Bill White (Texas politician)
Bill White | |
---|---|
60th Mayor of Houston | |
In office January 2, 2004 – January 2, 2010 | |
Preceded by | Lee P. Brown |
Succeeded by | Annise Parker |
United States Deputy Secretary of Energy | |
In office June 26, 1993 – January 20, 1995 | |
President | Bill Clinton |
Preceded by | Linda Stuntz |
Succeeded by | Charles B. Curtis |
Personal details | |
Born | William Howard White June 16, 1954 San Antonio, Texas, U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Andrea Ferguson |
Children | 3 |
Education | Harvard University (BA) University of Texas at Austin (JD) |
Signature | |
William Howard White (born June 16, 1954) is an American
Family and personal life
White was born and grew up in San Antonio. He is the son of Bill and Gloria Avalon White, both public schoolteachers.[2] He and his wife have helped lead various charitable and civic organizations. White is an avid cyclist and every year he leads Houston's annual "Bike to Work Day."[3] He also created the annual biking event "Tour de Houston" through historic Houston neighborhoods.[4]
Bill White's wife
White and his wife Andrea are the parents of three children, Will, Elena and Stephen.
The Whites are members of St. Luke's United Methodist Church in Houston.
Education and career
White graduated from
White also served as an administrator on the Board of Directors for the Baylor College of Medicine.[9]
White began his career as a lawyer at
He served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1995. He organized Frontera Resources,[10] a developer of oil and gas in the Caspian Sea region, and was also the chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, from 1995 to 1998. He was the president and CEO of WEDGE Group, an energy, construction and real estate company, from 1997 to 2004.[11][12]
Community and business activities
White has served on the board of directors for the North American Electric Reliability Council. He was chairman for both the World Trade Division and the Environmental Advisory Committee, and served on the executive committee, for the Greater Houston Partnership. He has also served on the board of directors for the Houston Quality of Life Coalition.
He is an official sponsor and supporter of the Amazing Faiths Project of Houston.[13]
Mayor of Houston
In 2003, White, a Democrat, ran in Houston's officially nonpartisan mayoral election to succeed term-limited Mayor Lee Brown, who was the first African-American mayor of the city. Running as a moderate with business experience, he appealed to Democrats and Republicans despite having little name recognition.
One of White's opponents in the race was Republican
In the November election, White, along with Sanchez, defeated Turner. In the runoff, White defeated Sanchez with 63 percent of the vote.
White was a member of the
First term
White's first term as mayor of Houston began on January 2, 2004. He gained popularity during this term, which led to significant support for his reelection.
During this term, Houston hosted
In 2004, White, his wife Andrea, and then Houston ISD Superintendent Kaye Stripling assembled an education summit with about 400 local community and civic leaders to discuss Houston's then high drop-out rate. That year, White and his wife established Expectation Graduation, a program designed to reduce high school drop-out rates.[18]
In the aftermath of
Just weeks after
In 2005 White initiated the SafeClear Program, designed to quickly clear roads and freeways of stalled vehicles.[22] The program requires stalled vehicles to be towed off freeways in Houston as soon as possible. It was created to keep traffic down, as Houston has severe backups during the morning and evening
White also lowered Houstonians' property tax in 2006 and again during the next four years gaining him support from some local Republicans.[34] White also helped lead to neighborhood water sewage improvements, a reform of the city's pension fund, a crackdown on Houston's high crime rate and began a local recycling campaign known as "Stop Trashing Houston" to discourage littering.
