Last Term for Texas Sen. Gramm

Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, who personified the South’s swing toward the Republican Party, announced Tuesday that he will not seek reelection next year, becoming the latest GOP stalwart to decide to give up his office.

Gramm’s decision adds to a changing of the guard awaiting Senate Republicans next year among their more conservative members, with the planned retirements of Jesse Helms of North Carolina and Strom Thurmond of South Carolina.

Gramm’s departure also will put Republicans in the position of having to defend an open seat in President Bush’s backyard, potentially complicating the party’s hopes of retaking the Senate in 2002.

The announcement by Gramm followed recent political frustrations for the three-term senator, who was forced to give up his position as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee after Democrats gained control of the chamber earlier this year.

But Gramm, first elected to the House as a conservative Democrat in 1978, said his decision was not caused by the Senate’s power shift. Instead, he said, he decided to leave because “the things I came to Washington to do are done.”

He cited large tax cuts passed under Presidents Reagan and George W. Bush, as well as the balanced budget agreement and welfare reform achieved during the Clinton administration--issues at the core of the free-market, anti-government agenda Gramm has championed.

Gramm is reportedly in line to be offered the presidency of Texas A&M; University, where he served as an economics professor before his campaign for the House. But Gramm, 59, said he has no formal plans beyond finishing the final 15 months of his term.

In announcing he would not run again, the normally unsentimental Gramm teared up while thanking his wife and two sons “for never complaining about all the important events in their lives that I missed.”

He described his decision as the most difficult of his career and said leaving the Senate will be bittersweet. “Sweet because it means going home to Texas, to the ranch and to freedom and an opportunity to have one more career. Bitter because I will miss the arena and the cause and my colleagues and the challenge of doing important, noble work.”

Gramm, who would have been heavily favored for reelection, said he is confident that the GOP will hold on to his seat. But Democratic operatives in Texas were buoyed by his decision. “You have to favor Republicans [to retain the seat] because this is George Bush’s backyard,” said George Shipley, a Democratic consultant in Austin. “But it now becomes a race. And I wouldn’t describe it as a steep, uphill race.”

Among the Democrats who could vie for the seat, Shipley said, are Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, former state Atty. Gen. Dan Morales and Austin Mayor Kirk Watson. Their prospects could be boosted, Shipley and others said, if the state’s increasingly influential Latino population turns out in large numbers for an election that is expected to feature a number of prominent Latino candidates.

But Republicans said they have a number of strong candidates positioned to run. Among them are Texas Atty. Gen. John Cornyn, Land Commissioner David Dewhurst and Reps. Henry Bonilla and Joe Barton.

Bush said that with Gramm’s departure, “the Senate is losing a principled leader.” He added that Gramm is “a man of common sense and uncommon courage who bases decisions on principle and always fights for what he believes is right.”

Gramm’s Republican Senate colleagues, who sought in recent weeks to persuade him to run again, turned to military metaphors to describe the legacy of one of their party’s most uncompromising ideologues.

“While Washington will always be ground zero for political battles,” said Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), “we will not soon see another battle-tried general with the heart and soul of Phil Gramm.”

But Shipley, reflecting the reaction Gramm often sparked among Democrats, said many Texans would not mourn the departure of a lawmaker he described as an “acerbic, extreme partisan.”

“There will be no love lost for him,” Shipley said.

Gramm, who was born in Georgia, rose to political power from a background that lacked privilege. He flunked third, seventh and ninth grades, but went on to earn a doctorate in economics from the University of Georgia.

He moved to Texas in 1967 to teach economics at Texas A&M; and developed political ambitions at a time when the state was still a Democratic stronghold under the imposing influence of then-President Johnson.

When Gramm arrived in Washington, his obvious conservative streak made House Democratic colleagues nervous. Before giving him a seat on the budget committee, Democratic leaders forced the new lawmaker to sign a pledge of party loyalty.

Gramm quickly turned against Democratic leaders anyway. After President Reagan took office in 1981, Gramm secretly passed party strategy information to the GOP White House and infuriated fellow Democrats by co-sponsoring Reagan’s budget and tax cut legislation.

When Democrats punished Gramm by yanking his banking committee assignment in 1983, he resigned, switched parties and was promptly reelected as a Republican. He went on to win a Senate seat in 1984.

The outspoken Gramm is a foe of abortion rights and a staunch opponent of relaxing immigration laws. But many of his legislative achievements center on economic policy. In the 1980s, he co-sponsored the Gramm-Rudman Act, which required automatic budget cuts if the deficit was not reduced to targeted levels.

But his political influence was broader than such achievements. “Gramm is a very important symbol of the transition of the conservative Southern Democrats into the Republican Party,” said Earl Black, a political science professor at Rice University.

And some say Gramm helped clear the GOP path in Texas for, among others, Bush. “Gramm always had sharper edges to his personality and policies,” said Bill Miller, an Austin-based consultant who has worked for both parties. “What Bush did was take that and whittle it down, soften all the edges.”

Gramm mounted his own bid for the White House in 1996. He appeared to have early momentum after being the first Republican to declare his candidacy and rapidly building a $21-million war chest.

But he was undone by a combination of uncharacteristic miscalculations and political shortcomings. Many voters found him mean-spirited, and Gramm himself acknowledged that he was not exactly telegenic.

After placing fifth in the Iowa primary, he dropped out of the race before it had moved on to New Hampshire.

Times staff writers Ronald Brownstein and Edwin Chen contributed to this story.