Presidential transition of George H. W. Bush

The presidential transition of George H. W. Bush began when then-Vice President George H. W. Bush won the United States 1988 United States presidential election, becoming the President-elect, and ended when Bush was inaugurated at noon EST on January 20, 1989.

Presidential transition of George H. W. Bush
President-elect Bush speaks in the White House Rose Garden accompanied by his wife Barbara, incumbent President and First Lady Ronald and Nancy Reagan, as well as Vice President-elect Dan Quayle and his wife Marilyn
FormationNovember 8, 1988
DissolvedJanuary 20, 1989
TypeQuasi-governmental–private
PurposePresidential transition
HeadquartersWashington, D.C.
Co-directors
Craig L. Fuller and Robert Teeter
This article is part of a series about
United States
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President-elect Bush and his wife Barbara hang a banner from the gate outside Number One Observatory Circle, Bush's official residence as Vice President

This transition was an instance of a "friendly takeover", a term used for a presidential transition in which both the outgoing and incoming presidents are of the same political party.[1][2][3] In this instance, both the outgoing Ronald Reagan and the incoming Bush were Republicans, and Bush was the incumbent Vice President, having served under Reagan since 1981. This was the first instance of a post-election "friendly takeover" since Herbert Hoover succeeded Calvin Coolidge after the 1928 presidential election.[4] This was also the first presidential transition in which an outgoing president was handing-over power to their own vice president since the 1836–37 transition, when Andrew Jackson was succeeded by his vice president Martin Van Buren.[5][6]

Pre-election developments

Legislative changes

Ahead of the 1988 election, there was bipartisan agreement that changes needed to be made to presidential transitions in order to make them easier. This agreement between parties, perhaps, was attributable to the fact that their was a gurauntee of a presidential transition occurring in the year 1988, since President Reagan was term-limited.[7] One of the changes being pushed in congress was to increase the amount of funds provided by the government to a transition.[7] Since 1976, the government had provided $2 million to the president-elect's team and $1 million to the outgoing president's administration to fund a transition.[8]

Legislation named the Presidential Transitions Effectiveness Act was successfully passed in 1988.[5] In part, this legislation increases the amount given to presidential transitions to $3.5 million for the president-elect's team and $1.5 million to the outgoing president's administration.[5][8] It also required that private contributions to transitions and the names of transition personnel would be publicly disclosed.[5] It required, in return for receiving federal services and funding, transition teams would formally disclose the date, source, and amount of all privately contributed funds within 30 days after the inauguration.[5] The legislation also placed a cap of $5,000 on private contributions from any one person or organization to a transition team.[5] The bill also required transitions to disclose information about transition team members prior to initial contact with a federal department or agency.[5]

There had also been an unsuccessful effort to altogether stop president-elects from accepting private contributions to help fund their transitions, a bill for which was approved in the United States House of Representatives on March 31, 1988.[9][10]

Transition planning

In January of 1988, Bush privately selected Chase Untermeyer to be lead the planning of his potential presidential transition.[3]

Six months before the election, in April of 1988 (after Bush had become the Republican Party's presumptive nominee), action for the planning for a potential Bush presidential transition began in earnest, being led, at this stage, by Untermeyer.[3][11][12][2] This planning effort maintained a low-key profile.[3]

At the same time, Reagan's staff took steps to prepare for a presidential transition.[2] This included having his director of President Personnel meet with Untermeyer for discussions, and having his White House Chief of Staff, Kenneth Duberstein, prepare a checklist for the transition team of whichever candidate would win the election.[2]

Official transition

On November 9, Bush named Craig L. Fuller and Robert Teeter as the heads of his transition team.[5][11] Fuller was his Vice Presidential Chief of Staff, while Teeter had been his campaign's top pollster and senior strategist.[11] This would be indicative of the rest of the transition, where Bush largely relied on close advisors and political allies he had become acquainted with over his career to lead the effort.[3] Bush also named Chase Untermeyer as its personnel director, and pledged "major turnover" in order to "reinvigorate" the government.[11] He named C. Boyden Gray , his longtime legal counsel, as the transition's legal advisor, and Sheila Tate, who had been the campaign's press secretary, as the press secretary of the transition.[11] These members Bush named at the start of his transition were largely young, in the 30s and 40s, had reputations as moderate-leaning Republicans, had years of experience in Washington, D.C. politics, and had (except for Tate) worked with Bush for several years.[5][11]

Untermeyer remained on the transition as a deputy.[2] Bush also named James Baker as an advisor on "key aspects" of the transition.[5] While Untermeyer's original recommendation was for the transition to have a small staff of roughly 100, the staff would grow to around 225 members.[2] Even still, this transition was much smaller than the previous Reagan transition, which had accumulated a massive 1,000 volunteers and paid staff.[3]

