Ogden lured back to Senate to wrangle budget
Texas' looming budget crunch has lured state Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, back into the race for the seat he planned to relinquish.
Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee since 2004, Ogden announced in September that he would retire when his term ended in 2010. Even as he was preparing to leave, Ogden said Thursday, he felt a sense of obligation to help the state deal with a difficult budget in 2011.
"I was leaving after the best of times and maybe I ought to think about hanging around during the tough times, too," Ogden said.
His path to reelection will not come without a challenge, however. Walker County businessman and property-rights advocate Ben Bius said on Thursday that he will continue to run in the Republican primary for Senate District 5, which stretches from Williamson County east to Houston and Trinity counties.
"I got in for the right reasons. I'm going to stay in for the right reasons," Bius said. "The graveyard is full of people who can't be replaced."
Capitol watchers have been waiting since Sunday to hear from Ogden after word leaked that state Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown, was getting out of the Senate race and Ogden would be jumping in.
Ogden, who owns an oil and gas exploration company, had been working in West Texas and was incommunicado until Thursday.
He said on Thursday that he was embarrassed by how his reelection plans got out and he apologized for any appearance that there was a "tying arrangement" between him and Gattis.
"It makes it look like there is political collusion and calculation," Ogden said.
Gattis, who was the presumed front-runner to succeed Ogden, told the senator a few weeks ago that he wanted out of the race to spend more time with his young family. He will not seek reelection.
Gattis expected Ogden would enter the race, which gave him the peace of mind to step aside, he said.
"I have the utmost respect for Steve Ogden and his abilities to serve the constituents of Senate District 5," Gattis said. "I wanted to make sure the people ... were well represented in a critical time."
Bius said the dealing between Gattis and Ogden was offensive to voters.
"This (seat) is not a booby prize for people to pass around," Bius said.
Ogden had been seriously considering a run for Congress and went to Washington, recently to discuss challenging U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, in the GOP-leaning 17th Congressional District.
For Ogden, the decision always came back to this question: "Can you do more for the State of Texas in the Texas Senate or as a freshman Republican in the U.S. Congress?
"The best place that I can serve publicly, without a doubt, is back in the Texas Senate," Ogden said.
The next budget is going to be tight, with declining revenue, less federal money and perhaps new health care obligations if a federal health care overhaul passes, he said.
Ogden said he would like to continue on as finance chairman. He said he presumes that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst would keep him in that role though no promise has been made.
"That's the best job in the Senate," Ogden said. "As long as you've got to be there, you might as well do that."
kalexander@statesman.com; 445-3618
