Chisum Would Rob Dems Of A Vote For Speaker

The continuing political embarrassment to the Texas Panhandle, State Rep. Warren Chisum (pictured Above), has declared his candidacy for the speakership of the Texas House of Representatives.   It seems he doesn't like the current Speaker, Rep. Joe Straus of San Antonio.   He doesn't like Straus for two reasons -- Straus is fair-minded and will let even Democrats have their say in the House, and Straus is Jewish.

Chisum can't abide a Jew being Speaker of the House because Chisum is a right-wing fundamentalist christian who believes all Texans should be forced to believe as he does.   He's even gone so far as to try and mandate all Texas school children be required to take a Bible course (which he would have allowed to be taught by christian fundamentalist ministers).   Fortunately, he didn't get that approved -- the course is now an elective which no one is required to take, and must be taught by a qualified teacher.

But it still irks Chisum that the Speaker is Jewish, and it irks him even more that the Speaker would treat Democrats fairly.   In Chisum's opinion only right-wing speeches and bills should be allowed on the floor of the Texas House.   To accomplish this, he is running for election as Speaker.

But evidently he has learned how to count (or someone on his staff figured this out for him), because he has realized that if a vote is taken on the House floor for speaker when the new legislative session starts, and Straus is a candidate, then Chisum is sure to lose.   This is because every Democrat will vote for Straus, and although there are only about 49 of them, that would give Straus a good head start.   He would then need only 27 Republicans to vote for him (out of 101 total Republicans).

So Chisum has decided to deny Democrats a voice in who the new Speaker is, and have the choice of the new Speaker made in a Republican caucus.   He is hoping there are enough fringe right-wingers in the caucus to give him (or fellow right-winger Rep. Paxton) the nod over Straus.   Then the Republicans would put forward only one candidate on the floor of the House (instead of the current three candidates) and the Democrats would have to accept whoever the Republican caucus chose.

It is a sneaky, unfair and undemocratic move (since it immediately removes 49 Straus votes), but a legal one.   Chisum just needed 10 signatures to call for a caucus of Republicans, and he has gotten 9 of his cohorts to sign on to the request.   So now it looks like the Speaker of the Texas House will now be chosen in a Republican caucus rather than in a meeting of the entire House.   This should make it obvious to everyone that Chisum would not be a fair and impartial Speaker.

Will Chisum be successful in replacing the current Speaker?   Speaker Straus doesn't think so.   He says,   "Generally, I'm not opposed to the caucus meeting.   In fact, I can tell you as I stand here today, I have a supermajority of the Republican caucus who supports me so I have no fear about that."

I hope Speaker Straus is right, because he is by far the best choice of the three speaker candidates.   But I've lived in Texas too long to trust the word of Republican politicians.   We'll just have to wait and see candidate the Republican caucus sends to the House floor.

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.

Smithee Enters Race (Too Late)

It looks like the far right-wing underestimated the depth of opposition to their candidate for Speaker, Bob Craddick. Craddick had served three terms and seemed to have an uncanny ability to overcome any opposition to his election. The far-right element in the party evidently thought he could overcome any opposition again, but it's just not going to happen this time.

Sunday night, Craddick met with his supporters and it became obvious that there just weren't enough of them this time. He bowed to the inevitable and told his supporters he will withdraw his name from consideration. His dictatorial reign is finally over.

But what was the right-wing to do. They couldn't accept Rep. Joe Straus. After all, he's a moderate who listens to both sides of a question. The right-wingers can't have that because they are convinced that every question only has one side -- theirs.

So many of them talked Amarillo Rep. John Smithee (pictured) into tossing his hat into the ring. They thought maybe a nicer version of Craddick could save the day, and they could keep their stranglehold on the House. And it might have worked if they had done it a couple of weeks ago.

But right now it looks like too little too late. I'm sure they be trying to twist arms for the next week or so, but I think most of them really believe it's futile. Even the Panhandle's looniest legislator, Warren Chisum, admitted as much, when he told an Austin news crew "It's over.".

The fact is that Rep. Joe Straus already has as many as 94 public commitments, and he only needs 76 to win the speakership. I don't think there's any way the right-wing can peel off enough votes to elect Smithee.

This race is all over except for the shouting, and the shouting starts in a few days.

UPDATE -- Capitol Annex is reporting that Smithee has withdrawn from the speaker's race.

Burnam Will Support Straus For Speaker

There are now 74 Democrats in the 150 seat Texas House of Representatives, and I'm sure most of them are reps that all Democrats can be proud of. But there is one who has long been my favorite -- Rep. Lon Burnam of Fort Worth. Rep. Burnam, who has been in the Texas House since 1997, is not just a Democrat, but a true progressive who has never been afraid to speak the truth about our corporate Republican power structure.

To his credit, Rep. Burnam has never voted for current Speaker Bob Craddick. In fact, he has never supported any Republican for the speaker's position. But it looks like that is fixing to change. Burnam has just announced that he is supporting, and will be voting for, San Antonio Republican Rep. Joe Straus (pictured) to be the next Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.

Rep. Burnam said Rep. Straus "is a really nice guy", and that he has worked closely with him on energy conservation and alternative energy. He said, "He understands that issue better than any other Republican in the House. He's one of the nicest Republicans I've ever met."

Tarrant County Democratic Representatives Marc Veasey and Paula Pierson are also throwing their support behind Rep. Straus. They say he is a conservative, but is always willing to listen to the other side. Pierson believes Straus now has the support of 64 of the 74 Democrats in the House, and possibly more.

Personally, I would like to see a Democrat as speaker. But until they are the majority, that isn't going to happen. So the next best thing is to get Craddick replaced with a Republican who will be fair.

If Lon Burnam says that person is Rep. Straus, that's good enough for me. The important thing is to defeat Craddick.