When I worked at the TODAY SHOW as political producer I had a deal with both parties that they would call and give me a heads up when they named their keynote speakers. That way I could call and book them to be on the show the morning of their speech — and get them before the other shows. In 1988 I got a call on a Saturday morning to let me know that the Democrats had chosen Texas Governor Ann Richards. I was frantic. It was a weekend. How would I find her? How would I get her phone number? I called the NBC affiliate in Austin. They had no home number. I called the AP. Ditto. I called a couple of political friends – no luck. So then, on a lark (you can guess the end of this story I bet) I called information. Yup. She was listed in the phone book! I called, she answered, and we got her first. She was a riot on the phone, too. I asked her about listing her number and she seemed genuinely amused- why shouldn’t she list her number like everyone else? Governor Richards died yesterday, September 13, 2006 at 73.
Probably that speech was one of the high points of her career. Funny and a bit mischievous, it pushed class angles to differentiate between the parties, and it’s remembered far beyond Michael Dukakis, the candidate who eventually lost to the first President Bush. Bush himself often seemed awkward. Said Richards, “Poor George, he can’t help it — he was born with a silver foot in his mouth.” She brought down the house.
But President Bush’s opponent, Michael Dukakis, lost resoundingly. Richards was elected governor in 1991 (12th of the only 28 women ever to serve at governors) and served one term – losing her bid for re-election, ironically – to the son of the man she had so mocked – George W. Bush. In her later years she worked for a lobbying firm that included several tobacco accounts, to the dismay of many of her fans.
But this self-made country girl, recovering alcoholic ( and biker – see this photo) led her state with imagination and humor, wrote a wonderful autobiography that made the Depression come alive and set a great example for the emerging crew of women politicians. Those who followed her gained much from her pioneering leadership – and we’ll miss her.
Richards is one of the few reasons left to have pride in being a Texan.
I voted for her and she was the best governor we’d had in a long time. Then Bush came and ruined everything.