What Texas government official is most comparable to the Vice President of the United States?

Often referred to as the first “dark horse” President, James K. Polk was the last of the Jacksonians to sit in the White House, and the last strong President until the Civil War.

He was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, in 1795. Studious and industrious, Polk was graduated with honors in 1818 from the University of North Carolina. As a young lawyer he entered politics, served in the Tennessee legislature, and became a friend of Andrew Jackson.

In the House of Representatives, Polk was a chief lieutenant of Jackson in his Bank war. He served as Speaker between 1835 and 1839, leaving to become Governor of Tennessee.

Until circumstances raised Polk’s ambitions, he was a leading contender for the Democratic nomination for Vice President in 1844. Both Martin Van Buren, who had been expected to win the Democratic nomination for President, and Henry Clay, who was to be the Whig nominee, tried to take the expansionist issue out of the campaign by declaring themselves opposed to the annexation of Texas. Polk, however, publicly asserted that Texas should be “re-annexed” and all of Oregon “re-occupied.”

The aged Jackson, correctly sensing that the people favored expansion, urged the choice of a candidate committed to the Nation’s “Manifest Destiny.” This view prevailed at the Democratic Convention, where Polk was nominated on the ninth ballot.

“Who is James K. Polk?” Whigs jeered. Democrats replied Polk was the candidate who stood for expansion. He linked the Texas issue, popular in the South, with the Oregon question, attractive to the North. Polk also favored acquiring California.

Even before he could take office, Congress passed a joint resolution offering annexation to Texas. In so doing they bequeathed Polk the possibility of war with Mexico, which soon severed diplomatic relations.

In his stand on Oregon, the President seemed to be risking war with Great Britain also. The 1844 Democratic platform claimed the entire Oregon area, from the California boundary northward to a latitude of 54’40’, the southern boundary of Russian Alaska. Extremists proclaimed “Fifty-four forty or fight,” but Polk, aware of diplomatic realities, knew that no course short of war was likely to get all of Oregon. Happily, neither he nor the British wanted a war.

He offered to settle by extending the Canadian boundary, along the 49th parallel, from the Rockies to the Pacific. When the British minister declined, Polk reasserted the American claim to the entire area. Finally, the British settled for the 49th parallel, except for the southern tip of Vancouver Island. The treaty was signed in 1846.

Acquisition of California proved far more difficult. Polk sent an envoy to offer Mexico up to $20,000,000, plus settlement of damage claims owed to Americans, in return for California and the New Mexico country. Since no Mexican leader could cede half his country and still stay in power, Polk’s envoy was not received. To bring pressure, Polk sent Gen. Zachary Taylor to the disputed area on the Rio Grande.

To Mexican troops this was aggression, and they attacked Taylor’s forces.

Congress declared war and, despite much Northern opposition, supported the military operations. American forces won repeated victories and occupied Mexico City. Finally, in 1848, Mexico ceded New Mexico and California in return for $15,000,000 and American assumption of the damage claims.

President Polk added a vast area to the United States, but its acquisition precipitated a bitter quarrel between the North and the South over expansion of slavery.

Polk, leaving office with his health undermined from hard work, died in June 1849.

Learn more about James K. Polk’s spouse, Sarah Childress Polk.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry recently denied any interest in being vice president, and that’s understandable. To be taken seriously, a presidential contender must squelch talk that he or she is really targeting the second spot.

But when he invoked fellow Texan John Nance Garner's famous putdown of the vice presidency, Perry revealed ignorance of more than 60 years of American political history. Perry suggested that Cactus Jack, Franklin Roosevelt's first vice president, "had a pretty good handle" on the vice presidency when he disparaged the office as "not worth a bucket of warm piss." Perry also claimed that being governor is a step up from the nation's second job.

But Garner's pithy comment no longer describes the vice presidency.

The office effectively moved from a legislative to an executive position during the vice presidency of Richard Nixon, and Nixon used the political advantages of his position to nearly win the presidency in 1960. His successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, became president following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. To be sure, Johnson often made life difficult for his vice president, Hubert Humphrey, yet Humphrey, too, almost won the presidency in 1968, narrowly losing to former Vice President Nixon. Less than six years later, Nixon's second vice president, Gerald R. Ford, became president after about nine months in the second job.

Beginning with the term of Walter F. Mondale in 1977, the vice presidency was converted from a position to provide for presidential succession into a robust governmental institution. President Jimmy Carter and Mondale restructured the office to make the vice president a principal presidential adviser and troubleshooter, and Carter gave Mondale the resources he needed to succeed in that position. Mondale made substantial contributions to Carter's administration and created a model that has guided the work of vice presidents since then.

Mondale's successor and Perry's fellow Texan, George H. W. Bush, overcame misgivings of close Ronald Reagan associates to become a valued presidential adviser and effective diplomat. Bush also succeeded in winning the presidency while vice president, an accomplishment that had eluded Nixon and Humphrey and indeed every vice president after Martin Van Buren in 1836. Dan Quayle met with Bush regularly and chaired the competitiveness council to reduce government regulation of industry. Like Mondale, Al Gore was a close presidential adviser and handled a number of important portfolios, including the Reinventing Government initiative, environment projects, and bilateral commissions with Russia, Egypt and South Africa.

Perry's own predecessor as Texas governor, George W. Bush, allowed the vice presidency to reach new levels of influence. His vice president, Dick Cheney, was something of a chief operating officer for much of the executive branch during their first term. Cheney took on the job, not as a stepping stone to the presidency, but because he saw value in being vice president, and as Bush's vice president he played a far more significant role than did Perry as Bush's lieutenant governor, a period of Perry's public service that gets little mention in his official biography.

