CHARLES WILSON OF LUFKIN - ELECTED 1972

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88B00527R000100130011-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 11
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Approved For Release 2010/03/24: CIA-RDP88B00527R000100130011-5
2 Charles Wilson (D)
Of Lufkin - Elected 1972
Born: June 1, 1933, Trinity, Texas.
Education: Attended Sam Houston State U., 1951-52;
U.S. Naval Academy, B.S. 1956.
Military Career. Navy, 1956-60.
Occupation: Lumberyard manager.
Family: Divorced.
Religion: Methodist.
Political Career. Texas House, 1961-67; Texas Senate,
1967-73.
Capitol Office: 2265 Rayburn Bldg. 20515; 225-2401.
In Washington: Wilson's reputation for
high living long has obscured his image on the
inside as one of the better lobbyists and vote
traders in the House.
Some members who initially thought of
him only as "good-time Charlie" were surprised
one day early in his second term when they
listened to him leading the defense of the
percentage depletion allowance for indepen-
dent oil producers. Instead of the Wilson they
were used to, strutting and wisecracking his
way down the aisle, they watched him in the
well of the House presenting charts, graphs,
statistics and a flood of effective rhetoric.
Without his amendment preserving deple-
tion for the independents, Wilson said, "the
petroleum industry of the United States will be
controlled by the eight men who head the eight
major oil companies in the United States."
It did not quite work. The House rejected
his amendment, 216-197. But depletion was
preserved for independents in the eventual bill
that emerged from House-Senate conference,
and they have it to this day.
That depletion debate in 1975 was a deci-
sive moment in Wilson's career. Since then, he
has become known as the most persistent
House defender of independent oil interests. As
public clamor against the major oil companies
has grown in recent years, the independents
have surpassed the majors as a lobbying force
in Congress and as a source of money for
conservative congressional campaigns. To a
certain extent, the industry's greater clout has
increased Wilson's influence. In 1979 Wilson
used some of his vote-trading skill to work a
favorable deal for independents on windfall
profits tax legislation.
In recent years, Wilson's support for oil
has broadened into a defense of Texas and
other Sun Belt states against the claims of the
Frost Belt region that it is discriminated
against in federal spending formulas. In 1981
he became the head of a new "Sun Belt Cau-
cus" of 90 members, aimed at resisting Frost
Belt arguments with counter-statistics.
"What's wrong with those states," he said of
the Frost Belt in 1982, "is the weather, the
business climate and the tax policy. They can't
pass bills to make it warmer up there."
In the past few years, however, Wilson's oil
and regional lobbying have brought him less
attention than his views on foreign aid. Wilson
was a militant defender of Anastasio Somoza's
regime in Nicaragua. As a member of the
Foreign Affairs Committee in the Carter ad-
ministration, Wilson sometimes made his sup-
port for overall foreign aid programs contingent
upon inclusion of money for Nicaragua. When
the administration proved unfriendly to
Somoza, Wilson became increasingly un-
friendly to the program. After leftist guerrillas
seized power in Nicaragua, Wilson became a
militant opponent of U.S. aid and a critic of
efforts to supply it.
One of Wilson's favorite recipients of for-
eign aid is Egypt. In the 97th Congress, Wilson
offered an appropriations amendment to add
$100 million in arms loans to the Mubarak
government and to earmark an additional $100
million in military assistance grants to Egypt.
A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy,
Wilson has been a foreign policy hawk his
entire congressional career and spent several
years on Appropriations working his way up to
a place on the Defense Subcommittee. He fi-
nally made it there in 1980. During the Carter
years, he was a persistent advocate of develop-
ing the neutron bomb and the B-1 bomber,
both of which President Carter opposed.
He also has been a good friend of Texas
defense interests and contractors. In 1981 he
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Chorks Wilson, D-Toxc s
Texas 2
Traditionally poor, isolated and depen-
dent on timber, the east Texas piney woods
2nd took on a new prosperity in the 1970s
with the growth of the oil industry.
