December 20, 2005

Armbrister Becomes Fourth State Senate
Member to Rule Out 2006 Re-Election Bid

Republican State House Member and District Attorney
Who's Democrat Mentioned as Possible Replacements

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

The Texas Senate will be losing at least 72 years of institutional experience while Republicans appear poised to pick up a seat now that State Senator Ken Armbrister has decided to join the ranks of members who will not seek re-election next year.

At the peak of a legislative career that will have spanned two dozen years by the end of 2006, the Victoria Democrat put an end to months of speculation about his future as a legislator by announcing that he was ready for new challenges and planned to retire from the Legislature at the end of his term next year. Armbrister - a former Victoria police officer who'd been vice-president of the school board before winning a state House seat in 1982 - said he hasn't decided what the future will hold for him beyond the final year he will spend as a senator.

Armbrister is a giving up a seat that Republicans will probably be favored to win at the polls in 2006. Senate District 18 has grown increasingly Republican since Armbrister was promoted to the seat by voters 19 years ago after serving four years in the Texas House. Three Republican candidates - Columbus rancher and writer Herman Brune, Richmond real estate investor Gary Gates and municipal administrator and activist David Stall of Fayetteville - have already filed to run for the position in the March 7 primary.

But now that Armbrister has confirmed that he won't be coming back, the potential candidate pool began to fill immediately with names such as Republican State Rep. Geanie Morrison of Victoria and Victoria County District Attorney Dexter Eaves, a former Republican who switched his allegiance to the Democrats.

Morrison - a state representative for the past seven years - has been a member of the House leadership team since being named Higher Education Committee chair after Republicans took control of the lower chamber three years ago. She had not filed for re-election to her House seat by Tuesday afternooon. Eaves, who's in his second term as the county's chief prosecutor, had been weighing a possible run for the Congressional District 14 seat that's currently held by Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Paul.

While the Senate and congressional districts would both pose a formidable challenge for a Democratic candidate, Eaves might find a clear path to his party's nomination in SD 18 while he'd have to overcome at least one Democrat - Shane Sklar of Edna - in a primary contest to have a shot at Paul in the fall in CD 14. Sklar, a rancher who worked for U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards before spending four years as executive director of the Independent Cattlemen's Association of Texas, has been campaigning for months for the congressional seat that Paul plan to defend next year.

Despite a war chest with more than $1.2 million, Armbrister's future had been the source of speculation for more than a year as an increasing number of Democrats and Republicans predicted he would not run again for the Senate.

A popular state senator with a relatively conservative voting record for a Democrat and a reputation as the Legislature's premier mechanic, Armbrister won 53 percent of the general election vote in 2002 after having 17 dollars to spend for every one dollar raised by Republican opponent Lester Phipps, a criminal investigator from Rosenberg. Armbrister would have been favored to win again next year had he decided to seek re-election, but there would have been no guarantees in the only Senate district in Texas represented by someone whose party does not have a voting majority. Two-thirds of the voters in SD 1 have backed Republicans in statewide races in recent years.

Armbrister is the second Democrat to opt against a Senate re-election campaign next year. State Senator Gonzalo Barrientos of Austin plans to retire from the Legislature at the end of 2006 after spending 22 years in the Senate and 10 years in the House. State Senator Jon Lindsay, a Houston Republican, won't be back for another regular session as well after he steps down after 10 years in the upper chamber when his term expires a year from now. Republican State Senator Todd Staples, a member of the upper chamber since 2001, is giving up his East Texas seat in order to run for state agriculture commissioner.

The loss of Armbrister will create an opening for chairman of the Natural Resources Committee - one of several Senate panels that Armbrister has chaired under five lieutenant governors who've presided over the chamber since Armbrister arrived in 1987. Lindsay is chairman of the Nominations Committee while Staples has been chairing the Transportation and Homeland Security Committee. The loss of Barrientos, who was a committee chairman under the last Democratic lieutenant governor, will leave the Senate without one of its most outspoken voices on issues such as public education, health care and state employees rights and benefits.