- Dan Morales
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Daniel C. "Dan" Morales 209x Texas State Attorney General Dan Morales giving an interview with a reporter in his office. 48th Attorney General of Texas In office
January 15, 1991 – January 13, 1999Governor Ann Richards (1991-1995) George W. Bush (1995-1999)
Preceded by Jim Mattox Succeeded by John Cornyn Member of the Texas House of Representativesfrom District 124 San Antonio In office
1985–1991Preceded by Joe Hernandez Succeeded by Christine Hernandez Personal details Born April 24, 1956
San Antonio, TexasSpouse(s) Christi Morales (married 1997, divorced 2003)
Children 1 son Residence San Antonio, Texas Alma mater (B.A.) Trinity University (J.D.) Harvard University
Profession Lawyer Daniel C. "Dan" Morales (born April 24, 1956)[1] served as the 48th Texas Attorney General from January 15, 1991 through January 13, 1999, during the administrations of Governors Ann Richards and George W. Bush. As attorney general, Morales reached a $17 billion settlement with big tobacco companies. He also authored the controversial state interpretation of the Hopwood v. Texas case, which ended all affirmative action in higher education in Texas until the United States Supreme Court reversed Hopwood in 2003. He is a graduate of Trinity University in San Antonio and Harvard Law School.
Contents
Road to the Texas Legislature
Following his graduation from Harvard Law School, Morales landed his first postgraduate job at the Houston corporate law firm Bracewell and Patterson in 1981 and the following year joined the Bexar County district attorney's office. After an eighteen-month stint of prosecuting minor drug cases, the 28-year-old Morales ran successfully for the Texas House of Representatives representing the 124th District of San Antonio and was re-elected in 1986 and 1988. Morales said during an interview with Texas Monthly in 1996, that while toiling as a Bexar County prosecutor, "the exposure to the system and seeing victims get the shaft impressed upon me that changes needed to be made." Those changes, Morales came to learn, were best addressed at the legislative level, so he felt compelled to run in 1984 against the incumbent legislator and defense attorney Joe Hernandez. The young candidate excoriated Hernandez for, as Morales put it, "abusing the legislative continuance statute to delay the trials of rapists, murderers, and drug dealers he was representing."
Texas State Attorney General
After six years in the legislature, the earnest but obscure three-term San Antonio legislator announced his candidacy for Attorney General of Texas. The position opened up following the two-term incumbent, Jim Mattox declining to seek a third term-and later unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Texas, losing the nomination in a runoff to then-Texas State Treasurer Ann Richards. Though his professional history suggested no particular dedication to minority issues, Hispanics turned out for Morales in droves, enabling him to eke out a victory over the Republican nominee, State Senator J. E. "Buster" Brown of Lake Jackson in the November general election polling 1,729,735 votes (51.81 percent) to Brown's 1,509,553 votes (45.22 percent). He was reelected to a second term in the largely Republican year of 1994 defeating Republican, Harris County Civil Court Judge Don Wittig, by polling 2,289,389 votes (53.70 percent) to Wittig's 1,850,403 votes (43.40 percent), but did not seek a third term as attorney general in 1998 and was succeeded by Republican and current United States Senator John Cornyn, who had resigned from the Texas Supreme Court in 1997 in order to run for attorney general. Cornyn later ran successfully for the U.S. Senate in 2002 and was re-elected in 2008.
Though Morales and his bombastic predecessor are most often compared by their temperamental differences, how each has ran the attorney general's office is primarily informed by their respective legal background. By way of highlighting his prosecutorial experience, Morales selected Drew Durham, a former president of the statewide district attorney's association, to lead his newly formed criminal litigation division. (the loosed-lipped good ol' boy Durham showed an equal talent for interfacing with sheriffs and county prosecutors and for regularly offfending the liberal holdovers at the attorney general's office.) At the same time, Morales the former corporate lawyer sought to soften the agency's posture toward big business-a posture that, under Mattox, said Morales, "saw a necessity in riding herd all thte time on the greedy corporate entities." Out, then, went the upper-echelon staffers affiliated with the Sierra Club and minority rights groups; in came lieutenants who had previously represented large corporate entities.
