Ron Kirk is one of the most popular and richest Lawyer who was born on June 27, 1954 in Austin, Texas, United States. Kirk was reelected mayor of Dallas with 74% of the vote in 1999. One incident occurred in the campaign: a radio campaign ad used Star Trek music and called Kirk the “captain” of the Dallas Enterprise. It cited the city’s bond program and the new sports arena as well as new roads. Paramount lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to the advertiser.
During his tenure as mayor, Kirk earned the reputation of being a coalition-builder, managing to keep the always-tumultuous Dallas City Council and Dallas School Board together. Under his leadership, he proposed the “Dallas Plan”, a vision for the next 25 years, which included the controversial Trinity River Project, a $246 million plan that called for constructing a network of parks and privately owned toll roads in the flood plain of the Trinity River. He also pushed the construction of the American Airlines Center, whose opening he oversaw in 2002.
As a supporter of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), his selection drew criticism from opponents of free trade policies. His nomination ran into further controversy when it was revealed that he owed $9,975 in back taxes. As compensation for speeches he gave from 2004 to the present, he had $37,750 of payments made directly to a scholarship fund at Austin College. Kirk should have included the $37,750 payments with his gross income and then claimed a charitable deduction for the same amount. Kirk also claimed deductions for three years of season tickets to the Dallas Mavericks as qualifying entertainment expenses. In order to claim a qualifying entertainment expense, the Internal Revenue Service requires written documentation of the time, place, business purpose, name, and business relationship of the person being entertained, records that Kirk did not keep for almost half of the basketball games. Kirk’s deductions for tax and accounting fees were also too large.
Kirk was born in Austin, Texas. He is a graduate of Austin’s John H. Reagan High School and Austin College. Kirk was Secretary of Texas from 1994 to 1995. He was elected Mayor of Dallas in 2002. He was the first African American to hold these positions. In 2002, he ran for the United States Senate but was defeated by John Cornyn, his Republican opponent. Kirk was a partner in the Houston-based law company Vinson & Elkins, and a lobbyist for Energy Future Holdings (and Merrill Lynch) after his defeat.
Kirk was Secretary of State for Texas in 1994 as Secretary of Texas for Governor Ann Richards. Kirk ran for Dallas mayor in the following year. Kirk won 62 percent of all votes in 1995, thanks to the support of Dallas’ African American community and the Dallas business community.
In 2002, Kirk resigned as mayor of Dallas in order to run for the Senate seat vacated by retiring Republican Phil Gramm. Facing then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn; Kirk lost with 43 percent of the vote to Cornyn’s 55 percent.
