By Jennifer Nagorka, KERA 90.1 commentator
Dallas, TX – Imagine Cal Ripken, Sammy Sosa, Randy Johnson and Pudge Rodriguez all playing together on one baseball team - and then all deciding to retire at about the same time. You wouldn't have much of a team left.
That's what's been happening in the Texas Legislature. A small stampede of the state's best lawmakers have retired, resigned, or been redistricted out of office in the past four years. The most recent to announce he's leaving is Steve Wolens, a Democrat from Oak Cliff who has spent more than 20 years in the Texas House. A few days before that, State Senator Teel Bivins, a Republican from Amarillo, announced he was resigning because he was nominated to be ambassador to Sweden. And last month, State Senator and former Lieutenant Governor Bill Ratliff, a Republican from Mount Pleasant, announced he would step down in January, four years before the end of his term.
Ratliff, Wolens, and Bivins are the kind of legislators who appear repeatedly in Texas Monthly magazine's list of the top 10 lawmakers. Mourn their loss.
Senator Ratliff was respected for his wise use of power. He tackled education funding reform, the state's budget, and many other issues with competence and diligence. Steve Wolens shepherded the state's utility deregulation bill, an arcane, complicated and critical piece of legislation. Teel Bivins led senate committees on finance and education, weighty assignments that require an ability to see the forest and the trees.
Other seasoned legislators also have fled Austin in the past few years. Rob Junell, a San Angelo Democrat who chaired the House appropriations committee, left to become a federal judge. Paul Sadler, a Democrat who knew education law like Tiger Woods knows golf, chose not to run again. Waco Republican David Sibley, a state senator with a keen mind for economic development and tax issues, quit.
What all these lawmakers share is intelligence, respect for process, and the understanding that good public policy requires negotiation and compromise. Good legislators have both a maverick streak, and the skill to recruit diverse interest groups into coalitions. Ideologically, they might lean conservative or liberal, but they aren't extremists. Each of these men was more beholden to his conscience than to his party. Their attitude helped Texas avoid the bitter partisan circus that has poisoned California's state assembly and senate.
But the ongoing losses are exacting a toll on the Texas Legislature's ability to function. This summer's redistricting soap opera reflected that lack of leadership.
Now Governor Rick Perry says plans to have the Legislature reconvene next year for a special session on public education funding. Bivins and Ratliff, both experts in school finance, won't be there. Because of that, whatever proposal comes out of the special session probably won't be as smart or as fair as it would have been had these star players been in the game.
Other lawmakers have areas of competence, and show flashes of leadership, but they don't share the combination of brains and personality to replace the retirees. Remaining legislators must improve their skills quickly - perhaps nudged along by more active constituents - or Austin, like Sacramento, will become a synonym for governance gone bad.
Jennifer Nagorka is a writer from Dallas. If you have opinions or rebuttals about this commentary, call (214) 740-9338 or contact our website at kera.org.