Bush moves to begin raising campaign funds

By Michael Holmes, Associated Press, March 3, 1999

AUSTIN, Texas -- Governor George W. Bush announced yesterday that he is forming a presidential exploratory committee, which will let him raise money for a candidacy.

"I do have a compelling reason to consider running for president," Bush said. "For my family and for every family in America, I want the 21st century to be prosperous."

The first job of the committee, Bush said, will be to raise money while he remains in Texas until the legislature's session ends in late May.

This summer, Bush said, he will travel around the country to determine support.

"I don't have a formal date in mind yet," Bush, who is 52, said of his timetable for deciding whether to run for the office his father once held. The governor often has cited worries about the impact of a campaign on his family.

Bush also said, however, that he has been buoyed by elected officials who have urged him to run.

The announcement came as no surprise. Advisers had been putting out the word for more than a week, but it is the first public step Bush has taken toward a White House race.

"Exploratory committees aren't much, but they are signals," said Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia. "It does have some significance, because for the first time in a concrete way, he's showing some leg."

Also yesterday, Patrick J. Buchanan, the conservative commentator, opened his third presidential race in New Hampshire.

Bush said he was not worried about losing. "I don't fear failure. I really don't," he said. "Should I decide to run, if things don't work out, that's just the way it goes. And if things do work out, I don't fear success, either."

Bush's announcement means fund-raising will begin. Finance records show that Bush raised about $16 million in his 1994 challenge of Democratic Governor Ann Richards, and $17.7 million for last year's reelection campaign.

Bush got 53.5 percent of the vote against Richards in 1994 and 69 percent against Garry Mauro in 1998, the most by any Texas gubernatorial candidate since John Connally 32 years before.