Rob Orr (politician)

Robin ("Rob") Duke Orr (born December 20, 1955),^[1] is a real estate businessman from Burleson, Texas, who is a Republican former member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 58, based in his native Johnson County and including adjacent Bosque County. The district is located south of Fort Worth. He was first elected to his seat in 2004 but did not seek a sixth two-year term in the 2014 primary election.

Background

Orr attended the University of Alaska, either the Fairbanks or the Anchorage campus.^[1] He and his wife, Pamela Orr, have five children, Chelsea, Randi, Michael, Taylor, and James Orr. He is an elder and Sunday school teacher at the St. Matthew Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Burleson, a Cumberland Presbyterian denomination, distinct from the Presbyterian Church in the United States.^[2] Orr owns and operates Orr & Associates Real Estate. He is a former chairman of the Burleson Area Chamber of Commerce.^[3] He is a former president of the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors. He has also been a Little League coach.^[1]

Political life

In 2004, District 58 Republican state Representative Arlene Wohlgemuth ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives from Texas's 17th congressional district. She lost 51-48 percent to the Democrat Chet Edwards. Three Republicans hence entered the primary to succeed Wohlgemuth. Sam Walls led the field with 3,518 votes (41.6 percent). Orr trailed with 2,774 (32.8 percent), and Scott Cain (born 1966) of Cleburne finished with 2,158 votes (a critical 25.5 percent).^[4] In the ensuing runoff election, Orr defeated Walls, 4,630 (60.4 percent) to 3,033 (39.6 percent). Walls lost 485 votes between the primary and the runoff contest, whereas Orr gained 1,856 ballots.^[5] In the 2004 general election, Orr handily defeated the Democrat Greg Allen Kauffman (born c. 1954) of Crowley, Texas, 37,001 (69.8 percent) to 16,020 (30.2 percent).^[6]

During his legislative tenure, Orr served as the chairman of the House Land and Resource Management Committee, vice chairman of the Business and Industry Committee, and he was a member of the Appropriations Committee. He considers his chief accomplishment during his ten years in office as the pending $1.6 billion Chisholm Trail Parkway, a 28-mile toll road from southwestern Fort Worth to Cleburne, the county seat of Johnson County. Burleson Mayor Ken Shetter and Johnson County Judge Roger Harmon said that the toll road may have never reached fruition without Orr's persistence in garnering the funds for construction. Orr also worked to reform laws regarding eminent domain and for passage of the state constitutional amendment to provide greater funding to public schools.^[3] He is a member of the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute. He was rated 85 percent conservative by Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum rating system.^[1]

In his last competitive general election in 2010, Orr defeated the Democrat John Greene, 27,537 (75.7 percent) to 7,408 (20.4 percent). A Libertarian Party nominee, Tom Stewart, polled another 1,418 (3.9 percent).^[7]

In the 2013 legislative session, Orr voted to establish a breakfast program and to provide marshals in public schools. He voted to authorize the immunization of minors without parental consent. He voted to require testing for narcotics of those receiving unemployment compensation. He voted for various anti-abortion measures, including the ban on abortion after twenty weeks of gestation. He voted against an "equal pay for women" measure, which nevertheless passed the House, 78-61. He voted to forbid the state from enforcing federal regulations of firearms.^[8]

Two Republicans, Philip Eby and DeWayne Burns, competed in the May 27 runoff election for the House seat that Orr vacated. Eby led the returns in the March 4 primary with 5,442 votes (40.1 percent); Burns trailed with 4,117 (30.3 percent). Two other candidates, Henry W. Teich and Lyndon Laird, held the remaining but critical 29.6 percent of the ballots cast.^[9] Burns, who carried Orr's support, emerged victorious in the race.

References