Jim Francis, head of the Bush’s Pioneer operation, says he started the Pioneers after people kept saying, “I really want to do something for George and I want to give you a big portion of my life.” Francis has been among Bush’s closest political confidantes. Bush appointed Francis in ’95 to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). Francis was sued in this capacity by citizens whom DPS officers arrested at the Governor’s Mansion in ’99 for peaceful protests against Bush’s failure to close a loophole benefiting big air polluters. Francis often acts as a quasi-lobbyist—without registering as one. In recent years, Francis: 

• Earned $40,000 as Denton County’s state legislative consultant; 
• Coordinated a group seeking to turn I-35 into an international superhighway; 
• Was hired to defeat a state partnership tax proposal (see Pioneer Charles Wyly, Jr.); and
• Helped H. Ross Perot, Jr., split the town of Westlake to advance his development plans. 

Francis called a state election official in’97 to tell her that a judge had just de-annexed a Westlake subdivision where an alderman opposed to Perot’s plan lived. Francis asked the official to tell the town’s secretary how to disqualify the alderman from a pending city ballot. Francis’ intervention was troubling on several levels, not the least of which was the fact that no judge had de-annexed the alderman’s land.