Texas House of Representatives, District 63
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District 63 is a district of the Texas House of Representatives that serves a portion of Denton County. The current representative for District 63 is Republican Tan Parker, who was elected in 2006.
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[edit] District description
The district is located wholly within Denton County. It is one of three serving Denton County; in terms of geography it is the largest, encompassing all of northern and western Denton County and over half of southern and eastern Denton County (forming a near complete loop around the county). Major cities in the district include Flower Mound, Highland Village, Sanger, Aubrey, Pilot Point, and the western half of Lewisville.
[edit] Elections
[edit] 2006 candidates
Mary C. Denny served as Representative starting in 1993. She chose not to seek re-election in 2006. Five Republican candidates (listed below) filed to take Denny's place. No candidate from any other party filed (the district, like much of Denton County, is a GOP stronghold), so the winner of the Republican Party primary was elected to serve District 63 in the Eightieth Texas Legislature.
The five candidates seeking election were:
- Ricky Gruden, financial advisor
- Anne Lakusta, Realtor; served on the Lewisville Independent School District Board of Trustees, 1994–2003, and as the Board's first female president, 1998–2003. Lakusta received the endorsement of the Dallas Morning News for this race, due in large part to her prior school board experience.
- Bill Lawrence, businessman, served as mayor of Highland Village, 2000–2005.
- Tan Parker, businessman - Parker's campaign Web site, http://www.tanparker.com
- Michael Savoie, businessman and college administrator, served two terms as mayor of Northlake, 1997–2003, and the latter half of 2005.
The March 7 election resulted in a runoff between Parker and Lakusta. Gruden (the third place finisher) requested a recount, as he was only 45 votes behind Lakusta for the second-place spot, but was not successful.
Grunden and Lawrence endorsed Parker in the runoff. Lakusta won the backing of Savoie, who finished last in the first round of voting.
In the April 11 runoff Parker defeated Lakusta by 48 votes. Parker's win was a surprise to many since he had no prior experience in elected office. His win was credited to a large and well-funded grass roots campaign and the endorsements of Denny and former Congressman Dick Armey.
