Steven Dennis Wolens | |
---|---|
Member of the TexasHouseofRepresentatives from the 103rd district | |
In office January 13, 1981 –January 11, 2005 | |
Preceded by | Clay Smothers |
Succeeded by | Rafael Anchía |
Personal details | |
Born | Dallas,Texas,U.S. | June 4,1950
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse | Laura Miller |
Residence(s) | Dallas,Texas,U.S. |
Alma mater | Stanford University (BA) Southern Methodist University (JD) |
Occupation | Lawyer |
Steven Dennis Wolens is an attorney in Dallas,Texas. He is a principal in the law firm,McKool Smith,and serves on the Texas Ethics Commission. Between 1981 and 2005,Wolens served as a state representative for District 103 in Dallas County,Texas.
Wolens was born June 4,1950,in Dallas and grew up in Corsicana,Texas,where his family owned the K. Wolens Department Store. He graduated from St. Mark's School of Texas in 1969. In 1973,he received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University with distinction and then earned his Juris Doctor degree from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in 1976. [1]
A Democrat,Wolens was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1981 and served for 24 years. During his tenure,he authored legislation related to electricity deregulation,partnerships and limited liability corporations,and antitrust laws. From 1987 to 1992,Wolens served as Chair of the House Business and Commerce Committee. From 1997 to 2002,Wolens chaired the House State Affairs Committee. In the latter role, Texas Monthly magazine noted that Wolens,"did things this session that were previously thought to be beyond the grasp of mortals. He made the Religious Right compromise on an abortion bill! He produced an electricity-deregulation bill that won the support of consumers,environmentalists,and utilities! He negotiated with the CEOs of two Fortune 500 companies over dinner and picked up the tab!" [2]
In 2003,as chair of the House Select Committee on Ethics,he authored and passed a complete revision of Texas ethics laws. After that success,Texas Monthly commented,“At the end of the session,he passed the best ethics bill in the history of the Texas Legislature…One of the great legislators of the modern era logged another big win.”
Texas Monthly named Wolens one of the "Ten Best Legislators" in Texas on six different occasions,describing him as the "House's most dreaded foe and most welcome ally." [3]
Wolens has served on the Texas Ethics Commission since 2016,including a stint as chair. [4] [5]
As noted above,Wolens was a chief architect of Texas's decision to deregulate the state's electricity market. While broadly lauded in 1999,that decision led to the near collapse of the state's electrical grid in the winter of 2021. A lengthy New York Times article on the disaster quoted Wolens,who indicated that the legislation intended to spur traditional and renewable energy sources and to encourage the shuttering of old,polluting plants. On those issues,Wolens is quoted,“we were successful." As the article pointed out,Wolens's 1999 legislation was a first iteration and was intended to evolve with the needs of the state. [6]
Wolens is married to former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller. They have 3 children and live in Dallas.
He was a partner at the Dallas law firms of Baron &Budd and Diamond &McCarthy. He has been a principal of the Dallas firm McKool Smith since 2008. [7] He is Jewish. [8]
Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn was an American politician who served as the 43rd speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He was a three-time House speaker, former House majority leader, two-time House minority leader, and a 24-term congressman, representing Texas's 4th congressional district as a Democrat from 1913 to 1961. He holds the record for the longest tenure as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, serving for over 17 years.
Kenny Ewell Marchant is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 24th congressional district, from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, he represented several areas around Dallas and Fort Worth.
Norma Chávez served seven terms as a member of the Democratic Party in the Texas House of Representatives representing District 76. She was defeated for re-election by Naomi Gonzalez in the Democratic primary runoff held on April 13, 2010, and left office in January 2011.
Tom Moore Jr. was a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1967 to 1973 from McLennan County. Moore is most noted for an April Fool's Day prank he played to demonstrate that his fellow legislators often did not read the legislation they were approving and for being a member of the "Dirty Thirty."
The Texas electricity market is deregulated, meaning that there is competition in the generation and distribution of electricity. Power generators in the Texas Interconnection, managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, participate in an energy-only electricity market and are compensated only for the electricity they produce. The wholesale generation market was deregulated in 1995 and the distribution market in 1999, with Texas Senate Bill 7. This replaced the prior system in which power was generated and consumed locally by the same utility with one in which retail providers contracted with generators across the state.
Frank Forrest Buck was an American politician who was a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1973 to 2009. He represented the 40th district, which is composed of DeKalb, Smith, and Macon counties.
Charles D. Lavine is a member of the New York State Assembly, representing the 13th district, which includes portions of the towns of North Hempstead and Oyster Bay in Nassau County. First elected in 2004, Lavine is a Democrat.
Aaron Robert Schwartz, better known as A. R. Schwartz or "Babe" Schwartz, was an American politician, lawyer, and lobbyist who served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1955 to 1959 and in the Texas Senate from 1960 to 1981, representing his native Galveston, Texas. He was known for being a liberal "yellow-dog" Democrat.
Charles Jeffrey Schwertner is an American orthopedic surgeon and politician from Georgetown, Texas. He has served in the Texas State Senate since November 6, 2012, after having represented House District 20 in the Texas House of Representatives for a single term beginning in January 2011. He is a Republican.
Brian Egolf is an American attorney and politician who served as a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives. He has also served as speaker of the House between 2017 and 2023.
Charles Brandon Creighton is an American attorney and politician from Conroe, Texas, who is a Republican member of the Texas Senate from District 4, and a former member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 16.
Jeffrey Curtis Leach, known as Jeff Leach, is a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 67, representing a portion of Collin County.
Steve Hixson Toth is an American businessman and politician serving as a member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 15, The Woodlands area.
Sylvester Turner is an American attorney and politician who was the 62nd mayor of Houston, Texas. A member of the Democratic Party, Turner was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1989 until 2016. He attended the University of Houston and Harvard Law School. Turner ran for mayor of Houston in 1991, losing in the runoff election to Bob Lanier. He lost again in 2003, coming in third and thus missing the runoff.
Matthew McDade Phelan is an American real estate developer and Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 21, which includes most of Jefferson and all of Orange and Jasper counties in the southeast corner of the state. He has been Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives since January 2021. He has been censured by the Texas GOP.
Matthew Daniel Rinaldi is an American attorney and politician serving as the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. Rinaldi was a member of the Texas House of Representatives for district 115 in Dallas County from 2015 to 2019 when he was defeated by Democrat Julie Johnson.
Jamie Long is an American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2019. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Long represents District 61B, which includes parts of southern Minneapolis in Hennepin County, Minnesota.
Ada Elene Brown is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. She is a former trial judge of the Dallas County courts and a former Justice of the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas. She is the first African-American woman federal judge nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate. She is also the first African American woman to sit as a federal judge in the 140- year-history of the Northern District of Texas. A citizen of the Choctaw Nation, Brown is also one of six actively serving Native American federal judges of 673 federal district court judges. When appointed to the federal bench, Brown became the only woman judge in the 233-year history of the Choctaw Nation to serve as a federal judge.
Jessica Araceli González is an American politician serving as a member of the Texas House of Representatives for the 104th district. Elected in November 2018, she assumed office on January 8, 2019.
Dennis Higgins Bonnen is an American businessman and politician. Bonnen served as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from 2019 to 2021. A Republican, Bonnen represented District 25 of the Texas House from 1997 to 2021. In 2013, then-Speaker Joe Straus appointed Bonnen as Speaker Pro Tempore, presiding over the House in the Speaker's absence. In January 2019, Bonnen was elected Speaker. He did not seek re-election in 2020.