Texas Almanac, 2002-2003 Page: 401
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Elections 401
fraud and ballot irregularities in various counties,
recounts, legal rulings and appeals, demonstrations and
public relations spin by the two camps. Bush stayed
mostly at his ranch in Crawford, near Waco, occasion-
ally hosting Republican leaders and potential adminis-
tration appointees.
Finally, on Dec. 12, 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court,
in a dramatic 5-to-4 decision, overturned a Florida
Supreme Court ruling that had allowed continued man-
ual recounts, essentially ending further question of
Bush's tiny lead in the pivotal state.
The next night, Gore conceded the election and
Bush declared victory. Speaking for the first time as
president-elect from the chambers of the Texas House
of Representatives, Bush declared that the "nation must
rise above a house divided" - a goal that would be elu-
sive.
Though the campaigns concentrated on more com-
petitive states, Texas played a key role. The Bush cam-
paign was headquartered in Austin, so the capital city
hosted hordes of journalists covering the contest. And
key members of his campaign staff were Texans, rather
than Washington operatives.
Many went with him to Washington, including top
political strategist Karl Rove, as senior adviser to the
president, and campaign press secretary Karen Hughes,
as counselor to the president. Supreme Court Justice Al
Gonzales, former general counsel to the governor,
became White House counsel. Margaret La Montagne,
an education adviser in Texas, became domestic policy
adviser. Clay Johnson, a former chief of staff in the
governor's office and appointments director, became
deputy chief of staff and personnel director. Albert
Hawkins, deputy manager of the campaign and the gov-
ernor's former budget director, became Cabinet secre-
tary. Dallas lawyer Harriet Miers became White House
staff secretary. Bush's fund-raising chief, Jeanne
Johnson Phillips of Dallas, planned and executed his
inauguration in 31 days.
The new president nominated Don Evans, his cam-
paign chairman, to be commerce secretary, and Joe All-
baugh, campaign manager, to head the Federal
Emergency Management Agency. He tapped Houston
schools superintendent Rod Paige to be education sec-
retary. Even Bush's vice president, Wyoming native
Dick Cheney, had been a part-time Texan as chairmanof the Halliburton Co.
Some called it the Lone Star Renaissance on the
Potomac - the greatest relocation of Texans to Wash-
ington since the days of Lyndon Baines Johnson.
But the reverberations of the close election were not
soon over. The even division of the nation over the pres-
idency was also reflected in Congress.
In another surreal note, the U.S. Senate wound up
dead even, 50-50, giving Vice President Cheney the tie-
breaking vote. The U.S. House was close to parity after
the election, with Republicans controlling the chamber
by only nine seats.
But Republicans enjoyed control of the evenly-
divided Senate for less than six months, losing it when
moderate Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont left the GOP
to become an independent, saying he no longer identi-
fied with the conservative Republican leadership and
agenda.
The Republicans' loss of majority status changed
the dynamics between the White House and the Senate,
and stripped senior Republicans from positions of
power. Texas Sen. Phil Gramm lost his chairmanship of
the powerful Senate Banking Committee. But Texans
remained in key jobs on Capitol Hill. Texas' other sena-
tor, Kay Bailey Hutchison, was vice chair of the Senate
Republican Conference. Hutchison was re-elected to
the Senate in 2000, facing only token opposition from
the Democrats and none in the Republican primary. She
took 65 percent of the vote in the general election and
got more than 4 million votes, the most ever received by
a Senate candidate in Texas.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, Democrats
retained their 17-13 edge over Republicans in the Texas
delegation, but the House's No. 2 and 3 GOP leaders
were Texans: Rep. Dick Armey of Irving, majority
leader, and Tom DeLay of Sugar Land, majority whip.
Rep. Martin Frost of Dallas was chairman of the House
Democratic caucus; Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of
Dallas, chairwoman of the Congressional Black Cau-
cus, and Rep. Chet Edwards of Waco, House chief dep-
uty Democratic whip. Republican Larry Combest of
Lubbock was chairman of the House agriculture com-
mittee, and several Texans chaired House subcommit-
tees.
Carolyn Barta is a staff writer of The Dallas Morning News.White House ascendancy leaves Texas in transition
The ascension of Gov. George W. Bush to the presi-
dency opened up the state's two most powerful offices
to new occupants. Lt. Gov. Rick Perry, a fellow Repub-
lican, was automatically elevated to the job of governor.
Republican Bill Ratliff was elected by his Senate col-
leagues as acting lieutenant governor.
Perry took the oath of office in the Senate chambers
on Dec. 21, 2000, five hours after President-elect Bush
resigned as governor. Not since Allan Shivers suc-
ceeded Gov. Beauford Jester in 1949 had a lieutenant
governor moved into the Texas governor's office in
midterm.
The newly sworn-in governor pledged to carry on a
tradition of bipartisanship and said he would focus on
higher education and transportation. But the Texas Leg-
islature convened for its biennial 140-day session inearly January, 2001, leaving
little time for the new leaders
to organize and promote an
agenda.
With West Texan Pete
Laney, a Democrat elected by
House members to his fifth
term as speaker, they pre-
sided over a session and a
political landscape in transi-
tion. The state was lodged
somewhere between the Bush
Democrat Speaker Laney imprint and a mandate still to
be determined by 2002 state
elections and redistricting that would affect representa-
tion for the next decade.
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Ramos, Mary G. Texas Almanac, 2002-2003, book, 2001; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth162510/m1/401/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.