‘Powerful progressive’ known for wit, artistry, integrity as lawmaker, jurist
Neil Caldwell was a member of the “Dirty Thirty,” a bipartisan group that helped oust a scandal-plagued Texas House speaker in 1971, before Caldwell moved on to become a longtime district judge in Angleton and the state artist of Texas.
Known for a sharp, plain-spoken wit and a strong streak of idealism during his time in office, Caldwell died Tuesday morning at age 88 at his home outside of Angleton after entering hospice care for liver cancer, said his wife, Mary Lou Caldwell. Services and his burial at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin have not yet been scheduled, she said.
“Neil Caldwell was extraordinary — a powerful progressive voice, later a distinguished jurist and always a man of principle,” said U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin. “He courageously stood up against corruption and for fair play, protection of our natural resources, working people and civil rights. He not only drew some great cartoons, he left a truly positive mark on Texas.”
Caldwell, a lawyer and liberal Democrat from Alvin near the Texas coast, was elected to the Texas House in 1960 and spent his first 11 years as a gadfly supporter of the little guy but lost more battles than he won.
Then the Sharpstown stock fraud scandal erupted in 1971, implicating Speaker Gus Mutscher in a bribery investigation involving deals set up by Frank Sharp, a Houston banking and development mogul. Caldwell drafted a resolution to force Mutscher to speak out about profits he had made in deals with Sharp, and, although the measure failed, the vote earned Caldwell and 29 others on the losing side a nickname they wore with honor: the Dirty Thirty.
Mutscher lost his election in 1972 and was later convicted of bribery-conspiracy, and the 1973 legislative session began with a mandate for reform and with Caldwell in a new position of power: chairman of the influential Appropriations Committee, where the teetotaler who chewed cigars but never smoked them helped draft