January 19, 2006

Ray Allen's Resignation from Texas House Seat
Will Likely Trigger Emergency Special Election

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

State Rep. Ray Allen is stepping down from his House seat halfway through his seventh term and hanging out a shingle as a lobbyist who now lives in Austin and already is registered to vote here as well.

The Grand Prairie Republican told Capitol Inside that he's turning in his resignation to Governor Rick Perry at 4:30 p.m. today in order to give voters sufficient time to fill the House District 106 seat in a special election and possible runoff before a special session on school finance that's expected to take place in April or May.

With a special session looming on the fairly near horizon, Perry could call an emergency special election to fill the open HD 106 seat in the next 30 days. Perry delayed a special election for six months last year after the death of Democratic House member Joe Moreno, whose seat in a Houston district remained open throughout two special summer sessions. But the governor set a short fuse on a special Austin election that was required to fill the HD 48 seat that Todd Baxter vacated in early November. That vote was taken Tuesday - and a runoff between Democrat Donna Howard and Republican Ben Bentzin will be held next month.

Allen - a member of the lower chamber since 1993 - said he simply couldn't afford to spend another 11 months in the Legislature especially when one or more special sessions will be necessary in light of a court order to fix a school funding system that's been declared unconstitutional. As a lobbyist, Allen can expect to make considerably more than the $7,200 annual salary paid to state legislators in Texas. Allen, however, said he doesn't have any lobby clients lined up already.

A former Corrections Committee chairman who's been leading the County Affairs Committee for the past year, Allen has had a key role in legislation on a wide range of issues from criminal justice to environmental concerns to health care.

Allen announced last year that he wouldn't seek re-election this time around - and he's been backing Grand Prairie businessman Kirk England in the race to replace him. England faces Ed Smith in the March 7 Republican primary election in HD 106. The GOP nominee will battle Democrat Katy Hubener in November.

While Howard surprised partisans on both sides by finishing first in the HD 48 special election with just under 50 percent of the round one vote, Allen thinks England is in good position to win a special election in the Dallas area district. England is well known in the district as the son of a father who's been the mayor of Grand Prairie for the past 13 years. England's father-in-law, Bill Arnold, represented HD 106 in the lower chamber as a Democrat before Allen won the seat initially in 1992.

A special election victory by the Republican would presumably make it more difficult for the Democrat to win in the fall. But Democrats think they have a good chance to take control of the HD 106 in this year's voting.

Allen is no fan of Hubener, who captured more than 47 percent of the vote in a bitter duel between the two candidates in the fall of 2004. Hubener has no primary opposition in her second attempt to win in HD 106.