The new attorney general purged the office's consumer protection division of a dozen or so excellent attorneys who nonetheless, Morales believed, had been groomed by Mattox to attack big business. Morales admitted in running a business-friendly agency but suggested he had found holier crusades for his offfice to pursue. "You know, suing Volvo and Quaker Oats [as Mattox did] gets you public relations," he said. "And those are legitimate lawsuits, but you have to prioritize. It's one thing to go after those entities where the middle and upper classes will be the beneficiary. It's another to focus our limited resources upon efforts that will benefit those who need it most."
Feuding with Texas Democrats
It was 1991, Morales' first year on the job as Texas attorney general, and few would have characterized the then-35-year-old San Antonio native as an overnight sensation. His fellow Democrats didn't bother to conceal their distrust of Morales, whose conservative views were almost indistinguishable from those of the Republican he had beaten in the 1990 general election. His subordinates in the attorney general's office, zealously loyal to his crusading liberal predecessor, saw their new boss as an uninspired Milquetoast. And although he had spent the previous six years as a state legislator, the new attorney general did not get the family treatment during the 1991 legislative session when, in the heat of an argument over redistricting, then-Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock expressed his annoyance at Morales by whacking him on the cheek.
Despite continuing squabbles over legislative issues, lawmakers have shown their grudging respect for Morales by vesting his office with unprecedented statutory authority in criminal as well as civil matters. State Democrats had reluctantly accepted the fact Morales wouldn't change for them. So had his six hundred or so subordinate attorneys, whose undying loyalty to Morales would've probably never commanded, but who nevertheless had learned from periodic head-rollings who is in charge. A truer measure of his political evolution is that his detractors are those he has earned by standing firm rather than being someone who just looks like he needed a good slapping.
Fall from Grace
In October 2003, Morales reached a plea deal and admitted to having falsified documents in an attempt to give another lawyer a chunk of the state's tobacco settlement. Before the agreement, Morales had faced trial on twelve counts that included conspiracy and using political money for private purposes.
Before Morales' downfall, back in 2002, Morales was expected to run for the vacant U.S. Senate seat held by the retiring three-term Republican Phil Gramm, however, he entered the Democratic gubernatorial primary for Governor of Texas but lost the nomination to Tony Sanchez by a landslide margin on March 12, 2002. Sanchez polled 624,991 votes (60.99 percent) to Morales' 336,102 votes (32.80 percent). In that campaign, Morales refused to engage in a Spanish-language debate sought by the Sanchez. He claimed that Sanchez's request for a Spanish debate would divide, rather than unite the state.[citation needed]
After his primary loss, Morales stunned his party by endorsing the successful Republican nominees for Governor of Texas and Lieutenant Governor of Texas, Rick Perry and David Dewhurst, respectively. In the 1990s, many Democrats had expected Morales to become in time either governor or U.S. senator.
Morales and a onetime law associate were indicted on federal charges of trying to fraudulently obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in attorney fees from a state settlement with tobacco companies.
Upon his plea of guilt, federal Judge Sam Sparks said. "You've breached the very valuable trust the people of Texas gave you,"[citation needed]
Morales served time in the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana.
He was released to a halfway house near his native San Antonio at Christmas 2006. He was released on Friday, March 30, 2007, according to the United States Bureau of Prisons. On December 15, 2003, the Texas Supreme Court accepted Morales' resignation from the bar in lieu of discipline.[2]
Prior to his attorney general tenure, Morales was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from Bexar County.
Morales and his ex-wife, Christi, have a young son.
Texas House of Representatives Preceded by
Joe HernandezMember of the Texas House of Representatives
from District 124 (San Antonio)
1985–1991Succeeded by
Christine HernandezLegal offices Preceded by
Jim MattoxTexas Attorney General
January 15, 1991–January 13, 1999Succeeded by
John CornynReferences
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