Burnt Orange Report

Ben Grant Files for Lt. Gov

By Damon McCullar

Former Lege member, former judge, Ben Grant has filed for Lt. Governor. The Marshall News Messenger has the story. Here is an excerpt, full story after the jump:

Marshall resident and attorney Ben Z. Grant on Thursday announced he will be a candidate for Texas Lieutenant Governor in the March Democratic primary.

Grant, 65, a former state representative who also served 17 years as justice of the Sixth Court of Appeals in Texarkana, said he is looking forward to the statewide race.

[...]

"I realize it will be an uphill battle," Grant said, "but I want to give the people a choice."

Grant said voters across the state are unhappy with the lack of progress by the Texas Legislature on solving the state's school finance challenges.

"There has been a lot of disenfranchisement from both parties because the legislature has been unable to get together on school finance," he said. "It's not an easy task, but I feel I can work with people of both parties."

Former judge, state representative says it's time for change

|By MIKE ELSWICK, Managing Editor|

Friday, December 30, 2005

Marshall resident and attorney Ben Z. Grant on Thursday announced he will be a candidate for Texas Lieutenant Governor in the March Democratic primary.

Grant, 65, a former state representative who also served 17 years as justice of the Sixth Court of Appeals in Texarkana, said he is looking forward to the statewide race.

He shipped his filing papers Thursday to Texas Democratic Party headquarters in Austin. As of Thursday afternoon no other candidates had filed.

Incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst filed on Dec. 15 as a Republican seeking re-election. Grant said, assuming he wins the Democratic Party primary, he is looking forward to likely taking on Dewhurst next November.

"I realize it will be an uphill battle," Grant said, "but I want to give the people a choice."

Grant said voters across the state are unhappy with the lack of progress by the Texas Legislature on solving the state's school finance challenges.

"There has been a lot of disenfranchisement from both parties because the legislature has been unable to get together on school finance," he said. "It's not an easy task, but I feel I can work with people of both parties."

Grant retired from the Sixth Court of Criminal Appeals when his term ended in 2002. He served as a state representative from 1971 until 1981.

Grant was also a district judge for the 71st Judicial District Court in Harrison County and was appointed to the court of appeals in 1985 by then-Gov. Mark White. He said he spent 37 years in government, starting his career as a school teacher.

Grant has also been a weekly Sunday columnist for the Marshall News Messenger the past eight years. Those columns will cease as of this week, newspaper officials said.

He has also written plays and a novel, he said. During his teaching career in Carthage and West Texas he taught English, speech and journalism.

Dewhurst was out of state Thursday and could not be reached for comment, according to a spokeswoman from his Austin office.

Grant said he has nothing personal against Dewhurst. "I'm not faulting him altogether for the disenfranchisement," Grant said. "But I hope I can be a catalyst on the school finance issue, which is the number-one priority for state government right now."

Also unavailable was Harrison County Democratic Party Chairman Brendan Roth.

County Republican Chairman Sam Moseley said, while he wishes Grant well, he anticipates Dewhurst will continue serving as Texas Lieutenant Governor after the November election.

"Ben Grant is a good personal friend whom I admire in many ways," Moseley said Thursday afternoon. "I know this statewide campaign will be a valuable experience for him."

Moseley and Grant ran against each other in 1970 for state representative with Grant winning that race.

"Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is also a friend, and a person of great personal skill and integrity," Moseley said. "Legislators from both parties say he serves very effectively as our state's lieutenant governor.

"I have confidence in Gov. Dewhurst, and expect him to continue serve our state honorably and well."

Grant said his legislative experience in the Texas House included serving 10 years as chairman of the House judiciary committee. He said he has received encouragement to run from Democratic Party leaders across the state, including Bob Gammage, who is running for governor.

Grant said he has known Gammage since they served in the legislature together.

"I feel strongly the Democratic Party needs good, qualified people to run," he said. "I will speak out on the issues and give the people a choice."

Grant said among the biggest obstacles to his candidacy is a lack of name recognition and lack of funding.

"I'm not rich and will have to spend time in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and other big cities doing fund-raising," he said. Grant would not put a figure on what he estimated it will take a Democratic candidate to be viable against Dewhurst in next November's general election.

"I know it's going to take a lot to run a television campaign in the metro areas and that's about the only way you can reach a large portion of those voters," he said.

Grant was the author of a constitutional amendment that gave the courts of appeals criminal jurisdiction.

"At the time, we had only one court hearing all criminal cases in the state," he said. The amendment helped ease a backlog of criminal cases that sometimes stretched out for years in the courts.

He considers himself a lifetime student of history and the law.

Grant said this is not his first statewide run for office. He was seeking a slot on the Texas Supreme Court in 1985 when White appointed him to the Sixth Court of Appeals. Upon that appointment, Grant withdrew from the top court race.

Along with the $3,750 filing fee he sent to Austin Thursday, Grant designated his sister, Romola Greer of Hallsville, as his campaign treasurer.

Contact managing editor Mike Elswick via e-mail at: melswick@coxnews.com; or by phone at (903) 927-5962.