March 15, 2007

Perry's Office Stays Mum on Speculation
about Highway Boss as Possible Top Aide

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

Governor Rick Perry's office has little to say publicly about speculation that Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson could be in line to be the next chief of staff at the Capitol if and when the job's current occupant takes off later this year to have a couple of babies.

Williamson, a former lawmaker who served in the Texas House with Perry, has been a member of the Texas Transportation Commission for the past six years. But Williamson's term expired on February 1 - and he's remained on the job in a holdover capacity until Perry appoints a replacement.

Perry's current chief of staff, Deirdre Delisi, is expecting twins that are due in August - and that's prompted speculation that she will be taking some time off on maternity leave if not bidding farewell to the governor for good. Delisi, who's married to Republican political consultant Ted Delisi, will be giving birth for the first time. Once she does, some of the babysitting duties will likely fall to a grandparent who also spends substantial time at the Capitol - Republican State Rep. Dianne Delisi of Temple - the mother of the father-to-be. But whether Deirdre Delisi will be out long enough to warrant a replacement remains to be seen.

"The last time I was over there there wasn't a vacancy," Perry Press Secretary Robert Black said when asked about the possibility that Williamson would be coming on board at some point as the governor's top aide. Beyond that, Black said he did not want to comment on possible personnel decisions that his boss may or may not be making.

Perry is in the midst of an eight-day trip to the Middle East for meetings with public officials and business executives and the dedication of a Texas A&M University engineering program that's being established in Qatar in collaboration with the government there.

Williamson is considered by some to be one of the fathers of new toll roads in Texas as the transpiration commissioner who's done a substantial amount to help facilitate the implementation of the early stages of the Trans-Texas Corridor that the governor first proposed during his campaign in 2002. Williamson's approach to the job has drawn the wrath of some lawmakers such as State Senator John Carona, a Dallas Republican who's criticized the highway commissioner as inaccessible and arrogant in his dealings with him as the Senate Transportation & Homeland Security Committee chairman.

Williamson - who earned the nickname of "Nitro" from his House colleagues for occasional outbursts of anger on issues he cared about most as a legislator - could have faced a possibly insurmountable uphill climb had he been re-appointed to another term on the state highway board. As a potential chief of staff, Williamson would probably bring a style to the job that resembles former top aide Mike Toomey more than Delisi. While Toomey was more openly aggressive and apt to take risks, Delisi has run the show with a measured discipline and an eye out for the impact that policy can have on the governor's image.

Perry has had four chiefs of staff since assuming the governor's office after George W. Bush moved to Washington to be president in early 2001. Toomey's predecessor was Mike McKinney, who'd been a member of the House at the same time Toomey, Perry and Williamson were serving in the lower chamber in the 1980s. Toomey, ironically, was the only one of those four who wasn't a Democrat when elected to the House. Perry switched parties in 1989 before launching a race for agriculture commissioner - and Williamson was a Democrat for 10 years before joining the GOP for his final four years in the lower chamber. Two of the governor's legislative directors - former staff member Dan Shelley and current aide Ken Armbrister - also served in the House with Perry.

Perry's first chief of staff in the governor's office was Barry McBee, who took a job as first assistant attorney general in the summer of 2001. McKinney replaced McBee and stayed on the job until Toomey came in after the 2002 election.

Williamson still calls Weatherford home despite the vast amount of time he's spent in Austin as one of the state's five transportation commissioners since Perry tapped him for the post in 2001. Williamson has led the commission as chairman for the past three years.