Elizabeth Ames Jones (born October 29, 1956) is a former member of the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas Railroad Commission, the regulatory body over petroleum and natural gas.
From 2000 to 2005, Jones held the District 121 seat from Bexar County in the Texas House. In the Republican primary held on March 14, 2000, she handily ousted incumbent Representative Bill Siebert, who had held the position since 1993. The tabulation was 8,053 votes (66.4 percent) to 4,082 (33.6 percent). At the time she unseated Siebert, Jones was a political unknown from the Alamo Heights section of San Antonio. Siebert's political demise came after his ongoing work as a lobbyist was highlighted by the San Antonio Express-News. An Express-News editorial called upon Republican voters to "clean house and dump" Siebert, whom it called "the local GOP's biggest embarrassment."
Jones was re-elected to the state House in 2002 and 2004. In her second legislative term, she was elected vice chairman of the House Republican Caucus, the first woman in that leadership position.
In January 2005, she stepped down from the legislature to accept an appointment from Governor Rick Perry to fill the vacancy on the Railroad Commission created by the resignation of Charles R. Matthews. Sworn into the office of railroad commissioner on March 2, 2005, Jones became the third woman to serve as chairman in the history of the commission. In 2006, Jones was elected to a full term on the Railroad Commission, having defeated the Democrat Dale Henry of Lampasas, but resigned eleven months before her term expired. Governor Perry then named Buddy Garcia of Austin to fill the remaining months of Jones' term. Garcia stepped down upon the election of Republican Christi Craddick as Jones's elected successor.
In 2008, Jones announced in Bryan, Texas, that she would run for the United States Senate seat expected to be vacated by fellow Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison. On November 7, 2011, however, Jones announced that she was ending her U.S. Senate campaign and instead would run for the District 25 seat in the Texas State Senate against veteran Republican Jeff Wentworth in the Republican primary held on May 29, 2012. With a critical 23,075 votes (30.5 percent), Jones finished in a strong third place in the Senate primary but was eliminated from the runoff election held on July 31, 2012. Incumbent Jeff Wentworth led with 27,040 votes (35.8 percent) and faced a conservative rival, Donna Campbell, a physician who resides in New Braunfells, who polled 25,458 primary votes (33.7 percent). Though Campbell in 2010 had lost the general election to incumbent Democrat Lloyd Doggett for Texas's 25th congressional district seat, she rebounded to victory by a two-to-one margin over Wentworth in the state Senate primary runoff.
Famous quotes containing the word jones:
“Men’s hearts are cold. They are indifferent. Not all the coal that is dug warms the world. It remains indifferent to the lives of those who risk their life and health down in the blackness of the earth; who crawl through dark, choking crevices with only a bit of lamp on their caps to light their silent way; whose backs are bent with toil, whose very bones ache, whose happiness is sleep, and whose peace is death.”
—Mother Jones (1830–1930)