Dukakis Focuses Efforts On Texan Voters

SAN ANTONIO, Tex.--On the anniversary of the fall of the Alamo, Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis yesterday ignored the events commemorating the historic 1836 battle and campaigned among Hispanic voters, speaking in Spanish about economic opportunity.

Dukakis, who is leading in the most recent polls of the Lone Star State, delivered a reading in Spanish at a Roman Catholic mass before a largely Hispanic congregation at the San Fernando Cathedral, the oldest cathedral in the country. The ceremony is regularly broadcast across the South on a Spanish-language radio network.

In a press conference afterward, Dukakis said Hispanic voters need jobs and affordable housing, not training in English, to survive economically.

"I don't know anything more inspiring than full employment," Dukakis said. "English is the language of this country. It doesn't have to be the official language. I don't buy that. We grow from the diversity of this country."

The morning of campaigning in south Texas kicked off a day-long trek across the South scheduled to conclude in Plains, Ga., with a meeting with former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Roslyn.

The governor's San Antonio appearance came on the anniversary of Santa Anna's defeat of about 189 Alamo defenders, which included some Mexican-Americans.

Dukakis' Texas Campaign Director Thomas Cosgrove said Dukakis scheduled the cathedral appearance before plans for the Alamo anniversary were in full swing.

But remembering the Alamo might have been political dynamite for a candidate depending on Hispanic voters to maintain his lead in the two days remaining before Super Tuesday primaries here and across the South. Dukakis has featured ads in Spanish as well as English.

The Alamo has been a controversial topic among Hispanics because a recent film made to commemorate the event downplayed the role of Spanish-Americans in defending the fort from the Mexican army. Protesters were expected to attend a rally at the Alamo yesterday.

The Dukakis campaign has spent some $300,000 in Texas, according to Cosgrove, and he said he expected the figure to top $500,000 by Super Tuesday. The governor's spending as of December exceeded his opponents' by more than five to one.

"Our big advantage is we've been here since October and we have a grass-roots organization," said Lorraine Voles, a Dukakis campaign staffer.

Dukakis has some 40 full-time paid staffers working in Texas and an estimated 2000 volunteers across the state, whose 183 Democratic delegates is the largest of the 19 Super Tuesday states and American Samoa.

Despite an absence of top-name endorsements in Texas, the latest poll conducted by two Texas newspapers showed Dukakis leading with 30 percent, Jesse Jackson in second with 17 percent, Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt with 13 percent, Tennessee Sen. Albert J. Gore Jr. '69 with 10 percent and undecided voters at 25 percent. Former Colorado Sen. Gary Hart and Illinois Sen. Paul Simon trailed in the single numbers.

"The race is still very fluid," said Voles, referring to the undecided vote.

A number of Hispanic leaders joined Dukakis in campaigning. They walked through the streets of San Antonio, took a trolley ride and attended a midday rally.

San Antonio City Councilor Maria Berriozabal, who has endorsed Dukakis, said it wasn't so much his ability to speak Spanish that helped the governor but his views about economic opportunity.

"We have actually seen his track record in Massachusetts," Berriozabal said. "We have the resources and the people to solve our own problems, but we need a leader."