California, Here He Comes?

‘I REALLY belive that the week before the election, we were within five points in California,” says Gerald Parsky. a little wistfully, as he describes George W. Bush’s presidential campaign in the nation’s largest state. Parsky, an investment banker in Los Angeles, chaired the Bush effort in California, and even though the GOP ticket was soundly whipped—Al Gore won the state by 12 percentage points—Parsky has become an extraordinarily influential figure in Bush’s circle of advisers. Virtually unknown in Washington, Parsky talks to top Bush aide Karl Rove several times a week (that’s in addition to their regular politics-and-policy phone conversation every Sunday). He’s deeply involved in some of the president’s top-priority initiatives, including Social Security reform and the selection of federal judges. And on top of that, he’s playing a key role in a project that Bush has been quietly pursuing since last Election Day: the effort to repair California’s badly broken GOP and help the president win reelection in 2004.

Parsky, 58, fits the Bush-administration type: a high official in the Ford years (assistant secretary of the Treasury) who went on to a successful career in business before joining the 2000 campaign. Parsky got to know the first George Bush in the mid 1970s and kept up with the Bush family through the years, but didn’t join the ranks of W. supporters until much later. “I met [Parsky] in ’97,” recalls Rove. “He was recommended by a number of people, including Bush 41, as somebody we ought to get to know.” By late 1998 and early 1999, just before the Texas governor announced his presidential campaign, Parsky was regularly visiting Austin to give advice. “I felt that [Bush] was conservative, as I am, but at the same time he felt the need to reach out to people who felt left out by the Republican party,” Parsky remembers. “The theme of expanding the reach of the party was very important in California.”

About the Author

Byron York

Byron York is a former White House correspondent for National Review.

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‘I REALLY belive that the week before the election, we were within five points in California,” says Gerald Parsky. a little wistfully, as he describes George W. Bush’s presidential campaign in the nation’s largest state. Parsky, an investment banker in Los Angeles, chaired the Bush effort in California, and even though the GOP ticket was soundly whipped—Al Gore won the state by 12 percentage points—Parsky has become an extraordinarily influential figure in Bush’s circle of advisers. Virtually unknown in Washington, Parsky talks to top Bush aide Karl Rove several times a week (that’s in addition to their regular politics-and-policy phone conversation every Sunday). He’s deeply involved in some of the president’s top-priority initiatives, including Social Security reform and the selection of federal judges. And on top of that, he’s playing a key role in a project that Bush has been quietly pursuing since last Election Day: the effort to repair California’s badly broken GOP and help the president win reelection in 2004.

Parsky, 58, fits the Bush-administration type: a high official in the Ford years (assistant secretary of the Treasury) who went on to a successful career in business before joining the 2000 campaign. Parsky got to know the first George Bush in the mid 1970s and kept up with the Bush family through the years, but didn’t join the ranks of W. supporters until much later. “I met [Parsky] in ’97,” recalls Rove. “He was recommended by a number of people, including Bush 41, as somebody we ought to get to know.” By late 1998 and early 1999, just before the Texas governor announced his presidential campaign, Parsky was regularly visiting Austin to give advice. “I felt that [Bush] was conservative, as I am, but at the same time he felt the need to reach out to people who felt left out by the Republican party,” Parsky remembers. “The theme of expanding the reach of the party was very important in California.”