Sunday, Sep 7, 2008
Meet the people maneuvering behind the scenes to put George W. Bush in the White House.
Jun 16, 1999 | They aren't household names -- yet. But as George W. Bush's campaign for the presidency begins in earnest this week, with campaign swings through Iowa and New Hampshire, the four advisors closest to Bush are also being introduced to the American public.
Donald Evans, Karen Hughes, Joe Allbaugh and Karl Rove are orchestrating Bush's run for the White House. All of them are white, close to Bush in age, Southern-educated and have extensive political risumis. Together, they form the nucleus of the Bush for President campaign, each with their clearly defined role: the money, the mouth, the muscle and the mind. And over the next 18 months, the world will find out whether they have the formula to make George Walker Bush the next president of the United States.
Donald Evans -- The Money
Of the four, Evans is the closest to Bush on a personal level. A millionaire oil man, Evans, 52, may be Bush's closest friend. The two met in Midland during Bush's less-than-stellar stint in the oil business. The longtime chairman and CEO of Tom Brown Inc., a Midland oil and gas company, Evans' stake in the company is worth more than $10 million, and his contacts with other wealthy people and potential campaign contributors make him a key player in Bush's camp.
Evans' golden Rolodex explains why Bush tapped him to head the fund-raising operation during both of Bush's gubernatorial campaigns. As his reward, Bush appointed Evans to the board of regents at the University of Texas, a prestigious position in which Evans oversees one of the largest public university systems in America. Recently, Evans moved to Austin to serve as Bush's national finance chairman. He helped organize the Pioneers, a group of 150 Bush backers who have pledged to raise $100,000. Evans recently described the Pioneer plan as "a pyramid of sorts. One person calls 10, 20 or 50 people and then asks those people to call 10, 20 or 50 people." All of those people write $1,000 checks, the maximum individual contribution for presidential candidates.
The Bush campaign hopes to raise more than $50 million so it can avoid federal spending limits. It already has an estimated $15 million. Evans has said that the goal in political fund-raising is to "raise money early and spend it late." So far, that plan is working and much of the credit belongs to Evans.
Karen Hughes -- The Mouth
If Bush prevails next November, Hughes may be the next White House press secretary. A summa cum laude graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Hughes is what one source inside the campaign calls Bush's "touchstone. He has a great deal of trust in her. He is more comfortable when she's around." A fast-talking former reporter at KXAS-TV in Fort Worth, Hughes, 43, can sometimes be seen mouthing the words to Bush's speeches as he delivers them. Indeed, the two share what may be the closest thing to the Vulcan mind-meld. In February, Hughes told a reporter that she knows Bush so well that whenever he is asked a question, "the vast majority of the time, I can predict what his reaction is going to be."
Hughes, the Bush campaign's communications director, has spent a lot of time coaching her candidate on interacting with the press. It shows. Bush's ability to remember reporters and call them by their first names is uncanny. He appears to have a prepared answer for every question and he always acts relaxed with reporters.
Hughes played a key role in choreographing Bush's March 7 coming-out party at which the candidate presented his star-studded exploratory committee. It was more of a coronation than a campaign event. There were Texas flags, American flags, blue curtains, theatrical lights. It looked like it was produced at the State Department, not some cavernous ballroom at the Austin Convention Center. Asked afterward about the event, Hughes said she was in charge of what she called "the stage design, the set." Obviously, Hughes knows how to make sure her candidate is presented in the best possible light. She will be Bush's liaison to the insatiable national media monster if and when its honeymoon with Bush comes to an end.
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