Sen. Paul Coverdell; Georgian Was Influential GOP Leader

Sen. Paul Coverdell, a longtime Republican politician in Georgia who became a congressional workhorse and quickly ascended to a leadership post, died Tuesday of a stroke. He was 61.

Coverdell had surgery Monday to relieve pressure from a cerebral hemorrhage but died from swelling in the brain, according to a statement from Piedmont Hospital. The senator was hospitalized Saturday night after complaining of severe headaches. He had reported no serious health problems in the past.

After serving as Peace Corps director in the George Bush administration, Coverdell was elected to the Senate in a disputed victory over incumbent Democrat Wyche Fowler Jr. in 1992.

He became the fourth-ranking Republican in the Senate, serving as GOP Conference secretary and sitting on several committees, including Agriculture, Finance and Foreign Relations.

He also was the Senate liaison for George W. Bush’s presidential campaign, lining up support for the Texas governor in his primary fight against Arizona Sen. John McCain. Lately, Coverdell had been busy preparing for the Republican National Convention, which begins in Philadelphia in two weeks.

“Paul’s death is a huge loss to his family, his friends, his constituents in Georgia and our country,” the Texas governor said in a statement released through his campaign office. “Paul was a great friend to Laura and me and we shared family and political ties for more than 20 years.

Bush’s father echoed those sentiments in a statement.

“Paul Coverdell was one of the kindest and most decent men I met in my entire life,” former President George Bush said. “We shall miss him as we would miss our own son.”

Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, has the option of appointing a successor to serve until a special election in November.

Slight, soft-spoken and seemingly shy in public gatherings, Coverdell built a reputation as an effective behind-the-scenes operative for Senate Republicans, working long hours to organize his colleagues into a unified voice.

He became a close ally of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, who affectionately referred to him as “Mikey,” handing unglamorous tasks or pointed media questions to Coverdell with the comment, “That’s a job for Mikey.”

Aides said the reference came from the 1970s TV commercial for Life cereal in which a pudgy boy named Mikey agrees to try the cereal, even though his friends wouldn’t because “it’s s’posed to be good for you.”

Lott, who announced Coverdell’s death in the Senate, expressed his sympathy to Coverdell’s wife, and with his voiced choked with emotion, he added, “Our hearts break also.”

Coverdell was born Jan. 29, 1939, in Des Moines and received a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1961 from the University of Missouri.

He served two years in the Army in Asia before helping his parents start the family’s Atlanta insurance and financial services business, Coverdell & Co.

He became active in Georgia’s Republican Party, was elected to the state Senate in 1970 and served as minority leader of that body until 1989. He was also chairman of the Georgia Republican Party from 1985-87 and chairman of President Bush’s Southern campaign steering committee in 1988. Bush appointed him to head the Peace Corps when he took office the next year.

Coverdell came to the U.S. Senate under a cloud created by his runoff victory over Fowler. It was the first time a Georgia general election had ended in a runoff, and it prompted a lawsuit challenging the runoff law and the election.

The lawsuit eventually was thrown out and Coverdell settled into office. He was reelected in 1998, becoming the first Republican to win a second term from Georgia since Reconstruction.

His signature issue over the past four years was education, specifically his proposal to expand higher education savings accounts to allow tax-free withdrawals for school expenses from kindergarten through high school.

President Clinton vetoed the measure and forced Republicans to pull it from a year-end budget bill in 1997 under threat of a veto. The president maintained that the measure would hurt public schools and benefit only wealthy families. Coverdell had been pushing the legislation again this year.

Coverdell was one of Clinton’s most outspoken critics in the Senate. But in a statement Tuesday night, Clinton noted Coverdell’s “years of service as a soldier, a public servant and a statesman.”

Coverdell is survived by his wife, the former Nancy Nally of Sandy Springs, Ga. They had no children.