V& 4.43. a kAtt- Iiig new prisoners or violate a feder- al order against overcrowding. The life of the panel was in doubt after Clements was defeated by Democratic Attorney General Mark White Nov. 2. White takes office in January. Rep. Bob McFarland, R-Arhng- ton. said White had informed him the panel would remain intact. "I supported Governor Clements, but I'm sure a great friend of Mark White right now," Texas Depart- ment of Corrections board Chairman T. Louis Austin said Friday. when the panel met to hear public testi- mony about its proposals. Much of the testimony concerned a proposal to establish a central ju- venile records system. Representing Citizens United for FT WORT+i STAR TELEGRAM By JACK Z. SMITH Star-Telegram Writer HOUSTON — A huge, unexpected turnout of Democratic voters buried Republican Gov. Bill Clements, making . 7001,1P— mincemeat of polls that showed the governor well ahead of Attorney General Mark White, Clements' pollster Lance Tarrance said Thursday. Tarrance, one of the few to predict. Clements' upset victory over Democrat John CLEMENTS Hill in 1978, acknowl- edged that this year he filled to antici- pate the large off-year turnouCThe heavy volume of lfemocratic straight- ticket voting and Clements' poor show- ing among Hispanics. Tarrance said he @Jso underestimated the effect of national ecifinomic issues on the governor's race and the "sand- wich" effect of Clements being listed on the ballot between landslide Democrat- ic winners U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby. "In my-opinion, Clements got caught in a lot of traffic on Election Day," Tar- rance said in a post-election polling sem- inar attended by about 25 reporters at his Houston office. Jan van Lohuizen, an associate of Tar- ranee, said Clements also was crippled work on criminal justice reform Tayl vehemently opposed cre- ation c,.ntral file on juvenile of fende s because, he said, the in- formation should not be available after a person becomes an adult. "I was classified as incorrigible at age 18 because of my juvenile re- cord," he said. Anita Marcus, executive director of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice also opposed the juvenile offender file because of potential abuses of the information. "It's like Tylenol," she said. "You might be able to make it tamper re- sistant, but you can't make it tamper proof." Steve Capelle, representing the Texas District and County Attor- neys Association, disagreed. ikett4 t03/ 12 favored lowering the age at which a juvenile can bealkilied to stand tri- al as an adult fW 16 to 13. The committee said it has made on decision on what to do with the state's habitual criminal law, under which repeat felony offenders auto- matically are sentenced .to life in prison. The prosecutors said the manda- tory life sentence should 'e kept, while CURE wanted it optional 'and for non-violent Crimes to not count. The Texas Commission on Alco- holism spoke in favor of putting those arrested for public drunken- ness in detoxification and assistance centers instead of in jail. • The panel said it "agrees with the concept" of alternatives to incarcer- ation. CURE said public intoxicaiion should be decriminalized. , gam '82 . by White's effective use of the utilit issue. Clements was also hurt by his de- lay in cdpnterattacking_through televil. sion ads, White's much-Nigher standing with women voters, and Clements' dredgiza up of White's 1963 ria—Me driving arrest_ van Laimizen said. Of the utility issue, van Lohuizen said,' "I must say that he (Clements) didn't handle that very well. He could have handled it much,_ much, better." The utility issuecontrolled the pub- lic debate for three or four weeks," van Lohuizen said. "That's what really hurt ... I think we attacked too late, specifi- cally in our-paid TV media. "We had a severe problem with wom- en (voters)," van Lohuizen added. "Clements is not exactly a charmer." Tarrance said Clemeas was hurt by national economic issues — such as un- employment—that he had little control over. "In my opinion . . we got nationalized more than expected," Tarrance said. "We didn't expect that kind of lightning rod in the governor's race." Tarrance said his polls were geared in expectation of a turnout of 2.7 million voters statewide, rather thAirrhe turn-. out of '3.2 million that produced a "gar- gantuan" number of Democratic vot- ers. Tarrance's polling just before the election showed that all the statewide Republican candidates were, losing by loss' margins of anywhere from 15. to 25 points, with the exception of Clements, who held a 9-po_int lead. The night before the election, Tar- rance told Clements' campaign mana- ger, Jim Francis, that the governor should defeat White by a 52-48 margin. Tarrance said Francis expressed surprise that the pollster thought the election wo_uld be that close. White eventually triumphed by a 54-46 margin in a race in which Clements was the clear favorite. "The turnout in this election was a phenomenon that seemed to affect the outcome more than any other election I've been in," Tarrance said. "We cannot predict turnout," van Lohuizen said. "We don't even know what the areas are where we should ask questions about it. . . a variation in turn- out can tremendously hurt your predic- tion." Van Lohuizen said Harris County election results showed that,60 percent of the Democratic votes in Tfferiltrr most populous county "came from a straight ticket." But only 30 percent of Republican votes in Trams County came from staight-ticket voters, he said. John Ells, an NBC newsman who was a guest speaker at Tarrance's seminar, said the network's exit polls of 3,600 Texas voters showed that while White and Clements were statistically even among male voters, "he (Clements) got buried among women." 2