With more than 18 years of Mesquite City Council experience under his belt, including the last 10 as mayor, Mike Anderson announced Wednesday that he was resigning to run for the Texas House of Representatives.

Mr. Anderson, 51, intends to take on state Rep. Thomas Latham in the Republican primary in March for the 101^st District seat.

Mr. Anderson lost to Democrat Dale Tillery by 1 percentage point in a race to represent District 105 in November 1994. He said Wednesday that there were several reasons he decided run again in 2008: his accomplishments as mayor, a feeling that Austin was increasingly taking away local control from cities and schools, and the fact that several people asked him to.

"I think it was more of people coming to me in the latter part of the spring, in the early part of the summer, and urging me to run," Mr. Anderson said. "There were some disappointments in the last legislative session that made some people come to me for their reasons. But more importantly, there were others who just said, ‘It’s time. You’ve been mayor for 10 years; it’s time to go to Austin.’ That’s very humbling, when you have people come to you like that."

Mr. Anderson is the second-longest-serving mayor in Mesquite, after Bedford Galloway, for whom a Mesquite thoroughfare is named. Before his decade as mayor, Mr. Anderson served on the council from 1986 to 1994.

He intends to make his formal announcement at Monday's City Council meeting. The council would elect a new mayor at a future meeting; there is no deadline by which it must vote. The council-elected mayor would serve until a new mayor is elected in May. If the council were to choose one of its members as mayor, then it would also elect someone to fill the vacated council seat. That seat would also have to go up for election in May.

Because of that, as many as five City Council seats could be up for election in May: the seats held by Stan Pickett, David Paschall and Shirley Roberts, plus the newly appointed mayor and council member.

In a statement, Mr. Anderson cited his work with the City Council in establishing a citizens police academy, setting a tax ceiling for senior citizens, planting 2,000 trees by the year 2000, initiating the Addressing Mesquite neighborhood improvement program, and improving the city's finances and bond rating.

Mr. Paschall, who as mayor pro tem runs council meetings during the mayor's absence, said, "I think one of Mike’s greatest successes is his leadership qualities -- as far as being able to lead the council, smooth over differences, maintain consensus, Mike’s done a wonderful job. I’d put that at the top of the list."