Prints and Photographs Collection
Preston Smith
A portrait of power in Texas in 1970: House Speaker Gus Mutscher, Governor Preston Smith, former president Lyndon Johnson, and Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes, at "Gus Mutscher Day" in Brenham, August 17, 1970. Within two years the political careers of Mutscher, Smith, and Barnes, along with numerous other officials, would be ended by the Sharpstown stock-fraud scandal.
The scandal centered on charges that state officials, including Smith and Mutscher, had made profitable quick-turnover stock purchases, in return for the passage of legislation desired by Houston financier Frank W. Sharp. The unraveling of the dealings with Sharp opened a Pandora's Box revealing numerous other offenses. Mutscher and several others were convicted of bribery. Governor Smith was named as an unindicted co-conspirator at Mutscher's trial.
The scandal fueled a reform movement that made the 1972 election one of the most dramatic in Texas history. Smith ran for reelection despite advice from some of his friends and supporters, saying, "I have done no wrong, so why should I act like it by retreating from my responsibilities?" Smith said he had simply made a foolish investment, and pointed out that he had vetoed bills that would have been favorable to Sharp.
Smith was badly defeated in the primary by liberal legislator Frances "Sissy" Farenthold and Uvalde rancher Dolph Briscoe, who won the runoff election. Ben Barnes, who was tainted by the scandal though not linked with the wrongdoing, was defeated in his own bid for the governorship. Other top state jobs and over 50% of the legislature also turned over, and the election also saw growing strength from the Republican party and from La Raza Unida, an Hispanic party.
The new legislature passed significant reform legislation that required state officials to disclose their sources of income, forced candidates to make public more details about their campaign finances, opened up most governmental records to citizen scrutiny, expanded the requirement for open meetings of governmental policy�making agencies, and imposed new disclosure regulations on paid lobbyists.