FW PRIMARIES: BAT-TLE OF THE BUCKS

The May primary in Fort Worth is fast becoming the battle of the megabucks, with opponents of U.S. Rep. Jim Wright conspiring to bleed the Congressman’s election coffers before the general election ever gets here. Chuck Silcox, the Fort Worth insurance man who is running against Wright in the Democratic Primary, is quite candid about the fact that he expects to get crossover financial support from Tarrant County Republicans.

The strategy, Silcox contends, is for his closest GOP supporters not to reveal their names until Silcox makes his last primary contribution report to the Federal Election Commission. That timing would allow the names of the Republican crossover fund raisers to be made public – after the primary, hence not making them election issue fodder. Sil-cox expects to spend only $30,000 or so for the primary, but if Wright runs true to the pattern he’s set in his last 13 campaigns, he’ll spend much more than that.

Meanwhile, former Fort Worth Mayor Pro Tern Jim Bradshaw, Wright’s probable Republican challenger in November, is facing a Euless carpenter in the May primary and is in a position to sit on his bankroll until next fall. That bankroll is considerable, since Bradshaw has some heavy IOUs to call in, including a $300,000 fund-raising pledge from Eddie Chiles, Bradshaw has also been receiving help from the National Conservative Political Action Committee, which has furnished campaign advice through people like Arthur J. Finklestein, a NCPAC operative and veteran of Richard Nixon’s Committee to Re-Elect the President.