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wolfram - The Spreading Jungle
The Spreading Jungle/Lone Star-2
Governors of Texas:
1979-1983: Bill Clements (R) [1]
1978 def. John Hill (D)
1983-1991: Bob Bullock (D) [2]
1982: Bill Clements, Bob Bullock, John Bryant, George W. Bush, Grant Jones
1986: Bob Bullock, Bill Clements, Clayton Williams, Frances Farenthold
1991-1992: Ross Perot (I) [3]
1990: Ross Perot, John Sharp, George Strake, Mickey Leland, Ernest Angelo, Tim Von Dohlen, Ron Paul
1992-1995: John Montford (D) [4]
1995-2003: Carole Keeton Rylander (R) [5]
1994: Carole Keeton Rylander, Jim Hightower, Pete Laney, Joe Barton, Ron Paul
1998: Carole Keeton Rylander, Tom Loeffler, Rick Perry, Lloyd Doggett
2003-2008: Rick Perry (D) [6]
2002: Rick Perry, Warren Chisum, Steve Ogden, Charlie Gonzalez
2006: Rick Perry, Wendy Davis, Chris Bell, John Smithee, Richard Friedman
2008-2011: Rodney Ellis (D) [7]
2011-2015: Wendy Davis (R) [8]
2010: Rodney Ellis, Wendy Davis, Four Price, Elton Bomer
2015-????: Blake Farenthold (D) [9]
2014: Wendy Davis, Blake Farenthold, Rand Paul, Nandita Berry
[1] Bill Clements, the first Republican Governor since Reconstruction, was a generally popular oil company executive who cut spending, but a sagging economy, the controversial wiretapping bill, Clements' feuds with other top Republicans (including the Secretary of State, whose gaffe-prone son ran in the race), and an ad blitz masterminded by adman Roy Spence brought about his defeat to a moderate Democrat.
[2] Bob Bullock's governorship is still, more than twenty-five years later, controversial. His "Robin Hood" plan for education funding brought more funding to poorer school districts, but it also hurt urban districts with lots of property and few resources. His full-throated support of affirmative action bought him few allies among Texas's establishment. But by far his most controversial - and, perhaps, most significant - action was the 1988 Constitutional Convention - a plan to replace the massive, incoherent, document with a more modern and concise one. The new Constitution's most controversial passage - allowing the Legislature to pass income tax increases without a statewide vote - was a major sticking point, but the new Constitution ultimately passed by two votes at the Convention and twenty-four thousand in the statewide vote.
[3] Ross Perot was mainly known to the nation as the founder of Electronic Data Systems. To Texas, however, he was just as well known as an adviser to Governor Bullock, one whose relentless campaigning brought about education reform, but whose methods had near-fatally alienated supporters and opponents alike. A longtime Republican with ties to Democrats, Perot - naturally - ran as an independent, triumphing over a divided and squabbling field and then over the "safe but boring" Comptroller. His Governorship was defined by fights - within his team, with the Legislature, and with his Lieutenant Governor - and not accomplishment. He resigned from the post in 1992 for an ultimately-doomed Presidential run - one, albeit, often viewed as ensuring re-election for President Baker.
[4] John Montford, a longtime Senator reluctantly elevated to the Lieutenant Governorship and then the top spot, did as little as possible to rock the boat. There's not really that much to say about his Governorship.
[5] Carole Keeton Rylander was a Railroad Commissioner and a former Mayor of Austin, elected over the radical Agriculture Commissioner on a platform of having all of Ross Perot's outsider style and none of his inexperience. Her Governorship bore that out - she balanced the budget four years running, despite a long-running feud with her own party over social issues. Even President Richards, another powerful Texas woman, fought with her over the federal government's perceived "tax-and-spend" style. Rylander left office in 2002, and promptly ran for the Senate - as an Independent, an act which kicked off the modern era of Texan partisan politics.
[6] Rick Perry's governorship was noted for its hard-right turn on social issues. It was under him that the Second Warren Court struck down Texas's anti-same-sex-marriage statutes - and under him that the State of Texas stopped issuing marriage licenses for three weeks. It was under him that Texas enacted some of the harshest abortion laws in the country. And he was the one who feuded with Attorney General Obama over voting rights for three years running. One of the few old-school conservative Democrats, it was a shock to political observers outside Texas when he ran for the Republican nomination - and to virtually everyone when he won the nomination, and resigned the Governorship. He was the second Governor in as many decades to resign to campaign for the presidency, and was not much more successful than Perot.
