Sunday, June 9, 1996

Victor Morales wows 'em at Democratic gathering

By STEVE RAY
Harte-Hanks Austin Bureau

DALLAS - Speaking from the back of his 1992 white Nissan pickup truck, U.S. Senate candidate Victor Morales told 10,000 cheering Democrats Saturday that he was one of them: An average Texan who can't be bought or intimidated.

In a speech punctuated with Spanish phrases, Morales promised that he will beat incumbent Republican Phil Gramm because he has "las ganas, the desire; el corazon, the heart; and y la gente - the most important thing - you the people."

Morales spoke on the final day of a three-day convention where Democrats increasingly attacked political and religious extremists who they said sought to claim a monopoly on God.

Democrats also heard updates from Texas Land Commissioner Garry Mauro on President Bill Clinton's popularity in the state and passed a shortened party platform Democratic officials hope will stress Texas values.

The two-page platform emphasizes every Texan's right to live the American dream, Democrats said.
It deals with job training, education, crime, the environment, free enterprise and individual rights..
Throughout the convention, speakers ranging from Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock on Friday to Southern Baptist preachers and a Jewish rabbi on Saturday, warned of the danger of moving too far to the right.

"The new fight in this country is with extremism," Bullock said late Friday in his most partisan speech of the year. "Extremists and the Republican Party ... a group of people who say a woman does not have the right to choose, and if you disagree with their position, then you don't love children. Ridiculous. It is time to tell extremists that they have no patent on the American dream."

Mauro, who heads the Texas Clinton-Gore re-election campaign, also told delegates Saturday that President Bill Clinton is beating Republican Bob Dole in recent polls in Texas.

"He's ahead because the Republicans don't have a Texan on the presidential ticket for the first time since 1980," Mauro said. "But most of all, Bill Clinton is leading because Texans are finally realizing that his core values are our core values - that if we work hard, if we play by the rules, we should be able to make a good living and our kids should do even better than we've done."

Morales, introduced to the crowd by his daughter Julia, was flanked by his 9-year-old son, Jesse, during the speech. Thousands of delegates waved Morales signs written in English and Spanish. They wore T-shirts with the slogan, "I'm for the guy in the white pickup truck."

Morales surprised political insiders by beating three well-known Democrats for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination and the right to face Gramm in November. The pickup he spoke from on
Saturday has become a symbol of his campaign.

Morales told delegates he had been criticized by some in the press for not having a message in his campaign. So, he said, he wanted to make sure people knew why to vote for him.

"Here you have you - the teachers, the firemen, the construction workers, the nurses, the social workers," Morales told delegates, before pointing to himself. "And here you have someone who can never be bought. Here you have someone who can never be intimidated. Here you have someone that will never forget who he is and where he came from . The message is - that I am you."

Country crooner Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again" blared in the convention hall as Morales drove out of the convention hall in his pickup. Democrats passed plastic red gas cans throughout the crowd to collect "gas money" for Morales.

The U.S. Senate candidate begins a 2,500-mile truck tour today, after attending a service at St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Dallas. He'll end his first day back on the road at an ice cream social in Sulphur Springs.

Throughout the day at the convention center, volunteers plastered Morales stickers on anyone who stood still long enough. Delegates wore Morales shirts, buttons, stickers - and hats made of placards stapled together - in support of their grassroots candidate.

He also picked up strong endorsements from a variety of speakers from Mauro to comedian Al Franken to House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Missouri.

"I think he'll surprise the pundits and I think he can win," Gephardt said. "And I think he will win."