Profile: Karl Rove
— -- In the age of politicians as celebrity or the boy next door, Karl Rove, George W. Bush’s chief campaign strategist, is a bit of an odd man out.
His passion for history, books and travel make him seem somewhat stodgy, compared to the likes of Jesse Ventura and to George W. Bush’s aw shucks attitude — one, by the way, that Rove helped cultivate.
“He is a guy for whom politics is a 24-hour-a-day conversation,” says Texas state Sen. Wayne Stenehjem, who met Rove when the two were in their early 20s. “I had never seen anything like him.”
Bush has been known to roll his eyes when Rove goes off on a historical tangent, but his loyalty is tested and deep. Rove, 50, is an old friend — a man who has devoted much of the last two decades to Bush’s political career.
“The thing I like most about Karl is that he cares about me as a person,” Bush said recently. “He’s got a single agenda when it comes to my campaigns, and that’s me.”
Long History in Texas
Rove, who is expected to be named a top adviser in the new Bush administration, has a history in Texas of getting Republicans elected. But his greatest success is with Bush.
As top strategist for Bush, he emphasized the candidate’s role as a “uniter, not a divider” — a phrase that was echoed throughout the campaign. It was Rove who recognized the importance of the Latino vote, and he directed much of the Republican National Convention, which heavily featured Latino speakers and politicians.
Rove got his start when he was a student at the University of Utah, when he became the national leader of the College Republicans. He won the race for chairman of the group with the help of Lee Atwater, who later became famous as the political attack dog for the team of Ronald Reagan and the elder George Bush team.
In 1980, the senior Bush hired Rove to help him run for president. In 1981, when Bush became Reagan’s vice president, Rove started his own consulting business, Rove & Co. His first direct-mail client was Bill Clements — who with Rove’s help became the first Republican in a century to become governor of Texas.
Rove did political work for candidates all over the country. Among his biggest coups was helping the younger Bush unseat Texas Gov. Ann Richards in 1994. By January 1994, Bush had spent $613,930 on that race — and more than half of that, $340,579, went to Rove.
Mark McKinnon, a former Democratic consultant who defected to the Bush presidential campaign, called Rove the “Bobby Fischer of politics. He not only sees the board, he sees about 20 moves ahead.”
As Bush’s chief adviser, Rove said the campaign’s focus would be “cheer and no jeer.”
“If anything is Karl’s trademark, it’s … discipline, and he gets everybody sharing that discipline,” said Chuck McDonald, a Democratic consultant in Austin who worked for Richards during her 1994 loss to Bush.
Master of Momentum
Rove lives in Austin with his wife Darby and their 11-year-old son, Andrew.
He grew up in various states along the Rocky Mountains, where his father’s career as a geologist took the family. He attended the University of Utah and George Mason University in Virginia, but never received a degree. He says he was preoccupied with the political work he was doing with the College Republicans.
However, Rove pursued his interest in history and political science. According to a Texas Monthly profile, the first book Rove remembers reading is Great Moments in History.
Rove’s peers say he is a master at creating a sense of momentum, and they credit him with orchestrating the thick parade of Republican luminaries who traveled to the governor’s mansion in Austin during the campaign, and the seemingly endless rollout of endorsements last winter and spring.
“In the end, some of it was Bush’s salesmanship,” said Charles Black, a Republican strategist in Washington. But, Black added, “Karl’s ability to use Austin as a base and organize the country from there was amazing.”