This was expected, and now it’s official.
State Sen. Steve Ogden, a Bryan Republican and one of the Senate’s most powerful members as its chief budget writer, announced Thursday that he will not run for re-election next year.
The decision had been widely rumored for months.
Ogden’s departure promises an open seat that could attract several candidates, and could be a target for Democrats who would like to gain Senate seats, although the district is considered GOP territory. State Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown, has been mentioned repeatedly as a likely candidate. He did not return phone calls Thursday.
Gattis is generally considered to be the heir apparent for this seat. He doesn’t start out with a huge financial advantage – he had $81K on hand as of July. He would be a strong favorite to win if he’s the nominee, as would any decent Republican candidate – it’s a fairly red district, though not a hopeless one. A good Democrat with enough resources could make a race of it, and as open Senate seats are precious things, I feel confident that whoever does run will have the opportunity to get those resources. BOR and EoW have more.
[…] Kuff had this to say about the 2010 race in SD-5, and thinks the good Democrat could have a shot. Gattis is generally […]
What about the rumor that Ogden is quitting to run against Chet Edwards?
The Statesman suggests that he’s more interested in Lite Guv if Dewhurst winds up not running again. No real indication at this point that he’s interested in CD17, but of course that can change.
[…] both of these elections, where they wouldn’t had Ogden decided to run for reelection. The stage is set for a couple of good Democratic candidates, with enough resources, to make a run at these two […]
[…] support, at least tacitly, but I feel confident that the Dems will mount a serious challenge. As noted before, the district is red but not hopeless, and as open Senate seats don’t come along that often, […]
[…] in both of these elections, where they wouldn’t had Ogden decided to run for reelection. The stage is set for a couple of good Democratic candidates, with enough resources, to make a run at these two […]
[…] That assumes that there will be the political will to spend from the rainy day fund, which you may recall requires a 60% majority in the House. What I recall is that outside of maybe some money for Hurricane Ike recovery, there was almost zero willingness to touch the rainy day fund this year. Then the stimulus package got approved and solved all our problems for this session, but I feel confident that the same reluctance to touch the fund, coupled with the desire of the Dan Patrick wing of the GOP to slash and burn, will make that an awful lot harder than Ogden glibly predicts. (Easy for him to say, too. It won’t be his problem.) […]