Editor's note: This article was posted Saturday, and edited Sunday night with this note to reflect the development of the day: House Speaker Tom Craddick, (R-Midland), withdrew from consideration for this session's speaker. In his place, conservative members have indicated support for Rep. John Smithee, (R-Amarillo). But Rep. Joe Straus (R-San Antonio), claimed Sunday night to have 88 votes -- 72 Democrats and 16 Republicans. The action now shifts, as illustrated by this quote in the Dallas Morning News, to a call this week to the Republican faithful: "There will be tremendous pressure on Republicans to come back to where they belong," said Will Hartnett, R-Dallas. [link]
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Democrats met Saturday in central Austin to discuss the the Speaker election. The meeting came in light of the decision of the Republican ABCs (Anybody But Craddick) to throw their weight behind District 121 Rep. Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) in the Speaker race. [link]
El Paso representatives Marisa Marquez, Joe Pickett and Joe Moody attended the meeting while Norma Chavez and Chente Quintanilla were absent.
“There are 76 votes against Mr. Craddick. We know there’s gonna be a new speaker,” said state Rep. Jim Dunnam (D-Waco), Democratic caucus leader. However, Dunnam was keen to stress that the decision to elect Straus remained in the hands of individual legislators.
“We’ve never had a caucus vote about what we’re gonna do. We’re about people representing their districts and deciding individually,” Dunnam said. He also claimed that “nothing’s changed” and that 64 Democrats remain committed to “Under No Circumstances” voting for Craddick (the so-called UNCs).
Dunnam’s math is elementary. There are 64 UNC Democratics, 11 ABC Republicans, 1 Joe Straus and only 74 remaining legislators (out of a total of 150) who might vote for Craddick. But the question remains: does 76 votes against Craddick mean 76 votes for Straus?
“You’d have to ask Mr Straus that because I’m not privy to what's going on on the Republican side of things," Dunnam said. "Actually, no, I don’t (think) it's 76, I think it's probably going to be 90 or 95.”
Earlier this afternoon, Straus told the Houston Chronicle that he felt good about the numbers.
“We’ve had a divided House for some time … we’ve had this paralysis in the house since the end of the last section…the large majority of the members don’t see it getting any better under the status quo,” Straus said.
See a segment of the interview here:
You can listen to the full interview here:
Straus, a two-term legislator, is seen as a moderate Republican. In the above interview he claimed that he "is not afraid to reach out to Democrats." But his rapid rise has been greeted with hostility by “anti-gambling and anti-abortion conservatives,” according to the Dallas Morning News. [link]
"We believe that if Rep. Straus is elected Speaker our chances of getting pro-life bills to the House floor for debate will be greatly diminished, if not eliminated altogether,” argued the The Texas Alliance for Life in an email which also stated that “a vote for Joe Straus for Speaker of the House as a pro-abortion vote.”
Furthermore, Straus' family was involved in the creation of the Retama horse race track in San Antonio; information which the Tigua owners of the Speaking Rock Casino in El Paso might find interesting.
El Paso representatives Joe Moody and Joe Pickett both expressed support for Joe Straus. Moody affirmed that he “binds himself” to not voting for Craddick. Pickett said that Straus would be “good for the State of Texas” because he could steer the legislature back to being a “people’s house.” Dunnam described Straus as “very thoughtful, very smart, very conscientious.”
As Dunnam left the meeting one reporter exclaimed, “You’re building the suspense. I’m loving it!” The drama of the speaker race will continue into next week. Craddick is meeting with his supporters tomorrow evening.
