The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 7.18.2000 Updated 7:15 p.m.]
U.S. Senator from Georgia dies
The Associated Press
ATLANTA - U.S. Sen. Paul Coverdell, a congressional workhorse
who quickly ascended to a leadership post and served as the
Senate point man for longtime friend George W. Bush, died this
evening, one day after surgery for a stroke. He was 61.
Coverdell was hospitalized Saturday after complaining of intense
headaches. Doctors operated on him Monday, attempting to relieve
pressure on his brain from a cerebral hemorrhage.
His death was caused by uncontrollable swelling in the brain,
that caused pressure on vital areas regulating consciousness,
breathing, pulse and blood pressure, the hospital said.
Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, has the option of appointing a
successor to serve until a special election, which would coincide
with the November general election.
Georgia Republican Chairman Chuck Clay said Coverdell's death "is
a loss for Georgia and, at a human level, my heart goes out to
Nancy and the Coverdell family. As a friend, I am terribly
saddened at the loss of a peer, a friend, a mentor and a truly
great leader."
Coverdell built a reputation as an effective, behind-the-scenes
operative for Senate Republicans, working long hours to organize
his colleagues into a unified voice. He became a close ally of
Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., and worked his way into the Senate GOP
leadership after Lott became majority leader in 1996.
Coverdell served as secretary of the Senate Republican
Conference, the fourth ranking GOP leadership post. Lott
affectionately referred to him as "Mikey," handing the
unglamorous tasks or pointed media questions to Coverdell with
the comment, "That's a job for Mikey."
Aides said the reference came from a 1970s TV commercial for Life
cereal. In it, a pudgy boy named Mikey agrees to try the cereal,
even though his friends wouldn't because "it's sposed to be good
for you."
Coverdell's signature issue in the Senate for the past four years
was education, specifically his proposal to expand higher
education savings accounts to allow tax-free withdrawals for
school expenses from kindergarten through high school.
Clinton vetoed the measure in 1998, and forced Republicans to
pull it from a year-end budget bill in 1997 under threat of a
veto. The president maintained that the measure would hurt
public schools and benefit only wealthy families. Coverdell had
been pushing the legislation again this year.
Bush tapped Coverdell earlier this year to serve as the Senate
liaison for his presidential campaign. It was a natural choice,
given that Coverdell's relationship with the Bush family dated
back three decades.
Coverdell first met former President Bush in the 1970s when he
was in the Georgia Senate and Bush was ambassador to the United
Nations. When Bush ran for president in 1980, Coverdell was his
finance chairman in Georgia.
Eight years later, Coverdell served as Bush's Southern steering
committee chairman. Once Bush was in the White House, he tapped
Coverdell to head the Peace Corps, a job he held until he
resigned in 1991 to return to Georgia and run for the Senate.
Coverdell and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich were the
architects of the modern Republican Party in Georgia. During 16
years in the Georgia Senate, Coverdell was the best known GOP
office holder in a state that was dominated from top to bottom by
Democrats.
His party-building efforts paid off in 1998, when Coverdell
became the first Republican to win re-election to the Senate from
Georgia since Reconstruction. Republicans and Democrats had
traded the seat he held every six years since former Sen. Mack
Mattingly became Georgia's first GOP senator this century in
1980.
Coverdell's election helped get Clinton's first term off on a
sour note. The 1992 election that propelled Clinton into the
presidency put Coverdell and former Sen. Wyche Fowler Jr. into
the first-ever general election runoff in Georgia history.
Fowler, who had been expected to win handily, led Coverdell in
the general election but because of a Liberterian Party
candidate, he fell short of the 50 percent majority that Georgia
law at the time required for election to the Senate.
Clinton, as president-elect, came to Georgia to campaign for
Fowler, but it didn't help. Coverdell narrowly defeated the
Democratic incumbent in the runoff, dealing Clinton a setback
before he even took office.
Once in Washington, Coverdell played a key role in mobilizing GOP
opposition to Clinton's health care reform initiative in 1993.
Emboldened by that success, he became one of Clinton's most
outspoken critics in the Senate, both on domestic and foreign
policy issues.
Coverdell was born Jan. 29, 1939 in Des Moines, Iowa, and
received a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1961 from the
University of Missouri. He served two years in the Army in
Okinawa, Korea and Taiwan before returning and helping his
parents start the family's Atlanta insurance and financial
services business, Coverdell & Co.
He was married to the former Nancy Nally of Sandy Springs. They
had no children.
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