Like the white smoke rising from the conclave of cardinals, the Tweet went out from the Texas House Republican Caucus: "Speaker Straus."

Yup, surprising no-one, the overwhelming bulk of House Republicans backed incumbent Speaker Joe Straus to be re-elected for his second term with the gavel. At the early afternoon meeting in the John H. Reagan building, Straus picked up the votes of 70 of the 101 GOP members. Add on the bulk of the 49 state Democrats, most of whom are now breathing a sigh of relief that neither Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, or Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, won this pre-vote vote, and it seems like his reselection is set.

Cue gnashing of Tea Party teeth and rending of complimentary "Ken Paxton for Speaker" t-shirts. Conservative activists came to Austin to campaign for Paxton and now have to make do with the fact that it's all-you-can-eat catfish day at the Capitol Grill. However, in a sign that the smart kids may realize that the battle is lost, Empower Texans boss Michael Sullivan Tweeted, "Congrats to @speakerstraus for winning GOP caucus vote today." That is, not before he retweeted this gem from Jason Moore of the Permian Basin Citizen Watchdogs: "Next news story should be investigation of lobbyists connected to consultants/ candidates connected to Speaker vote."

Officially, Straus is now just the preferred candidate, so there's still space for a hiccup during the speaker selection process tomorrow. That makes this meeting the ultimate straw poll since, as Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, had already pointed out, a binding vote would quite possibly be unconstitutional.

And what of the two challengers? Bar picking up a last-minute pledge from Rep. Larry Gonzales, R-Round Rock, Chisum's candidacy seems to have slipped into the night. Paxton, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have given up so easily. As of 2.30pm, his official campaign account Tweeted "Support Ken Paxton for Texas Speaker, add a #twibbon now!"

As always, we'll be on the floor tomorrow. Follow our regular blog updates at Newsdesk, keep track of all our coverage at www.austinchronicle.com/legeland, and follow our Tweets via @Legeland. Heck, you can even become our Facebook friend.