Democratic state senator and a Republican oilman.

Some say that having former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk as the Democratic nominee for the Senate against Republican John Cornyn also will boost turnout among black voters, traditional Democrats who make up a quarter of the county's population.

But having a Hispanic atop the Democratic ticket probably will do more to rally white reactionaries than Hispanic voters, several local activists and officials say.

Juan Luna, who was defeated this year as the first Hispanic to run for the Marshall school board, said the small but growing Latino population hasn't been energized to get involved.

He said he supports Mr. Sanchez, "but not because he's Hispanic and I'm Hispanic. I like some of the things he says he's going to do with education."

Mr. Brown, the lawyer who runs a local title company, said he thinks that Mr. Perry's double-digit lead in statewide polls is in part a reflection of unease among whites.

"He would be an excellent candidate if his name was Brown or Green," he said, referring to Mr. Sanchez.

Mr. Gilstrap said such talk has been common among locals, with some Republicans grousing that Democrats are pandering to minorities and Democrats complaining that Republicans "are trying to mobilize the redneck vote."

"I know some people that are not going to vote for the Democratic candidate because he's a Hispanic. You never know if that's the tip of the iceberg or a few around the edges," he said.

Some voters say the constant barrage of TV ads has soured them on both candidates. Mr. Sanchez, who has funded a more extensive blitz than his rival, is buying airtime on three Shreveport, La., stations that air in Harrison County.

"Watching them, I know I don't like Sanchez. I don't like what he's making himself out to be," said Jeannie Walsh, a rural mail carrier who is backing Mr. Perry. " I think he's trying to buy the position."

"I don't like what he's doing," said Mr. Luna, a foreman at Marshall's water treatment plant. "If you're gonna run for office, keep it clean. I know there's been mudslinging between both of them."

Like many other voters, he said he'd rather hear more specifics from the candidates about rising insurance rates. "I just found out my house insurance has doubled," he said.

Mrs. Conder, a finance dean at East Texas Baptist College, said she hopes the candidates can fix the state's property tax structure and lower rates for homeowners.

Her husband said he is particularly interested in teacher pay raises and other education issues.

Mr. Gilstrap said education is a dominant topic, with residents concerned about teacher pay and health insurance.

Lizzie Moore, a dorm mother at Wiley College, a historically black school in Marshall, said she'd like to hear more about how the candidates will stem health care costs.

She recently moved home from California to care for her elderly father and has a number of older relatives in local nursing homes.

"They need more medical programs, help with that kind of thing," said Ms. Moore, who supports Mr. Sanchez. "I'd like to see more providers for the ones that can't do for themselves. Perry and Sanchez aren't talking about that."

Many Perry supporters predicted that he would prevail but said they wished he would do more now to distinguish himself.

"I'm a Republican, and I really don't know him very well, just that he was with Bush. I guess that Bush's coattails are going to be strong enough to get him close enough to win the race," said James King, a lab manager for the city of Marshall. "But it worries me. I really don't have a feel for him."

"I know some people that are not going to vote for the Democratic candidate because he's a Hispanic. You never know if that's the tip of the iceberg or a few around the edges," he said.

I'm more worried about all the votes he'll get because he IS. (Not mine, though.)

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