Straus Or Chisum For Tx House Speaker ?

Back in January of 2009, the Texas House of Representatives removed Speaker Craddick from his long-time role as House tyrant.   They were able to do this because the Democrats controlled nearly half of the Texas House.   They didn't have the votes to put a Democrat in the Speaker position, but with only a few Republican votes they had enough power to replace  Craddick with a moderate and much fairer Republican -- Joe Straus (R-San Antonio).

The House in 2011 looks a lot different.   A passel of House Democrats were defeated last Tuesday, and now the House division stands at 99 Republicans and 51 Democrats -- instead of the previous 77 Republicans and 73 Democrats.   The question that immediately comes to mind is whether moderate Republican Joe Straus can retain his position as House Speaker.

The choice won't be made until the first day of the legislative session in January of 2011 (the Texas Legislature only meets once every two years in an odd-numbered year).   And Straus does have some competition.   A few weeks before the election, Panhandle representative Warren Chisum (R-Pampa) announced he is seeking the Speaker position.

After the election was over and it was known there will be 22 new right-wing Republicans in the Texas House, Chisum was quick to remind everyone that he still wants the position.   He seems to think that many new Republicans gives him a chance to oust Speaker Straus.   Chisum is a Bible-thumping far right-winger who is angry with Straus because of his fairness -- even with Democrats.

Speaker Straus has already released a list of 122 House members who say they will vote for his re-election as Speaker (and he only needs 76 votes).   At least one Republican has changed his mind so far -- Rep. Bill Zedler (R-Arlington) says his name shouldn't be on that list.   Will Straus lose enough more votes to cost him the speakership?

I doubt it.   He already has 51 Democratic votes he can count on (since no Democrat would dare vote for extremist Warren Chisum).   That means Straus only needs 25 Republican votes and he will keep the job.   He should be able to do that easily.

Another thing that makes me think he probably won't have a problem keep the speakership is  the view of some Panhandle and West Texas representatives.   Walter Price of Amarillo, John Smithee of Amarillo and John Frullo of Lubbock have all said they will honor their promise to support Straus.   If Chisum can't even get the support of reps in the districts closest to him, how is he going to get enough support to win?

I think Straus will be able to win and retain his position as Texas House Speaker.   But Texas is a weird state and strange things have happened in the past, so we'll have to wait until January to see what happens.