Bill Clements

William Perry "Bill" Clements, Jr.
File:Clements1.jpg
42nd & 44th Governor of Texas
In office January 16, 1979 – January 18, 1983 January 20, 1987 – January 15, 1991
Lieutenant	William P. "Bill" Hobby, Jr., (D)
Preceded by	Dolph Briscoe (D) Mark Wells White (D)
Succeeded by	Mark Wells White (D) Dorothy Ann Willis Richards (D)
Personal details
Born	(1917-04-17) April 17, 1917 Dallas, Texas, USA
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Second wife, Rita Crocker Clements (born 1932)
Profession	Oil driller
(1) In 1979, Clements became Texas' first Republican governor in 105 years. (2) Clements was an early contributor to the 2008 candidacy of Republican presidential candidate U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona.

William Perry "Bill" Clements, Jr. (born April 17, 1917), is the first Republican to have served as governor of the U.S. state of Texas since Reconstruction. He was governor for two nonconsecutive terms from 1979 to 1983 and 1987 to 1991. Clement's eight years in office are (as of 2008) the most served by any governor; should current governor Rick Perry serve through January 2009 he will surpass Clements as the longest-reigning governor in state history.

Early career

Clements was born in Dallas and worked as an oil driller for many years. He founded SEDCO, the world's largest offshore drilling company. He entered politics as the United States Deputy Secretary of Defense under Presidents Nixon and Ford, in the latter administration under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (1975-77; 2001-2006).

Texas' first GOP governor since Reconstruction

In 1979, Clements succeeded Democrat Dolph Briscoe of Uvalde, located west of San Antonio, to become governor. To win the governorship, he first defeated State Representative Ray Hutchison in the Republican primary by a lopsided vote of 115,345 to 38,268. Hutchison, a prominent Dallas attorney, is the husband of State Treasurer (1991-1993) and U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has served since 1993. Clements won the November 1978 general election by narrowly defeating Democratic former Supreme Court Chief Justice John L. Hill. Clements polled 1,183,828 votes (49.96 percent) to Hill's 1,166,919 ballots (49.24 percent). The La Raza nominee, Mario C. Compean, and two other minor candidates shared 18,942 ballots. Clements' margin over Hill was 16,909. Therefore, Clements fell just under a simple majority, making him another "minority governor." The more liberal Hill, who had also once been the appointed secretary of state, had defeated Briscoe on the primary.

In winning, Clements ran 350,158 ballots behind the defeated 1972 GOP nominee, Henry Grover, because turnout was much lower in the 1978 off-year election than it had been during a presidential election. The 1972 Texas governor's race was the last to coincide with a presidential election because when the terms went to four years, the gubernatorial elections were also set to coincide with the off years between presidential elections.

Clements ran for reelection in 1982, but he was defeated by Democratic Attorney General Mark White by more than 327,000 votes because of sagging economic indicators and weak support from minority voters, who customarily choose Democratic candidates. White received 1,697,870 (53.2 percent) to Clements' 1,465,537 (45.9 percent).

Staging the 1986 comeback

In between his two terms as governor, Clements was chairman of the board of trustees of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He ran again in 1986 and won a contested GOP primary against Congressman Thomas Loeffler of New Braunfels, the seat of Comal County, and former Democratic turned Republican Congressman Kent Hance of Lubbock. In the fall, Clements unseated Governor White, who was hurt by the unpopularity of the "no pass/no play" policy involving high school athletics. In gaining his second term, Clements polled 1,813,779 ballots (52.7 percent) to White's 1,584,512 (46.1 percent). Clements had turned the tables on White in a near mathematical reversal of the 1982 results.

Clements as governor

Clements' second term was marred by his admission, shortly after his election, that the SMU board had been aware and approved of continuing payments to athletes in violation of National Collegiate Athletic Association rules.

During his tenure, Clements worked to reduce crime, improve education, boost the Texas economy, and to foster better relations with Mexico, especially on issues important to the mutual borders, such as immigration and the drug war. While Clements was governor, Charlie Brooks, Jr., was the first inmate ever to be executed by lethal injection (December 1982). Clements faced heavily Democratic state legislatures during his tenure. In 1979, the legislature overrode one of his vetoes, the last time that Texas lawmakers have completed an override. In 1980 Clements commuted the death sentence of Randall Dale Adams to life in prison. Adams, the subject of The Thin Blue Line, an Errol Morris documentary film, was exonerated in 1989 after serving 12 years in prison.

Clements finished his term, opted not to run for a third term as governor, and was succeeded in 1991 by Democratic state Treasurer Ann Richards (1933-2006).

Since leaving the governorship, Clements has lent considerable personal effort to support a variety of Republican candidates seeking office in Texas. He resides in Dallas with his second wife, Rita Crocker Clements, who was first lady of Texas during both of his administrations. She was subsequently appointed to the University of Texas Regents by Governor George W. Bush. Clements is known for his ascerbic, energetic personality, which Democrats abhorred but Republicans tended to cheer. In 1993, he had supported the conservative Congressman Joe Barton in the special election for the U.S. Senate to succeed newly-resigned Democrat Lloyd Bentsen Barton lost out to Kay Bailey Hutchison. Clements also supported the embattled Texas Supreme Court Justice Steven Smith, who was purged by Governor Rick Perry in the 2004 Republican primary.

Whereas Governor Perry first endorsed former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York City for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, Bill Clements was as early as 2006 already raising funds for likely nominee, U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona. After Giuliani withdrew from the race, Perry joined Clements in endorsing McCain.

Sources

"Senior Trustees Quit as S.M.U. Revamps Board," by Peter Applebome, New York Times May 9, 1987 <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE6D7173DF93AA35756C0A961948260> (Accessed March 1, 2008).