At least five Texas colleges are trying to convince President George W. Bush that he should put his presidential library and museum on their campus.
Southern Methodist University may have the edge because of first lady Laura Bush's close connections and because it likely would be easier to raise the $200 million needed to build and endow the museum, The Dallas Morning News reported in Sunday's editions.
Texas Tech, Baylor, Texas A&M and the University of Texas at Austin also are in the hunt, as is the city of Arlington.
"I hear it could be SMU because that's where the first lady went to school," said Texas Tech president David Schmidley. "I've heard it could be Texas A&M because that's where his father's library is. I've heard it could be Baylor because that's where his ranch is. And then, I hear people say it could be West Texas because that's where his roots are."
Arlington Mayor Elzie Odom said Arlington won't actively pursue the library until the White House shows interest.
So far, mum's the word from the White House.
"It's way too premature," said Scott McClellan, the White House deputy press secretary.
Skip Rutherford, who is overseeing work on the Clinton Library in Little Rock, Ark., said it's never too early. Competitors need time to make their cases known to the sitting president and his associates.
"There are a lot of reasons that go into selecting a site," Rutherford said.
"The main reason is what's the personal choice of the president of the United States. That's going to be their workplace, home place and legacy. That's where, for generations to come, historians, scholars, students, journalists will learn and study about their presidency," Rutherford said.
Each presidential library becomes an instant national tourist attraction with the potential to draw 100,000 or more visitors a year.
Texas is the only state to have two presidential libraries. The Lyndon Baines Library and Museum is at the University of Texas in Austin, and the library of President Bush's father is at Texas A&M in College Station. The LBJ Library draws about 180,000 visitors a year, and the George Bush Library attracts about 150,000 visitors a year.
Whichever university wins the library will have to set up a foundation and raise as much as $200 million to pay for construction of the library and a museum and an endowment.
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