Marc Racicot
by Erin BillingsMarc Racicot is probably Montana’s most nationally recognized political figure today. But he is a conundrum.
Despite spending the better part of three decades in politics and recently leading President George Bush’s reelection campaign, Racicot doesn’t view himself as a hard-edged partisan. Nor does he see himself as a Washington insider, a political operative, or a top Republican strategist. All of this, even though the Thompson Falls native recently spent a good share of each week on the stump for Bush, is a ubiquitous presence on the national talk show circuit, and has been one of the President’s chief advisers for more than three years.
 Racicot, joined by President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaks at a press conference in the Rose Garden. |
Racicot was traveling with the Texas governor on an official trip to Israel when Bush decided to run for the presidency, and he was the first of many Republican governors to support Bush’s candidacy for the White House. The two have been close ever since. So close that Bush called on him in late 2000—when Racicot was exiting his second term as governor—to set up camp in Florida to defend the Republican position on the controversial presidential recount.
It is this friendship that pulled Racicot into the national spotlight and made him part of Bush’s intimate circle. “I couldn’t do this for just anyone,” Racicot says. “This is very personal to me. It’s done out of our relationship. It’s done out of our friendship.”
The bags under Racicot’s eyes that deepened in Florida have softened now, but he still appears tired and has a few more gray hairs than when he left Helena in January 2001. He’s been traveling almost nonstop since he moved to Washington, D.C., three years ago, something he didn’t anticipate when he first took the challenge.
In January 2002, after just a few months in D.C., Bush tapped Racicot to run the Republican National Committee, a position Racicot held for just over a year. Then, in June 2003, Bush moved Racicot to his presidential campaign, first in a part-time capacity and later to fulltime. “There was no definition of what was going to happen,” Racicot says of his tour of duty with Bush. After three years, he says, “I’ve learned not to make predictions.”
It has been a whirlwind for the Montana native and one not without obstacles. Racicot came under fire when he first started at the RNC after he insisted he would continue to lobby Congress on behalf of several major corporations while heading the GOP. Democrats were up in arms over the prospect, and Racicot later put his clients on hold.
While heading the RNC, Racicot stumped in forty-eight states for Republican candidates. Besides the lobbying controversy, Racicot earned mixed reviews there, with many Beltway insiders calling him too soft and prone to public blunders. Some argued that the former Montana governor was far too honest for the role and wasn’t tough enough with spin to be the party’s pit bull.
Others, however, said Racicot was doing exactly what Bush wanted and needed—presenting the newly elected President as a compassionate conservative who wasn’t overly partisan or divisive. “What he was in 2001 and 2002 was a calming effect for Bush,” says Montana U.S. Representative Denny Rehberg, who served as Racicot’s lieutenant governor in his first term as governor.
Rehberg says Racicot has always held his composure, stemming from his early days as a star high school basketball player when he never wanted to lose his cool in front of his then coach, his father. “I’ve always marveled at the fact that he could have hundreds of angry constituents come up to Helena and by the time they left his office they may not have agreed with him, but at least they understood him,” Rehberg says.
A Montana childhood, bringing with it a sense of community, a sense of trust, and strong personal relationships, gave Racicot the foundation he needed to thrive in D.C. “I watched my parents growing up,” he says. “They were so involved in their community, whether it was at church or school or community affairs. I got steeped in the notion that everyone was involved. So, I wanted to be involved, too.”
Racicot received his undergraduate degree from Carroll College in Helena, where he played football for the Fighting Saints, then moved to Missoula for law school. He left UM in 1973 with his law degree, a self-described average student. Racicot is quick to explain that his lackluster grade point average was not a measure of the quality of his UM education. Rather, Racicot, says, he just wasn’t a brilliant student. But he made good use of what he’d learned at UM in the U.S. Army, the Missoula county attorney’s office, and later the state capital, where he worked as a prosecutor—a career he spent the better part of a decade pursuing.
The law school perhaps gave Racicot some of his most lasting trademarks: a love of delving into complicated issues and weighing them carefully and the predisposition to remain detached while making a decision. “The exposure to that quality of education inspired me to pursue issues deeply,” he says. Racicot becomes reflective when he talks about Montana, and what he misses the most about his home state. Beyond the landscape that he can’t shake from his mind, it’s the people: elsewhere across the country and in D.C., in particular, the people are more guarded a little more removed, and certainly quieter in their approach, Racicot says.
