Bill Clements

Infobox Officeholder
name = William Perry Clements, Jr.


order = 42nd Governor of Texas
term_start = January 16, 1979
term_end = January 18, 1983
lieutenant = William Pettus Hobby, Jr.
predecessor = Dolph Briscoe
successor = Mark Wells White
order2 = 44th Governor of Texas
term_start2 = January 20, 1987
term_end2 = January 15, 1991
lieutenant2 = William P. Hobby, Jr.
predecessor2 = Mark Wells White
successor2 = Dorothy Ann Willis Richards
order3 = 12th United States Deputy Secretary of Defense
term_start3 = 1971
term_end3 = 1977
president3 = Richard M. Nixon (1971-1974)
Gerald R. Ford (1974-1977)
predecessor3 = David Packard
successor3 = Charles Duncan, Jr.
birth_date= birth date and age|1917|04|17
birth_place= Dallas, Texas, USA
death_date=
death_place=
spouse= Second wife, Rita Crocker Clements
profession= Oil driller
party= Republican
religion=Episcopalian
footnotes= (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 the most served by any governor prior to current governor Rick Perry who, having taken office upon the resignation of George W Bush in December 2000, surpassed Governor Clements in Perry's third year of his second term.

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 Luke 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 Wells 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).

taging 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

His first term was marked by his drilling company, SEDCO's involvement in the largest oil blowout in history, causing extensive environmental damage (see "Oil Rig Disasters at: http://home.versatel.nl/the_sims/rig/ixtoc1.htm and "Incident News", NOAA site at: www.incidentnews.gov/incident/6250 ) Also during this time, 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.

During his second term, 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.

However, his second term was marred by a startling revelation he made two months after taking office. On March 3, 1987; Clements admitted that he and the other members of the SMU board of governors had approved a secret plan to continue payments to 13 football players from a slush fund provided by a booster. It was this slush fund that ultimately led to the NCAA shutting down the SMU football program for the 1987 season--the so-called "death penalty". SMU then opted not to field a team in 1988 as well, claiming it could not put together a competitive squad. Clements said that the board agreed to "phase out" the slush fund at the end of the 1986 season, but that it felt duty-bound to honor prior commitments to the players. The decision to continue the payments led ultimately led to the NCAA shutting down the football program for the 1987 season--the so-called "death penalty." The shutdown and other sanctions left the once-proud Mustang football program in ruin; SMU opted not to field a team in 1988 either and has had only one winning season since returning to the field. A few months later, the College of Bishops of the United Methodist Church released a report detailing an investigation of its own into the scandal. It revealed that Clements had met with athletic director Bob Hitch, and the two agreed that the payments had to continue because the football program had "a payroll to meet."Wangrin, Mark. [http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/football/stories/MYSA030307.01A.smu-clements.36d2bf0.html 20 years after SMU's football scandal] . "San Antonio Express-News", 2007-03-03.]

A week later, Clements apologized for his role in continuing the payments. He said he'd learned about the slush fund in 1984, and an investigation by the board of governors revealed that players had been paid to play since the mid-1970s. Clements said that rather than shut the payments down immediately, the board "reluctantly and uncomfortably" decided to continue paying players who had already been guaranteed payments. However, he said, in hindsight the board "should have stopped (the payments) immediately" rather than merely phase them out. [Munoz, T. James. [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1310625.html Clements apologizes for SMU role; governor fails to name others involved in football payments] . "The Washington Post", 1987-03-11.]

Clements faced calls for his impeachment as a result of these statements; two state legislators argued that he would have never been elected had he honestly addressed his role in the scandal. Under the circumstances, he 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 (born October 30, 1931), 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 acerbic, 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 Wayne 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 the likely nominee, U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona. After Giuliani withdrew from the race, Perry joined Clements in endorsing McCain.

References

ee also

*Southern Methodist University football scandal