The current vice president, Joe Biden, has continued the development of the office. He has played an important advising role and has assumed responsibility for a range of important initiatives, including implementing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, chairing the Middle Class Task Force, handling the disengagement from Iraq, and cutting governmental waste. President Barack Obama has used him to negotiate major legislative initiatives and has sent him on diplomatic missions to the world's hot spots.

Contrary to Perry's innuendo, the vice presidency is now a position in which an able public servant can contribute in important ways to addressing national and international problems. The position gives the president the advice of an experienced national political leader and allows the government to deal with challenges beyond those the president's schedule allows.

Since 1976 many able political leaders have aspired to the vice presidency, including Edmund S. Muskie, Bob Dole, Howard Baker, Lloyd Bentsen, Dick Gephardt, Jack Kemp, Joe Lieberman, John Kerry, John McCain, Hillary Rodham Clinton and others.

It's not surprising that Gov. Perry sees vice-presidential speculation as a threat to his presidential prospects. But it's unfortunate that he perpetuates the myth that the vice presidency remains the office that Garner disparaged. History tells a different story. If the recent past is a guide, Perry could be among those who see the vice presidency as a valued job upgrade if his possible presidential campaign does not succeed.

Joel K. Goldstein is the Vincent C. Immel Professor of Law at the Saint Louis University School of Law and a writer for the History News Service.

Early voting starts Monday for the November 4th election. And to help you head to the polls with as much information as possible, KUT's Nathan Bernier and political reporter Ben Philpott have been giving you a rundown of some of the state's key races, along with telling you just what the offices in question actually do.

Today, they talk about the office that some people say is the most powerful one in the state of Texas: the lieutenant governor.

Ben: So here's what a lieutenant governor can do, and why those powers are considered so important. First up, the lieutenant governor gets to be governor if the governor dies and even if the governor just leaves the state for a few days.

The Texas Constitution says you can't be the governor of Texas when you're not physically in the state. So when Governor Rick Perry was on the road hitting several national news programs last week, current Lt. Governor David Dewhurst was acting governor. So that's nice, but according to the LBJ School's Sherri Greenberg, it's not where the power of the office lies.

"The lieutenant governor appoints all the committee chairs of the committees in the Senate, determines where the bills are going to be sent and to what committees and the timing. And so this is extremely powerful," Greenberg said.

So that doesn't really appear so powerful at first glance, but remember every bill has to come through a Senate Committee before it gets a final vote. Getting passed by the Senate is tough enough. But it's impossible if your bill never gets out of committee. Which makes the Lt. Governor's power to pick where to send a bill very important.

"Well, he can always send it over here you know to [the] State Affairs [committee] where he's stacked it with his friends, instead of over to say, [the] Health and Human Services [committee], where maybe he doesn't have as many friends," says former UT School of Law Legislative Lawyering Clinic director Hugh Brady said.

The lieutenant governor still has power over a bill even if it makes it out of committee. They decide when a bill comes up for a vote, and when to recognize a senator for any floor action.

So, lots of power. But, power that isn't dictated by the Texas Constitution or even state law. And can be taken away easily by state senators.

"If the members were to choose to make them less powerful, they could do so," the LBJ School's Greenberg says.

Almost all the lieutenant governor's powers derive from the rules passed by the Senate at the beginning of each legislative session. So, each session starts with a decision by senators…how strong do we want our leader to be?

Nathan: And I guess that question won't really be answered until voters decide who's going to be in that chair in the Senate. Ben, tell us a little about the candidates.

Ben: Well, the top two are Republican State Senator Dan Patrick and Democratic State Senator Leticia van de Putte.

Let's start with the Republican. Patrick defeated current Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and others in a crowded GOP primary field. His top priority, according to most of his campaign ads: securing the Texas border with Mexico.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfZ9eDA2daQ

Nathan: Tough talk from Patrick, but hasn't his border rhetoric gotten some negative publicity, too?

Ben: Yes, during the GOP primary a few prominent Hispanic Republicans and business leaders came out either against Patrick, or at the least, concerned that his campaign could be a step back for the state Republican party's goal of trying to bring more Hispanics to the party.

More recently, in a Dallas Morning News endorsement of Senator Van de Putte, the editorial board said Patrick's primary governing tools are "fear and division." But, it's also a message that the Tea Party likes. And right now, that's the main block of voters driving the Republican party.

Nathan: Now, you said he was criticized during the GOP primary, has he modified his message in the general election?

Ben: Yes, he has, really until that ad about ISIS coming across the border, he has focused much more on his proposals for cutting taxes and limiting state spending.

He's been really pushing the idea of cutting property taxes, and making up some of that lost revenue with increased sales taxes, although he hasn't offered a detailed plan yet on just how he'd do that, since the state isn't collecting the property taxes in the first place. That's done by local governments and school districts.

Nathan: So what about his opponent, Senator Van de Putte?

Ben: Van de Putte has tried to capitalize on any concerns more moderate and traditional business Republicans have with Patrick. She's pushed her work with veterans in the Texas Senate and highlighted her goals to invest in state infrastructure like water, transportation and education. Something chambers of commerce like to hear…and spending she says Senator Patrick has not supported in the past.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfJSeVnBTyU

Nathan: Ok, Ben, so who's ahead going into early voting.

Ben: Well, I feel like I'm sounding like a broken record this week…but, as with the Attorney General and Comptroller races, this is a red state. And polls show Patrick with a lead.