Sen. Jim Ellis Will Not Seek a Third Term

Sen. Jim Ellis (R-San Diego), a low-key but stalwart member of the Senate’s bloc of conservative Republicans since 1980, announced Tuesday that he will retire rather than seek reelection to a third term in the Legislature’s upper house.

Ellis, 59, said he decided to step down because he had gradually lost enthusiasm for the job during the past year.

“Politicians have a phrase for it--fire in the belly,” Ellis said. “I guess the fire just went out, and I don’t know why.”

Ellis, a former Navy pilot, said he began to lose interest in the Legislature sometime last summer. He thought he might catch the political bug again when the Legislature reconvened in January for the second half of the current session, he said, but that did not happen.

“You’ve got to have it going pretty good in this line of work,” he said.

Although he is considered one of the Senate’s more conservative members, Ellis has never been known as a fiery orator or as the sponsor of major legislation advancing his ideological agenda. He has generally taken a low-key approach, pursuing issues on behalf of his constituents, while voting consistently with the right wing of the GOP on legislation affecting social programs and fiscal matters.

His successor in the predominantly Republican district is expected to be Assemblyman Larry Stirling (R-San Diego), who said Tuesday that he is “leaning heavily” toward running for the Senate seat.

“There would have to be a pretty good reason for me not to run,” Stirling said.

Although Stirling said he does not expect to announce his intentions for a “couple of days,” a spokeswoman for the San Diego County registrar of voters reported that Stirling filed papers Tuesday afternoon declaring his intention to run for the Senate.

Ellis’s 39th Senate District, which includes much of rural east San Diego County, as well as Ramona, El Cajon, La Mesa and parts of the cities of San Diego and Coronado, appears to be safely in Republican hands. Of 365,556 registered voters, 180,380, or 49.3%, are Republicans, while 138,497, or 37.9%, are Democrats.

Republicans would also be expected to have little trouble holding onto Stirling’s 77th Assembly District seat, where there are 88,838 registered Republicans, or 50.3% of the 176,447 voters. Democrats in the district number 65,980, or 37.4%.