With statewide races wrapping up in a couple months, it seems awfully premature to start the discussion about who's interested in replacing the winners four years down the road. But, as D's Wick Allison pointed out Monday, former State Rep. Steve Wolens has kept nearly $1.2 million in campaign contributions squirreled away, causing Allison to speculate whether his wife, former Mayor Laura Miller, has her sights set on running statewide in 2014 when the political climate could be more favorable to Democrats.
Wolens, a principal at McKool Smith, says he's amused by the premise of Allison's piece. It's he, not Miller, who's interested in running. "It would be an enormous challenge, and it would be gratifying because I really enjoyed serving in the Legislature."
While he doesn't "obsess or focus" on a particular office, Wolens says he hopes to have the opportunity to get back into politics. He racked up numerous awards during his 24 years in the Legislature while authoring dozens of influential bills aimed at improving education, public safety and the environment. Wolens also passed landmark ethics and election reforms and authored the bill that enabled Dallas to build its convention center hotel based on tax breaks it will receive from the state.
"I always say that serving in the Legislature fed my soul and practicing law feeds my family," he says.
Wolens stresses that the situation has to be right for him to commit to a particular race, especially which issues are important at the time and whether the landscape in Texas is favorable to Democrats. So, does he see the state turning blue in four years?
"I don't know," he tells Unfair Park. "I thought 10 years ago that the landscape would have been much better for the Democrats four years ago, and wasn't I wrong about that?"
