[Chronicle] Bell's political revival:from improbable to possible

I'll be voting for Chris Bell and Kay Bailey Hutchinson... I wonder how many other people will vote like that.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4282244.html

Oct. 24, 2006, 12:26AM

GOVERNOR'S RACE
Bell's political revival harder than imagined
Donation and debate showing revitalize effort
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

Chris Bell's political career was in the dumps by Christmas 2004.

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Bell already had lost a bid for Houston mayor, and Republican redistricting had cost him his seat in Congress after his freshman term. But on the upside, Bell had become a hero among Democrats for filing a successful ethics complaint against then-U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land.

In the kitchen of his Houston home, Bell sat with Jeff Steen, his longtime friend and political adviser, trying to decide whether to run for governor, Steen recalls.

Bell knew it would be an uphill battle, requiring almost a miracle to win. But he believed it could be done by the right candidate in the right place at the right time, Steen said.

However, the road has been steeper than Bell could have imagined.

Democratic leaders and financial donors dodged his calls. The news media cast him as an underfunded also-ran. By his own admission, Bell was almost ready to give up in late June. Steen said the fight to keep hope alive was bitter.

" 'Disappointing' might be the wrong adjective. 'Discouraging' might be a better one," Steen said.

Then a psychological turn occurred.

The July campaign finance reports showed Bell keeping up with independent Kinky Friedman. Polls had him running about even with Friedman and independent Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, while incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Perry was vulnerable. Libertarian James Werner trailed badly.

Then Bell made an impressive showing in the only gubernatorial debate of the fall, followed by a $1 million campaign donation from Houston trial lawyer John O'Quinn with a promise of more. Bell's campaign got a new burst of life with television advertising that moved beyond cable.

The improbable suddenly seemed possible.

"If I win this race for governor, you're going to have a lot of people saying, 'Damn, I wish I'd gotten in,' " Bell said.

Such a political hard road is not unusual for Robert Christopher Bell, who has won four campaigns for office and lost four. What is unusual for Bell is that given his background, he is a Democrat, not a Republican.


'Lost sheep'
Bell, 46, grew up in the wealthy Dallas enclave of Highland Park, born to a mother who was a Republican until the day she died. His wife, Alison, worked for a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor when they met — introduced to one another by two of the top Republican political consultants in Houston.

Bell describes himself as "being one of the 10 Democrats to ever graduate from Highland Park High School."

Longtime friend and Republican political consultant Allen Blakemore said it is hard to believe a child of Highland Park could have become such a "lost sheep." Blakemore said he disagrees with Bell on many political issues, but he believes Bell is sincere.

"He is an ideologue, but Chris is intelligent and gregarious — a great sense of humor, fun to be around, a quick wit," Blakemore said.

Blakemore jokes that Bell's Democratic leanings are probably due to "the evil influence of the University of Texas."

Perhaps it was that "evil influence" that caused Bell one of the most embarrassing moments of his life.

Just several weeks into college life, Bell got into a food fight at a local burger joint. The police showed up, Bell ran, got caught and charged with evading arrest. The arrest later was wiped off his record, but he could not erase the news stories from the time.

"That summer Animal House had come out, so it made a lot of good copy," Bell said of an incident he still regrets.

However, college later led to a political awakening. Democrats still ran Texas, and many of Bell's friends became involved as volunteers in the Democratic sweep of the 1982 elections.

"I was kind of taken by that. All the people who cared about what was going on were lining up on the Democratic side," Bell said.

So the boy who had worked on a telephone bank for Republican Bill Clements' successful 1978 run for governor shifted his allegiance to the Democratic Party.

"As time went on, I just identified more and more with Democratic values," Bell said.

Straight out of college with a journalism degree, Bell worked at KVII-TV in Amarillo, where he ran for a state House seat and lost.

After moving to Houston in 1988, Bell took a job at a department store before breaking into radio at KTRH. He covered the Harris County courthouse by day while attending the South Texas College of Law at night. Eventually, it would lead to what Bell jokes as his "triple crown of disreputable" professions: journalist, lawyer and politician.


Introduced to wife
During this period, Bell attended the First Presbyterian Church in Houston, where he got to know Blakemore and his wife, Elizabeth. Elizabeth was working for Republican Rob Mosbacher's campaign for lieutenant governor in 1990 when she met one of the campaign workers, Alison Ayers.

"Elizabeth said, 'I just met your husband,' " Alison recalls. The Blakemores set up a date for the couple at a Mexican restaurant. Alison said she was sold on Bell's sense of humor, something she still appreciates today with their two sons: Atlee, 10, and Connally, 8.

"He brings out the silliness in the family, especially right now," Alison Bell said. "These are the countdown days when things are stressful."

