Buzz

I shall whine no more forever
Noisy activist-type guy Lee Alcorn gets to stay in the race for president of the NAACP's Dallas chapter--for now, anyway. But the stage is set for a potentially nasty dispute if he manages to win the November 21 election.

The national NAACP has been looking into allegations that Alcorn neglected to renew his $10 membership in the NAACP Dallas chapter, and therefore wasn't qualified to run for its top spot. It has also considered whether Alcorn, who lives in Grand Prairie, had satisfied a residency requirement.

Alcorn's chief opponent in the unusually contentious race--Dwaine Caraway--had complained to the national office about the activist's qualifications. Last Friday, the national field secretary for the NAACP, Mark Clack, responded by mailing Alcorn a one-page letter stating that, after reviewing records, "I find there to be no clear evidence to substantiate disqualifying Mr. Alcorn from running in this election." But later in the letter, Clack made it plain that Alcorn isn't off the hook yet. "In the event that there is a challenge to this election," Clack wrote, a Texas NAACP committee "shall be responsible for investigating and adjudicating the matter."

Alcorn says he's been vindicated. Caraway's allegations "had a lot of people confused," he says. "It works to my detriment."

Caraway, however, who's plastered his face all over southern Dallas in huge, full-color billboards, isn't fazed by the latest news. The advertising agency owner and husband of Dallas City Councilwoman Barbara Mallory Caraway says he expects to beat Alcorn handily. If, by chance, he loses the fight for the unpaid seat, Caraway initially told Buzz, "I would not contest" Alcorn's standing.

He paused just a moment, then changed his mind. "Say that I doubt I would contest it. Leave the 'doubt' in there."

A good case for agnosticism
Of course, not everyone needs beer-sodden philosophizing to know that God exists. Some people can also tell you how God votes.

He's a Republican, apparently.
That's the conclusion Buzz draws from perusing the Texas Christian Coalition's '98 Pro-Family Voters Guide, a (wink, wink, nudge, nudge) nonpartisan guide to electing "godly men" to higher office.

The completely unbiased, nonpartisan guide includes info about candidates in several statewide and local congressional races. It offers the candidates' positions on a number of family issues, such as most-favored nation trading status for China and elimination of the National Endowment of the Arts--both frequent topics of conversation around the Buzz family dinner table.

Being somewhat cynical and ungodly, we couldn't help but notice that not many Democrats responded to the coalition's questions. Also, the issues listed in each race varied, but generally seemed to be those on which the Republican candidates toed the coalition line and the Democrats either didn't respond or were in opposition. (Our favorite: "special" rights for homosexuals. Civil rights somehow become special when applied to gays. How nice.)

It seemed pretty partisan to us, but the coalition swears in black and white on the cover that it's not, and such godly folk would never, ever lie.

--Compiled from staff reports by Patrick Williams