Counties Represented:
Aransas, Austin, Bastrop, Caldwell, Calhoun, Colorado, De Witt, Fayette, Goliad, Gonzales, Jackson, Lavaca, Matagorda, Refugio, Victoria, Waller, Washington, Wharton, and parts of Fort Bend.
Posted on 12/23/2005 8:33:09 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
AUSTIN, December 22, 2005 — State Sen. Kenneth Armbrister, D-Victoria, a mentor and colleague to some Rio Grande Valley lawmakers, will not run for reelection to the Texas Senate next year.
Armbrister said in a statement he had not made other plans for his future except to finish his term, which ends in January 2007.
“After 38 years of public service, it’s time for new challenges,” he said.
Ambrister’s district starts just north of Corpus Christi and goes northward to include the rural areas between Austin and Houston. He is a Democrat but is known for supporting many conservative measures. He was the only Democrat in the Senate to remain in Texas when his colleagues fled to New Mexico in 2003 in protest of a proposed redistricting map.
Before election to the Texas House of Representatives in 1983, he was a captain with the Victoria Police Department and vice president of the Victoria school board. He was elected to the Texas Senate in 1986.
State Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, called his retirement a “great loss to the Senate.” Hinojosa worked with Armbrister on legislation when they were both in the House and currently serves under him on the Senate Committee on Natural Resources.
“He was a person and senator who was very conscientious about his work, and he had a lot of institutional memory,” Hinojosa said. “He was excellent in research and knowing the history of the Senate and its traditions, and we’re going to miss him.”
Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who leads the Senate, said he often relied on Armbrister to oversee Senate debate in his absence because he knew Armbrister was well-respected by both parties.
“A tireless, conservative advocate for his district and the people of Texas, Senator Armbrister has always been a problem solving, consensus builder and bipartisan leader in the legislature,” Dewhurst said.
State Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, said Armbrister showed him the ropes as chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, where Lucio served with Armbrister for 12 years.
“Much of what I learned about being a chairman and about Senate protocol, I learned from this great member of the Texas Senate,” he said.
Armbrister oversaw many water-related debates and was a firm advocate for expanding gambling to include slot machines at racetracks.
epierson@link.freedom.com
Senate District 18 voted 67.2% for Bush/Cheney in 2004.
Does this district intersect closely with the Ron Paul congressional district?
A lot of it does overlap Ron Paul's HD 14.
Aransas, Austin, Bastrop, Caldwell, Calhoun, Colorado, De Witt, Fayette, Goliad, Gonzales, Jackson, Lavaca, Matagorda, Refugio, Victoria, Waller, Washington, Wharton, and parts of Fort Bend.
Thanks, SwinneySwitch. Henceforth in TX state senators will have more constitutents than U.S. House members. Isn't that a rare phenomenon compared to most states?
and don['t forget Jefferson's NOLA district..which may only have 100,000 voters next time out..
December 23, 2005 11:25 AM
GLENN HEGAR TO RUN IN OPEN SD18 SEAT
His house district entirely in senate district
State Rep Glenn Hegar is set to formally announce his candidacy on Monday, reliable sources tell QR. The seat opened up with the announcement of Ken Armbrister's decision not to seek re-election.
Texas House District 28, Republican
Counties Represented
Wharton, Fort Bend (part), Waller
Do the republicans have a shot at LA-01 if the population remains around 100K? Who exactly are the 100K that have remained in the city?
Correct. Rural overlap in Aransas and Nueces. I'm in Ron's (Corpus Christi).
Presumably, the city is still 80 percent Democrat, but there are far fewer numbers of voters AT THIS TIME. Mayor Nagin is recruiting liberal voters to return to the city. People in New Orleans have been liberal before liberalism was respectable in the Deep South. Ironically, Nagin had not been considered to have been "liberal" until the aftermath of Katrina.
Hmmm, I was under the hope that most of the 100k were rich white people and people who actually work for a living rebuilding the city and all the welfare parasites had left. Guess I'll have to wait for 11/2006 to find out for sure.
I've read that LA-03 might be more vulnerable as some rat areas of that district were relocated as well.
Also, is there going to be a state wide election for Secretary of State? I know the republican who held it died and blanko filled it, but does an actual election need to take place before 2007?
Yes, the special election of LA secretary of state has been set for September 2006. It is for a term of about 1.5 years. There is the potential for a November 2006 runoff election. A Republican is running, a state senator from Lafayette named Mike Michot. The leading Democrat is presumed to be McKeithen's daughter. The seat is temporarily being held by Democrat Al Ater, who took the post as McKeithen's top aide, not from a Blanco appointment. Ater is not running in the special election. Ater just succeeded in getting the Orleans municipal elections postponed from February 2006 to late April.
You may be right that may of the poor have been displaced from the William Jefferson congressional district. The Orleans area, however, has white limousine liberals too. Republicans will be reluctant to run for fear of being accused of exploiting the absence of many liberal voters.
Armbrister is a solid pro-life vote, and a sad loss to the Democratic Party. He is a throwback to the day when Democrats could be counted on to be pro-family. No one will replace him (except a Republican.)
I have found a posting that says Al Ater is "Republican." But I had read earlier that he is Democrat. I don't know his party affiliation, but he is not running in the September 2006 special election.
SECRETARY OF STATE
Al Ater (R)
*
State Capitol, 20th Floor
*
900 Third Street
*
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802
I am with you, he had he was a conservative dem. Hopefully we can get a conservative Rep in there who will do something about school finance and property taxes.
One of the problems that the GOP has is the switching to the party by former Democrats. Many of these former Democrats are at best "moderates," and they will be working to move the GOP even further to the left.
You mean 100k residents, not voters.
Ater IS a Democrat (and turning out to be a very HACKy one at that) who was hired by his predecessor, the late Fox McKeithen, who was a Republican, which is where the confusion is.
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