Bill Dingus, the Democrat hoping to challenge House Speaker Tom Craddick in November, quit the Midland City Council to make a run for statehouse possible.

Dingus isn't eligible to run for the state job while he's on the city council. A federal judge stated that in a ruling last week without actually ordering Dingus off the ballot.

Dingus blamed the state GOP for forcing him to give up the city job, by forcing the Democrats into court to test his eligibility.

His lawyer, Renee Hicks of Austin, says the resignation should cure the problem. He's reading state law to say the problem is that the terms of the offices would overlap; by resigning, Dingus puts that to rest.

Other lawyers have told us that's only the first step, that Dingus has to get off the council and off the ballot, then winning approval from party officials in the House district's five counties. They're charged with naming his replacement once he's off the ticket, and there's apparently no law against replacing him with his own self.

Hicks says "there's a very good chance this will end up in court." And he's hoping that's relatively quick, so that Dingus and the Democrats can get on the ballot "and the voters will be able to have a real choice on Election Day."

He wrote an open letter to the citizens of Midland blaming the Republican Party for challenging his eligibility. He ended it like this: "I thank you, good citizens of Midland, for the honor of serving as your City Councilman. God willing, I will serve you again."