More on Evans for Guv, Dowd for Comptroller
By Byron LaMasters
Today's Houston Chronicle confirms what Andrew wrote last week:
Secretary of Commerce Don Evans, a former Texas oilman and longtime friend of President Bush, is being encouraged to return home and run for governor, a Republican insider said Monday.
The source, a longtime political player in Austin and Washington, said Evans hasn't dismissed the idea but doesn't plan to seriously consider it until after the November presidential election.
Evans was out of the country Monday. But Ron Bonjean, a Commerce Department spokesman, said Evans isn't planning to run for governor.
"Secretary Evans is 100 percent committed to serving President Bush as secretary of commerce," Bonjean said. But he couldn't confirm or deny whether Evans has been asked to consider a gubernatorial race.
"He has had some people approach him, and he is thinking about it," said the Republican source, who spoke on condition he not be identified. He wouldn't say who was encouraging Evans but said a gubernatorial race in either 2006 or 2010 was a possibility.
Meanwhile, Bush strategist Matthew Dowd is looking at a 2006 run for Comptroller:
For Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for Bush-Cheney '04, Job One is making sure that President Bush still has free government housing at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. come next year.
Job Two is moving back to Austin as soon as possible after the November election. And Job Three might be getting himself elected state comptroller.
After years of behind-the-scenes work for candidates ranging from Democrats Lloyd Bentsen and Bob Bullock to Republican Bush, Dowd will soon be looking to act on the dream he has harbored for years: making the move to candidate.
"I really would like to do it when this is over," Dowd said on the eighth floor of the suburban office building that houses Bush-Cheney headquarters.
Dowd, 43, is evasive about exactly what elected office he would like to occupy. He rules out a legislative post and says he is most interested in a statewide post in which "I could do something."
Privately, he has told friends that state comptroller is the job that fits his love of numbers and desire to have an impact.
Posted by Byron LaMasters at June 29, 2004 11:25 AM
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Wonder what this bodes for Susan Combs, who has already announced for this particular job. We are now looking at a situation where almost every statewide post could have a bitter GOP primary battle- KBH vs. Perry for governor, Strayhorn vs. Abbott for Lt. Gov., who knows versus who knows for AG and now Dowd vs. Combs for CPA. I'm looking forward to a bloody internecine battle.
