Bob Bullock was a native Texan first and last, one who loved the state
and its heritage and recognized the need to preserve its history. A second
generation Texan, he began to put that love for the state and its people
to work with his early service on the State Historical Commission in the
1960s. His love for Texas and its history carried over to influence the
preservation of his own records and the legacy of the 40 years he served
the state.
With the opening of the Bullock Archive in Summer 2004, scholars, researchers
and future generations of Texans will be able to study Bob Bullock: the
master statesman, politician and campaigner.
Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock decided early in his first term as Lieutenant Governor
to give his personal and campaign papers, memorabilia and state records
in trust to Baylor University, in accordance with an agreement with the
Texas State Library and Archives Commission. Governor Bullock earned his
law degree at Baylor University in 1958, had close ties to the Baylor
administration and served on the board of the Baylor School of Medicine.
Governor Bullock, as he was generally known, also donated microfilm copies
of his state records and bound volumes of his press releases and speeches
to the University of Texas System and two other state colleges he attended:
Hill College in his hometown of Hillsboro and Texas Tech University in
Lubbock. He also deposited copies of his microfilmed records to two other
colleges for which he had special affection: Blinn College in Brenham
and Texas A&M University International in Laredo, both of which have
buildings named in his honor.
The first transfer of records began in 1993 because of storage problems
resulting from renovation of the state Capitol building. In organizing
the materials for Bullock's gift to Baylor, his office and campaign staffs
set up five general categories to classify records to be sent to the Baylor:
campaign, comptroller, lieutenant governor, media, or personal.
Campaign records were sent to Baylor as the campaign office moved into
new headquarters and as files were closed in the final years of Bullock's
terms as lieutenant governor. Included in these files were campaign and
fund raising records and brochures. Campaign records were not microfilmed.
Lieutenant governor records were microfilmed, boxed and sent to Baylor.
Bullock's staff microfilmed the records, returned them to archive
boxes and filled out State Library inventory sheets that accompanied the
microfilm to the State Library for processing. The State Library retained
the original microfilm record to meet the records retention schedule required
by state law. Copies were made for Bullock to keep in his administration
office for later transfer to Baylor, the State Archives and the other
repositories where the Lt. Governor donated his papers.
Media records which were microfilmed and inventoried included press releases,
speeches and newspaper and magazine clippings. Hard copies, including
bound volumes and notebooks, were later shipped to Baylor.
Personal memorabilia donated by Bullock to Baylor were inventoried and
assigned a number. These included his cartoon collection, souvenirs from
campaigns, gavel collection, books, awards, certificates and gifts from
friends, family and supporters. These items have been incorporated into
the Personal Series.
While most of these records are open to the public beginning in July 2004,
there are still materials in the collection, especially in correspondence,
which will always be subject to the state's privacy laws. Therefore, some
records may be withheld from the public after prior review by collection
archivists at Baylor Collections of Political Materials, the Bullock Archive,
the State Archives and at any of the other schools and universities holding
Bullock papers.
Bullock's materials fall into the major categories of correspondence,
speeches, media, campaign,
the press, news clippings, audio
tapes and videos, personal papers and memorabilia.
The largest of these is correspondence.
Correspondence
From early in his political career, when Bullock was campaigning or making
speeches across the state, he routinely gathered names of people he visited,
met and even those he did not have the time to meet. While on the road,
Bullock would call in to administrative staff the names of those Texans,
with recommendations for letters to be drafted to them. When he returned
to his state and campaign offices, finished letters awaited his signature.
It was not uncommon for a Texan to meet Bob Bullock one day and receive
a letter from him two days later. This epitomizes the importance Bob Bullock
placed on communication with his fellow Texans.
There are few correspondence records from Bullock's years as Comptroller
of Public Accounts, because these records remained in the office as part
of the Comptroller's taxpayer records and most taxpayer records remain
confidential under state law. Most of the Comptroller records are tax
issue and policy papers, research projects and administrative papers.
When Comptroller Bullock was elected Lieutenant Governor, he brought to
the Capitol his executive correspondence system which was cloned by other
state officials. This logging system tracked correspondence from its receipt
to any outgoing letters, and kept a history of any prior communication
with that Texan. The database was linked to campaign correspondence office
records.
In correspondence where the lines between politics and public service
issues were blurred, responses were printed on "Not Printed at State
Expense" stationery. Bullock covered the cost of stationery and postage.
Communication with everyday Texans was always important to Bullock, but
he also recognized the potential and the power of the press.
Bob Bullock and The Press
No one understood the role of the media in government and politics better
than Bob Bullock. He might not always like some members of the press,
and sometimes said so, but he rarely ignored them.
He had few press conferences as Comptroller or as Lieutenant Governor,
but his press officers and his news releases spoke to Texans for him.
Most calls, questions and requests from the press were directed to his
press office and relayed to Bullock as quickly as possible. As Lieutenant
Governor, Bullock regularly made himself available to media representatives
assigned to the press table near his podium in the Senate Chamber after
he gaveled each day's session to a close.
Bullock recognized early in his career the value of the press. When he
became Comptroller in 1975, an important part of his administration was
to begin diligent collection of state sales taxes.
He discovered too many
businesses in Texas collected the state sales taxes from their customers
but failed to report and remit those taxes to the state. As part of a
"voluntary compliance" campaign, Bullock would invite the press
to Comptroller visits to businesses who owed significant amounts of state
sales taxes. Armed with estimates of past due taxes, Bullock and Comptroller
enforcement officers would arrive unannounced at a business and ask for
payment of back taxes. If the business owners did not pay, enforcement
officers would seize inventory and cash registers. These raids on delinquent
businesses spawned cartoons, editorials and invaluable press coverage,
including some suggestions that Bullock was grandstanding. But the statewide
press coverage of "Bullock's Raiders" made important and
valuable impressions on delinquent taxpayers and on the average tax paying
Texan.
