Four top Texas Democrats endorse Tom Schieffer for governor despite past support for George W. Bush

Four leading Democrats in the Texas House endorsed Tom Schieffer for governor today, dismissing some fellow Democrats’ concerns over his past support of George W. Bush.

 “It’s a non-issue with me,” said Rep. Garnet Coleman, a liberal Houston Democrat who heads a bipartisan caucus, the Legislative Study Group. “If I had a friend and business partner that was running for governor [and] asked me for help, I’d help.”

Schieffer, a Fort Worth lawyer-businessman, voted four times for Bush, his former partner in the Texas Rangers. He also served under Bush as U.S. ambassador to Australia and Japan.

House Democratic leader Jim Dunnam of Waco, Democratic caucus chairwoman Jessica Farrar of Houston and former Mexican American Caucus chief Pete Gallego of Alpine also endorsed Schieffer. They cited his experience in business and foreign affairs, his six years of service in the Texas House and his temperament.

“We need someone who can draw us together,” Farrar said.

She said the state has lacked a governor who works well lawmakers in both parties holding a wide range of views. She said Schieffer has “proven he can build a consensus.”

With the party’s biggest names passing up the governor’s race, Schieffer hopes to avoid a major challenge in the March primary, though he said, “I’m not worried about others.”

He and Garland therapist Mark Thompson, the Democratic nominee last year for Railroad Commission, are the only announced candidates. However, humorist Kinky Friedman, who ran in 2006 as an independent, and Hank Gilbert, who lost a bid for agriculture commissioner last time by a half-million votes, have said they may jump in.

Schieffer’s four votes for Bush and service in his administration have elicited sharp criticism at recent Democratic events in Dallas and Austin. When a reporter today asked Schieffer why, six months after he announced, he still struggles to explain his past ties to Bush, the candidate retorted, “I guess I just keep running into you.”

Dunnam, racing to Schieffer’s defense, said his Waco House district went big for both Dunnam and Bush. Many voters split their ballots and are up for grabs, he said.

“For us to have a candidate that is independent-minded I think is actually a plus,” Dunnam said. “I don’t see it as a negative at all.”

While Schieffer clearly relishes the Republican infighting between Gov. Rick Perry and his primary challenger, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, he declined to speculate about whether the feuding would help Democratic prospects in 2010.

“I’m going to let the Republicans worry about that,” he said.

Dunnam, borrowing an attack line Republicans once lobbed at entrenched Democrats, said Perry and Hutchison “know nothing other than working for the government and drawing a paycheck.”

Referring to Schieffer’s stints as president of the Rangers and two oil and gas investment-management firms, Dunnam said, “It’s time that we have someone who hasn’t been in the government for the last two decades, someone who knows how to operate a business, knows what it’s like to make a payroll.”