A Tough Year For Warren Chisum

It's been a tough year for the Panhandle's far right-wing fundamentalist nut-job, Warren Chisum. For years now he has been representing the Texas Panhandle in the Texas House of Representatives, and there were those who said he had a lot of power in Austin. But it doesn't look like he swings as much weight there as he thought he did.

He started off the year by running to replace the sitting Speaker of the House, Joe Straus (R-SanAntonio). He said Straus was too moderate to serve a second term as House Speaker. He was evidently wrong about that, as it only took one ballot for Straus to be re-elected.

Then redistricting came around, and the population shift in Texas from rural to urban dictated that the West Texas/Panhandle would lose a state house seat. It became obvious early on that the lost seat would probably be Chisum's, and that turned out to be true. His district was melded into the district of Rep. Landtroop (R-Plainview).

Chisum still thought he could turn the bowl of lemons he had been handed into a pitcher of lemonade though. He decided he would take a state elected position. Michael Williams had resigned from the Texas Railroad Commission to run for the U.S. Senate (and now has changed his mind and is running for a newly created U.S. House seat). Chisum made it known that he wanted Williams' seat on the Railroad Commission (which controls oil and gas production in the state).

But Chisum wasn't as well liked in Austin as he thought. Governor Rick Perry passed him over for the Railroad Commission job, appointing instead the current chairman of the Public Utility Commission, Barry Smitherman. And as the incumbent, it is unlikely that Smitherman could be beat by Chisum in the next election.

But Chisum is nothing if not stubborn. He now says he will run for a different seat on the Railroad Commission -- the seat currently occupied by Elizabeth Ames Jones. Jones has said she will probably resign the seat to run for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Kay Bailey Hutchison. The way Chisum's luck has been running, Jones will probably come to her senses and realize she stands no chance of being elected to that seante seat and decide to keep her seat on the Railroad Commission.

I hope so anyway. Texas would be better served if Warren Chisum didn't hold any elected office in the state. Jones may be bad, but Chisum would be even worse.