Bob Gammage, former officeholder, dies

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Robert Gammage, a reform-minded Texas lawmaker who was part of the renowned "Dirty Thirty" in the early 1970s and then made an ill-fated run for governor in 2006, died Monday at age 74.

Gammage, who for several years operated a law firm in Austin, represented part of Harris County in the Texas House, the state Senate and in Congress. He also was a state appeals court judge and served on the Texas Supreme for four years in the 1990s.

After being out of the political mix for more than a decade, Gammage made a brief comeback when he ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2006. He ran a freewheeling but low-budget primary before losing to former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell of Houston.

Bell came in second to Republican Rick Perry in a crowded field that included entertainer Kinky Friedman and then-Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn running as independents.

In the Democratic primary, Gammage tried to rekindle the reform spirit that sprang from the Sharpstown banking scandal that rocked the Texas political landscape in the early '70s. He was a group of about House members who had tried to bring new rules to the Legislature.

The loosely formed group was dubbed the "Dirty Thirty" by a lobbyist who asked, "who are are those dirty 30 bastards?"

But by the time Gammage attempted his political comeback, the public's memory of Sharpstown and the reforms enacted in its wake had faded. Gammage finished with less than 30 percent of the vote.