Alison said Bell was attracted to running for public office because he believes government can make a difference in people's lives.

"He feels like he has a higher calling," Alison said.

As Bell prepared for his run for governor, Alison began treatment for breast cancer. Alison said she heard some people thought he was selfish to run for office at such a time, but she said Bell always took time off from campaigning whenever she took her treatments.

"Chris was always there when it mattered," she said.

Bell narrowly lost a race for Houston City Council in 1995, but came back to win an at-large seat in 1999. He was re-elected two years later.

As a city councilman, Bell became known for innovative ideas about how to deliver city services.

He also pushed for ethics reform on the council. That caused him some embarrassment when he was caught in a minor ethical scandal of his own. A city contractor gave several council members a dinner flatware set worth about $100 each.

Revelations of the gift became public. Bell and the other council members were investigated and cleared by a grand jury looking into whether they had violated laws prohibiting gifts to public servants.

Bell said he donated his flatware set to a facility for homeless people.


Political gamble
"That was a huge mistake in judgment," Bell said. "Making it more embarrassing was that I chaired the ethics committee."

Bell took a political gamble in 2001 by challenging Houston Mayor Lee Brown. Bell saw Brown as a weak incumbent and thought he could appeal to the anyone-but-Brown voters on the right. But then Republican Orlando Sanchez ran from the right, leaving Bell squeezed in the middle.

In the Houston mayor's race, Bell received just 15 percent of the vote. But he had gained name identification that gave him the momentum to run in 2002 for the 25th Congressional District seat being abandoned by U.S. Rep. Ken Bentsen, D-Houston.

Bell's opponent in the Democratic primary that year, former Houston City Councilman Carroll Robinson, had nothing but praise for his former colleague.

"He's a hard-working and determined guy who focuses on innovative solutions to problems," Robinson said. "He's well-suited to be governor."

But Republican Tom Reiser, whom Bell defeated in what local observers called Houston's nastiest race of 2002, was less magnanimous.

"Chris is what he is. He is pretty much willing to say or do anything to get a job as a politician," Reiser said. "I can't remember Chris saying anything of weight or importance."


'Total gut punch'
Bell's tenure in Congress was short-lived. DeLay pushed a redistricting plan through the Legislature that left Bell unable to win the Democratic nomination for his own district. Bell said he did not expect to lose to Al Green.

"We never realized we were swimming uphill, and it was a complete total gut punch," Bell said.

Alison said she could no longer support the Republican Party "because of what they did to him in Congress."

One of his last major acts as a congressman was to file the ethics complaint that led to a public reprimand of DeLay for unethical behavior.

It started a series of events that resulted in DeLay leaving Congress, and it made Bell a hero with Democrats.

"I always thought that was about building his profile in the party," Blakemore said. "He made a lot of friends by doing that."

DeLay declined to comment for this story.

As Bell prepared to leave office in December 2004, he discussed with family and friends the prospect of running for governor.

Alison said she was upset over the pressure that the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test put on their boys in school.

"I said, 'I'm going to be OK with this if you'll do something about that TAKS test,' " she said.

Bell said his loss in the mayor's race "serves as a guide from an experience standpoint. There are a lot of similarities" to the current race for governor.

Strayhorn has tried to position herself against Perry the same way he tried to position himself against Brown, he said. It didn't work then and, he predicts, it won't work now.

"I also learned about being the guy in the middle trying to be all things to all people. You end up with a very narrow margin," Bell said.


$1 million donation
In the current race, Bell's campaign is counting on getting a very basic Democratic turnout. The Democrat who did the worst statewide in 2002 got 1.4 million votes, or 33 percent of the turnout. If Bell could match that, his campaign believes it would put him in the running to dislodge Perry in a five-way race.

Bell's biggest problem in the race has been money. Perry has had more money than all his opponents combined. Many traditional large Democratic donors have been funding Strayhorn. And Friedman reaped the benefits of free media by being a personality.

Then Bell ran into O'Quinn at the memorial service for the late Gov. Ann Richards.

"I asked him how the campaign was going," O'Quinn said. "He said fine, except he didn't have the money to have his voice heard."

O'Quinn said the real debate in statewide political campaigns is played out in the television commercials.

So he decided to help Bell's voice be heard on statewide television, donating $1 million and promising to raise $4 million more.

Suddenly, Bell was in the hunt in a winner-take-all election where there is no runoff.

Steen said the fact the contest can be won through a plurality has kept everyone associated with the Bell campaign saying: "This is not impossible. That's been our war chant all along: This is not impossible."

r.g.ratcliffe@chron.com

 

I'd vote for him if he were running for Attorney General.

"Sleep came slower than a frigid woman."

Friedman, Kinky (1993), Greenwich Killing Time. New York (Wings Books), 93.