What he remembers so clearly about Montana are the numerous times he would get caught shopping at the Wal-Mart or eating at a Helena restaurant only to find himself surrounded by people wanting to tell him what they thought of him and his decisions. And they weren’t always happy with the former governor. “I’m just not sure that’s possible in other places,” he says.
Racicot acknowledges some would naturally view him as a partisan insider these days, but the man Montana conservatives once lambasted for being too moderate and deliberative insists he hasn’t changed. Racicot says that the age of twenty-four-hour news cycles and a competitive campaign environment—in which parties must immediately respond to one another’s attacks—paint him in an inaccurate light. “If I had a problem with conscience, I would state it,” Racicot says. “I probably appear to be more partisan than I am. But I am advocating the issues on [President Bush’s] behalf.”
According to Jim Lopach, UM political science professor, “despite what Racicot says” many Democrats now view him as a political hatchet man for Bush and the Republican party. “The bottom line here is that Marc Racicot cannot honestly escape the label of a partisan Republican,” Lopach says. “However, I think he is far more moderate, civil, and likeable than some of his colleagues.”
High-profile Democrats agree. Celinda Lake, president of the national Democratic polling firm Lake, Snell and Perry, finds it somewhat humorous Racicot cannot look in the mirror and see a highly partisan Republican. She says, like it or not, as chairman of the Bush campaign, Racicot’s role was one of a politically charged figure assigned to attack Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry.
Lake concedes Racicot worked well with both parties as Montana’s governor, saying then “he had Democratic allies.” But, she says that if Racicot’s self-image now is one of a moderate, non-partisan figure, he needs a reality check.
 Racicot chats with a student following his
Commencement address at UM in 2001. |
Many people inside and outside Montana have anticipated another Racicot campaign, notably the possibility of him challenging U.S. Senator Max Baucus, another well-known Montana politician. But Racicot—who spent eight years as Montana’s governor and four as attorney general—is (almost) insistent he will never run for political office again. “I would never say never,” he hedges in a recent interview. “But it’s hard for me to imagine at fifty-six years old, with all of these children and grandchildren. It’s hard for me to envision a circumstance in which I would run for office again.”
To run for office, Racicot would have to return home to Montana, a move he says is in his future, but probably not the immediate future. It’s been a while since he’s been back to Montana, and he rarely can catch a Carroll College or UM sporting event—though he checks the scores religiously. Racicot admits with some sadness it’s been three years since he’s watched his brother Tim coach a Frenchtown High School football game.
Perhaps there is less personal draw to Montana now since his wife Theresa is living in D.C., too, and most of his five children are spread across the country. Only one daughter, Theresa Rose, is still in Big Sky Country. Even so, Racicot says he has “no doubt” about moving home sometime. Not that he has much time to think about it.
As President Bush’s campaign chairman, Racicot was on the road a good share of each week during the campaign, coming back to Washington only to prepare for the Sunday talk show circuit. On any given weekend, Racicot says he may fly back to the nation’s capital on Saturday, wake at 6 a.m. to read the newspapers, and be at the studio by 9:45 a.m. At 10:30, he’s taping a show and by noon, he’s already put in five hours of work as one of Bush’s most vocal advocates and policy defenders. That’s an easy job, Racicot says, because whatever the issue—stem cell research, the war in Iraq, Medicare reform—he and Bush share common ground. “I don’t think he’s perfect,” Racicot says, but quickly begins ticking off a whole host of issues on which they agree.
Then, without missing a beat, Racicot explains why he believes he and Bush connect on such a personal level. He says they share mutual trust and Bush likes the way Racicot handles himself on the trail. “He told me he likes the tone that I bring,” Racicot says.
“He’s a utility infielder,” Rehberg adds. “He’s got to be one of the president’s closest friends. Marc is his confidant. He’s the guy behind the scenes you will never see writing a book about inner conversations on Air Force One. In this business those people are rare.”
Ed Gillespie, who succeeded Racicot as chairman of the RNC, believes Racicot can be partisan when he needs to, but does so in a “very measured, very kind” way that works for Bush. “It’s a reflection of the kind of approach to politics that Marc Racicot takes,” Gillespie says, adding that Racicot doesn’t subscribe to the idea that “to be effective you have to be willing to throw mud.”
