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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (177392)	9/4/2001 3:00:02 PM
From: goldworldnet	Respond to of 769670

Sorry to hear this. * Sen. Gramm Not Expected to Seek Re-Election By Thomas Ferraro Tuesday September 4 2:29 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, a leading conservative in Congress, has decided not to run for re-election next year and will formally disclose his decision at a Capitol Hill news conference on Tuesday, Republican sources said. Gramm's office had no immediate comment. Gramm, 59, a former presidential hopeful, would be the second veteran Republican in as many months to announce he will retire from Congress next year, joining Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina. Their departures could make it more difficult for Republicans next year to win back control of the Senate, now held by Democrats 50 to 49 with one independent, former Republican Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont. Gramm had been widely expected to win a fourth term in his Republican-dominated state. But Helms, 79, seemed headed for a competitive race in his increasingly Democratic state when he announced he would not seek a sixth term. Overall, 20 Republicans and 14 Democrats in the 100-member Senate are up for re-election next year. Sen. Fred Thompson, a Tennessee Republican, has not yet said whether he will seek another term. All the other incumbents are expected to run. Jennifer Duffy, who tracks Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, said, ``I'd say Texas will be a tough state for Democrats to win next year, but North Carolina could provide an opportunity for them.'' She said if Thompson does run, he would be a heavy favorite to win a third term, but if he decided to retire from Congress the race to replace him could be ``a toss-up.'' Gramm has privately considered leaving Capitol Hill for many months and key Republicans said on Tuesday he had decided not to seek another term. Gramm scheduled his news conference for 2:30 p.m. EDT (1830 GMT). Duffy said there are already a number of potential successors to Gramm. She said Democrats include: former Texas Attorney General Dan Morales, Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk and Texas Rep. Ken Bentsen. She said Texas Rep. Henry Bonilla appears to be the front-runner for the Republican nomination to replace Gramm. Other contenders, she said, include Texas Land Commissioner David Dewhurst and Texas Attorney General John Cornyn. Financial industry sources have said they see Gramm, a former economics professor and long-time advocate of conservative fiscal policies, as a potential successor to Alan Greenspan as head of the Federal Reserve System or as a member of the nation's central bank. Greenspan, who has given no indication that he plans to step down from the Fed any time soon, was reappointed last year to a fourth, four-year term that ends in June 2004, when he will be 78. More immediately, there was speculation Gramm might leave to head his college alma mater, Texas A&M University. Gramm lost the chairmanship of the Senate Banking Committee earlier this year when Jeffords bolted the Republican Party, giving control of the chamber to Democrats. SOUGHT PRESIDENCY IN 1996 A blunt-spoken Texan with impeccable conservative credentials, Gramm made an unsuccessful bid for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination on an uncompromising economic message of lower taxes and smaller government. He boasted a formidable fund-raising ability, cast-iron campaign discipline and solid conservative convictions. Yet his campaign failed to ignite as the party's presidential nomination went to Bob Dole of Kansas. Proud, serious, often prickly, Gramm seemed unable to connect with voters with his slow Texas drawl or to rise above a reputation for abrasiveness and dry professorial style. All the pluses and minuses of the Gramm candidacy were on display at a Dallas fund-raising when he managed to collect $4.1 million, then a record for a single event. ``I have the most reliable friend you can have in political life and that is ready money,'' he told his supporters. Gramm was born on July 8, 1942, in Fort Benning, Georgia. After becoming an economics professor at Texas A&M, Gramm launched his political career as a conservative Democrat. He won a seat in the House of Representatives in 1978. While there he broke with the Democrats in January 1983 and quit the House to win election as a Republican a month later in a special election. He was elected to the Senate in 1984 and was re-elected in 1990 and 1996. He won prominence in 1985 as the force behind the Gramm-Rudman law, a short-lived plan to balance the budget by 1991. dailynews.yahoo.com * * *