By Joe Holley

Harold Cook , a longtime Austin political consultant and commentator whose clients included President Bill Clinton , Governor Ann Richards and scores of other Democratic candidates and officeholders , died on Nov . 10 , 2022 , from complications of atrial fibrillation at his “ western headquarters ” in his adopted hometown , Marathon , Texas . He was 61 .

Brash and big-hearted , a political junky who loved the game almost as much as he loved his native Texas , Harold was a partisan Democrat from the crown of his big , white hat to the soles of his wellworn cowboy boots , and yet his vast stable of friends included politicians and political operatives on the opposite side of the barbed-wire fence . He was serious about politics and political issues , but he didn ’ t take himself all that seriously .

Who else but Harold Cook could have managed 11 fractious Democratic state senators who high-tailed it to Albuquerque in 2003 to break quorum in a desperate effort to block passage of Republican-