Second term
In 2005, White was challenged for re-election by minor and perennial candidates and won re-election with 91 percent of the vote–the highest percentage received by a mayoral candidate in Houston in 60 years.[35]
During his second term, White focused his work on improving graduation rates in the city's high schools, enforcing air pollution standards, reducing the possibility of flooding in newer areas, adopted a more flexible system of working hours, and to create public-private initiatives with private business and community organizations to stimulate growth in the city's most neglected subdivisions. His moderate leanings were shown by his defense of businesses, such as Shawn Welling's Planet Funk, which faced closure in mid 2005.[36]
In 2005, White formed the Mayor’s Wellness Council and launched the Get Moving Houston fitness campaign. Houston had previously been rated “Fattest City in America" by Men’s Fitness magazine.[37]
In 2006, White proposed a series of eight city propositions aimed at improving infrastructure without a tax increase. All eight city propositions passed in a November 2006 election.[38]
White worked to create the Discovery Green park in Houston, which held its groundbreaking in October 2006. Mayor White's 2008 inauguration was held at the park. The park officially opened to the public in April 2008 with a ribbon cutting led by White.[39]
In 2007, the FBI released a report showing an increase in Houston's murder rate. While some speculated about the impact of Hurricane Katrina victims who settled on the Southwest side of town, Mayor White released a statement concerning the FBI's findings:
"With the regard to the 2006 figures now being reported, the FBI calculated a murder rate per 100,000 people for Houston based on census estimates of a 2,073,729 population as of July 1, 2005. That was before Houston’s population swelled by well over 100,000 people. On the basis of U.S. Post Office change of address information we estimated the 2006 population at 2,198,755. While it is normally fair to make year-to-year comparisons based on population estimates that lag crimes by a year or more, the unusual increase in Houston’s population for 2006 makes our City’s figures for the murder rate per 100,000 not quite comparable to the rate in other communities in 2005."
Energy conservation topped the Mayor's list of concerns in 2007.[40] Via the City's Power to People Web site, Mayor White encourages energy conservation through tips and tools, education about tax incentives, and raffles.
In 2007, White was honored the
White proposed closing The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation. Mayor White's position was that the Center's lease of one dollar per annum to the city of Houston was not legal. Seven previous Mayors had honored the lease. White felt the city's revenue stream could be enhanced by evicting the Center and its mentally retarded clientele and using the land for commercial purposes. The Center will have to borrow 6 million dollars and relocate in the settlement reached with the city.[43]
During White's second term he focused on reducing the number of car accidents in Houston. To do this, he started a campaign to stop drunk driving. He led a summit, hosted by Mothers Against Drunk Driving.[44] He also presented a plan to increase enforcement, education, and public awareness. This included installing signs around the Houston area warning of drunk driving and urging people to dial *DWI if they suspect someone of drunk driving.[45] In 2007, he also launched the "Mobility Response Team", a task force staffed by traffic officers that patrol within the loop fixing traffic problems. They also report traffic light outages, issue parking citations, help clear and direct traffic around minor accidents.[46][47]
Also, at the recommendation of Houston Police Chief
He was rated
Third term
White's third term began in January 2008 with his inauguration at the Discovery Green Park.
White made fighting pollution in and around the Houston area a top concern during his third term.
In 2008, White also hosted the inaugural class of a new program called
Texas Governor
Following several issues with Houston's Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care (BARC), including the so-called “Corridor of Cruelty”, abuse and neglect, staff problems, funding, White addressed several issues with the bureau and moved it out of Houston's health department to be run as a separate agency.[67][68]
On October 16, 2009, the city of Bridge City, Texas honored Bill White with a ceremony and commemorative plaque for his leadership during and after Hurricane Ike and his work to repair the damage caused by the storm.[69]
White's third term ended on January 2, 2010. Due to term limits, he was unable to run again for mayor of Houston.
2010 Texas gubernatorial election
There had been speculation that White might run for higher office. On December 12, 2008, it was announced that White had decided to run for the United States Senate seat currently held by Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison, should she resign to challenge incumbent Governor Rick Perry, as was expected at the time.[70]
On November 23, 2009, Democrat Tom Schieffer dropped out of the 2010 Texas governor's race, endorsing Bill White for the race despite White being a candidate for the U.S. Senate. Later that same day, Mayor White announced that he would "consider" running for governor.[71] On December 4, White officially announced that would run for governor.
White won the Democratic primary for governor on March 2, 2010 and faced off against Perry, the Republican nominee. Polls showed Perry with a comfortable lead.[72] However White did show strong support among Independent voters, young voters under 35, and minorities.
