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.