Lufkin, the district's largest city, still
relies on a large paper mill for many of its
jobs. But it also has two factories that make
oil and gas drilling equipment.
Orange, heavily industrialized, hosts
petrochemical facilities and a waning ship-
building industry. Goodyear, Gulf Oil and
Du Pont all maintain plants along Orange's
major industrial corridor, known locally as
"Chemical Row." Orange also has the 2nd's
only significant concentration of union
members. But the 1980 recession hurt
"Chemical Row" badly, with unemployment
in Orange County approaching 18 percent
late in 1982.
Independent oil outfits and cattle
ranches are scattered throughout the dis-
trict. The area's high annual rainfall has
improved the grazing land, boosting local
ranching.
lobbied strongly for funding for the A7-K
at-
tack plane, which has relatively few friends at
the Pentagon but is manufactured by the
Vought Corp. of Dallas. When the Appropria-
tions Committee tried to block a Pentagon
move to transfer Army helicopter maintenance
facilities from Texas to Pennsylvania, Wilson
led the argument for keeping it where it was.
To make it onto Appropriations at all,
Wilson had to use some of his best Texas
lobbying skill. He made his move in 1977, after
two House terms, challenging another appli-
cant from the state's Democratic delegation,
Richard C. White, a seven-term veteran. Texas
Democrats had been recommending committee
assignments on the basis of seniority for more
than 40 years, and they recommended White to
the leadership's Steering and Policy Commit-
tee. But Wilson campaigned for the vacancy
personally among Steering and Policy mem-
bers, and he won the seat. Some of the delega-
tion was angry, but the controversy eventually
subsided.
Once he joined Appropriations, Wilson had
to put in two terms on the District of Columbia
Subcommittee, a usual starting place for new
members. He was chairman of the D.C. sub-
committee for a year during the 96th Congress
East -
Lufkin, Orange
Like all of east Texas, the 2nd is con-
servative territory with strong ties to Dixie.
The 2nd's Deep South character was evi-
dent in 1968, when it was the only district in
the state to back George C. Wallace in that
year's presidential balloting. The rural
counties have a residual populist streak,
however, and the district as a whole has
been hospitable to moderate Democrats,
such as Wilson, who have been willing to
speak its language.
The 2nd responded favorably to Jimmy
Carter in his 1976 presidential campaign,
giving him nearly 60 percent of its vote.
Even in 1980, when Carter lost the state by
a decisive margin, he carried the 2nd by just
under 5,000 votes.
Population: 526,772. White 433,363
(82%), Black 81,820 (16%). Spanish origin
16,906 (3 %). 18 and over 372,792 (71 %), 65
and over 62,165 (12%). Median age: 30.
and made frequent headlines for his verbal
assaults on the city's government. "1 think this
city is a basket case," he said at one point. "In
Washington, it takes 143 people to do what it
takes 100 people to do any place else, and I aim
to do something about it." His views brought
him into frequent conflict with District Mayor
Marion Barry, as Wilson refused to support as
large a federal subsidy for the financially
plagued city as Barry wanted.
Wilson has successfully managed to com-
bine his active legislative career with the pur-
suit of pleasure in Washington at all hours. He
has never seemed embarrassed about being
labeled a playboy or a smiling Texas rogue; he
seems to enjoy it. His staff is mostly female and
strikingly good looking, and its members some-
times escort him around the Washington social
circuit. For a time he dated a woman whose
picture had appeared on the cover of Playboy
magazine. "I love what I'm doing," he once told
a reporter. "Why should I go around looking
like a constipated hound dog? I'm having the
time of my life."
Over the years, Wilson has felt that his
constituency not only accepts his style of life,
but secretly admires it. "There's a wild streak
in people down here," he has said of his east
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Texas district. "People are inclined to put up
with personal behavior. I bet that Playboy
cover didn't cost me 100 votes."
