Houston mayor sounds primed for statewide run

Bill White says he's not resolved plans, though he's got advice for lawmakers.

Houston Mayor Bill White, perhaps the next great hope for Texas Democrats hungry for a statewide win, calls it premature to speculate about his bidding for governor in 2010.

But White, 53, isn't exactly promising to fade away after his third term ends in early 2010.

W. Gardner Selby/AMERICAN-STATESMAN (enlarge photo) Bill White says he's not sure of plans after 3rd term.

"I have never wanted to be in a certain position," White said during a mid-June visit at Houston City Hall. "But I've almost always wanted to do something."

The once-redheaded, Harvard-educated son of San Antonio schoolteachers would start as an underdog.

At least four Republicans could run: Gov. Rick Perry, who has said he's in, and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Roger Williams, the former Texas secretary of state. Aspirants for the Democratic gubernatorial nod could include John Sharp, the former state comptroller; Chris Bell, the party's 2006 nominee; and Kinky Friedman, who previously ran as an independent.

White has long had a touch for politics and government. The lawyer, businessman and one-time aide to then-U.S. Rep. Bob Krueger, D-New Braunfels, corralled $1 million to $2 million in Texas for Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign, and subsequently served as Clinton's deputy U.S. secretary of energy.

In the mid-1990s, as chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, he whittled nearly $500,000 in party debt, while making some boasts he might wish he could retract.

White said then that Republicans would reach their Texas high-water mark by 1996. He also said, "We are the majority party, and we will remain the majority party."

Meanwhile, Republicans were surging toward their majority status in the Texas House and Senate and the state's congressional delegation. By 1999, Republicans held every statewide elected position — a grip that's held.

White won the mayor's job in 2003 against better-known opponents with roots in key constituencies. Former Houston City Council Member Orlando Sanchez and Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, also had run for mayor before.

White said his strategy was to "meet as many people as you can and have them get to know you and ask questions to see what's on the mind of voters. It was a bit of an unusual campaign because we didn't have a bunch of" paid advisers. "There was no speechwriter that wrote my speeches. The words on the commercials were words I wrote and they came out of my mouth.

"People are tired of the pre-packaged candidate who tries to find one or two wedge issues and hammers them home," White said. "I'm not saying that people won't try to use it. But I talked about what I was going to do and asked people what they wanted the mayor to do. People, probably now more than then, were searching for essential competence."

As mayor, White has championed transportation, neighborhood and housing improvements and volunteerism. He also has called on industrial polluters to cut emissions and for dropouts to return to school.

Attorney Gerry Birnberg said he's known White for 30 years. Birnberg, chairman of the Harris County Democratic Party, said White may lack in upfront sparkle and that his intellect can lead him to talk over the heads of colleagues and constituents. But, he said, his ability to build consensus across communities — plus a general closeness to business interests — have contributed to a welcome steadiness.

Memorably, White led Houston in hosting evacuees from the wrath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. More than 100,000 newcomers ultimately made Houston their home.

Birnberg said he thinks White could be a shoo-in as secretary of energy, should U.S. Sen. Barack Obama win the presidency. Birnberg said if White had run for governor in 2006, when Perry won with 39 percent of the vote, "he'd be governor today."

Not that the mayor lacks detractors. Bob Lemer, chairman of Citizens for Public Accountability and a retired CPA, said White has hoodwinked taxpayers by failing to leash spending. The city and another group have been fighting over a voter-approved proposition requiring the city to seek voter approval before increasing total revenues faster than the rate of population growth and inflation.

Referring to the city's resistance, Lemer said: "This is going to hang on his neck like an anvil."

Houston businessman Jack Rains, a Republican former Texas secretary of state and 1990 gubernatorial candidate, said White has led without scandal but predicted he'll stumble if he runs statewide. "Bill has a lot going for him," Rains said. But Houston is "a left-of-center city, and Texas is not a left-of-center state."

White sounded open to governing on a bigger stage.

State leaders should edge toward avoiding more pollutant-heavy coal-fired plants by hastening energy-efficiency codes for construction in unincorporated areas, he said. Also, he advised, every consumer should replace old-style light bulbs in their homes with compact fluorescent lights, as he said he has.

White has been on record calling on lawmakers to target greenhouse gases by adopting automobile emission standards similar to those established by other states such as California.

"Texas is the biggest state not to have adopted these standards," he said. "And I think the automakers will see the writing on the wall if we do so."

Legislators need to ramp up attention to other needs, too, White said.

"I'm not in the business of trying to give a running commentary on what the Legislature ought to be doing. But every year, we ought to expect more of public education and higher education," he said.

White touts a program started on his watch in which volunteers visit the homes of students who fail to return to school at the start of each school year.

"I have a strong desire to see Texas cut the (public-school) dropout rate and improve public schools," White said.

White said the Texas Department of Transportation, which confessed in February to double-counting $1 billion in revenue, likely needs a shake-up. "If somebody made a billion-dollar mistake at the City of Houston," he said, "there would be lots of people terminated."

Sound the cymbals for the campaign kickoff? White, required by a term-limits mandate to give up his job when his term ends, insisted he's not resolved his post-mayoral plans.

Dan McClung, a veteran Democratic consultant, senses otherwise, saying: "I don't think there's any doubt that he's going to run for governor. He has given this tons of solid thought. He's not ready to sit around, or wait and see, any longer. ... If it's time, it's time — and it may be. White's not a guy who makes a lot of mistakes."

wgselby@statesman.com; 445-3644