The Best and Worst Legislators 2007
This e-mail exchange is between senior executive editor Paul Burka and writer-at-large Patricia Kilday Hart.
roel benavides says: I gather that all hispanic members are bullies and crooks, according to you. What this mexican legislators have done is nothing compared to what the whites have done for so many years. A taste of your own medicine does not taste very good, but it sure upsets stomachs. For one Kino has been a Texan about 200 years more than any of you white boys, and will fight for whatever he believes in, even if you don’t like it. With Obama, there’s a new sheriff in town, and you better get used to it, it’s payback time. (June 7th, 2009 at 9:05am)
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Unlike Riddle, Charlie Howard cannot plead innocence. He was the perpetrator of one of the session’s high crimes: the mugging of the Democrats’ uncontested bills in the House Local and Consent Calendars Committee. Local and Consent is supposed to serve as a shortcut through the legislative process for bills that spend no money and engender no opposition. It is standard practice in both chambers that members get their noncontroversial local bills on the calendar. It fell to Howard as chairman to determine which bills qualified. He used a simple guideline: Republicans’ bills made it; Democrats’ bills (with rare exception) didn’t—unless the bill’s sponsor supported Speaker Craddick. Those who didn’t saw their bills linger. And linger. And . . . all hell broke loose. As time began to run out in the session, the ostracized D’s retaliated with the only weapon available to them: Debate Republicans’ bills on the local calendar for ten minutes, after which they’re considered dead. Howard did nothing. Democrats went to the microphone to call him out publicly. Still Howard did nothing. More Republican bills died. By this time it was apparent that Speaker Craddick was complicit. Either he had ordered Howard to kill the Democrats’ bills or he had allowed Howard to kill them with full knowledge that Republican bills would die as a consequence. In a show of solidarity with Democrats, Republican members with bills on the calendar voluntarily pulled them down. Senior Republicans went to the back microphone to demand that Howard prepare another calendar, with the ostracized Democrats’ bills on it, and he had to swallow the medicine. Thus began the uprising that almost brought Craddick down. Like the Boston Tea Party, Howard provided the spark that ignited revolution.
A few weeks ago, Warren Chisum was headed for the Best list. After years of being known primarily as a batty social conservative (he was the sponsor of Proposition 2, the constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage), he proved himself last session to be a serious legislator, working his way back from exile to become the shrewdest floor debater on the Craddick team. When he was rewarded this session with the chairmanship of the House Appropriations Committee, Chisum had made it to the legislative mountaintop. Elfin in stature, humble in attitude, popular with colleagues, Chisum found himself responsible for a $150 billion budget. Then, unaccountably, the old Chisum resurfaced with a string of controversial bills and ill-judged parliamentary moves. Here’s the perfect world according to Warren: Couples contemplating divorce would have to take a course in “forgiveness skills” (those who didn’t would have to wait longer before being granted a divorce). Couples contemplating wedlock would get free marriage licenses if they took a premarital education course (those who didn’t would have to pay more for their marriage licenses). School districts would have to offer a Bible study class. Criminal penalties for abortions would be restored, contingent upon the Supreme Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade. Chisum squandered his gravitas, the aura of invincibility that is crucial to the success of top-ranked legislators. Inevitably, some of his far-out bills were voted down. Even the budget bill was at risk, though in the end his lieutenants helped pass it, and the only casualty of Chisum’s backslide was himself.
Why doesn’t someone intelligent and principled and knowledgeable about an important issue—the environment— enjoy more success? It’s not such a mystery. Lon Burnam is a true-blue liberal whose legislative program resembles no one else’s: Reregulate utilities, raise the minimum wage, provide health services to immigrants, tighten ethics laws, pass universal health care, impose an income tax. He can be forgiven for getting discouraged, but he has a bigger problem: You just can’t succeed in the Legislature if you walk around with a chip on your shoulder. To survive, you have to accept that politics is not a battle between good and evil. Burnam has never cleared that hurdle. Consequently, he spends his time taking potshots at (evil) Republicans. Angry about Betty Brown’s bill to require picture IDs as a prerequisite to voting, he retaliated by zapping all of her local bills—and bragged about it to the media: “She will never have another local bill as long as I’m here. She so disrespected my constituents.” Never mind if a Republican fights for a Democratic cause like the Children’s Health Insurance Program; if he crosses Burnam in debate, zap! More bills ticketed for the crematorium. If Burnam is ever going to fulfill his potential, his reason for being a member has to be something bigger than revenge.
