Connally does bring in the money, however, and fund-raising, McGovern's weak point, is the main function of Texas Democrats for Nixon. State campaign officials estimate that they have raised about $75,000 in small donations so far, but admit that most of the larger contributions are sent directly to Washington.

"We have very few volunteers. We are running what we call a low-key campaign," said Texas Democrats for Nixon information director William Gardner last week. "Mostly we just spread the word by word of mouth. We've had some small TV and newspaper advertisements. The biggest event was when Connally had Nixon out to his ranch on September 27. All our people, all the members of the steering committee, were there."

The 75-member steering committee is itself reflective of the type of people whom Connally has been able to draw. "We have some blacks (there are two on the committee), we have at least one union man, some Mexican-Americans (there are four on the committee), and a good many women (there are nine on the committee)," Gardner said in a telephone interview last week. "We also have several students," Gardner added. "Well, I say 'several,' there are two."

Connally's own brother, Golfrey, a 53 year-old economics professor at San Antonio College, is a McGovern supporter. "I have taken a policy of not commenting on my brother's activities and philosophy, the younger Connally said in an interview last week. Golfrey Connally, who has made several speeches and has conducted a number of teach ins on behalf of McGovern, attributes the development of his liberal point of view to an economics course he took at the University of Texas and a long illness "which gave me a chance to do a lot of studying."

"Generally, the official air here in Texas is not only conservative, but anti-intellectual as well," Connally explained. "I tend to think, however, that some of the people who do develop some intellectual sophistication are apt to think more profoundly about the issues than people in other parts of the country."

The Committee to Re-elect the President has been responsible for the main Nixon effort in Texas. They say they are not "campaigning" this year, but conducting a "voter-identification drive for President Nixon." "We're attacking on three fronts," a spokesman for the committee said last week. "First, we have telephone centers in places like Houston. We are making about 1500 calls per day for every 10 bank center. We estimate that we have contacted about 575,000 households, or right at one million voters.

"We also have a door to door canvassing program and a Hostess Phone program in the smaller counties. The Hostess Phone operation is run by Republicans throughout the state. Two or three women in a town will get a computer sheet and merely call up the voters in their area."

The Republicans are also making a bid for the basically conservative blue-collar vote. Although the Texas AFL-CIO has come out for McGovern, Nixon is slightly ahead among union members. "I won't give you the figures because we are still trailing, but we are within striking distance," said a Texas labor source who asked to remain unidentified. "McGovern has shown a vast improvement among the inactive, non-leader membership, however," the source said. "We have found that this group runs very close to the rest of the country (in it's voting patterns)."

So far, McGovern's best reception has been in the state's metropolitan areas. He has drawn large crowds at his appearances in Houston, the state's biggest city, and McGovern canvassers report dramatic success in San Antonio, a rapidly growing central Texas city with a large chicano population since McGovern's visit there. "Houston will probably go for him, it's becoming the liberal city," predicted Molly Ivins, editor of the Texas Observer, one of the state's few liberal newspapers. "The press down here is incredibly backward, though," Ivins added. "They're not just against McGovern, they've taken off on a snit against him. The Dallas Morning News has been particularly bad."

McGovern will need the cities even more dearly than the rural areas if he is to carry Texas. The state's urban centers contain the largest number of "non-Texans," migrants from other parts of the country, and it is there that McGovern must establish himself strongly. However, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio all have large suburban populations, and it is the suburbanites of the south who have so admired Nixon for his stand on busing. Whether the black and chicano minorities from the cross-town sections of Texas cities can offset their power remains to be seen.

Students in Texas, as in other parts of the country, have been largely apathetic toward the '72 campaign. Although there was great excitement on campus over the Farenthold campaign last spring, the political enthusiasm of most student liberals and radicals seems to have waned. Robert Clark, Nixon's state coordinator for universities, gleefully cited a poll which showed Nixon leading 57-40 among the 18-24 year-olds in Texas. "The Gallup all-college poll showed McGovern leading 49-47 nationwide, but we feel we are running much stronger than that in Texas," Clark said. "We feel like we're gonna slaughter McGovern on the campuses."

Students at the University of Texas at Austin, Rice University, and the University of Houston are about evenly divided between Nixon and McGovern, with, perhaps, a slight edge for the South Dakotan. These colleges however have the highest proportions of students from out-of-state and students from urban areas. There are a good many small town colleges in Texas and Texas students generally hike their parents seem to be a great deal more conservative than their contemporaries in other parts of the country. It is doubtful that Nixon will slaughter Mcgovern on the campuses," as Clark predicted but the race will be very close and McGovern might very well lose.

A recent scandal could foster the South Dakotan's chances, however. On Tuesday, the president of the University of Texas Young Republicans resigned, and came out for McGovern. The washburn, national YR director, had allegedly offered him a bribe to ramrod and stack future YR elections in the state with the radical conservative element.

THE ONE MAN who has been able to appeal to a broad spectrum of Texas voters is Democratic senatorial nominee Barefoot (yes, that's right, Barefoot) Sanders. A clean-cut, 47-year-old moderate, who has identified himself with the Democratic ticket, though not with Senator McGovern, Sanders is facing incumbent U.S. Senator John Tower, a short, abrasive politician known to a few as "The Mini-Fascist." Tower is not only to the right of Nixon on most issues, but he seriously feared that the President's trips to Moscow and Peking would be major concessions to the Communists. Recently, Tower was forced to put out a tabloid most of which was devoted to refuting charges made against him by Sanders. Prior to that time, he had not even mentioned Sanders by name, directing most of his campaign rhetoric against McGovern.

"There's no doubt in my mind that Tower is running scared," Ivins said last week. "Sanders is a little bit dull, and kind of dumb, but he has the ability to campaign without a lot of money. He also has an attractive family to go out and work for him; his mother even bakes 'Barefoot Cookies'."

"Ralph Yarborough says he is getting mixed readings on Sanders," Ivins added. "He says he's doing well in the east, but poorly in the west. The election will undoubtedly be close."

McGovern, too, could make a good race in Texas, but perhaps not quite good enough to win. Farenthold squeezed more votes out of the Texas electorate last spring than any liberal politician in the state's history--more votes than any other liberal will be able to do this year. Much of Farenthold's appeal came in the wake of her exploits with the Dirty Thirty. To many, she was seen more as a reform candidate than as one of those "wild-eyed welfare maniacs from out of state."

The Nixon Administration is truly hurting from the wheat scandal and the Watergate incident just as the Democratic regulars of Texas suffered from a stock scandal last spring. But "The President's" transgressions still have less of an impact than did the stark revelations of widespread corruption throughout the state government. Nixon has maintained an upright posture with the residents of the suburbs, while striking rich with the oil millionaires downtown. His recent negotiations with Hanoi, though they may turn out to be rather morbid theatrics, may have convinced many of the borderline moderates.

Nixon narrowly lost the state in '68, due in large part to a healthy minority vote. McGovern will undoubtedly win by sizeable majorities in the black and chicano communities, but he needs every last vote he can get from these areas. To many of the Texas rural voters, he just seems too radical on welfare and the war to make up for his appealing farm record. Unless there is a last minute return to party loyalty among the farmers, coupled with a large turnout by blacks and chicanos on election day, McGovern will by lucky to carry more than 42 per cent of the vote. When Texans are ultimately called on to decide the state's presidential, gubernatorial, and senatorial preferences, they will go Republican, Democratic, and Barefoot.