Ray Barnhart
Encyclopedia
Ray Anderson Barnhart is a retired businessman and Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

, formerly from Pasadena
Pasadena, Texas
Pasadena is a city in the U.S. state of Texas within the metropolitan area. It is the second-largest city in Harris County, 17th-largest in Texas, and 162nd largest in the United States. The area was founded in 1893 by John H. Burnett of Galveston....

 in Harris County
Harris County, Texas
As of the 2010 Census, the population of the county was 4,092,459, White Americans made up 56.6% of Harris County's population; non-Hispanic whites represented 33.0% of the population. Black Americans made up 18.9% of the population. Native Americans made up 0.7% of Harris County's population...

, Texas.

From 1981–1987, Barnhart was director of the Federal Highway Administration
Federal Highway Administration
The Federal Highway Administration is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two "programs," the Federal-aid Highway Program and the Federal Lands Highway Program...

 under U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan. In 1976, he, along with Ernest Angelo
Ernest Angelo
Ernest Angelo, Jr., known as Ernie Angelo , is a Texas oilman and Republican politician who served from 1972–1980 as mayor of the West Texas city of Midland and was in 1976 the co-manager of the Ronald W...

 of Midland
Midland, Texas
Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, Texas, United States, on the Southern Plains of the state's western area. A small portion of the city extends into Martin County. As of 2010, the population of Midland was 111,147. It is the principal city of the Midland, Texas...

, and Barbara Staff
Barbara Staff
Barbara Ruth Wright Staff is a retired Republican political activist from Plano, Texas. She was co-chairman of her state's 1976 Ronald Reagan presidential primary campaign.-Background:...

 of Dallas
Dallas County, Texas
As of the census of 2000, there were 2,218,899 people, 807,621 households, and 533,837 families residing in the county. The population density was 2,523 people per square mile . There were 854,119 housing units at an average density of 971/sq mi...

 were co-chairmen of the Reagan presidential primary campaign against sitting President Gerald R. Ford, Jr., From 1973–1974, Barnhart was a one-term member of the Texas House of Representatives
Texas House of Representatives
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Texas Legislature. The House is composed of 150 members elected from single-member districts across the state. The average district has about 150,000 people. Representatives are elected to two-year terms with no term limits...

. He previously served on the Pasadena City Council from 1965–1969.

Background

Barnhart was born to Ora E. Barnhart (1904–1991) and the former Alice Mildred Anderson in Elgin
Elgin, Illinois
Elgin is a city in northern Illinois located roughly northwest of Chicago on the Fox River. Most of Elgin lies within Kane County, Illinois, with a portion in Cook County, Illinois...

 in Kane County
Kane County, Illinois
Kane County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 515,269, which is an increase of 27.5% from 404,119 in 2000. Its county seat is Geneva, and its largest city is Aurora.- Geography :...

 west of Chicago in northeastern Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, to the east of Reagan's birthplace in Tampico
Tampico, Illinois
Tampico is a village located in Tampico Township, Whiteside County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census the village had a total population of 790, up from 772 at the 2000 census. U.S. President Ronald Reagan was born there and lived there for two brief periods of his...

 in western Illinois. An Eagle Scout
Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America)
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America . A Scout who attains this rank is called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men...

, Barnhart graduated from Elgin High School in January 1945, a semester earlier than most of his classmates. He enlisted in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 and served from 1946–1947. Thereafter, he studied speech
Speech
Speech is the human faculty of speaking.It may also refer to:* Public speaking, the process of speaking to a group of people* Manner of articulation, how the body parts involved in making speech are manipulated...

 and theatre arts at Marietta College
Marietta College
Marietta College is a co-educational private college in Marietta, Ohio, USA, which was the first permanent settlement of the Northwest Territory. The school offers 42 majors along with a large number of minors, all of which are grounded in a strong liberal arts foundation...

 in Marietta
Marietta, Ohio
Marietta is a city in and the county seat of Washington County, Ohio, United States. During 1788, pioneers to the Ohio Country established Marietta as the first permanent American settlement of the new United States in the Northwest Territory. Marietta is located in southeastern Ohio at the mouth...

, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, from which he obtained the Bachelor of Arts degree in 1950. He married the former Jacqueline Price (born 1927) in Bellaire
Bellaire, Ohio
Bellaire is a village in Belmont County, Ohio, United States. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 4,278 at the 2010 census. The village is located along the Ohio River...

 in Belmont County
Belmont County, Ohio
Belmont County is a county located in the U.S. state of Ohio. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2010, the population was 70,400. Its county seat is St. Clairsville...

, Ohio. In 1951, he received a Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...

 in speech, theater, and radio communication from the University of Houston
University of Houston
The University of Houston is a state research university, and is the flagship institution of the University of Houston System. Founded in 1927, it is Texas's third-largest university with nearly 40,000 students. Its campus spans 667 acres in southeast Houston, and was known as University of...

, Texas. He returned to Marietta College as a professor from 1951–1955. With an ending salary of $3,050 annually at Marietta College, the Barnharts relocated to Houston, where he entered the construction businesses. He first dug water and sewer lines and later specialized in underground utilities. Thereafter, he was an insurance agent from 1978–1981.

State politics

Barnhart’s political interest began with two terms on the city council in Pasadena, which he describes at the time as "a lovely community but politically corrupt." He and other businessmen worked to establish a mayor-council form of government to replace the city commission government
City commission government
City commission government is a form of municipal government which once was common in the United States, but many cities which were formerly governed by commission have since switched to the council-manager form of government...

 then in place in Pasadena and first used in 1901 in nearby Galveston
Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...

. "We found it was hard to get good people to run for the city offices," he said. After two terms on the council, Barnhart ran unsuccessfully for mayor but was defeated by Clyde Doyle, a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

. In Texas, municipal offices are technically nonpartisan
Nonpartisan
In political science, nonpartisan denotes an election, event, organization or person in which there is no formally declared association with a political party affiliation....

, and hence no party labels appear on the ballot. Barnhart recalls that a half dozen Pasadena officials were indicted in the late 1950s and early 1960s for public corruption.

In 1972, Barnhart was elected to a two-year term in revised District 100 (previously District 24-6) in the state House of Representatives, when President Richard M. Nixon and US Senator John G. Tower were heading the state Republican ticket, along with the defeated gubernatorial nominee Henry Grover
Henry Grover
Henry Cushing "Hank" Grover , was a conservative politician from the U.S. state of Texas best known for his relatively narrow defeat as the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1972. Grover was born in Corpus Christi. He died in Houston of Alzheimer's disease.Grover lived as a youth in San Antonio...

 of Houston. Barnhart's House colleagues included Ray Hutchison
Ray Hutchison
Elton Ray Hutchison, known as Ray Hutchison , is a prominent Dallas, Texas, attorney, who served in the Texas House of Representatives in the 1970s and is married to the state's senior Republican senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison. In 1957, Hutchison graduated from Southern Methodist University in...

 of Dallas and Kay Bailey
Kay Bailey Hutchison
Kathryn Ann Bailey Hutchison, known as Kay Bailey Hutchison , is the senior United States Senator from Texas.She is a member of the Republican Party. In 2001, she was named one of the thirty most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal. The first woman to represent Texas in the U.S....

 of Harris County. The two married during their common legislative tenure, and Kay Bailey Hutchison went on to the U.S. Senate in 1993. In the 1974 session, the legislature became an ex officio constitutional convention headed by Speaker Price Daniel, Jr.
Price Daniel, Jr.
Marion Price Daniel, Jr. was a United States politician from Texas who served as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from 1973 to 1975.-Early life:...

, of Liberty
Liberty, Texas
Liberty is a city in and the county seat of Liberty County, Texas, United States and a part of the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area. The population was 8,033 at the 2000 census....

