It’s an interesting story in the ayem paper today about Houston Mayor Bill White being a gubernatorial candidate someday, though not now. White has earned his stripes with his reaction to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (except for the massive traffic jam). He reacted with an admirable generosity of spirit in opening the city to 300,000 evacuees; about 150,000 displaced people are still there. While he continues to work with FEMA, the ultimate cost to Houston is unknown. Even so, White has shown a sort of Giuliani-like quality is his handling of the situation. It’s the kind of focus, dedication and ability to act that Texans might like to see in a governor. His problem would be getting elected.

White’s an unusual bird these days in Texas, a mainstream Democrat who stayed a Democrat. A lawyer, he made big money in the energy business, then served as deputy secretary of energy in the Clinton administration. He returned to Texas, where he became Democratic state chairman, serving from 1995 to1998. As smart and efficient as he was and adept at fund raising, White couldn’t keep the state party from falling deeper into hard times.

What I liked about White in covering him during his state chair days is that he was always professional. He was never a back-slapping, back-scratching kind of party pro. He always returned phone calls. He answered questions in an honest and straight-forward way and didn’t try to spin the socks off a reporter. I respected him as a person and as a partisan. Unfortunately, however, Bill White has zero charisma, and that could be a drawback in today’s media-influenced political world.

Even as the state becomes more Hispanic, leading many to believe that a Democrat could win statewide in the future – the tipping point is said to be 2010 – one wonders how Bill White could stir up such constituents to the point that they would actually vote. If Houston comes through the Katrina aftermath unscathed, however, he certainly would have a record on which to run.

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