Bob Bullock

Infobox_Lt_Governor
name= Robert D. "Bob" Bullock


caption=
order= 43rd
office= Lieutenant Governor of Texas
term_start= January 15, 1991
term_end= January 17, 1999
governor= Ann Richards (1991-1995)
George W. Bush (1995-1999)
predecessor= William P. Hobby, Jr.
successor= Rick Perry
order2=72nd
office2=Secretary of State of Texas
term_start2=September 1, 1971
term_end2=January 2, 1973
governor2=Preston Smith
predecessor2=Martin Dies, III
successor2=V. Larry Teaver, Jr.
birth_date=July 10, 1929
birth_place=
death_date=June 18, 1999 (aged 69)
death_place= Austin, Texas
party= Democratic
profession=
spouse=
footnotes=

Robert D. "Bob" Bullock (July 10, 1929 – June 18, 1999) was a Democratic politician from Texas, whose career spanned four decades. He climaxed his service as Lieutenant Governor of Texas from 1991–1999 during the terms of Governors Ann Richards and George W. Bush.

After a stint as an assistant attorney general and in the private practice of law, Bullock returned to public life when he was appointed secretary of state, the state's chief elections and records officer, by Governor Preston Smith. Bullock soon left the post to prepare for a statewide race for state Comptroller in the 1974 Democratic primary.

As state comptroller, Bullock was noted for his modernization of the office and for collecting certain taxes that had been previously uncollected for many years. The tax officials doing such duties became known as "Bullock raiders." Bullock was also the first elected state official to adopt an equal opportunity employment program. Bullock held the comptroller's office from 1975–1991, when he was easily elected to succeed retiring Lieutenant Governor William P. "Bill" Hobby, Jr.

As Lieutenant Governor, he professed a nonpartisan approach to lawmaking, often telling members of the Texas Senate to leave their politics at the door. Bullock unofficially endorsed Republican Governor George W. Bush's presidential campaign even before it got off the ground. At a November 8, 2006, post-election press conference, a reporter from the "Austin American-Statesman", who had covered Bush's tenure as governor, asked Bush if he thought then U.S. House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi resembled Bullock. The President replied that the reporter's question was an inside joke. The question was a thinly-veiled reference to the close working relationship, well-known in Texas, to have existed between Republican Bush and Democrat Bullock; the reporter apparently was asking whether Bush would be capable of forging a similar bi-partisan relationship with the members of the new Democratic legislative majority in the U. S. Congress.

Bullock was renowned for his blunt and sometimes politically incorrect speaking style, but also for his trademark closing line "God bless Texas." A lover of Texas history, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Texas State History Museum, located just to the north of the State Capitol in Austin. Opened to the public on April 21, 2001 (San Jacinto Day) after Bullock's death, it was named in his honor. The second-floor lobby of the museum features a seven-foot-tall bronze statue of Bullock holding a giant gavel, next to a gallery of items and a video from his career in politics.

Born in Hillsboro, Bullock attended Hill College, Texas Tech University, and Baylor University. He received his bachelor's degree from Texas Tech University in 1955 and held a law degree from Baylor in Waco. His political papers are housed in the Baylor University Collection of Political Materials. Bullock also served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. Bullock's adult life was marred by alcoholism and divorce; he had a total of five marriages, although some of them were repeats. He stopped drinking in 1981 and remained active with Alcoholics Anonymous for the remainder of his life. Bullock died of cancer in Austin and is buried in the Texas State Cemetery there.