July 28, 2005

New Mainstream Democrat Enters Campaign
for Governor Amid Chants `Run, Chris, Run'

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

From a wife who's been undergoing chemotherapy to a teary-eyed college student in Brazos County to a group of Democrats in Lubbock chanting "run, Chris, run," former Congressman Chris Bell found the inspiration that he needed to transform an exploration process into a full-fledged race for governor in the 2006 election. The self-styled "New Mainstream" Democrat on Thursday became the first contender on his party's side to throw a hat into the ring in a governor's race that's been under way among Republicans for all practical purposes for the past two years.

Bell - a former Houston city councilman who served one term in the U.S. House - plans to kick off his bid for governor at an Austin rally on Sunday, August 14. Bell announced that he's running for the state's top job in an email to supporters - despite his own candid admission that people will question the sanity of a Democrat exploring the possibility of running statewide in Texas today.

But Bell suggested that he'd been encouraged as he witnessed supporters coming "out of their seats to cheer" his potential candidacy for a job that no Democrat has won since Ann Richards' come-from-behind victory over a gaffe-prone Claytie Williams at the end of the 1990 gubernatorial campaign.

The 45-year-old Democrat said he wouldn't have been able to confront the challenge of a governor's race if his wife, the former Alison Ayres, was not "feeling up to it" after going through cancer treatments while he weighed a possible bid for the seat that Governor Rick Perry inherited in 2001 before winning outright the following year.

"The one remaining question was whether my wife, Alison, would be up for the fight," Bell's email reported. "I am happy to tell you that the prognosis after chemotherapy is as good as it can get. ... As everyone knows, she's every bit the fighter I am, and she feels strong enough to join me in this battle."

Bell made his biggest splash as a member of Congress when he formally accused U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Sugar Land of a series of ethics violations in a complaint to a U.S. House committee. By that time Bell was already a lame duck, having lost his Houston district to U.S. Rep. Al Green in the 2004 primary election after Republicans redesigned it to favor an African-American candidate during the redistricting fight the year before.

While Bell conceded that he faced a "tough road" as a Democrat, he said he would generate support from a "disaffected majority of Texans who know that Rick Perry couldn't lead a silent prayer." Bell asserted that Perry is "creating a huge opportunity for a Democrat."

Democrats echoed similar perceptions about Perry in 2002 when Laredo businessman Tony Sanchez poured a massive amount of his own money into a campaign that eventually fell 18 points short of unseating the incumbent once the ballots were cast. Perry, who has never lost a political race, is being challenged in the GOP primary by Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn.

While Perry and Strayhorn have $8.4 million and $7 million in their campaign accounts respectively, Bell is breaking from the starting gates with only $10,000 in campaign cash on hand after reporting contributions of about $152,000 in 2005. Independent candidate Kinky Friedman raised almost twice as much as the Democrat in the first half of the year.

Bell could encounter a formidable obstacle on the road to the Democratic nomination if ex-comptroller John Sharp decides to run for governor. Sharp, who lost races for lieutenant governor to Perry in 1998 and David Dewhurst in 2002, is still weighing a potential gubernatorial bid but had nothing to say publicly about Bell's decision to run.

Bell, who has two children, is a former television and radio reporter who's also an attorney.