Nine days after winning the election, Bush chose John H. Sununu to serve as his White House Chief of Staff.[2] Per media reports, in the days after the election, there had been tense disagreement among his staff about who should hold this position in Bush's administration. According to these reports, both Fuller and Teeter were opposed to the choice of Sununu, and this would the reason that neither of them chose to join Bush's presidential administration after the transition.[2]

In mid-November, Bush opened his transition office in Washington, D.C..[5] On November 22, 1988, Duberstein requested that both cabinet members and agency heads provide information to the transition team pertaining to organizational matters, goals and functions, resource descriptions, congressional oversight committees, regulatory programs, and other important matters of relevance to each agency.[5]

Reagan had asked his appointees to submit letters of resignation, to make way for Bush appointees. However, many appointees, wrongly presuming they would be retained in the "friendly takeover", did not do so.[1][13] Reagan's White House Chief of Staff, Kenneth Duberstein, would later recount having to have uncomfortable conversations with individuals to persuade them to tender their resignations.[1] While many Reagan appointees were expected to resign, it had been anticipated from the start of the transition that select recent Reagan appointees, who Bush had had input in hiring, would remain for the Bush administration.[6]

By the end of November, the majority of executive branch agencies had already designated internal transition leaders to assist Bush[s transition liaisons.[5] Because the transition did not have large teams for each agency, Duberstein sent a memo to agency political appointees urging them to prepare briefing brooks for incoming appointees.[2] In regard to White House aides, the transition suffered from a lack of communication between the outgoing aides and their counterparts in Bush's planned administration.[14]

Many of Bush's Cabinet selections were longtime associates with strong levels of prior government experience.[2]

President-elect Bush with President Reagan and Soviet Premier Gorbachev during the Governors Island Summit

On December 7, Bush joined Reagan for the Governors Island Summit with Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Reagan is credited with, during this transition, having begun a tradition of presidents leaving a handwritten note in the Oval Office for their successors.[15]

While some have retrospectively characterized the transition as having been somewhat bumpy,[13] others have given it great praise. In 2020, academic Barbara A. Perry gave it as a example of a "good" presidential transition.[16] In 2000, journalist Jonathan Weisman of The Baltimore Sun called it "among the best transition teams".[17]

References
  1. Walls, Madison (15 January 2021). "Laws and customs guide presidential transitions — but some go off the rails anyway". Washington Post. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  2. Kamensky, John (4 March 2008). "Transition 1988: George H.W. Bush". 2008 Presidential Transition Initiative. IBM Center for the Business of Government. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  3. Skinner, Richard (5 October 2016). "Jimmy Carter changed presidential transitions forever". Vox. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  4. Hatfield, Mark (with the Senate Historical Office) (1997). "Vice Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1981–1989)" (PDF). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 23, 2003. Retrieved November 4, 2015.
  5. Smith, Stephanie (11 February 2008). "CRS Report for Congress Presidential Transitions" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  6. Solowey, Eric S. (17 November 1988). "Bush, Reagan Work on Easy Transition | News | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. The Crimson. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  7. "Congress for easing presidential transitions". Newspapers.com. Kenosha News. 6 Mar 1988. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  8. "JUST ASK Where does the money come from to pay Bill Clinton's transition team expenses?". Newspapers.com. Democrat and Chronicle. 13 Nov 1992. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  9. "Iowa Delegation". Newspapers.com. The Courier (Waterloo, Iowa). Roll Call Report Syndicate. 3 Apr 1988. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  10. Delaney, Gil (1 Apr 1988). "'Influence Peddling' Bill Passes in House". Newspapers.com. Intelligencer Journal. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  11. "Bush transition team is young, moderate". Newspapers.com. The Kansas City Times. The Washington Post. 10 November 1988. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  12. Meisler, Stanley (6 Mar 1989). "Is the honeymoon over?". Newspapers.com. The Capital Times. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  13. Vyse, Graham (16 November 2016). "Bill Clinton's Transition Was Worse Than Trump's (For Now)". The New Republic. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  14. "Reagan to Bush: Brookings and the 1988-89 Presidential Transition". Brookings. 11 December 2008. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  15. "What is the presidential transition process?". Partnership for Public Service. 18 December 2020. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  16. "Historical Presidential Transitions | C-SPAN Classroom". www.c-span.org. 3 November 2020. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  17. Weisman, Jonathan (13 Nov 2000). "Job of staffing new government can be awesome". Newspapers.com. The Record. The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
Preceded by
Ronald Reagan		 Presidential transition
1988-1989		 Succeeded by
Bill Clinton
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