, Texas. In the deliberations Barnhart opposed a motion to "guarantee equal educational opportunity and free public schools" to all citizens. As drafted, Barnhart said that the motion, offered by the University of Texas Board of Regents chairman Frank Erwin would have prevented the state from charging tuition and fees at its public colleges and universities. Legislators acting as delegates fell three votes short of the 121/188, or 2/3 supermajority needed to adopt the new constitution. The state is hence still governed by the Texas Constitution of 1876. In 1974, a strongly Democratic year nationally as well as in Texas, Barnhart was defeated for a second term in the legislature by the Democrat Bill Caraway. Barnhart recalls that certain members of the Sagemont Church, a mission of First Baptist Church of Houston organized in 1966 by founding pastor John D. Morgan, worked against Barnhart because of his conservative fiscal policies and succeeded in bringing about the freshman lawmaker's defeat. Barnhart added that the long-serving pastor John Morgan had no role in the political action.

National politics

At the national level, Barnhart had supported Barry M. Goldwater's ill-fated campaign in Texas against native son Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...

. In 1975–1976, as chairman of the Harris County Republican Party, Barnhart was asked by Reagan to manage the Californian’s presidential primary campaign in Texas. Barnhart, then a United Methodist, enlisted as co-chairmen Ernest Angelo, the mayor of Midland and a Roman Catholic, and Barbara Staff, a party leader in Dallas then active in the First Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 Church under pastor W.A. Criswell. The campaign was so successful that the Reagan forces prevailed, 96-0, over President Ford, who had the backing of Senator John Tower. Then four more Reagan delegates were chosen at the state convention. Barnhart recalled that wealthy Texas contributors were loyal to President Ford, but the Reagan forces had the "plain people" as voters and election workers. Barnhart said that he offered Tower and John B. Connally, Jr., the former Democratic governor who switched parties in 1973 after having served as United States Secretary of the Treasury
United States Secretary of the Treasury
The Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, which is concerned with financial and monetary matters, and, until 2003, also with some issues of national security and defense. This position in the Federal Government of the United...

 under President Nixon, delegate positions at the 1976 Republican National Convention
1976 Republican National Convention
The 1976 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States met at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri, from August 16 to August 19, 1976. The convention nominated incumbent Gerald Ford for President, but only after narrowly defeating a strong challenge from former California...

 in Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

, Missouri, provided they would agree to support Reagan for the first three potential ballots. The two declined Barnhart's offer and were not delegates to Kansas City. Barnhart was chairman of the Texas delegation at the convention.

Barnhart himself was a Reagan delegate in Congressional District 22, then including Fort Bend
Fort Bend County, Texas
Fort Bend County is a county located along the Gulf Coast region in the U.S. state of Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. In 2000 its population was 354,452, while the 2010 U.S...

, Brazoria
Brazoria County, Texas
Brazoria County[p] is a county in the U.S. state of Texas, located on the Gulf Coast within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. Regionally, parts of the county are within the extreme southern-most fringe of the regions locally known as Southeast Texas. Brazoria County is among a...

, and parts of Harris and Waller counties. His side prevailed, 15,054 to 7,934 for the Ford forces.

Supporting Bill Clements

From 1975–1977, Barnhart was the Harris County Republican chairman. He was then state Republican chairman from 1977–1979, having succeeded Ray Hutchison, who stepped down to run unsuccessfully for governor in the primary against William P. Clements, Jr.
Bill Clements
William Perry "Bill" Clements, Jr. was the 42nd and 44th Governor of Texas, serving from 1979 to 1983 and 1987 to 1991. Clements was the first Republican to have served as governor of the U.S. state of Texas since Reconstruction...

 Barnhart then worked to elect Clements, who secured a narrow gubernatorial victory over the Democrat John Luke Hill, the Texas attorney general and former chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court
Texas Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Texas is the court of last resort for non-criminal matters in the state of Texas. A different court, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, is the court of last resort for criminal matters.The Court is composed of a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices...

. As state GOP
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 chairman, Barnhart was succeeded by Chester R. Upham, Jr.
Chet Upham
Chester Robert Upham, Jr., known as Chet Upham , was an oil and natural gas businessman from Mineral Wells, Texas, who served as the chairman of the Texas Republican Party from 1979–1983, corresponding with the first gubernatorial administration of his friend, William P. "Bill" Clements, Jr...

