Texas Gov. Bush Kicks Off Reelection Bid

Texas Gov. George W. Bush, the man many Republicans hope will lead them back to the White House, launched his bid for a second term Wednesday with a call for modest tax cuts and potentially sweeping education reform.

Appearing at his boyhood elementary school here, Bush sketched an agenda that emphasizes incremental change but includes one dramatic proposal: a requirement that students pass statewide standard tests for promotion from the third, fifth and eighth grades. If adopted by the state Legislature, Bush’s plan would constitute the nation’s most far-reaching effort to end “social promotion” through mandatory skills testing.

“The worst thing a state can do is advance people through the education system who cannot read, write, add and subtract,” Bush told reporters. “The point is, as a state, we refuse to allow anybody to be left behind.”

With early polls consistently showing Bush near the top of Republican preferences for the party’s presidential nomination in 2000, his 1998 gubernatorial race will be closely watched as a possible preview of a national campaign.

Some of his strategists hope that he can demonstrate his ability to hold support from core Republican groups--in particular, religious conservatives--while reaching out to groups that have strayed from the GOP in the last two presidential elections, including moderate suburbanites, women and Latinos.

Bush, 51, last month refused to promise that he will serve out a full second term as governor and said that he will decide whether to seek the presidency in 1999.

Bush, whose father served as president from 1989 to 1993, can afford such candor in part because he enters the race a heavy favorite to become the first Texas governor since 1974 to win reelection.

A survey conducted last month for the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain showed him leading state Land Commissioner Garry Mauro, the only announced Democratic contender, by a head-turning 68% to 16%. His financial position is comparably strong: Bush told reporters Wednesday that he has already banked more than $13 million for his campaign.

Like many incumbents, Bush is riding a wave of positive trends. Since he took office, the state’s unemployment rate has dropped by 12%, the violent crime rate has fallen by 10% and the welfare rolls have shriveled by 29%.

State Democrats are under no illusions about the difficulty of dislodging Bush.

As governor, he has been both personable and deft in broadening his base of support: Even retiring Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock, the state’s leading Democrat, recently endorsed him for reelection.

Mauro so far has jabbed at Bush from both the left and the right. Fusing ideas that threw off sparks in this year’s gubernatorial campaigns in New Jersey and Virginia, the Democrat has proposed eliminating the state sales tax on auto purchases, criticized Bush for the cost of insurance in the state and promised to invest $2 billion to relieve school classroom overcrowding.

In his speech here--and at three later rallies across the state--Bush generally avoided such sweeping proposals. His remarks were filled mostly with bite-sized centrist proposals, reminiscent of President Clinton’s 1996 campaign.

Aides said Bush will offer more ideas as the campaign advances. But few future proposals are likely to attract more attention than his call for a new testing regime that would hold back children who cannot pass statewide exams in reading, math and other subjects.

That ultimately could affect huge numbers of children: The Texas Education Agency calculated Wednesday that 170,619 students in third, fifth and eighth grades did not pass the state assessment tests this year. The tests are used to assess schools’ performance, but students suffer no consequence if they fail. To give schools time to prepare, the link between promotion and tests would not take effect until early in the 21st century.