Free Republic

Toll roads will not solve Texas' roadway woes, state Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, told the Tyler Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors on Tuesday. The state must take care of its infrastructure needs, and Eltife said he has always supported indexing the gasoline tax to inflation to ensure funding to handle those needs. "I think we need to get back to the basics in this state and pay for road and bridge improvements," he said. "We ought to index the gas tax to inflation, we should build our own roads," Eltife said. "The toll roads are a piece of...

New state senator will be back up at bat again soon Thursday, February 19, 2004 Democrat Paul Sadler made up a lot of distance in Tuesday's runoff election in Senate District 1 in Northeast Texas, but he couldn't overcome former Tyler Mayor Kevin Eltife's huge lead in Tyler and Longview. With about 51.9 percent of the votes, Eltife won the remaining three years of the four-year term of former Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant. He quit in January. In the West Texas runoff, former Amarillo Mayor Kel Seliger's lead in the northern end of Senate District 31 more than offset...

Runoffs to replace state Senate icons Associated Press Accusations have been flying and the money has been flowing in East and West Texas as state Senate candidates engage in runoff elections today to replace Republicans Bill Ratliff and Teel Bivins. The two longtime senators resigned, and an election in January to replace them did not produce a winner. The top two candidates in each race advanced to a runoff. In West Texas, Kel Seliger, who served four terms as mayor of Amarillo, faces fellow Republican and Odessa businessman Kirk Edwards in District 31 to replace Bivins. District 31 includes Dallam,...

Senate could get another maverick Thursday, December 25, 2003 The Jan. 10 retirement of state Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, could bring to the Senate someone as independent as he is. The lone Democrat in the Jan. 20 special election is former House Education Committee chairman Paul Sadler of Henderson. The main Republican candidates are state Rep. Tommy Merritt of Longview and former Tyler Mayor Kevin Eltife. Sadler, 48, a plaintiff's attorney, started his freshman session in 1991 by lecturing his colleagues that a lottery was wrong, and then ran a brief and ill-fated campaign for speaker. But he buckled...