[7] Rodney Ellis was, like John Montford, a Senate veteran elected to the Lieutenant Governorship who ascended to the top spot in the wake of the Governor's resignation. But unlike Montford, Ellis was both one of the Senate's staunchest supporters of state contracts for minority-owned businesses and, while in the Senate, the minority owner of a business. While his united base and competent tenure netted him the first spot in the primary, the perception of self-dealing ensured that the general election went to someone else.
[8] If Rick Perry was the last conservative Democrat, Wendy Davis was the last liberal Republican. A Fort Worth State Senator with an inspiring life story, Davis parlayed a filibuster over a Perry-supported anti-abortion bill into uniting anti-Ellis liberals and conservatives behind her. As Governor, she fought the legislature over her attempts to reverse Perry's social legislation. She won, but it was a pyrrhic victory, as out-of-state funds poured in to end the "liberal onslaught". She responded with a campaign ad attacking her main opponent, Blake Farenthold - the conservative step-grandson of liberal Texas politician Frances Farenthold - as "opposing his grandmother's legacy". The response to the ad was not what had been hoped for.
[9] What will Blake Farenthold's legacy be? Only time can tell whether his governorship will be remembered - as he desires that it will - for a massive reduction in government, or whether his absence from the fray will ensure that he is remembered as a do-nothing Governor. Perhaps he will run for the Presidency as a Republican - something that he has openly considered - in 2020, after President Blackwell's second term. Any number of things could happen...
In the late 1970s, Texas Speaker of the House Billy Clayton, a conservative Democrat, proposed reform to Texas's primaries that went beyond what the "Bentsen bill" had brought about. His plan - at least, at first - was to combine both primaries onto a single ballot (and, presumably, have the Democrats allot delegates to the highest-scoring Democrats and vice versa), thus allowing conservatives to vote for Republicans on the Presidential ballot and conservative Democrats further down. The effort never really gained traction, despite the fact that conservative former Democrats voting in Republican primaries likely led to the flameout that was John Hill's gubernatorial effort.
If it had, however, it doesn't seem unlikely that the system could have become a Louisiana-style jungle primary. Here's one version of how that might have proceeded.
If it had, however, it doesn't seem unlikely that the system could have become a Louisiana-style jungle primary. Here's one version of how that might have proceeded.
Governors of Texas:
1979-1983: Bill Clements (R) [1]
1978 def. John Hill (D)
1983-1991: Bob Bullock (D) [2]
1982: Bill Clements, Bob Bullock, John Bryant, George W. Bush, Grant Jones
1986: Bob Bullock, Bill Clements, Clayton Williams, Frances Farenthold
1991-1992: Ross Perot (I) [3]
1990: Ross Perot, John Sharp, George Strake, Mickey Leland, Ernest Angelo, Tim Von Dohlen, Ron Paul
1992-1995: John Montford (D) [4]
1995-2003: Carole Keeton Rylander (R) [5]
1994: Carole Keeton Rylander, Jim Hightower, Pete Laney, Joe Barton, Ron Paul
1998: Carole Keeton Rylander, Tom Loeffler, Rick Perry, Lloyd Doggett
2003-2008: Rick Perry (D) [6]
2002: Rick Perry, Warren Chisum, Steve Ogden, Charlie Gonzalez
2006: Rick Perry, Wendy Davis, Chris Bell, John Smithee, Richard Friedman
2008-2011: Rodney Ellis (D) [7]
2011-2015: Wendy Davis (R) [8]
2010: Rodney Ellis, Wendy Davis, Four Price, Elton Bomer
2015-????: Blake Farenthold (D) [9]
2014: Wendy Davis, Blake Farenthold, Rand Paul, Nandita Berry
[1] Bill Clements, the first Republican Governor since Reconstruction, was a generally popular oil company executive who cut spending, but a sagging economy, the controversial wiretapping bill, Clements' feuds with other top Republicans (including the Secretary of State, whose gaffe-prone son ran in the race), and an ad blitz masterminded by adman Roy Spence brought about his defeat to a moderate Democrat.