In an interview with The Texas Observer on June 11, 2010, White discussed how he would combine his experiences in both business and politics to provide Texas with better leadership.[73]
White was defeated by incumbent Republican Governor Rick Perry in the general election on November 2, 2010. Shortly after this loss, White declined to run for the United States Senate seat vacated by Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison in the 2012 U.S. Senate election.[74]
Later career
In 2014, Bill White published (with the Manhattan publishing house PublicAffairs) America’s Fiscal Constitution: Its Triumph and Collapse,[75] on the subject of the growing national-debt crisis.
The volume received generally positive and respectful national attention. In The Wall Street Journal, reviewer Edward Chancellor noted that "Mr. White suggests a return to the austere principles that governed the issuance of public debt from the birth of the Republic until recently... To this end, America's Fiscal Constitution serves a noble purpose."[76] Bethany McLean wrote, in a review for the Sunday New York Times: "This book will be music to the ears of budget hawks everywhere... In his measured way, [White] is critical of both George W. Bush and Barack Obama... This is an important book, but not an easy one."[77]
Shortly after the book's release, White (then working as a senior adviser at the global financial advisory and asset management firm Lazard) told Maggie Galehouse of the Houston Chronicle, “I have no itch to run for public office... I like my life exactly as it is.”[78]
Electoral history
2003
Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bill White | 111,646 | 38.0% | ||
Orlando Sanchez | 98,107 | 33.4% | ||
Sylvester Turner | 82,254 | 28.0% | ||
Anthony Dutrow | 401 | 0.1% | ||
Veronique Michelle Gregory | 379 | 0.1% | ||
John Worldpeace | 364 | 0.1% | ||
Jack Josey Terence | 320 | 0.1% | ||
Luis Ralph Ullrich Jr. | 311 | 0.1% | ||
Douglas Robb | 192 | 0.1% |
Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bill White | 136,617 | 62.5% | ||
Orlando Sanchez | 81,824 | 37.5% |
2005
Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bill White (Incumbent) | 168,331 | 91.0% | ||
Gladys Marie House | 7,941 | 4.3% | ||
Jack Terence | 4,319 | 2.3% | ||
Luis Ralph Ullrich Jr. | 2,579 | 1.4% | ||
Anthony Dutrow | 1,797 | 1.0% |
2007
Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bill White (Incumbent) | 101,277 | 86.5% | ||
Amanda Ulman | 8,798 | 7.5% | ||
Josey Wales | 7,023 | 6.0% |
2010
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Bill White | 516,621 | 76.0 | |
Democratic | Farouk Shami | 87,268 | 12.8 | |
Democratic | Felix Alvarado | 33,708 | 5.0 | |
Democratic | Alma Aguado | 19,556 | 2.9 | |
Democratic | Clement E. Glenn | 9,852 | 1.4 | |
Democratic | Bill Dear | 6,574 | 1.0 | |
Democratic | Star Locke | 6,298 | 0.9 | |
Total votes | 679,877 | 100 |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Rick Perry (Incumbent) | 2,733,784 | 54.97 | +15.95 | |
Democratic | Bill White | 2,102,606 | 42.28 | +12.50 | |
Libertarian | Kathie Glass | 109,057 | 2.19 | ||
Green
|
Deb Shafto | 19,475 | 0.39 | ||
Independent
|
Andy Barron (Write-In) | 7,973 | 0.16 |
See also
References
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- ^ "Bridge City honors Houston Mayor Bill White with ceremony, plaque". Retrieved December 3, 2009.[dead link]
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- ^ "America's Fiscal Constitution: Its Triumph and Collapse". PublicAffairs, Perseus Books Group. April 1, 2014. Archived from the original on May 2, 2015. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
- ^ "Book Review: 'America's Fiscal Constitution' by Bill White". The Wall Street Journal. April 9, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
- ^ "Debt Trap: 'America's Fiscal Constitution' by Bill White". The New York Times. April 11, 2014. Retrieved April 3, 2015.
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External links
- Bill White on Facebook
- Draft Bill White movement on Facebook
- Bill White's channel on YouTube
- Profile at CityMayors.com
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Bill White for Texas Governor Official campaign website
- Bill White's Environmental Record at GreenHoustonTX