Four times in the past 19 years, Austin Attorney Ralph W. (for Webster) Yarborough had glad-handed his way across Texas in tireless battles for state office (attorney general, governor). Four times he failed—and before the last time former Governor Allan Shivers began to call him a "three-time loser." Last week Texas Liberal Yarborough, 53, took a fifth swing, this time at the 21-month, unexpired term in the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Price Daniel—who beat Yarborough for governor last year. Candidate Yarborough hit a home run.
At Yarborough campaign headquarters in Austin, his supporters whooped it up as the good...