Buying the governor's office 3y GEORGE KUEMPEL USTIN - It's easier, the Bible tells us, for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of leaven. On a more earthly note, it appears that a poor man ias'about the same chance of becoming governor of :'exas. The campaign finance state- ments filed by the leading Demo- cratic contenders who are seeking to wrest the post from multi-million- aire Gov. Bill Clements attest to the fact that anyone hoping to become a serious candidate had better be pre- pared to go in hock up to his hip pockets. As of March 22, the three leading Democratic chal- engers, Bob Armstrong, Buddy Temple and Mark Nhite, together had raised just over S2 million in the :ampaign for their party's nomination and the right to thallenge Clements in November. LFSS THAN HALF the money - about S810,000 - .vas in contributions, however. The balance, about $1.2 was in the form of loans guaranteed by the •andidates or their supporters. Clements, who doesn't have a serious primary oppo- aent, already has collected $3.9 million for his race, dnd the total could easly double before the general election, still seven months away, anc he hasn't had to borrow a cent. Former Gov. Dolph Briscoe initiated and Clements has perfected what now appears to have become the accepted method for running a successful campaign flor governor - an enormously expensive venture be- cause of the state's size and the spiraling costs of pub- lic exposure. : A multi-millionaire banker-rancher-businessman, priscoe ignored what until then had been the accepted practice of a candidate announcing his intentions and then hitting up friends and supporters for money • finance his race. I h Instead, Briscoe simply pumped several millions of his own money into his campaign, and after he was elected used his newly acquired powers of persuasion to recoup his investment. That is, he shook down lobbysts and special interest groups and handed out choice state appointments to wealthy friends and supporters who showed their ap- preciation by helping the governor retire his cam- paign debts. It's all perfectly legal. • CLEMENTS, HOWEVER, has gone on to perfect the art. As a virtual political unknown, he plowed a record $7.2 million, about half of it borrowed, into his success- ful bid to become Texas' first Republican governor since Reconstruction. As governor, he has since managed to raise enough money to repay those loans and at the same time build up a substantial campaign chest for the upcoming elec- tion. Sen. Peyton McKnight, an early casualty in the Democratic governor's sweepstakes, described his own experience of running for governor as like get- ting into a high-stakes crap game on borrowed money. "You've got to have money to get into the race, and hope you can recoup your investment later," he said. "And not many people can borrow that much money." Although a millionaire himself, McKnight decided after sinking $1 million of his own money into his campaign - about three-quarters of which he has since gotten back - that the stakes were too high. "I JUST FELT LIKE I could have easily ended up with a $5 million note on my hands, and I just coLldn't do that to my family," he said. As Briscoe and Clements have demonstrated, there's no problem in raising the money to repay those loans if you're successful on election day. Like a lot of others who desire to serve but are un- able or unwilling to take the financial gamble, McKnight, feels there must be a better way, however. But he hasn't been able to come up with one. George Kuempel is Austin bureau chief of The Dal- las Morning News. '0-1114.1 Na--, npfa'l 7 (tie Associated Press • 1.7•• s.e....,14 -7 CO 'a) 0 0 4c-d 'V Co Co - co'' CO e9 -0... = .... , (..) ...., ,, -Cci ..z u) - 0" co" o C)c ,,, o..0 Co .,, - ›, .0 o a, .,., I. a) >1 C. Z CO s, En CU tilD 0.) -4 Co. . . " ... .0 = > Z L*". -'"' a) 0 •,,, cn 7) E V) a) 2 1-, = C)0 a) 1- ›-. c) s- a „, ,,, „:i .0 = 0 , CU i- i',.:..= cU ..... = •-• CZ cnk_. -..., E 1... 0 co ,,.,- 00 c 0 • 0 (1) ..._. ,... ctl -0 cs3 .4, C cU cU co, cU X •-• .0 .0 I U u 0....9 ›, 0V 74 MI Co (/) 0 s.,„„czoo•ri ,as .3 ft-0 u ci.) 0 co 0 ..... CO V2 cu 0 j C,_ ›,.., s..• 0 0 •-• 4) a (..) CL) u = 0 11 .c 0 CA .0 ,.._ o .Coasas 0 a) c› L-- cd c En -a a) cZ 0 1-• En .... •,_,- o v'Ectimcu0 cri C) En C c Co ,-. C.) .0 ...... x cp _0 Eu L.0 cab cz 0 ° as Q) C) `" 4.) .;..- a) 3 ,-. .2) E i•-• Co,.?1. „, 1,-.3 CI >-, = 0 E 1... = •z-,, (XI -.-. = E 0 x 0) 0 ,. -; .. .... 1 a)›,.a)0. E . ,,,,, ... a) _ 8_, 0., En ..-. ..... ••••.I .0 .0 "CI CD 0 V 'cG ... cn , ....;..:...%.4....;.-.... ' - '...4a•At-ti 4Zui.'-`,..44,..,- eN-'44.4.4.2. 1,.) rii-05 CU ._'.. .Co z CO a) cup x - cz. 0 Co c) E o>, Co •c cu 0 C a' 0 cu .0 17, E .z $_. sl) ° 0 Clo z c.)CU .E1a) st5 g CO is >a) C) Cl) a.1•6 o (I) c 0 'CJ .0 0 to (1.) Encti 01:I7 Q 0 Q) Co Co 1.4 .(1) Co E raTI CO 0 Q.) X •CI ,c CO