By J. Lyn Carl, GalleryWatch.com
Austin, TX – You could have heard a pin drop in the Senate chamber Thursday as a solemn crowd of family, friends, current and former staff, elected officials, lobbyists, political icons and admirers gathered to hear Sen. Bill Ratliff (R-Mount Pleasant) announce his retirement from the Texas Senate.
The 67-year-old Ratliff also made the announcement earlier today in his hometown of Mount Pleasant before friends and constituents there, saying his retirement date will be Jan. 10, 2004, the 15th anniversary of his first swearing-in ceremony as a Texas state senator.
Ratliff praised his constituents for their support and for giving him the freedom to use his best judgment in representing their interests in Austin. "That freedom has allowed me to vote my convictions and ignore the pressures of political partisanship or other special interests," he said.
It was that conviction that led Ratliff to openly and loudly opposed congressional redistricting efforts during the 78th Legislature. He joined with Senate Democrats in sending a letter to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst voicing that opposition and vowing not to vote to bring the issue to the floor. When Dewhurst later said he would remove the rule requiring a two-thirds vote to bring up legislation, Ratliff told him it would be the biggest mistake he could ever make. And when his Republican colleagues voted to impose sanctions on Democratic senators for breaking quorum to prevent the bill from coming to the floor, Ratliff walked out of the Republican Caucus meeting and was absent from the Senate floor when a vote was taken.
"Everyone knows in the last few months that I've been a dissenting voice," said the Senate's senior Republican. However, Ratliff said he would "refuse to go out on a negative tone" and would not discuss the tension in the Senate over the redistricting issue.
He said his eight terms in the Senate have been "so wonderful, so gratifying, so satisfying and so self-fulfilling that I refuse to leave on a negative note."
Ratliff said simply that his time to leave the Senate had come.
"I have literally done everything any member of this body could hope to do in a political career," he said.
He reminded that he had contemplated leaving the Senate prior to the last legislative session. "I decided the session needed a little gray hair," he said laughing, then pointing out that some members "apparently decided they didn't need mine."
Ratliff said he is hopeful the Senate "can restore its previous level of bipartisanship and collegiality."
The man his colleagues dubbed "Obi-Wan Kenobi" after the Jedi warrior of "Star Wars" movies said he has no immediate plans for the future other than to "get my (golf) handicap down a little further."
Saying it is "hard to keep the fire in your belly forever," the highly respected former chair of the Senate Education, Finance and State Affairs committees said he began to feel the burnout many elected officials feel after a number of years.
With the school finance issue expected to merit another special session of the legislature in the spring, Ratliff said that issue would have been one of the reasons to compel him to stay in the legislature. It was Ratliff who designed the "Robin Hood" method of school finance that finally gave the state a constitutional school finance plan.
But what he is most proud of in his political career, he said, is the rewrite of the Education Code. That, he said, has the best chance of having an impact for generations. "If I had one piece of legislation I'd like to have as my legacy, that would be it."
His biggest regret as a member of the legislature, he said, was not doing enough for public school teachers in Texas. "I still don't think we give them the recognition and rewards they deserve."
Always known for his analytical mind, when Ratliff was asked how it felt to have such a crowd in the Senate chamber for his announcement of his retirement, the Senate statesman replied, "Gratifying." And then he added, "But people also gather at a car wreck."