A. R. Schwartz - Texas Legislature

Texas Legislature

As a legislator, he specialized in legislation to protect the environment and manage the resources of coastal areas, and earned a reputation as a fiery liberal speaker and a wit. In Molly Ivins's book "Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?," Ivins referred to Schwartz as a "white-maned pixie" and called him one of the legislature's "excellent orators." Reporter Patricia Kilday Hart referred to Schwartz in the Houston Chronicle "as one of the most liberal, yellow-dog Democrats ever to serve in the Texas Legislature." In "," Jay Dunston Milner referred to Schwartz, along with Bob Eckhardt, John Henry Faulk, Maury Maverick, Jr. and others, as being among those in the 1960s who "fought the good fight against the Philistines. They lost most of the time, of course--the Philistines were in the majority. But they won a skirmish here and a point there, anyway, which was better than nothing." Texas Monthly took note, stating that during the sixties and seventies, the best entertainment the Capitol had to offer was the oratory of Galveston senator A. R. "Babe" Schwartz. Schwartz was also named one of the "Ten Best Legislators" by Texas Monthly four times. The first time, in 1973, the magazine called him "the most complex, remarkable man in the Senate" and "one of the most consistently influential members." As a legislator, Schwartz was known for his spirited feuds, in particular with fellow state senators William T. "Bill" Moore of Bryan, called "the Bull of the Brazos" and William Neff Patman, son of former U.S. Representative Wright Patman. In a dispute with Hilmar Moore, the longtime mayor of Richmond, Texas, over Moore's appointment to the state's Public Welfare Board, Schwartz said, “You can have that job over my dead body.” Moore replied, “Senator, I can’t think of any other way I’d rather have it.”

In the 1979 legislative session he helped lead the "Killer Bees," a group of state senators who brought the legislature to a standstill by going into hiding and breaking the Senate quorum. During his tenure as a lawmaker, he served on every major committee of the legislature, and served as the chairman of the Rules, Jurisprudence and Natural Resources Committees.

Schwartz was defeated in the 1980 election by Republican J. E. "Buster" Brown, a candidate who was recruited by then 29-year-old Karl Rove, who was working at the time for Texas governor Bill Clements. Since his defeat, Schwartz has worked as a lobbyist. Decades after his defeat, however, he remains a newsworthy figure: the Galveston County Daily News, in November 2007, published a story on one of its blogs stating that the "legendary Texas lawmaker" had not, in fact, died. Schwartz has continued to work with the legislature. In October 2008, he was appointed to the House Select Committee on Hurricane Ike Storm Devastation to the Texas Gulf Coast by the then-Speaker of the House, Tom Craddick, as the committee's public member.