Will Joe Tison run for state rep?

A powerful PAC joins nearby voices nudging the mayor toward Austin

Galen Scott

gscott@weatherforddemocrat.com

Local scuttlebutt whirred last week after Texas Weekly, a political newsletter based in Austin, suggested four-term Weatherford Mayor Joe Tison is a likely future candidate for the District 61 House seat currently held by State Rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford).

Tison, a 50-year veteran civil servant, chose a few careful words Monday to describe his thinking on the matter.

“I’m thinking about requests from several sources that I consider seeking a state elected office,” he said.

A couple of years ago, local friends started asking Tison to consider running for a state office. But in order to run, he would have had to give up mayoring, and Tison said that would not have been good for the City of Weatherford at the time.

“I was never going to leave stuff here undone ... and I don’t know that you ever get to that point, to be honest with you,” he said.

Speculation was revived a few weeks ago when an Austin-based public education policy group joined the chorus asking Tison about running for state representative.

Tison said the group from Austin supports public education and isn’t happy with the way it’s being financed, or with some rules passed along over the years.

“So they’re looking for someone to be their voice,” he explained.

Though Tison wasn’t ready to name the organization that called him, Carolyn Boyle, director of the statewide political action committee, Texas Parent PAC, confirmed she has been talking to the mayor of Weatherford.

Boyle said she learned about Tison when several parents living in Weatherford contacted her organization. After getting to know him, she said Tison is the kind of leader Texas deserves.

“He has terrific experience and abilities,” she said. “A person who has served as mayor as well as school superintendent has dealt with many public policy issues. He’s also a true leader; he brings people together.”

All of the pro-public school incumbent candidates receiving Texas Parent PAC contributions and/or an endorsement won their general election races in 2006, and the Parent PAC endorsed 11 candidates who won open seats or in challenges to incumbents, the group’s Web site claims.

Tison’s response to Texas Parent PAC: “I told them that I would think about it, pray about it, and that I would seek advice from others, and that at an appropriate time, I would let them know. And I haven’t even decided about that appropriate time.”

Boyle said Texas Parent PAC will probably support 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats running for the first time next year. If Tison is among the Republicans running for state representative, he will likely face a well-rooted incumbent opponent in the March primary.

As chairman of the House Regulated Industries Committee, King holds a great deal of power in the House of Representatives. The Weatherford lawyer is reportedly close to House Speaker Tom Craddick, who was among honored guests at King’s annual fundraiser, a barbecue and clay pigeon shooting event held in October at the Texas Star Ranch and Retreat near Weatherford.

Before he was elected in 1998, Phil King was a captain with the Fort Worth Police Department, served as justice of the peace in Parker County and was an instructor for Dallas Baptist University.

If he does decide to run for a seat in the Legislature, Tison said he won’t be thinking of the move as a run against King.

“I would more consider myself responding to those who’ve asked for me to serve,” he said.

In 1997, Tison retired after 11 years as superintendent of the Weatherford Independent School District. The Texas Association of School Boards named him Superintendent of the Year in 1992. He was elected mayor of Weatherford in 2000.

Right now, Tison said his first priority is deciding whether or not to run for a fifth term as mayor. He said he will have to make a decision by the end of this year.

“It comes down to the point where I have to consider Weatherford first, and where we are at the moment,” he said. “That’s what I’m doing right now.”

The next municipal election is scheduled to take place May 10, with a filing deadline of March 10. Because state races are partisan, the filing deadline for aspiring representatives is Jan. 2.