Let’s close on an upbeat note with the two remaining Bests. If the Legislature were a stock market, Rafael Anchía would be Google. He is the future—the son of immigrants (from Spain and Mexico), a lawyer with a blue-chip firm, the League of United Latin American Citizens’ onetime national Man of the Year, and the Democratic Rookie of the Year in our 2005 Best and Worst Legislators story. In only his second term, Anchía emerged as a top floor debater in the fight over the voter ID bill. After hearing Republicans argue that the bill was designed to prevent voter fraud, Anchía responded, “That’s like burning down the forest in case Bigfoot exists.” When another voting bill was considered in committee, this one requiring that a person seeking to register to vote be able to prove that he is an American citizen, Anchía confronted state GOP chair Tina Benkiser, who was testifying for the bill. “Can you prove today that you’re a citizen?” Anchía asked—the point being that most people (including, it turned out, Benkiser) don’t typically carry around their passport or birth certificate. When his ambitious legislative program of environmental bills—mostly improving energy efficiency—stalled, he looked for donkeys on which to pin the tail, and he found Republicans willing to let him attach his proposals to theirs. Recommendation: Buy.
Scott Hochberg didn’t figure to be on the Best list. This was not a session in which public education, his area of expertise, was in play. But then a conversation took place in which a Republican lawmaker described him this way: “No legislator is indispensable, but Scott Hochberg is the closest thing to it.” Session after session, he knows more about school finance than anyone, and he’s willing to share his knowledge with friend or foe. Members on both sides of the aisle trust him. When Chisum’s bill requiring high schools to offer Bible electives was sent to the Public Education Committee, it was so riddled with problems Hochberg could have killed it. Instead, he fixed it. When the bill reached the House floor, Chisum tried to substitute his original flawed version—and the House sided with Hochberg. In previous sessions, the former chairman of the Public Education Committee, Kent Grusendorf, did everything he could to keep Hochberg on the outside, only to lose floor battle after floor battle to him; this time, new chairman Rob Eissler was his biggest fan. On the first day the committee met, Eissler placed four Hochberg bills on the agenda—an unmistakable signal that his banishment was over. He passed one major bill this session, polishing up the way the state adopts textbooks (which saved school districts $1 billion), but next session, when school finance formulas will be on the front burner, Mr. Indispensable will be front and center.
Well, Patti, we’re done, and so is the Eightieth Legislature. Only minutes left until midnight. The Senate finished hours ago, and the House’s energy for fighting is spent. And we managed to find ten Bests after all. Have a happy sine die.
Paul
THE BEST
Rafael Anchia, Democrat, Dallas
Sen. John Carona, Republican, Dallas
Byron Cook, Republican, Corsicana
Sen. Bob Deuell, Republican, Mesquite
Scott Hochberg, Democrat, Houston
Lois Kolkhorst, Republican, Brenham
Jerry Madden, Republican, Plano
Sen. Steve Ogden, Republican, Bryan
Sylvester Turner, Democrat, Houston
Sen. Tommy Williams, Republican, The Woodlands
THE WORST
Lon Burnam, Democrat, Fort Worth
Warren Chisum, Republican, Pampa
Speaker Tom Craddick, Republican, Midland
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Republican
Sen. Troy Fraser, Republican, Marble Falls
Charlie Howard, Republican, Sugar Land
Sen. Eddie Lucio, Democrat, Brownsville
Sen. Dan Patrick, Republican, Houston
Gov. Rick Perry, Republican
Debbie Riddle, Republican, Houston
Honorable Mention
Rob Eissler Republican, the Woodlands
Senator Kevin Eltife Republican, Tyler
Dan Gattis Republican, Georgetown
Fred Hill Republican, Richardson
Senator Juan Hinojosa Democrat, McAllen
“The Insurgency” Jim Dunnam, Robert Talton, et al.
John Smithee Republican, Amarillo
Burt Solomons Republican, Carrollton
Mark Strama Democrat, Austin
Senfronia Thompson Democrat, Houston
Senator John Whitmire Democrat, Houston
Dishonorable Mention
Kino Flores Democrat, Mission
Pat Haggerty Republican, El Paso
Linda Harper-Brown Republican, Irving
Sid Miller Republican, Stephenville
Mike O’Day Republican, Pearland
Chente Quintanilla Democrat, El Paso
Bill Zedler Republican, Arlington
Rookie Of The Year
Senator Kirk Watson Democrat, Austin
The former Austin mayor (and once and future statewide candidate) instantly earned respect for his intellect and diplomacy—and for knowing enough to let his elders take credit for his accomplishments.
Furniture
The concept of “furniture” originated in the early years of the Legislature to describe members who were no more consequential than their desks, chairs, inkwells, and spittoons—the equivalent of backbenchers in Parliament. Today the term is only mildly pejorative; the sin lies not in being furniture but in failing to recognize it. Here is the furniture for the eightieth session:
Alma Allen Democrat, Houston
Roberto Alonzo Democrat, Dallas
Wayne Christian Republican, Center
Senator Craig Estes Republican, Wichita Falls
Joe Farias Democrat, San Antonio
Jim Jackson Republican, Carrollton
Senator Mike Jackson Republican, League City
Nathan Macias Republican, Bulverde
Armando Martinez Democrat, Weslaco
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