Free Republic

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,...

Thursday, January 15, 2004 Millionaire Teel Bivins' replacement in the Texas Senate most likely will be another man capable of putting a lot of his own money into the contest. The Panhandle-to-Midland/Odessa district Bivins represented for 15 years, including stints chairing the Nominations, Education, and Finance committees, came vacant when he resigned Monday to become President Bush's nominee for United States ambassador to Sweden. The probable front-runner to be his replacement in Tuesday's special election is the former Amarillo mayor, Kel Seliger, 50, who left that office in 2001. Of the six other candidates, the three chief competitors, based on...