Joe Driver (born September 29, 1946 in
Rockwall,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
) is a
Republican politician from the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of Texas. From 1993 to 2013, he represented the 113th district in the
Texas House of Representatives
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abou ...
, a seat that he initially won in the 1992 elections.
He served on the House committees on (1) Appropriations and (2) Public Safety. He was a leading
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
in the legislature who sponsored bills to allow
concealed carry
Concealed carry, or carrying a concealed weapon (CCW), is the practice of carrying a weapon (usually a sidearm such as a handgun), either in proximity to or on one's person or in public places in a manner that hides or conceals the weapon's pr ...
on college campuses and generally favored lowering taxes over government expenditures.
On August 16, 2010, Driver admitted to billing the Texas House for certain expenses for which he had already been reimbursed by his own campaign fund.
[Dallas Morning News
''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the '' Galvest ...]
of abuse in his official capacity as a state lawmaker as a consequence of the double-billing. He was fined $5,000 and given five years'
. The maximum penalty for the crime is ten years in prison plus a $10,000 fine. Driver's
allowed him to keep his voting rights in the legislature, avoid being a convicted felon, and to collect his state retirement of $57,000 a year when he retired as a legislator in 2013.
He did not seek re-nomination in 2012, and the seat was handily won by the outgoing District 101 representative, Republican