Free Republic

Former President Donald Trump's ire for Republicans in Name Only (RINOs) extends beyond just U.S. House and Senate seats, as he chimes in with a "complete and total endorsement" of Texas state Senate candidate Kevin Sparks. Trump wrote in a statement Tuesday from his Save America PAC: "Kevin Sparks of the Great State of Texas is running against RINO Texas Sen. Kel Seliger, who is not helpful to our great MAGA Movement and, in fact, seems like the Texas version of Mitt Romney (and that is not good!). "Kevin is a businessman, loves the people of Midland and West Texas,...

The Texas Department of Transportation says it can't afford to build new roads without more funds, but a Panhandle lawmaker called the move an attempt to hold projects for ransom. TxDOT argues costs have skyrocketed and federal and state lawmakers have diverted millions to other priorities, Amarillo District Engineer Mark Tomlinson said. State legislators moved more than $1.5 billion from the 2008-09 state highway fund for other missions, he said. So TxDOT must cut $1.1 billion from its 2008-09 construction budget and focus on maintenance of the state's 79,000 miles of existing roadways, Tomlinson said. Next week, Tomlinson will list...

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...

Bivins' possible ambassador nomination sparks talk of replacements BY JIM McBRIDE MORRIS NEWS SERVICE AMARILLO — Talk of state Sen. Teel Bivins' possible nomination as ambassador to Sweden has stirred up the political pot in the Panhandle. A few names, including former Amarillo Mayor Kel Seliger, are being discussed as potential candidates to succeed Bivins if he is nominated and accepts the ambassadorship. The Bush administration is expected to nominate Bivins, R-Amarillo, as ambassador to Sweden, the Houston Chron icle's Washington bureau reported in a copyrighted story Thursday. Seliger said any talk of a Senate race is purely speculative at...