David Sibley (politician)

David McAdams Sibley, Sr. (born 1948), is a lobbyist and attorney in Austin and Waco, Texas, who served from 1991 to 2002 as a Republican member of the Texas State Senate. Previously, he was from 1987 to 1988 the mayor of Waco, then an unelected and still a nonpartisan position, as are all elected municipal offices in Texas.

On June 22, 2010, Sibley unsuccessfully sought to return to the state Senate in District 22, but he lost a special election runoff to fellow Republican Brian Birdwell of Granbury in Hood County.^[1] The seat became vacant when Republican Kip Averitt, a former aide to Sibley, resigned because of health issues.

Sibley's opponents disclosed in 2010 that as a lobbyist he had contributed to two liberal Democratic lawmakers, State Senator Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio and State Representative Jim Dunnam of Waco. Dunnam in the spring of 2003 led Democratic lawmakers on a sojourn to Ardmore, Oklahoma, in an ultimately failed bid to deny a legislative quorum as the lawmakers redistricted the thirty-two seats that Texas has in the United States House of Representatives. Otherwise, it was noted that 97 percent of Sibley's contributions had gone to his fellow Republicans.^[2]

Sibley carried the backing in the 2010 election of former U.S. President George W. Bush, who had earlier befriended Birdwell, a burn victim of the terrorist attack on The Pentagon on September 11, 2001.^[3] Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, is located within the senatorial district. Birdwell, who carried the support of the Tea Party movement, was unopposed for the seat in the November 2, 2010, general election.

Background

Sibley was born to J. Dale Sibley and the former Marilyn McAdams (1921–2006), a native of Walker County who was a historian at Houston Baptist University in Houston. The couple later returned and retired to Huntsville, the county seat of Walker County. David Sibley is the oldest of their three sons; his brothers are Dr. Stuart Dale Sibley and Dr. Mark McAdams Sibley.^[4]

Sibley is a graduate of Baptist-affiliated Baylor University in Waco, where he was the captain of the basketball team and was named "Honorable mention" by the All-Southwestern Conference." Originally an oral surgeon, he was sidelined by a ruptured disc and switched professions. He attended Baylor University Law School in Waco, was admitted to the bar, and then worked as a criminal prosecutor for the district attorney of McLennan County.^[5]

Prior to his state Senate service, he was the mayor of Waco from 1987 to 1988, then an appointed position. He was the District III city council member from 1984 until he became mayor for a year.^[6] As a senator, he was recognized three times by Texas Monthly magazine as among the "Top 10" legislators.^[5]

Senatorial service

State Representative Byron Cook of Corsicana, the seat of Navarro County located within Senate District 22, endorsed Sibley's unsuccessful effort to return to the Senate in 2010. Cook described Sibley as having been "a workhorse" who spearheaded many of Governor Bush's "conservative reforms including tax cuts, economic development initiatives, tougher criminal penalties, and patient rights insurance reform."^[5]

Sibley was initially elected to the state Senate in a special election in 1991 from District 9, when incumbent Chet Edwards was elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he still serves in a Waco-based district, but on November 2, 2010, Edwards faces Republican opposition from Bill Flores of College Station. In 1994, the McLennan County portion of District 9 was moved into District 22 because of extensive redistricting.

As a senator, Sibley chaired the Business and Commerce Committee for four sessions. He geared to passage an electric deregulation bill. Late in 2000, he lost the Senate vote for lieutenant governor by a single ballot, 16-15.^[7] The vacancy was created when Rick Perry resigned to become governor upon the election of George W. Bush as president. Instead the position went to another Republican, Bill Ratliff of Mt. Pleasant in East Texas, who finished the remaining two years but did not seek a full term in 2002. Another Republican, Senator J. E. "Buster" Brown of Lake Jackson, had also sought the position before the final vote. In November of 2002, David Dewhurst, the outgoing Texas land commissioner, was elected lieutenant governor, having defeated the Democrat John Sharp, a former state comptroller.^[7][8]

Sibley, Ratliff and Teel Bivins of Amarillo had formed something of a Texas senate triumvirate during the 1990s to make the institution function smoothly. A Dallas blogger described Sibley's 2010 special election defeat as "unthinkable. He was one of the most talented, smart, and respected legislators.^[8]

In the March 2, 2010 Republican primary, Averitt won renomination to the Senate despite his announced intention to withdraw from the contest after the deadline had passed. Party chairmen across the district then affirmed Birdwell as the official nominee in the November 2 general election. Birdwell's Democratic opponent thereafter withdrew from the contest.^[7]

Personal life

Sibley and his wife, the former Pamela Patterson (born ca. 1949) married in 1970. The Waco residents are active in their church and have a daughter, Rachel Sibley Reid of Waco; and two sons, David McAdams Sibley Jr., an attorney in Round Rock, Texas, and Jonathan Sibley, an attorney in Waco, and as of 2010 three grandchildren.^[5] Pamela Sibley is the daughter of Jack Patterson, a former athletic director at Baylor University. Jonathan Sibley (born 1980) ran unsuccessfully for the District 56 seat in the Texas House of Representatives in the 2008 Republican primary against the incumbent Charles "Doc" Anderson.^[9] The younger Sibley first said that he would support Republican Speaker Tom Craddick of Midland in the 2009 race for presiding officer but later declared his opposition to Craddick's remaining Speaker. Anderson was a staunch Craddick ally. Craddick was replaced by Joe Straus of San Antonio though Craddick remains the senior member of the state House, with service dating to 1969.^[10]

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