His campaign records on file at DISD read like a roster of the city's upper crust. Keever received donations of $100 or more from Erle Nye, Ray Hunt's right hand man John Scovell, Carl Sewell, Trammell Crow, wealthy Texas benefactor Peter O'Donnell, and the law firm of Tom Luce.
Keever amassed his impressive list of political benefactors, in part, because of his close ties to Sandy Kress, his predecessor as board president who didn't run for re-election and left the board in May 1996.
During his own school district campaigns, Kress was a phenomenally successful fundraiser. The former Dallas County Democratic Party chairman, Kress set all-time records for campaign fundraising at the school district level, raising some $75,000 during 1992 and 1993. Kress received campaign contributions from many of the same individuals who later contributed to Keever.
According to one school board member and two lawyers who contributed to Kress and other school trustee campaigns, Kress acted as a financial funnel for DISD board colleagues that he favored. The Kress group included Keever, Peavy, and more recently Kathleen Leos, a former board member says.
Kress would ask his network of contributors to send money to other board members. The two lawyers both say they cannot remember precisely whose campaigns they backed--records show they gave to Leos and Keever--but that they did so at Kress' behest.
Former board president Rene Castilla recalls that Kress lorded his superior fundraising contacts over the rest of the board. "We knew that he was the guy who could get money," says Castilla. "Sandy created the impression that he could see that the money got to you or not."
Kress puts a more kindly spin on his fundraising efforts. "I ran as an effort to further reforms for educational excellence," he says. "I did encourage people to contribute to those candidates that were also supporting reforms."
For his part, Keever says: "When I first got started, Sandy helped me out. But I don't need Sandy Kress to raise money now."
But in the topsy-turvy world of DISD board politics, impressive campaign finances are not always critical. Indeed, one of the trustees who is perceived as being extremely influential has never received much money for her campaigns.
The fundraising achievements of Kathlyn Gilliam, who has served as a DISD trustee for 23 years, stand in stark contrast to those of Keever or Kress. She raised a mere $7,000 in the same years that Kress raised his $75,000.
But then Gilliam, who has been accused of orchestrating the disruptive African-American protesters at board meetings for her own purposes, has not needed too much money for her campaigns. She is frequently unopposed. To say she has an easy time of it understates the case. She's the one who prevailed with 147 votes.
Gilliam's low vote tally is particularly noteworthy given that she is often cited by other (usually white) board members as the principal reason the DISD board appears so ineffective. Wealthy campaign contributors and other board members frequently mention her name as the chief reason why DISD schools seem to be stalled. She has opposed reform at every turn, they contend, and instead protected the financial benefits accrued by a minority of students as a result of the court-desegregation order.
In the upcoming May election, the voters will select a trustee to fill Gilliam's seat. So far, no one has filed to run against her, perhaps just waiting until they get closer to the March 19 deadline. It seems likely, given the shape that debate has taken at DISD, that Gilliam will have an opponent for the first time in years.
Castilla recalls that when he would seek money from wealthy contributors, they typically presented a laundry list for him to sign off on. "They wanted conservative moderates. They wanted you to hold the line on taxes. They wanted you to try to involve the business community, and they always wanted you to fight Gilliam," Castilla recalls.
A quick glance at DISD board secretary Johnston's voting charts shows that the majority of the board members at least partially followed those contributors' instructions. Gilliam ranks as the trustee who split most frequently--26 times in 1996 --with the board majority vote.
"Kathlyn's agenda is very obvious," says Keever. "It is a very racial agenda."
Gilliam seems unfazed by such criticisms. "That's [Keever's] problem," she says.
But Keever and Gilliam may both wind up facing the voters again this May--though it seems unlikely very many will turn out.
The two of them most personify the perceived racial polarization of the school board, but even they are seeing the need to tone things down a bit.
For her part, Gilliam gives Keever the benefit of the doubt, in a backhanded sort of way.
"I think Keever could have done a much better job if he had stood on his own two feet," she says, intimating that Keever is a puppet for bigger political movers and shakers. Asked who might be pulling Keever's strings, Gilliam replies: "Let him answer that question."
Keever balks when asked whether he will try to recruit an opponent to run against Gilliam. "Who am I to say who should represent her district?" he says.
