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In the Texas capital, many are just trying to go about their daily routine.
By DAVID KARP
© St. Petersburg Times, published December 8, 2000
AUSTIN, Texas -- Across from the Governor's Mansion, the scene each morning on Lavaca Street looks surreal.
Scores of photographers with ladders, lift trucks and telescopic lenses take over the sidewalk at the Travis County Tax Collector's Office every day. They wait for hours for a glimpse of Bush coming out of the Governor's Mansion.
Normal people, who need to get their auto tags renewed, are mainly just irritated. Reporters have been taking up all the good parking for a month.
Here in Austin, the nerve center of the Bush campaign, the wait for the end of the presidential election has split this city into two camps. One is intensely interested, the other intensely indifferent.
The attitudes reflect how Austin, a city of 630,000 in central Texas, has been transformed from a college town wrapped in politics and liberal causes into a high-tech city, focused more on big business and e-commerce.
One sign of the times is a billboard near the airport, announcing a new airline route between Austin and Washington, or "Hill Country and Capitol Hill." Another is the popularity of a west Austin boutique run by Susan Dell, wife of the CEO of Dell Computer Corp., which is based outside Austin.
This year, Bush carried traditionally Democratic Travis County, which includes Austin, though he did not prevail in the city. Countywide, Bush collected 46.9 percent of the vote compared with 41.7 percent for Gore.
"Austin is in flux right now," said Liz Carpenter, a longtime resident who was press secretary to President Lyndon B. Johnson. "We are somewhere between Willie Nelson and Michael Dell."
To an extent, the interest in the election shifts with geography.
At the Capitol, most offices have a television tuned to CNN. The interest centers on Bush and Republican Lt. Gov. Rick Perry.
If Perry becomes governor, his powerful post as presiding officer of the Texas Senate comes up for grabs.
"There are some members of the Senate that have been actively campaigning (for lieutenant governor) for two years," said Sen. Teel Bivins, R-Amarillo, a possible candidate.
Now, the wanna-bes must wait longer. "It's been like 30 days of fingernails on a blackboard," Bivins said.
About 50 staffers in the lieutenant governor's office had to reapply for jobs in case Perry becomes governor. Vacancies will depend on which Bush staffers stay in Austin or go to Washington.
"A lot of people are uncertain if they will receive a call," said James Wilson, a lobbyist.
Farther away, people are less invested in the outcome. Election headlines dropped from the top of the Austin American-Statesman a few days after the election.
The crowds outside the Governor's Mansion have diminished to a handful from several hundred after the election. At El Arroyo, a Tex-Mex restaurant, the recount has become a joke. Outside, a sign reads: "Florida: We don't just cheat in football."
Even political junkies at the state Republican Party office didn't tune into Thursday's arguments before the Florida Supreme Court. Bush didn't watch either.
"I've been in meetings," Bush said.
Dan Bartlett, a campaign spokesman, said Bush had "a significant amount of White House and transition material to go over." The governor also met twice with Andrew Card, his choice for White House chief of staff.
After working three hours on state business in his office at the Capitol, Bush spent about an hour exercising on the University of Texas campus. He spent the rest of the day at home in the Governor's Mansion.
On Wednesday, three British computer programmers who were in Austin on business caught some time to sightsee. Just as they walked up to the Capitol about 4:30 p.m., Bush walked out the front door, surrounded by Secret Service agents.
As Bush strolled to a waiting van, only reporters and protesters were waiting for him. "CIA Puppet. Daddy's puppet," protesters shouted. Bush waved.
One of the Britons, Ian Harvey, 32, broke out in laughter at the spectacle.
"That was serendipitous," he said. "We could have waited for hours for that."
- Information from the Associated Press and Cox News Service was used in this report.