The Fresno Bee from Fresno, California • 4

A4 Tuesday April 12 THE FRESNO BEc I Burton lion among liberals Washington steps up pace of icampaign while Epton coasts SF congressman's death ends era of talking tough While the press and the public focused on his loud bark and abrasive behavior Burton worked quietly behind the scenes spreading political honey to enlist unlikely allies in his legislative maneuvers program was a scandal because it funneled individual payments of up to several mMon dollars to agiibuine gifcrn including major growers jo Cailfwnia The cotton lobby cohered flfet a 120000 limit would kill the program by excluding big producers Io1 Each year the limitation feared by cotton-state lawmakers gained strenrrh This time the vote News Analysis was nip and tuck As the roll call neared the end the $20000 subsidy ceiling was slightly ahead But in the next lew moments Burton entered the fray got liberal colleagues from Pennsylvannia to switch their votes and turned the outcome around King Cotton again was victorius But why would BUnOn a menu ui -iiavtv Battled to preserve redwoods and state's wilderness Washington's brochures portray Epton as a clone of Reagononucs and attempt to depict the GOP candidate as anti-labor and anti-consumer Epton has countered with 220000 letters in the lakefront area The message Knapion said is "We don't think race is the issue We believe the issues are No 1 integrity and No 2 who is best able to run the city" That will be part of the message of a five-minute Epton radio commercial planned for Monday night "What is important is who can do the job" Epton says in the ad asking voters to reject race as an issue "Who can honestly and fairly administer an annual city budget of S2 billion?" Epton says In the ad Epton says Washington's no-contest plea for failing to file tax returns his suspension from his law practice and evidence of his late payment of bills art 'documented evidence of a long and disturbing pattern of behavior that raises senous questions about what kind of mayor Harold Washington would be" On Monday Washington dropped a controversial television commercial that likened an angry Palm Sunday demonstration against him outside a Northwest Side church with other violent incidents including the assassination of the Rev Martin Luther King Jr Also under an agreement between US Attorney Dan Webb and the Chicago Police Department police officers assigned to 2918 precinct polling places will monitor for vote fraud of exceedingly intense media coverage" In recent days both candidates have zeroed in on the liberal lakefront area considered a critical battleground in a contest in which racial tensions have frequently surfaced "These are the white voters most likely to be influenced issues rather than race" political strategist Don Pose said of the lakefront area ashutgton knows hey are the ptvotai white votes" The city is 0 percent black However a poll conducted by ABC -owned WLS-TV and released Sunday said that although Washington held an edge of 14 percentage points over Epton among all voters the Democratic congressman dropped six points in the lakefront area since the station's poll two weeks ago The latest poll which has a margin of error of six percentage points said Washington was favored by 52 percent of respondents in that area while Epton was favored by 36 percent II points more in that area that he had in the last poll The latest poll was of more than 600 registered voters Washington's support in another key area the Hispanic community has shot up 16 points the survey said with the Democratic candidate capturing more than two-thirds of that vote Rose the political strategist estimated that 95000 of the city's 1 6 million registered voters are Hispanic In the last few weeks Washington and Epton have flooded the lakefront with campaign brochures mass mailings and radio ads 'By SHARON COHEN I AMOoateO P'ess CHICAGO Harold Washington 'dumped at a breakneck pace i Monday to shore up support among Iwhite liberals while opponent Bernard Epton coasted to the finish 'line in (he city's most bitter mayoral contest in decades Washington a two-term Democratic congressman who hopes the election today will make him hicago't first black mayor rHurned Monday to a North Side 'lakefront area where he had rallied 'h hundreds of white liberal supporters over the weekend "I don't like the word battleground but this is the focus" Washington said Monday during one of about 10 stops in a hectic ampaign day ff also Invited Democratic Mayor Jane Byrne and Democratic leaders supporting fpm to join Washington in a unity ceremony after the election But he warned them they would be working vth an "aggressive progressive jmayor" Byrne endorsed Washington immediately after 'losing the Democratic primary to him