AUSTIN (AP) - Rep. Ron Wilson is known around the Texas Capitol for his leather jackets, his fondness for Lamborghinis and his maverick political views.

These days the Houston legislator also is seen as a go-to Democrat for Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick. As part of Craddick's leadership team, Wilson was tapped as one of five House members -- and the only House Democrat -- to serve on a conference committee negotiating congressional redistricting with the Senate.

Wilson "probably knows more about redistricting than most of the people on the House floor," Craddick said.

A lawyer who represents celebrities and does some criminal defense work, Wilson, now 50, was elected to the Texas House in 1977. He has shrewd knowledge of parliamentary rules. And he doesn't seem to care what others think of his legislative agenda, whether it's pressing for private school vouchers or trying to lower the voting age to 16.

One of his proudest moments, he said, was working for passage of the Texas lottery in 1991 after several attempts. The state needed revenue, and the lottery was a voluntary tax, helping Texas avoid a state income tax, Wilson said.

With redistricting, Wilson said, his goal is to create an additional congressional seat that can be won by a black candidate, although he said he has no plans to run himself.

"I couldn't afford the pay cut, quite frankly," Wilson quipped.

He says he would prefer electing one black Democrat instead of two white Democrats who don't truly serve minority interests. "With almost any minority district you can create two Anglo Democrat districts if you split (it) up," he said.

Wilson shrugs off criticism from fellow Democrats who say he's selling out. He has held his position on redistricting for years, even when Democrats controlled the Legislature, he said.

"I have offered plans to that effect, but nobody paid any attention," he said. "So I was a little fly in the ointment so to speak, and I'm laughing now."

Other Democrats aren't amused.

Wilson doesn't speak for Democrats or black Texans, said Rep. Garnet Coleman, a fellow Houston Democrat. Coleman said Wilson represents "moneyed interests," not average voters.

"People are very clear about this now in Houston. They understand where Ron Wilson stands," Coleman said. "He's alone. And he's alone because his view is not what his constituents want nor is it what Texans want. His view is what Tom Craddick wants."

Craddick selected Wilson as one of a group of black and Hispanic Democrats to join his Republican leadership circle when Craddick took over as House speaker in January as the state's first GOP speaker in 130 years. He named Wilson to chair the House Ways and Means Committee, where tax bills must originate.

All year Craddick and Wilson have appeared together as a friendly, but odd, couple -- Craddick with his reserved, businesslike West Texas demeanor versus the outgoing, sunglasses-wearing Wilson who enjoys hip-hop music.

Wilson's commitment to the Republican leader became more evident in May, when 51 House Democrats fled to Ardmore, Okla., to break a quorum and kill a redistricting bill in the regular legislative session.

Wilson was among the few who stayed in Austin with the Republicans. GOP lawmakers want more Republicans in Congress to reflect the state's conservative voting trends. Most Democrats want to keep existing district boundaries under which their party holds a 17-15 advantage in the state's congressional delegation.

The House Democrats' boycott, and the one later by Democratic senators who traveled to Albuquerque, N.M., to break a quorum, did irreparable damage to the bipartisan spirit in both chambers, Wilson said.

"By running off to Ardmore and running off to Albuquerque, even though it has a certain Don Quixote-like romantic aura around it, all that does is prolong the inevitable," he said. "It was never a question of if the redistricting bill would pass. It was a question of when."

"Do you stand on the railroad track and try to stop the train or do you try to get some of your people on the train and not get run over?" he said.

Wilson said in most cases -- and redistricting is one of them -- it's best to work from the inside to wield influence. His constituents understand that, he said.

"I'm pretty simple," he said. "I tell them the truth. I don't lie. This is not a popularity contest for me."