 (1925–2008), an oil and natural gas businessman from Mineral Wells
Mineral Wells, Texas
Mineral Wells is a city in Palo Pinto and Parker counties in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 16,946 at the 2000 census. The city is named for mineral springs in the area, which were highly popular in the early 1900s...

, Texas, who held the position until 1983.

In May 1979, incoming Governor Clements appointed Barnhart to the then three- member (since five members) Texas Department of Transportation
Texas Department of Transportation
The Texas Department of Transportation is a governmental agency in the U.S. state of Texas. Its stated mission is to "work cooperatively to provide safe, effective and efficient movement of people and goods" throughout the state...

. He served on the Texas Turnpike Authority, the state agency responsible for construction and operation of major toll facilities. At that time, Barnhart left his position with the Barmore Insurance Agency in Pasadena.

Federal Highway Administration

Barnhart served for nearly two years under Clements in the Texas DOT until Reagan offered him the FHWA directorship in Washington, D.C. There Barnhart was known for his leadership, easy-going manner, and communication skills. In 1982, he fought to increase highway user fees for the first time in twenty-three years. He streamlined procedures, shortened delays, upheld the soundness of the Highway Trust Fund, and returned management authority to the states. Barnhart also worked to establish 42 technology transfer centers at American colleges and universities and restructured and strengthened the motor carrier and international highway programs. In his first meeting with Congress on February 25, 1981, Barnhart vowed to present the "best professional judgments of the experts in my administration, tempered, of course, by the economic restraints which must be applied to all of government."

In 2004, Barnhart was inducted into the Texas Transportation Institute Hall of Fame. On leaving the FHWA, he had been recognized by the United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...

 for his "honest, effective and meaningful efforts to preserve and improve the Federal-Aid [Highway] System – one of the nation's most vital assets."

Years after leaving the position, Barnhart described the FHWA during his tenure as "a strictly professional, competent, caring agency." His resignation from the FHWA, which involved the supervision of 3,400 employees, took effect on December 31, 1987. Barnhart was briefly considered for the position of United States Secretary of Transportation
United States Secretary of Transportation
The United States Secretary of Transportation is the head of the United States Department of Transportation, a member of the President's Cabinet, and fourteenth in the Presidential line of succession. The post was created with the formation of the Department of Transportation on October 15, 1966,...

 to succeed Elizabeth Dole
Elizabeth Dole
Mary Elizabeth Alexander Hanford "Liddy" Dole is an American politician who served in both the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush presidential administrations, as well as a United States Senator....

. However, the appointment went instead to James H. Burnley, IV, of North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

.

Barnhart claims that the FHWA lost its professionalism and became "politically oriented" during the administration of President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

, whom Barnhart opposed in 1992 and 1996 when he supported George Herbert Walker Bush and Robert J. Dole for the presidency. Similarly, Barnhart said that Governor Ann W. Richards, Clements' second successor, "wiped out the career people and put in political appointees" at the Texas DOT.

Barnhart's seven-year tenure as FHWA director is still an agency record for longevity. Under the "New Federalism
New Federalism
New Federalism is a political philosophy of devolution, or the transfer of certain powers from the United States federal government back to the states...

" proposals offered in 1982, Reagan sought to return most federal highway and mass transit programs to the states except for the interstate highway system. However, the Surface Transportation Assistance Act
Surface Transportation Assistance Act
The Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 was a comprehensive transportation funding and policy act of the United States Federal Government, . The legislation was championed by the Reagan administration to address concerns about the surface transportation infrastructure...

 of 1982, continued strong federal involvement in both highways and mass transit. Because of infrastructure needs, the law increased the gasoline tax by a nickel, the first such increase since 1959.

On January 6, 1983, Reagan signed the Surface Transportation Assistance Act so that the United States could improve its paving and bridge commitments by the middle of the decade. The legislation devoted one cent (later doubled) of each nickel to establish a transit account in the Highway Trust Fund.

