Naked City

State Senator Gonzalo Barrientos (Photo By Alan Pogue)

Although it's not particularly high on the MSNBC radar, the state Senate's pending selection of the next lieutenant governor is one of the dominoes awaiting an eventual nudge from the presidential election. If George W. Bush is indeed The One, current Lite Guv Rick Perry will move to the Governor's Mansion, and the Senate will elect his successor. You might think the Democrats, currently at a 16-15 disadvantage, wouldn't have much to say about the process. Instead -- since most of the Republicans seem to have declared themselves candidates for the position -- the Dems could effectively hold a veto, if they can stick together.

That may be a big "if," says Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin, although thus far the line is holding. The Dems caucused just before Thanksgiving, Barrientos told the Chronicle, and voted to hold their fire and keep their votes "uncommitted ... until there is a vacancy." When the position is open, the Dems plan to interview the prospective candidates and make their judgments at that time. Asked if that meant they would wait until the last shoe (or lawsuit) fell in D.C. and Florida, Barrientos replied that the Dems intend to wait "until and if Vice-President Al Gore concedes."

Acknowledging that might be a while, Barrientos added that it may be a struggle keeping all 15 votes together, because each senator has his or her own agenda, and "everybody's human." (It should also be noted that, even under the best of circumstances, the Senate Democratic Caucus is hardly a unified cadre -- Brownsville's Eddie Lucio, San Antonio's Frank Madla, and Victoria's Ken Armbrister are distinguished primarily by their absence from caucus meetings.)

The Republicans said to be already campaigning for the job to one degree or another include David Sibley of Waco, Bill Ratliff (Mount Pleasant), Teel Bivins (Amarillo), Buster Brown (Lake Jackson), and Jeff Wentworth (San Antonio). Barrientos said that should the time come, the various contenders will be summoned to be interviewed about several matters: whether they'll run statewide in 2002; whether they'll continue the tradition of bipartisan committee chairs and the two-thirds rule (which requires the consent of two-thirds of the Senate to bring pending legislation to the floor); and perhaps most importantly this year, "whether they are committed to a fair and bipartisan redistricting process."

One insider political theory making the rounds is that it would be in the Dems' interest to support a particularly ambitious Republican (e.g., Sibley or Wentworth), someone who might be inclined to take on Land Commissioner David Dewhurst or Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander in 2002, both expected to make a run at the lite governorship -- theoretically softening the ground for a Democratic challenger. On the other hand, Brown or Ratliff, with presumably less personal interest at stake, might be considered more willing to compromise on Democratic legislation. A wilder card is lukewarm Democrat Armbrister's oh-so-demure willingness to be drafted as a "compromise" candidate -- especially if, as Barrientos says may happen in this "wide-open ball game," the ballots go to "two or three or 10 or 15 rounds."

Senate Democratic consultant Harold Cook said the current hope in the Senate (at least for the moment on both sides of the aisle) is to try to remain as bipartisan as possible, primarily because this is a redistricting year. "Redistricting is a cold-blooded, full-contact sport," said Cook, "and more important to the legislative players than to the voters. Because it's bound to get tense, they are trying their best to keep it bipartisan, at least at this time." Lately, Cook added, Democrats have seemed even more concerned about the secretary of the Senate -- "they wanted to make certain that position did not become politicized." (Popular Senate secretary Betty King, who had announced her retirement, has been persuaded to stay on through June, while working with designated successor Patsy Spaw.) As for the prospects of the Lite Guv candidates themselves, Cook laughed, "I've never met a Texas politician who didn't plan on being governor someday."

Whether the current amicable spirit can last -- and whether the Democrats can hold their caucus while senators continue to wait for the final presidential results -- remains to be seen. The candidates are said to be gathering private commitments "in the hallways," and some of the coats being pulled are undoubtedly worn by Democrats. "Cada cabeza es un mundo," said Barrientos, reciting an old Spanish proverb. "Every mind is its own world ... And it's a free country. The arm-twisting goes on."