Don Zimmerman Explores Texas Lege Run

Don Zimmerman sans trademark fedora in 2016 (Photo by John Anderson)

Former Austin City Council Member Don Zimmerman, whose brief tenure as an elected official was but a fraction of his long career as a conservative anti-tax zealot, announced on Easter weekend that he's aiming to run for the Texas Legislature in 2020. In a long Facebook post where he frames his political journey in the light of the Resurrection – we are not joking – Zimmerman says that if GOP ex-Rep. Paul Workman isn't going to reclaim the House District 47 seat he lost to Vikki Goodwin in November, and if Zimmerman's former Council colleague Ellen Troxclair isn't going to take up the wingnut mantle, then boy howdy, he's gonna have to do it himself. "While my conservative, liberty leaning record has been clear and consistent, it is up to my supporters and the voters at large to decide what brand of representation they want (and need) at the Texas Capitol," Zimmerman told his friends and fans. He also noted that his defining efforts – opposition to all tax increases ever, to affordable housing and health care, and to transit "boondoggles" – will be "far more effective from a seat in the Texas Legislature," which is probably true but didn't help Workman much. Though Zimmerman notes he's lived at the same address since 2000, his Northwest Austin digs used to be in HD 50, where he ran unsuccessfully in the GOP primary in 2006 against then-Rep. Mark Strama.