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Even the support of celebrity and professional cyclist Lance Armstrong was not enough to save Sen. Rodney Ellis' Senate Bill 544.  Ellis held a memorial service  press conference to mourn announce the death of the statewide smoking ban in public facilities and indoor workplaces after it failed to get enough Senate support.

The announcement comes at the end of a dramatic last minute push over the last two days by Ellis and others, notably Rep. Carol Alvarado who got one bended knee and pleaded with Sen. Mario Gallegos to change his "no" vote.  "If you watch the tape you'll either think I'm a dancer or I was working votes," said Ellis.  "I can assure you, I had very little to dance about."

Yesterday, Ellis said he was at 20 votes in the Senate, just one short of the 21 needed to bring a bill to the floor.  But, things changed between the end of yesterday's floor session and this morning.  "Some of the amendments that I was inclined to take [yesterday] became even more Draconian overnight," he said.  Ellis opted to end the fight rather than "gut the bill to the point where it's almost meaningless." 

Advocacy groups like Smoke Free Texas vows to continue their fight as they look forward to the 2011 session.  "Two years from now, when the Legislature returns," Smoke Free Texas member and government relations director for the Texas High Plains Division of the American Cancer Society James Gray said in a statement, "more states will be smoke-free, more Texas communities will have passed local moke-free ordinances - and thousands more Texans will be ill or dead from secondhand smoke exposure."

Other states are indeed hopping on the smoke-free bandwagon.  Today, North Carolina, which Ellis called "tobacco row if there ever was one," passed their own statewide ban. And though it did not succeed this session, Ellis' bill was able to gain widespread support this session.  According to Ellis, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst put significant effort into brining the bill to the floor.  Rep. Myra Crownover, who was pushing the bill in the House, asserts that there are over 100 supporters in the lower chamber.

With the momentum generated this session and a ramped up campaign over the next two years, Crownover is confident heading into the 82nd Legilsative Sesson and eager to begin the necessary work.  "The next session starts today," she said.