Racicot says stumping for Bush nationally wasn’t all that different from his campaign experience in Montana. His focus was raising money, encouraging core Republicans to vote and reaching out to swing voters to convince them Bush is their candidate. “The scale is obviously different, but when it comes to the operational dynamics there are similarities between the two,” Racicot says.
Racicot’s position with the Bush campaign expired on November 2 with the President’s reelection. When interviewed during the campaign, Racicot’s plans after the race were to resume his practice as a law partner at D.C. firm of Bracewell & Patterson. He thinks about expanding the firm in the Pacific Northwest, nearer to Montana and the landscape and people he is most comfortable with.
Racicot may have other options, however. It’s widely rumored that he would be offered a position in a second Bush White House. Republicans and Democrats alike are convinced Racicot will land somewhere in a second Bush Administration, perhaps as the next U.S. Attorney General, policy adviser, or cabinet secretary. That kind of talk makes Racicot visibly uncomfortable.
“If the president wanted me to do something,” Racicot says, his voice trailing off as if to change his thought mid-sentence. “It would be presumptive. I don’t see that happening.” Ironically, Racicot said those same words at the end of his term as governor when asked whether he would serve in a Bush cabinet.
The circumstances in 2004 may be ripe for Racicot’s advancement, however, since Bush won’t have to worry about another difficult re- election campaign and appeasing all wings of his party. “Bush will have a lot more freedom to govern than he did in his first term,” says Lopach, who has tracked Racicot’s career for years. “It would not surprise me at all that he would accept a high level position as a policy adviser.”
Racicot has come a long way from the days of leading Montana, which he left to mixed reviews and a divided state. While Racicot turned state deficits into surpluses and arguably governed from the middle throughout his tenure, one of his final acts was to sign into law the controversial deregulation of the state’s utilities that still has many Montanans seething.
Lopach describes the deregulation law as “a cloud” Racicot left over the state, saying it was an unfortunate decision and no matter how he likes to remember it, he was part of it. Racicot makes no apologies for deregulation or any other policy decision, although without giving specifics does admit “not everything I did was right.” He hopes his legacy is his approach, saying he will be remembered for “the character of my service and the civility of it.”
None of this is surprising from a man who arguably began politics with some ambivalence. Born into a largely Democratic family, Racicot was rumored to have debated his party affiliation before he ran for attorney general in 1988. Racicot laughs now about his parents’ political ties. He describes his late father, a lifelong Democrat, as having been “evolving politically” over the years, even voting for Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980. “He admitted that in 1984,” he says. Asked what his father would think of Racicot now, and his prominent national position, he again quips: “There would be special challenges, with him offering commentary if he were here.”
Racicot first ran for office at age thirty-one, setting his sights high on the Montana Supreme Court chief justice race. Racicot lost that bid and two more before he found success running as a Republican in the attorney general’s race against Democrat Mike McGrath.
Racicot acknowledges now that when he sought the chief justice slot—with no experience aside from serving as a state prosecutor—he probably wasn’t ready to dive into politics. But he says he was angered by the direction of the court at the time and wanted to try to change it.
“Many thought it was unwise to run. They knew it was a steep uphill climb, but I thought it was important,” Racicot says now, laughing. All of his campaign experiences in Montana prepared him well for his role nationally, he says. Coming to D.C., he says, “has been good for me” and he finds himself energized by the frenetic pace of the campaign.
At the same time, however, Racicot says he feels himself getting older, and as he does, he says the desire grows “to replace frenzy with sanity.” Leaving the state when he did, while difficult, was the right move, Racicot says now. He says it was time to let new leaders emerge and direct the state without his oversight.
“This has been an opportunity for me to catch my breath
and gain perspective,” Racicot says. “It’s been
good for everyone that I made thistransition so complete.
It’s been good for me.” 
Erin
Billings, M.A. ’95, is a staff writer for the Capitol Hill
newspaper Roll Call in Washington, D.C. Prior to her current
position, she worked as a reporter for the Montana Standard in
Butte and at the Lee Newspapers State Bureau in Helena, where she
covered Governor Racicot for more than five years.