[2] Bob Bullock's governorship is still, more than twenty-five years later, controversial. His "Robin Hood" plan for education funding brought more funding to poorer school districts, but it also hurt urban districts with lots of property and few resources. His full-throated support of affirmative action bought him few allies among Texas's establishment. But by far his most controversial - and, perhaps, most significant - action was the 1988 Constitutional Convention - a plan to replace the massive, incoherent, document with a more modern and concise one. The new Constitution's most controversial passage - allowing the Legislature to pass income tax increases without a statewide vote - was a major sticking point, but the new Constitution ultimately passed by two votes at the Convention and twenty-four thousand in the statewide vote.
[3] Ross Perot was mainly known to the nation as the founder of Electronic Data Systems. To Texas, however, he was just as well known as an adviser to Governor Bullock, one whose relentless campaigning brought about education reform, but whose methods had near-fatally alienated supporters and opponents alike. A longtime Republican with ties to Democrats, Perot - naturally - ran as an independent, triumphing over a divided and squabbling field and then over the "safe but boring" Comptroller. His Governorship was defined by fights - within his team, with the Legislature, and with his Lieutenant Governor - and not accomplishment. He resigned from the post in 1992 for an ultimately-doomed Presidential run - one, albeit, often viewed as ensuring re-election for President Baker.
[4] John Montford, a longtime Senator reluctantly elevated to the Lieutenant Governorship and then the top spot, did as little as possible to rock the boat. There's not really that much to say about his Governorship.
[5] Carole Keeton Rylander was a Railroad Commissioner and a former Mayor of Austin, elected over the radical Agriculture Commissioner on a platform of having all of Ross Perot's outsider style and none of his inexperience. Her Governorship bore that out - she balanced the budget four years running, despite a long-running feud with her own party over social issues. Even President Richards, another powerful Texas woman, fought with her over the federal government's perceived "tax-and-spend" style. Rylander left office in 2002, and promptly ran for the Senate - as an Independent, an act which kicked off the modern era of Texan partisan politics.
[6] Rick Perry's governorship was noted for its hard-right turn on social issues. It was under him that the Second Warren Court struck down Texas's anti-same-sex-marriage statutes - and under him that the State of Texas stopped issuing marriage licenses for three weeks. It was under him that Texas enacted some of the harshest abortion laws in the country. And he was the one who feuded with Attorney General Obama over voting rights for three years running. One of the few old-school conservative Democrats, it was a shock to political observers outside Texas when he ran for the Republican nomination - and to virtually everyone when he won the nomination, and resigned the Governorship. He was the second Governor in as many decades to resign to campaign for the presidency, and was not much more successful than Perot.
[7] Rodney Ellis was, like John Montford, a Senate veteran elected to the Lieutenant Governorship who ascended to the top spot in the wake of the Governor's resignation. But unlike Montford, Ellis was both one of the Senate's staunchest supporters of state contracts for minority-owned businesses and, while in the Senate, the minority owner of a business. While his united base and competent tenure netted him the first spot in the primary, the perception of self-dealing ensured that the general election went to someone else.
[8] If Rick Perry was the last conservative Democrat, Wendy Davis was the last liberal Republican. A Fort Worth State Senator with an inspiring life story, Davis parlayed a filibuster over a Perry-supported anti-abortion bill into uniting anti-Ellis liberals and conservatives behind her. As Governor, she fought the legislature over her attempts to reverse Perry's social legislation. She won, but it was a pyrrhic victory, as out-of-state funds poured in to end the "liberal onslaught". She responded with a campaign ad attacking her main opponent, Blake Farenthold - the conservative step-grandson of liberal Texas politician Frances Farenthold - as "opposing his grandmother's legacy". The response to the ad was not what had been hoped for.
[9] What will Blake Farenthold's legacy be? Only time can tell whether his governorship will be remembered - as he desires that it will - for a massive reduction in government, or whether his absence from the fray will ensure that he is remembered as a do-nothing Governor. Perhaps he will run for the Presidency as a Republican - something that he has openly considered - in 2020, after President Blackwell's second term. Any number of things could happen...
- Wolfram
- Word Count: 1k