Eliot Shapleigh (born November 11, 1952) is an American

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

. He served in the

Texas Senate The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 806,000 per co ...

from 1997 to 2011, from the 29th district, which is in El Paso County.

Community involvement

Unite El Paso

In 1992, Shapleigh co-founded an organization called Unite El Paso with other progressive activists. The organization seeks to raise the per capita income in El Paso.

Texas Senate career

Legislative record

In 2006, Shapleigh authored " Jennifer's Law", a law that permits school districts to award posthumous diplomas to students who die during their senior year of high school. The bill was named after Jennifer Ann Crecente.

El Paso Economic Summit

Soon thereafter, Shapleigh, County Attorney José Rodriguez, Woody Hunt, Robert Brown, John Montford, and others joined in discussions about how best to establish the medical school and which institution should carry the mission forward. As a result, the

Texas Tech University System The Texas Tech University System is a state university system in Texas consisting of five universities in the state of Texas, of which three are general-academic universities, Texas Tech University, Angelo State University and Midwestern State U ...

Board of Regents made establishing a four-year medical school in El Paso an important goal of the System. Over the coming legislative sessions, incremental progress was made in establishing the state's ninth medical school and first since 1977. In 2009, the first new medical students at El Paso's medical school began their studies at the campus. The El Paso Medical School was the first new medical school to be established in the U.S. in 30 years.

ASARCO

Shapleigh led the opposition to the reopening of an

ASARCO Asarco LLC (American Smelting and Refining Company) is a mining, smelting, and refining company based in Tucson, Arizona, which mines and processes primarily copper. The company has been a subsidiary of Grupo México since 1999. Its three la ...

-operated copper smelter, which had been located near downtown

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

since 1887. The smelter, which had been shut down in 1999 due to low copper prices, filed to renew their air permit application with the

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is the environmental agency for the state of Texas. The commission's headquarters are located at 12100 Park 35 Circle in Austin. The fourth largest environmental agency in the United States (an ...

in 2002. Joined by leaders from across the three-state, two-nation region, Shapleigh and hundreds of activists from El Paso, Juarez, and New Mexico placed pressure on the corporation to justify putting over 7,000 tons of new pollutants into El Paso's air. After eight years, the

TCEQ The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is the environmental agency for the state of Texas. The commission's headquarters are located at 12100 Park 35 Circle in Austin. The fourth largest environmental agency in the United States ( ...

Commissioners granted the permit on a 3-0 vote. The Environmental Protection Agency soon intervened, however, citing deficiencies with the permitting process and ASARCO's air control equipment. As a result, ASARCO announced that the El Paso smelter would not reopen. As of July 2009, it appears the smelter property will be placed in an environmental remediation trust so that it may be cleaned up using funding obtained via

's bankruptcy.

Political future

Shapleigh announced on October 16, 2009, that he would not run for re-election in 2010. When asked if he will run for another office, he indicated that he is undecided, though suggested he would not run for Congress. State Senator

Juan Hinojosa Juan Jesus "Chuy" Hinojosa (born March 7, 1946) is a Democratic member of the Texas Senate representing the 20th District ( Corpus Christi–McAllen). Biographical information Born in McAllen, Texas, Hinojosa was a farm worker who worked his ...

suggested that Shapleigh might run for governor.

Election history

Election history of District 29 from 1992.Uncontested primary elections are not shown.

Most recent election

2006

Previous elections

2002

2000

1996

Notes

External links

Project Vote Smart - Senator Eliot Shapleigh (TX)
profile *''Follow the Money'' - Eliot Shapleigh
2006200420022000
campaign contributions {{DEFAULTSORT:Shapleigh, Eliot 1952 births Living people Texas state senators Rice University alumni People from El Paso, Texas University of Texas School of Law alumni Peace Corps volunteers 21st-century American politicians