In Moscow, Texas, No Big Hats or Boots

Texas politics, renowned for its intensity and entertainment value, reached Moscow on Tuesday night in the form of a fundraiser for the state's fast-talking, sharp-tongued governor, Ann Richards.


But the swagger and sass of a Texas campaign was hard to find. Where was the big hair, the cowboy couture, the big men in big hats?


"Cowboy boots don't work well here," said Susan Crawford, snacking on nacho chips. "My husband, at least, left his cowboy hat at home in Houston. It takes up too much room."


Nor was there much evidence of good-humored irreverence Richards has displayed for well-bred Republicans.


The tough-talking Richards, a feisty 25-year political veteran with big white bouffant hairdo, vaulted into the national arena with a speech at the 1988 Democratic convention where she attacked presidential candidate George Bush as a privileged Yankee blueblood "born with a silver foot in his mouth."


Tuesday night's political rhetoric was at a minimum and there was maybe a 3-to-1 ratio of Yankees to Texans, but the event, held at Moscow's only Tex-Mex bar, felt like the real thing to some from the Lone Star state.


"You forget that you are in Moscow, totally. It's like being in an Austin bar," said Gwen Fricker, an exchange student from Lorena, Texas, eating a chicken burrito. "I thought there'd be a lot more Texans than there are, but it's O.K."


Fricker, who plans to work in the petroleum industry someday, said she had been hoping for a better turnout from Moscow's Texas oilmen, but, as other guests pointed out, most of those people are likely to support Governor Richards' Republican opponent, George W. Bush Jr., the son of the former president. Richards has dubbed George Jr. "the shrub."


A corporate lawyer from Dallas, Shari Loessberg, organized Tuesday's fundraiser which attracted over 50 people to the Armadillo Tex-Mex Bar near Red Square.


"Raising money for women candidates is what makes my heart sing," said Loessberg, who estimated the event raised over $3,000. "For a long time,women politicians had to work so hard to be taken seriously, that they couldn't laugh and tell jokes. Ann does that."


"This campaign in Texas has national consequences, both for Democrats and for women in political office," said Jane Angvik, 46, Alaska's former commissioner of commerce and economic development who now lives in Moscow.


"I think Ann Richards' election is important for women across the board."


Tuesday night's crowd was predominantly young, professional and without any of the trappings that make Texans easily recognizable. One young man in cowboy boots, an exchange student from the University of Texas, said he came to commune with fellow Texans, who he finds easier to get along with than northerners.


"We went on a bus excursion trip with some students from Boston University. It was dreadful," said Paul Goode of Dallas. "I try not to be prejudiced, but it seems most of the people I get along with here tend to be from Texas or the South."


Others, not so keen on the candidate herself, came to the event to take part in what they said was an American political ritual.


"I don't really consider this is a fundraiser for Ann Richards. I think it is just an opportunity for Americans to support the political process in the U.S.," said Shelley Zent of Dallas. "I don't support some of her very liberal tendencies, especially regarding gays and lesbians."