Wilson's self-confident approach may face
a difficult test. Early in 1983, it was reported
that a Washington D.C. grand jury was investi-
gating charges that he had used cocaine. "I'm
confident that it's going to be resolved in my
favor," Wilson said, "after a lot of money and a
lot of tears and a lot of sleepless nights."
Whatever the legal result, Wilson may be
forced on the defensive in Texas in a way he
never has been before.
At Home: A voting record that includes
support for the Equal Rights Amendment and
aid to New York City might seem out of place
in a rural east Texas district.
But Wilson's brash, likable personality has
always helped him at home, and his loyalty to
the independent oil industry has bought him
some freedom on other issues. He has been
unbeatable since he first won the seat in 1972.
Most of Wilson's political career has been
spent somewhere to the left of his constituents.
In 1960, when most Texas Democrats were
backing Lyndon B. Johnson for the Democratic
presidential nomination, Wilson was for John
F. Kennedy. In the Texas Legislature, Wilson
crusaded against high utility rates, fought for
Medicaid and tax exemptions for the elderly
and sponsored bills to remove a ceiling on
welfare spending. He was commonly identified
as "the liberal from Lufkin," advancing his
career with the help of Arthur Temple, a mav-
erick lumber millionaire who treated him as a
protege and helped finance his campaigns.
During his successful congressional race in
1972, Wilson softened his liberalism somewhat,
opposing school busing and gun control. But he
still drew the support of blacks and labor and
easily defeated the wife of Rep. John Dowdy in
the Democratic primary. Dowdy's husband had
been sentenced to prison earlier in the year for
bribery, conspiracy and perjury.
Committees
Appropriations (17th of 36 Democrats)
Defense; District of Columbia; Foreign Operations.
1182 General
Charles Wilson (D)
91,762
(94%)
Ed Richbourg (LIB)
5,584
( 6%)
118.2 Primary
Charles Wilson (D)
66,492
(74%)
William Duncan (D)
23,286
(26%)
1180 General
Charles Wilson (D)
142,496
(69%)
F.H. Pannill Sr. (R)
60,742
(30%)
Previous Winning Percentages:
1978
(70%) 1978
(95%)
1974 (100%) 1972 (74%)
District Vote For President
1980 1978
D 86,056150%) 0 85,850.(59%)
R 81,093(48'/.) R 59,163141%)
Campaign Finance
Receipts
Receipts
from PACs
Expand-
Runes
1982
Wilson (D)
$268,944
$123,744
(46%)
$221,373
1911
Wilson (D)
$226,921
$96,286
(420/.)
$240,766
Pannill (R)
$17,463
$250
(1%)
$17,460
Voting Studies
Presidential Party Conservative
Support Unity Coalition
Year S 0 S 0 S 0
1912 47 30 51 30 63 15
1111
57
34
54
36
68
24
11180
49
26
52
27
63
17
1079
55
32
57
32
63
28
1979
54
35
59
27
48
37
1977
49
33
65
21
45
41
1979
45
39
56
27
46
34
1975
52
29
55
26
45
38
1974 (Ford)
57
35
1974
55
26
64
25
43
46
1973
29
58
71
20
38
53
S - Support
Key Votes
Reagan budget proposal (1981) Y
Legal services reauthorization (1981) Y
Disapprove sale of AWACS planes to Saudi Arabia (1981) N
Index income taxes (1981) N
Subsidize home mortgage rates (1982) Y
Amend Constitution to require balanced budget (1982) Y
Delete MX funding (1982) N
Retain existing cap on congressional salaries (1982) 7
Adopt nuclear freeze (1983) N
Interest Group Ratings
ADA
ACA
AFL-CIO
CCUS
25
65
47
56
20
62
50
58
17
43
39
67
21
44
45
82
35
50
68
65
25
26
65
50
20
40
71
54
42
38
70
29
39
40
82
38
48
32
91
40
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