Visions Of “Dollar Bill” Blakley

These days, few people remember the name of William “Dollar Bill” Blakley, the man who twice was appointed to the U.S. Senate from Texas as a placholder–once after a Senator resigned to become governor and once after Lyndon Johnson left the U.S. Senate to become Vice President.

Blakley’s name surfaces today because of U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s announcement that she is formally exploring a race for Governor of Texas. One of the questions that has come up repeatedly is whether or not Rick Perry could still appoint Hutchison’s successor if he was, in fact, defeated by Hutchison and Hutchison remained in office until after the election.

In 1957, Allen Shivers decided not to run for a fourth term as Texas Governor. Senator Price Daniel ran for the post. Daniel won, and resigned. The post was vacated before Shivers left office. There were many issues at play in this particular incident–including that Shivers, a conservative Democrat who had allied himself with President Dwight Eisenhower over the Tidelands issue. Shivers actually threatened to appoint a Republican to the post. Instead, on his last day in office, he appointed Blakley who didn’t seek the post in a special election.
There is precedent in Texas political history for an outgoing governor to appoint the person who will succeed a retiring senator who was elected Governor–before the governor elect takes office. Although Shivers wasn’t defeated and decided to run, it is basically the closes thing in Texas history to what could happen in 2011.

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