TVA director resigning to be finance chair in Gore campaign

TVA director resigning to be finance chair in Gore campaign

By Richard Powelson
News-Sentinel Washington bureau

TVA Director Johnny Hayes plans to announce today that he will resign by the end of the month to join Vice President Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign as a top fund-raiser nationally, sources close to the planning said.

His role as national finance chair is to be very similar to his job with Gore's first presidential campaign in 1987 and 1988. The Sumner County, Tenn., native has helped raise funds in Gore's former campaigns in Tennessee for the House and Senate dating back as far as 1976.

Political analysts have suggested that the top presidential candidates may have to raise about $25 million each this year – or an average of $68,493 a day – so campaigns are seeking donations early and often.

Hayes, 58, has to leave TVA, a federal corporation, to take the political job. He first joined TVA's board in 1983, served a partial term and was reappointed by President Clinton for a full nine-year term that is not set to expire until May 2005.

Clinton will have to nominate Hayes' successor, as well as one for TVA director William Kennoy, whose term ends this May; the Republican-controlled Senate could approve or reject the candidates. The Senate trial of Clinton and other business likely will delay filling the two seats for several months or even much of the year.

The two vacancies on the three-member board would leave Chairman Craven Crowell without a working quorum and raise legal questions about how much new policy or contracts Crowell could approve alone.

Hayes, Crowell and Kennoy could not be reached for comment.

But friends said Hayes is one of Gore's oldest and most trusted friends. His campaign job will be based in Washington, sources said. TVA spokesman John Moulton would not confirm or deny Hayes' plans.

Stephen Smith, executive director of the Tennessee Valley Energy Reform Coalition based in Knoxville, which monitors TVA policies, said Hayes had been "very committed" as a liaison with TVA's power distributors.

With Hayes, and soon Kennoy, leaving TVA, "it does raise some big questions about the future of the agency," Smith said.

Some supporters of TVA said it could be easier to get the board replacements approved by the Senate as a pair – one favorable to Republicans and the other to Democrats. Hayes was backed for the TVA board by Gore, a Democrat, and nominated by Clinton. Kennoy was recommended by Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and nominated by President Bush.

Kennoy was the only member of TVA's board for a short period – May 18, 1993, until July 1993 when Hayes and Crowell were sworn in, TVA records show. Crowell was backed for the board by then-Democratic Sen. Jim Sasser and nominated by Clinton.

Earlier, S. David Freeman was the only board member from May 1978 to October 1979.

In the past, TVA operations were not affected by having only one board member for a time, TVA veterans said. However, a one-member board legally could not raise power rates or make major policy changes, they said.