Ex-Utahn was architect of victory

WASHINGTON — On a blustery night in the New Mexico desert, President Bush was giving the next-to-last stump speech of a grueling campaign. The following morning, voters would decide his fate.

As he spoke, a man with nearly as much at stake was standing off to the side: Karl Rove. This was his show, too. He had spent nearly four years writing a re-election script, deciding where Bush would appear and how the campaign would woo voters.

Bundled up in a "W '04 Road Crew" jacket, Rove, a former Utahn, was regaling a flock of reporters. As his boss cracked a joke on stage, the balding, bespectacled adviser was performing his walking political calculator routine. He spewed numbers — how many volunteers are in Florida, how much money was spent on advertising.

It all added up, Rove predicted, to a narrow Bush victory over Sen. John F. Kerry, with a margin of about 3 percent in the popular vote. He was dead on. In his victory speech two days later, Bush thanked Rove, calling him "the architect" of his campaign.

Now Rove, 53, who has spent more than a decade helping to refashion George W. Bush from a baseball executive and former "first son" into a two-term president, is preparing for his next project — building the Republican Party into a durable national majority.

Rove grew up in Utah, began college at the University of Utah but dropped out after his parents split up and later briefly attended the University of Maryland in 1972, according to his entry in Who's Who of Emerging Leaders in America.

He became active in the College Republicans in the 1970s and eventually made his way to Texas, where he founded his political consulting company and became active in state politics behind the scenes.

Admirers today describe Rove as shrewd and ingenious, familiar with the political climate down to the county level, skilled at knowing where to find untapped Republican voters. Critics call him devious and willing to use smear tactics or distortion.

Rove, who was born on Christmas Day and whose middle name is in fact "Christian," had talked for nearly two years about turning out millions more conservative Christians for the Republican cause by playing up Bush's faith and opposition to gay marriage. Conservative Christians responded by turning out in substantial numbers and giving Bush nearly 80 percent of their votes, according to exit polling.

Rove focused far more on increasing votes among hard-core Republicans than on attracting more centrist swing voters who are usually the target of politicians. However, picking off Jewish, Hispanic and black voters from the Democrats also was an important element of his plan.