Texas Sen. Phil Gramm won’t seek new term

By Sandra Sobieraj

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – Sen. Phil Gramm told associates he will not seek re-election next year, several Republican officials said today, and will conclude a career that spanned two political parties and a quarter-century of unflinching conservatism.

The three-term Texas Republican scheduled a midafternoon news conference in Washington to make a formal announcement.

Gramm is the third senior Senate Republican to announce he will not seek re-election. Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina announced last month he would retire and 98-year-old Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina said when he was re-elected in 1996 that this term would be his last.

Gramm, whose re-election was assured in a heavily Republican state, made up his mind over the weekend to retire but didn’t begin telling associates until this morning, these officials said. Gramm informed President Bush, a fellow Texan, of his plan, an administration official said on condition of anonymity.

He also told longtime friend and campaign everyman Dicky Flatt, a 59-year-old Mexia, Texas, printer. “All good things got to come to an end,” Flatt said. “I hate to see him go.”

Gramm told colleagues he will serve out the remainder of the term, which expires in January 2003. As for his future, officials said Gramm would say he was looking forward to a third career, but would not disclose definitive plans for life after politics. He was an economics professor before entering politics. He has long been mentioned as a successor to the departing president at Texas A&M University.

Gramm’s retirement is unlikely to cost Republicans a seat in a state that has become strongly Republican in recent years. Overall, Democrats hold a 50-49 majority, with one independent, and Republicans must defend 21 Senate seats next year. Democrats are defending 14, none of them open.

Gramm, 59, was elected to Congress as a Democrat in 1978 but helped Republicans pass President Reagan’s budget and tax cuts in 1981. After his 1982 re-election, Gramm left the Democratic Party and quit his seat, then won it back in a special election in 1983. He won his Senate seat the following year, and has set a conservative’s course ever since.

He is a close ally of Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott and an influential voice within the Senate’s Republican leadership.

In three Senate terms, Gramm rarely found a tax cut he didn’t like. Last winter, he introduced a tax cut patterned on Bush’s campaign proposals even before the new chief executive could send his own blueprint to Congress.

At the same time, he has been a critic of government spending. Last year, he and a few fellow conservatives held up work on a GOP budget blueprint, saying it overspent.

Gramm’s aides would not comment today on their boss’ intentions. He has been denying rumors for more than a year that he won’t seek a fourth term. He reportedly has been considered to succeed Ray Bowen as Texas A&M University president.

When Bowen in June announced his retirement, Gramm said he planned to run again. “So as far as re-election is concerned, count me in,” he said then. “I enjoy beating Democrats, even if I have to do it one at a time.”

A Texas A&M spokeswoman, Brenda Sims, said today: “We’re very early in the search process. At this point, we have not identified any candidates nor do we have any nominees.” She said advertising for the post will first appear in professional journals this month.

Despite persistent rumors, senior officials at the White House in the Senate and within the Republican Party were caught off-guard today by news of Gramm’s decision.

Republicans say they are confident of retaining Gramm’s seat in the 2002 midterm election. The seat had formerly been held by Republican John Tower and Bush, the former Texas governor, won the state handily in 2000.

A leading Republican conservative, Gramm unsuccessfully sought the GOP’s presidential nomination in 1996. When Vermont Sen. James Jeffords switched from Republican to independent earlier this year and turned control of the Senate over to Democrats, Gramm had to give up his chairmanship of the Senate Banking Committee.

Gramm was a Texas A&M economics professor when he first ran for Congress, without success, as a Democrat in 1976.

He stumbled so badly in his only foray into presidential politics that he quit the 1996 race before the leadoff New Hampshire primary.