So the speaker race has seemingly settled between Speaker Joe Straus and Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney. Now both Young Conservatives of Texas and Texans for Fiscal Responsibility have sent stern warnings to members that they will take speaker votes into account when calculating their legislative score cards. Now let’s see if lawmakers care.
This is the latest stage in attempts to make a part of House business into a toy in the ongoing GOP power struggle between the fringe right and, well, most of the House. It comes just as the Texas Pastor Council and the Houston Area Pastor Council say they want a “true Christian speaker” and a “pro-life speaker” (winger shorthand for “Not Joe Straus.”)
Now Tea Party groups are threatening to head to the legislature en masse on Monday, in an attempt to (hopefully metaphorically) strong arm the House Republican Caucus meeting. The GOP is hoping to thrash out the speaker battle before the 82nd Legislature starts on Tuesday, or at least bring some semblance of party unity before the first gavel strike. If the (generally) pro-Paxton wrecking crew gets its way, that might not be as easy as its sounds.
The most interesting part of this story may well be a simple sin of omission, but that’s not likely. When Texans for Fiscal Responsibility waved their rankings big stick, a vote for Paxton means a positive score, and a vote for Straus means a negative score. So what about poor old Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa?
The former lieutenant to ex-speaker Tom Craddick looked for a while like the establishment conservatives’ speaker candidate of choice, and he filed his paperwork back in November. Some are now muttering that his candidacy was less about the speaker’s gavel and more about the chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee.
And how much impact does this kind of out-of-chamber think tank pressure really have on members? Back in 2008, the Texas Eagle Forum threw its weight firmly behind Craddick. Don’t recall that working out too well for them.
The reality is that all this fuss is about the Tea Party attempting to install Paxton as speaker, and nothing more. Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, showed that even old-school conservative GOPers may not be so easily swayed by the right wing mob or the think tanks that issue state rep rankings. In a letter to fundamentalist extremist Donna Garner, Miller noted that “legislative score cards are not an accurate reflection of conservative success in the Texas House.”
Adding that he was tired of the scurrilous and fact-free attacks on the “vast majority of Republican State Representatives and Representatives-Elect who support [Straus’] re-election,” Miller went on to make his own pointed political attack. Back in 2003, when Miller backed Craddick, Ken “More conservative than thou” Paxton put his weight between his fellow Collin County GOPer, moderate and future member of the Craddick-slaying/Straus-boosting Gang of 11, Brian McCall.
This article appears in 2010.