then briefly considered a wnte-1 in campaign and has remained i si lea)' about him since Meanwhile Epton a millionaire lawyer hoping to become the city's first Republican mayor in more ithan 50 years met with aides and I scheduled a final radio appeal and ionly three public appearances two of them with his volunteers That was his will and desire" said Judy Knapton an Epton aide We're trying to calm down the intensity I think there's been a rash areas viBUjjm and a defender of the 160-acre limit on federal irrigation water suddenly come to the rescue of Boswell Saiyer ana otner c-aiiiorniu land barons? "I won't answer that question" Burton told a reporter a few mintues later "I just can't go into that" Months later the full story finally came to light Burton sensing that By Leo Rennert Bee Washington Bureau Chief WASHINGTON In an age of cautious politicians modeled by professional consultants and swayed by public optnion polls Phil Burton stood out as a tough-talking hard-charging liberal who racked up major legislative triumphs during 19 turbulent years in the House The San Franciso congressman who died Sunday at the age of 56 was a towering figure in state and national Democratic politics In the House he led Young Turks in a post-Watergate revolt against the seniority system and pushed through reforms that ended the despotic rule of committee chairmen For the last 10 years he played a dominant role in California's fractious congressional delegation As chief architect for reapportionment he succeeded in giving Democrats solid control of California's forces in the House Although the post of majority leader eluded him by a single vote in 1976 Burton remained a force to be reckoned with because of his prodigious parliamentary skills There was no more fearsome figure in the waning hours of a session than Burton on the prowl ready to hijack someone else's bill so he could strike a last-minute deal to pass his own legislation He authored numerous Democratic lawmaker led revolt against House seniority system environmental bills including expansion of the Redwood National Park Several years ago he put together a huge catch-all measure that contained so many new park and wilderness areas that it was dubbed Burton's "parkbill" During the Nixon administration he played a key role in launching the Supplemental Security Income program for the aged blind and the disabled Always a frend of organized labor he carried numerous pieces of legislation to epand worker benefits and protect union rights Before he was fatally stricken Burton was preparing to push through legislation to establsh several million acres of new wilderness in California But the ultimate Burton hallmark was a brash no-nonsense personality and a legendary talent in forging log-rolling coalitions with conservative Southerners and Republicans He had no outside hobbies He was a round-the-clock political animal He didn't need a political computer His mind worked like one Former Rep Jerome Waldie D-Contra Costa Countv once quipped "Phil's idea of pillow talk is to go over the latest voter registration figures from Ventura County" Burton didn't suffer fools lightly He lacked diplomatic tact and berated errant colleagues for their shortcomings He was impatient with Volvo-and- cheese liberals who made interesting speeches sponsored legislation that was applauded by editorial writers but accomplished little in getting legislative results "I'm not interested in legislative masturbation" he remarked when asked about a nice-sounding bill with no chance of getting anywhere There were no middle-of-the-road opinions about Burton Critics called him a power-hungry wheeler-dealer prone to angry outbursts Even some liberals were afraid of his overpowering personality and helped snuff out ins hopes for a top leadership post But he also had legions of friends and admirers Last year when he faced a tough re-election challenge from Republican State Sen Milton Marks hundreds of environemtalists volunteered to ring doorbells and get voters to the polls Contributions poured in from all over the country as labor unions minorities and others whose causes he had championed rallied to his defense He won handily But the tensions of the campaign didn't do much for his health which had been sapped by previous heart trouble and a stout drinking habit Burton rarely got good press notices He didn't know how to massage journalistic egos At public relations he was a self-admitted failure Th press grudgingly acknowledged his stature and successes on Capitol Hill but focused mainly on the warts There was also another reason for his distance from reporters Burton's strength was his ability to cut a deal in total secrecy and assure cooperative colleagues that they wouldn't be tarred publicly for having joined forces with