An ex-vice president of a phone company, Austin co-chaired the Republican National Committee with Lee Atwater during President Bush’s administration. She unsuccessfully ran for the post again in ’98. The next year she became co-chair of Bill McCollum’s Senate campaign. The Florida Republican Party credits Austin for turning it into a force, helping to build the base that elected Bush Pioneer Robert Martinez as Florida’s first GOP governor in 20 years. Austin died in early 2000 of bone cancer. “Jeanie was fiercely loyal to my dad and to my family,” Gov. Jeb Bush said at the time. “She was a partisan in the good sense of the word.”