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.