In 1982, it was Kay's turn. She went after a north Dallas congressional seat, but lost to future Dallas mayor Steve Bartlett. Eight years later, as Ann Richards swept into the governor's mansion, Kay whipped Houston Democrat Nikki Van Hightower to become Texas state treasurer.
The treasurer's office is charged with the most mundane of governmental duties: investing and managing state funds, collecting cigarette taxes and administering Texas' unclaimed-property laws. But the office was clearly a steppingstone. After all, the occupant immediately preceding Hutchison was Ann Richards.
So even before Hutchison moved to Austin, there was speculation about her future political prospects. After all, she was the first Republican woman ever elected to statewide office in Texas -- and she was also clearly ambitious.
But Kay Hutchison did not view Travis County as a friendly environment. A Democratic stronghold, Austin is an offbeat, laid-back place. Kay was button-down, white-collar prim, driven and straightlaced. In moving to Austin, she had left her husband and a well-established social network behind. "She didn't know things. She didn't know people," John Bell, one of her deputy treasurers, later testified. "...It was a hostile place ... full of radical Democrats.... She did not like it here."
Hutchison clearly perceived Austin as brimming with political enemies, according to a second deputy treasurer, Michael Barron. She was "constantly almost in a state of paranoia," Barron testified. "From day one, she announced to us that [executive assistant in the governor's office] Paul Williams was out to get her; that [Democratic Comptroller] John Sharp was out to get her; that everybody in the Legislature was out to get her."
Hutchison sought to compensate by surrounding herself with loyalists at the Treasury. She hired most of her executive secretaries and assistants with referrals from other Republican politicians. Stephanie Nooner, Hutchison's chief scheduler and special assistant, had served former governor Bill Clements. Trilby Babin, who assisted Nooner for eight months, had handled scheduling duties for Clements' wife. Sandra Snead, who was Hutchison's secretary for almost two years, had worked for former Republican railroad commissioner Kent Hance. Research and information specialist Pat Berry also had impeccable GOP credentials: she done campaign work for Clements, Hance and Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Phillips.
As one of two deputy treasurers, Hutchison initially named Warren Idsal, son-in-law of her mentor, Anne Armstrong. But Idsal lasted only six months. Later, Hutchison cited Idsal's ouster as evidence of her unflinching approach to personnel management. When a frustrated deputy threatened to quit, Hutchison responded: "Look, let me tell you something. I got rid of the son-in-law of Anne Armstrong, who is one of my best friends. Don't think I wouldn't get rid of you if I wanted to."
With Idsal gone, Hutchison's top deputies were two men who had no significant political ties to any party. Michael Barron, 41, had come to the Treasury from an accounting firm in California. A professional numbers man eager to return to Texas, he was hired as deputy treasurer for operations, in charge of the accounting and computer divisions. John Bell, 49, was deputy treasurer for finance. He had moved up after five years in the department and was responsible for unclaimed property, cash management, the agency budget, investments and other key administrative duties.
According to the testimony of her subordinates, Hutchison early on began turning to her office staff for help handling personal chores in Austin -- such as unlocking a door for a cleaning woman or gardener when she was out of town, arranging for a dress to be altered or previewing houses for possible purchase. At first, the aid was freely offered. But performing nonstate chores for the boss soon became a routine expectation, Hutchison subordinates testified.
Before the grand jury, Executive Assistant Sharon Connally Ammann estimated that she devoted 50 percent of her time at the Treasury to Hutchison's personal or political matters. Secretary Sandra Snead guessed that such tasks consumed 90 percent of her time. As proof, she brought to the grand-jury room telephone numbers from her Treasury Rolodex for Hutchison's yard man, campaign stationery printers, hairdressers, alteration lady and bankers, among others.
Even as she sought such personal aid from her staff, Hutchison alienated many subordinates. They came to regard her as abusive, overly demanding, short-tempered and distrusting. Deputy Treasurer Barron recalled for the grand jury an incident he witnessed that helped shape his view of Hutchison.
Hutchison had instructed an assistant, Barron recalled, to telephone the Guest Quarters Hotel in Austin and offer a list of four reasons why the establishment should, at no additional expense, provide Hutchison with a private room for her luncheon party that very afternoon. When the assistant came back empty-handed, Hutchison, who had been eavesdropping, assailed her.
"Why can't you do what I tell you to do?" Hutchison bellowed, according to Barron.
But hadn't she, the assistant sputtered, accurately supplied the restaurant with the four reasons that Hutchison had specified?
"Well, you didn't say them in the order that I told you to say them," the treasurer responded, according to Barron.
Hutchison liked her instructions followed precisely. Pat Berry worked at the Treasury for the first six months of Hutchison's tenure, and though she had officially been assigned to perform research on legislative matters, Berry testified that she also traveled with the treasurer to some political events. At one such function, Berry recalled, she stood holding Hutchison's purse about six feet away from her boss, just as she thought she'd been told to do.