News releases in the Archive cover 28 years, 1971-1998, from campaigns
and three state-wide offices held by Bullock. It was Governor Bullock's
habit to have his press releases and speeches bound at the end of each
year for his personal library. At the end of his political career, Governor
Bullock had additional copies bound for the schools that would receive
his papers.
New releases meant news coverage. Bullock collected that coverage along
with any other news and magazine articles that dealt with taxes, the economy,
state and national government and politics. The collection includes years
of newspaper clippings from both the Comptroller's and the Lt. Governor's
offices.
The Newspaper Clippings
Bob Bullock was a voracious reader! Each day before he left the office,
staff prepared an archive box of reading materials that included state
reports, staff memos, telephone and mail logs, magazines and news clipping
compilations.
As proof that he was reading everything, staff could and would get calls
any time of the day or night asking questions about specific articles
and ideas and making requests for more information. One of his favorite
practices at the Comptroller's and the Lieutenant Governor's offices included
a dictation or answering machine operation that allowed him to call in
at all hours to give instructions and dictate memos and letters.
Bullock was famous for his news clipping service. It was standard in the
Comptroller's and the Lt. Governor's offices to have press
office staff read newspapers and clip articles that related to government
and politics from all the state daily newspapers, most of the weeklies
and major U.S. papers.
News clippings about Bullock and his office were placed first in the news
summary. The significance of this is that it provides a complete set of
all published news stories, pictures and cartoons about Bob Bullock as
Comptroller, Lieutenant Governor and candidate.
Bullock was a favorite subject for political cartoons, and almost all
those published in magazines and newspapers are in the Bullock clip files.
It was Bullock's practice to contact the artists and purchase the cartoons
that featured him, even if they were not flattering. He kept framed enlargements
of these cartoons at his home, at his state office and at the campaign
office. Bullock also donated a number of these framed cartoons to the
Bullock collection at Hill College in Hillsboro.
Like the news clippings and the press releases, the Bullock Collection
also includes almost all the speeches Bob Bullock ever made.
The Speech Collection
Throughout his 40 years of public service to Texas, Bob Bullock was sought
out as a public speaker. Speeches were an important part of getting his
message out as an officeholder and candidate. Though he did not particularly
like public speaking, he was good at it. His speeches often used Texas
history and the stories of average Texans to make a point or weave a story.
Bob Bullock's speeches are published in 26 bound volumes and on four microfilm
reels in the collections at Baylor. Like the press releases, the State
Archives and five state colleges have the speeches on microfilm, though
some of the colleges also have the bound volumes.
Along with speeches, press releases and news clippings, the Bullock Collection
includes photographic, audio and video coverage of Bob Bullock throughout
his life and years of public service.
The Tapes and Videos
Bob Bullock was photographed, taped and recorded throughout his career.
The Bullock Collection documents this well.
The earliest photographs of Bullock are featured in the family scrapbooks
and baby books Ruth Mitchell Bullock kept for her youngest son. These
original scrapbooks are part of the personal donations to the collection.
The thousands of photographs in the collection include those published
by the media, official portraits of Bullock and his family, amateur and
professional photo coverage of special events like campaigns or awards
ceremonies and many of the daily photographs of Senate sessions taken
by Senate Media Services.
Besides state papers, the Bullock Collection includes many records and
materials from his campaigns over the years.
Campaign Materials
Bullock maintained a full-time campaign office, at various Austin locations,
for almost 20 years. State campaign laws and his experiences early in
his term as Comptroller taught him the wisdom of keeping political and
state officeholder operations separate.
A small campaign staff ran a mail, scheduling, fundraising and administrative
office year round. During election years, the staff was reinforced with
enough paid workers and volunteers to run the effective political campaigns
that made Bullock's reputation as a formidable opponent. In addition,
there was usually a network of hundreds of volunteers in counties all
over the state, coordinating campaign stops, fundraisers and press conferences.
When he was Comptroller and Lt. Governor, Bullock hosted an annual fundraising
reception for as many as a thousand supporters and friends that was first
class in promotion and execution. In addition to the invitations to these
receptions, the collection contains the one-of-a-kind souvenirs or mementos
that were given to every guest and became a hallmark of the Bullock fundraisers.
These items include personalized pens, lapel pins, paperweights, gavels,
neck scarves and even a Bullock drawing commissioned from Pulitzer Prize-winning
cartoonist Ben Sargent. These, along with many of the gifts to him from
friends and supporters, make up some of the richest treasures in the collection.
Personal Materials
The Bullock Collection includes hundreds of donated personal items from
Bullock himself, from his wife, Jan, and from friends and former staff
who want the legacy of this modern-day Texas hero preserved for generations
of researchers.
Over his career, Bullock was honored with dozens of awards by national,
state, civic and government organizations and associations. With each
award came certificates, plaques and trophies Bullock treasured. Most
of them are in the collection, along with his education and law degrees,
military records and the commissions for each of the offices he held during
his 40 years of state service.
Some of the treasures in the memorabilia are the personal photographs
and family scrapbooks kept by Bullock's mother, family letters and correspondence
and genealogical materials compiled by Bullock and his older brother,
Tom. These items give a personal insight into where this Texas legend
came from and gives a careful researcher a good idea of the "how
and why" of the way Bullock earned his place in Texas history.
