V Clements forms panel on Hispanics By Tom Howlettp:;: Staff Writer of The News O /12) pg 6 ' Predicting an unprecedented arhount of Hispanic support for a Republican gubernatorial candi- date in Texas, former Gov. Bill Clements announced a statewide Hispanic executive committee in Dallas Tuesday. Clements said most of the panel's 30. members — politicians and busi- ness leaders from across Texas who w,ill advise him on Hispanic issues —.are people who advised him regu- larly during his term as governor, from 1979 to 1982. Noting that post-election surveys showed he won 26 percent of the Htspanic vote in 1978 and 28 percent in. his failed re-election bid in 1982, Clements said, "I'm confident we're going to get somewhere between 32 percent and 35 percent," or a record number, in November. . The former governor said he ex- pected to attract Hispanics' support because of his opposition to a tax in- crease and early paroles and his support of a strong education sys- tem and efficient state government. "Hispanic Texans, like all Tex- ans, do not believe Mark White any- more," Clements said at a news con- ference at the Colony Parke Hotel. "He has lost his credibility, and Texans of all kinds are walking • - Bill Clements . . . "Hispanic Texans, like all Texans, do not believe Mark White any- more." away from him." Clements' executive panel in- cludes Bob Estrada of Dallas, a board member of the Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce; Don Navarro of Dallas, chairman of Mexican American Republicans of Texas; Willie Serna of San Angelo, district director of the League of United Latin American Citizens; and Ed Bernaldez, national chair- man of the American GI Forum.