him There was a classic example of how he operated during Richard Nixon's first term when the House took up an amendment to put a $20000 limit on individual subsidies to cotton producers For several years critics had charged that the Commando group suspected in PLO slaying he had it wunin nis power to avert a major debacle for the big cotton growers collared several of their key Souhern supporters on the floor during the roll call and made a deal A few weeks later he told them the House would take up a coal mine safety bill with a controversial new provision that would create a black-lung compensation program for incapacitated miners If Dixie conservatives like Jamie Whitten of Mississippi George Mahon of Texas and John Rarick of Louisiana would help pass the black-lung provision Burton and his liberal allies would preserve big subsidies for cotton growers Business lobbyists adamantly opposed the black-lung measure because they didn't want the federal government to whittle away state control of workmen's compensation But the Southerners kept their part of the agreement The black-lung program squeaked through with their help Years later Burton boasted that in exchange for several tens of millions of dollars that ended up in the pockets of big growers he had created a program that was funneling billions to help miners suffering from the ravages of coal dust He tried a softer approach But the dynamo within kept driving him At the end he was still looking for new legislative frontiers to conquer Perhaps the most fitting epitaph is that there's nobody around to reDlace him al-Awad Carneiro said al-Awad had entered Portugal last Friday from Spain and was carrying a Moroccan passport and dollars that police thought might be forgeries Al-Awad was to appear today before magistrates who would rule if there were grounds for holding him The Moroccan Embassy here expressed doubt about the suspect's identity and asked for a photocopy of the passport embassy officials said It was not clear what led to the arrest The news agency Noticias de Portugal said it was somehow linked to the discovery of an abandoned taxi about 95 miles from Albufeira on the highway to Lisbon Police said they were still seeking a taxi driver who fled a national guard patrol at Ounque 40 miles from Albufeira on the Lisbon highway and apparently later abandoned the car The police did not elaborate the seaside city of Albufeira While some conference delegates and other bystanders looked on in horror the gunman walked up to Sartawi in the hotel lobby shot him five times in the chest and head and fled through a nearby park as police shot at him Sartawi's persona! secretary Anwar Abu Eisheh was wounded in the thigh during the attack but was recovering well Monday in the Albufeira hospital a spokesman said No one else was injured in the attack A radical Palestine Liberation Organization splinter group known as the Abu Nidal faction or the Revolutionary Council of the Fatah claimed responsibility for killing Sartawi It denounced him as a "traitor" for his efforts to bring Israelis Arabs and Palestinians togeher in peace efforts Eleven hours after the murder Carneiro said police went to a small hotel in Lisbon and arrested a man who identified himself as Youssef LISBON Portugal (AP) Police detained a 26-year-old man Monday jm connection with the assassination Jof the PLO's European coordinator janoV said they suspected a group did the killmg Acting Interior Minister Roberto Carneiro declined to say whether "ibe arrested man was suspected of shooting Issam Sartawi in a crowded hotel lobby at Albufeira 120 miles from here or whether he was considered an accomplice "We have strong suspicions that have led us to believe this man is connected with the assassination" JCameiro said Police would not say 5 whether the suspect was armed I when he was captured They later issued a statement saying the killing "was earned out by a commando group consisting of several people Sartawi a 47-year-old physician who had become a leading PLO I advocate of reconciliation with 'Israel was shot Sunday while attending the final day of the Socialist International conference in GOTTSCHALK'S i Just Arrived! 1 1 i the exciting new MASH VIDEO GAME CARTRIDGE for Atari Video Game Systems and receive with your purchase AT NO EXTRA CHARGE A MASH T-SHIRT ir Mirer -imxwmz PO Bo 1872 Frno CA 93718 Pleoie end me A game cartridge! i A new and exciting game from 20th Century Fox for youngsters and adults alike Can be used with the Atari 2600 Plus receive a MASH t-shirt (a 695 value) with your purchase while supplies last $3495 ALL FOR ONLY (or total of 8 NAME ADDRESS CITY GOTTSCHALK'S SIGHT 81 SOUND (81 CHG 8 PHONE CHECK COD CHARGE (I Pleoie odd 6 to lei tax Or COD 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