Midland Reporter-Telegraph
June 30, 2008

By Bob Campbell
Staff Writer

Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams is a lawyer, a West Texan, a Catholic, a one-time 400-meter hurdler and the son of educators who gave him a lot of confidence.

He is a former federal prosecutor who got death threats from the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan while convicting six of them at the U.S. Department of Justice from 1984-88.

Then the 55-year-old Midlander was President George H.W. Bush's deputy assistant secretary for law enforcement at the U.S. Department of Treasury and assistant secretary of education for civil rights at the Education Department.

Having been a keynote speaker at the Republican State Convention June 12 in Houston, he recalled growing up here in the 1950s and '60s, when race relations were much different in the Permian Basin, state and nation.

"I relish letting all those parts marinate and come out," said Williams, whose animated, free flowing style can surprise a first time listener. "I'm an exhorter and inspirer, so I come to speaking opportunities with a mindset of how I will engage an audience and move them in a particular direction."

Noting the challenge of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, he told conventioneers to cast off dissension and back GOP nominee John McCain and down-ballot Republicans.

"Will you roll up your sleeves and answer the whistle?" he asked to a standing ovation. "Will you join me on the game field? Will you fight for a brighter future for all Americans?"

Williams said Thursday that while he is gratified to see Obama's acceptance, he disagrees with the Illinois senator on most issues, particularly Obama's fight against enhancing domestic oil production.

"It wouldn't have been possible in the America of some time ago for a major party to nominate an African-American," he said. "My biggest concerns are policy related, though we must all be careful about our associations whether it's (1970s New York City political bomber) Bill Ayers, the Rev. (Jeremiah) Wright or others.

"I'm not in a position to measure Obama's character, but his opposition to more American production shows a wholescale ignorance of energy policy. We are in the pickle we're in because we didn't drill 10 years ago in ANWR, the Rockies, offshore on the East and West coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

"Added to that are common sense alternatives -- natural gas and propane for transportation and electric and hydrogen vehicles. But you start with more supply."

One of his best friends is Midland attorney Robert Rendall, who was on the Lee Student Council with him before Williams graduated in 1971 and then earned bachelor's, master's and law degrees at the University of Southern California.

When told Williams says he was a moderate achiever as a walk-on trackman, Rendall laughed and said, "He's modest.

"In the early '70s, he was pretty fast. Michael is a forward thinker who has had varied experiences and been successful in everything. He's intent on the maintenance of family relationships and the importance of youngsters being educated and trained up well."

Rendall attended Williams' May 31 birthday party in Fort Worth, where his parents Johnny and Margaret of Midland and sisters Pam of Dallas and Diane Smith of Lancaster met his wife Donna Nelson and him.

"His parents had an adult relationship with him," Rendall said. "They had expectations and he knew what those were, but Michael has always been mature and it was not a matter of their imposing things on him. He is one of the best guys I have ever known."

Williams came home after getting political science and public administration degrees and becoming a lawyer to work six years as a state prosecutor and run for county attorney in 1984.

He and his backers, including Republican National Committeeman Ernie Angelo and future president George W. Bush, ran a poll finding 20-25 percent of Midlanders would not support a black man, which led to primary opponent Mark Dettman's taking the initiative with an anti-drunk driving campaign, he said.

"We decided to emphasize my credentials, but nobody knew I was black," said Williams, the first African-American to hold a statewide elective office in Texas history. "With two or three weeks to go, I said, 'This is ridiculous. I'm not going to hide and get beat.'

"But I never did talk to the voters about what they were interested in. Mark ran a better race. I come from a family of athletes and once in a while, you just get beat. I sat down with Ernie and the president and tried to figure out what to do. We decided I'd go to Washington, work for two years and come back and run for something else."

In a lifetime of powerful influences, the most important is Williams' wife, who graduated from Lee in 1978, earned a mechanical engineering degree at Prairie View A&M and worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Parsons Corp. in Fort Worth, where she is a vice president.

He had learned she was in Washington and on his first day there called her mother Robbie to get her number. "Six months later, we were married," she said.

"Michael is a wonderful husband and my best friend. I meet a lot of diverse people and there is nothing about his career I don't care for. We go to each others' churches. Mine is Bishop T.D. Jakes' Potter's House. We believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and it works for us."

They see each other on weekends and golf at Rolling Hills Country Club in Arlington.

Williams was named to the Railroad Commission to regulate oil and gas by Gov. Bush in 1999 and won a six-year term in 2002. He will face Democrat Mark Thompson of Austin in the Nov. 4 election.

A member of Most Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Arlington, he attended St. Ann's Catholic School and Church here and pondered becoming a priest in the ninth grade at The Abbey school at Cañon City, Colo., and during college.

"As a young man, I always thought I'd be an elected official," Williams said. "But I thought the priesthood was another way to serve. My faith orders what I do and defines who I am. It gives me peace and comfort and helps me know what I'm supposed to be doing."

Williams needed it after ruling at the Education Department in 1990 that universities could not use race as a qualification for financial aid. "The civil rights community was not thrilled with that decision," he said.

"I took enormous flak. It was front-page news in every newspaper in America for months and there were calls from Congress to fire me. I took solace that it was the right decision."

He is concerned only with this fall's election but is an obvious contender for higher office even with Texas' rich political talent pool.

"The 400-meter hurdles is a man's race and my philosophy has always been to get over and beyond whatever barriers might be there," he said. "I get frustrated when the in-box dominates the day and people don't believe they can do something because it's never been done.

"I want to do big stuff, important things. There is no doubt that if I do the business I'm supposed to at the commission, I'll have an opportunity to serve the state in an even greater way in the near future."