Despite the need for highway improvements and increasing fuel prices of recent years, Texas has not raised its 20-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax since the early 1990s, and the diesel tax has been unchanged even longer. In 2008, Barnhart said that only twenty-three states had increased the fuel tax. In a letter to Democratic State Senator Kirk Watson
Kirk Watson
Kirk Watson is a Texas attorney and Democratic politician from Austin. He served as Austin mayor from 1997 to 2001. He ran unsuccessfully for Texas Attorney General in the 2002 election, defeated by the Republican Greg Abbott...

 of Austin, Barnhart said that the legislature, not the Texas Department of Transportation, is responsible for problems involving highways. "If the legislature had acted when I warned them fifteen years ago, Texas highway problems wouldn't be as critical as they are today. They [legislators] didn't have the guts to deal with the big truck lobby," Barnhart said in an interview. Barnhart said that 18 wheelers and other large trucks place excessive strain on state highways, but the legislature has not increased the diesel tax to maintain the transportation network. A $5 billion bond package Texas voters approved in November [2007] won't be enough to alleviate some of those problems because the state needs much more than that amount just to maintain its highway system.

Former State Representative Carl Isett
Carl Isett
Carl Hawkins Isett is a Certified Public Accountant from Lubbock, Texas, and a Republican former member of the Texas House of Representatives. First elected in 1996, Isett announced on December 18, 2009, that he would not be a candidate for an eighth two-year term in the Republican primary held...

, a Republican from Lubbock
Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock is a city in and the county seat of Lubbock County, Texas, United States. The city is located in the northwestern part of the state, a region known historically as the Llano Estacado, and the home of Texas Tech University and Lubbock Christian University...

, said that Barnhart made some valid points in his assessment but is too prone to blame the legislators for financial woes of TxDOT: “It's a combination of those factors. We have not given them everything they wanted but we have given them a lot. We try to fund more money for roads but a lot of that money comes from the feds.” Isett said that critics blame the legislature "every time something goes wrong.”

Barnhart today

During his FHWA tenure, the Barnharts resided in Falls Church
Falls Church, Virginia
The City of Falls Church is an independent city in Virginia, United States, in the Washington Metropolitan Area. The city population was 12,332 in 2010, up from 10,377 in 2000. Taking its name from The Falls Church, an 18th-century Anglican parish, Falls Church gained township status within...

, Virginia. The couple has two daughters, Whitney Allison Barnhart (born 1948), formerly Whitney Ziegler, of Shadyside
Shadyside, Ohio
Shadyside is a village in Belmont County, Ohio, United States, along the Ohio River. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area...

 in Belmont County, Ohio, and Mallory Ann Barnhart Rousellot (born 1955) and husband, Mark W. Rousellot (born 1954), ranchers from Sonora
Sonora, Texas
Sonora is the county seat of Sutton County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,924 at the 2000 census.Former State Senator and Lieutenant Governor Bill Ratliff of Mount Pleasant was reared in Sonora and graduated from high school there.-Geography and climate:Sonora is located at ...

, Texas. Mallory Rousellot owns a restaurant in Sonora known as Mercantile on Main, located at the foot of the hill containing the Sutton County Courthouse. Rousellot is a former board member of the Sonora Independent School District
Sonora Independent School District
Sonora Independent School District is a public school district based in Sonora, Texas . The district's boundaries parallel that of Sutton County.In 2009, the school district was rated "academically acceptable" by the Texas Education Agency....

 and is chairman of the Sutton County Republican Party. The Barnharts relocated to Mrs. Barnhart's home county and reside in St. Clairsville
St. Clairsville, Ohio
St. Clairsville is a city in Belmont County, Ohio in the United States. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,057 at the 2000 census. This county seat of Belmont County has been nicknamed "Paradise on the Hill." St. Clairsville was named after...

 within the Wheeling
Wheeling, West Virginia
Wheeling is a city in Ohio and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia; it is the county seat of Ohio County. Wheeling is the principal city of the Wheeling Metropolitan Statistical Area...

, West Virginia Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. Barnhart has had serious health problems in recent years and has undergone various medical treatments in Wheeling.
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