Clayton Williams

Clayton Wheat "Claytie" Williams, Jr. (born October 8, 1931), a businessman from Midland, Texas, was the unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1990 against the Democratic State Treasurer Ann Richards even though Williams initially led in opinion polls by twenty points.

Biographical information

An independent oil and natural gas man, Williams was the son of Clayton W. Williams, Sr., a Pecos county commissioner, and the former Chicora Lee Graham, known as "Chic" Williams.^[1]

Clayton, Jr., also known as "Claytie", was born in Alpine in the Big Bend country of southwestern Texas, but reared in his father's native Fort Stockton, the seat of geographically large Pecos County. He graduated from Texas A&M University in College Station in 1954 with a degree in animal husbandry and then, as had his father during World War I, served in the U.S. Army.

In 1957, Williams followed in the business of his father, beginning in the oil fields of West Texas as a lease broker. Many of his companies were petroleum-related with interests in the exploration and production of natural gas and transportation and extraction of natural gas and natural gas liquids. In 1993, he took Clayton Williams Energy, Inc. public.

Williams also diversified into the more traditional businesses of farming, ranching, real estate, and banking. He also tried his hand at long distance telecommunications. For a time he operated a long distance company, ClayDesta, named for both himself and his wife, Modesta. Williams also taught for six years in the Texas A&M College of Business Administration.

As an administrator, Clayton served as the vice president and director of the Association of Former Students at Texas A&M in 1977. As a philanthropist, he was a founding member of the Presidents Endowed Scholarship for Gifted Students at Texas A&M. He was also the founder and director of the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute, which is dedicated to the study of desert animals and plants of southwest Texas and Mexico. He also made several significant monetary donations to Texas A&M, including underwriting half of the cost for an alumni center, which bears his name.

1990 Texas gubernatorial race

While Texas had proven to be a stronghold to the Democratic party throughout the 20th century, the state had trended to the right. Sensing opportunity, Williams began his run for governor of Texas as a Republican. To win the Republican nomination, he turned aside a field of candidates that included former U.S. Representative and outgoing Railroad Commissioner Kent Hance of Lubbock, Clements' former secretary of state Jack Rains of Houston and Dallas lawyer Tom Luce, who supported abortion rights. The other candidates took anti-abortion positions, with exceptions in event of life of the mother, rape, or incest.

Williams spent freely from his personal fortune, running a "Good Old Boy" campaign initially appealing to conservatives.^[2] Prior to a series of legendary gaffes, he was leading Richards (the race was dubbed "Claytie vs. The Lady") in the polls and was in striking distance of becoming only the second Republican governor of Texas since Reconstruction.

In one of his widely-publicized missteps, Williams refused to shake hands with Ann Richards in a public debate, an act seen as uncouth. Senator John Tower had similarly refused to shake the hand of Democratic opponent Robert Krueger in a 1978 appearance in Houston but went on to win a fourth term by the narrowest of margins.

Earlier, Williams made an infamous joke to reporters, likening bad weather to rape, having quipped: "If it's inevitable, just relax and enjoy it".^[3] In addition, it has been claimed that as an undergraduate at Texas A&M, he had participated in visits to the Chicken Ranch, a well-known Texas brothel in La Grange, and the Boy's Towns of Mexico.^[4][5] His sense of humor was again demonstrated when he urged Hispanic Americans to support his candidacy because he met Modesta in a Mexican restaurant. As a result of his reported comments, Williams was occasionally parodied, such as in the mock political ad, "Satan Williams," which appeared on Dallas/Fort Worth public television during the 1990 campaign season.^[6]

Despite these political snafus, Williams only narrowly lost the election to Ann Richards, who actually polled under 50 percent of the raw vote possibly because of the presence of a Libertarian nominee. At his defeat on election night, Texas television stations showed the glib Williams telling his supporters in Austin: "I've got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that we lost; the good news is that it is not the end of the world."

In 2007, Mike Cochran, a former Associated Press correspondent, released Claytie: The Roller-Coaster Life of a Texas Wildcatter, Williams' authorized biography. The book chronicles Williams' brief political career and his long-term commitment to the oil and gas industry, cattle ranching, and the communications business.

John McCain fund raising controversy

Clayton Williams raised over $300,000 for the 2008 John McCain presidential campaign. However, a fundraiser at Williams' home for June 16, 2008 was abruptly rescheduled and relocated^[7] after Williams' controversial 1990 comments about rape were rediscovered and mentioned to the McCain campaign by ABC News. The campaign condemned the remarks, saying that they were "incredibly offensive".^[8] The campaign said it would not return the money Williams had raised, as it was donated by other individuals.^[9]

Notes

References

• Texas House of Representatives Resolution 845, congratulating Williams on his induction into the Petroleum Hall of Fame, adopted March 31, 2005.
• Mike Cochran, Claytie: The Roller-Coaster Life of a Texas Wildcatter, 2007