In its issue of February 20, 1956, Time magazine told the story of Caroline, Queen of England, in the early nineteenth century. George III was king, and after his death, his son, Caroline’s husband, became George IV. Years earlier, the king and queen had become estranged. But Caroline showed
The final video of 2008. (You can thank me later.) Stick a fork in Craddick? Is he really done? Really? Honorably Mentioned: Gattis, Smithee, Solomons, Kolkhorst, Chisum, Straus, Hamilton, McCall, Dunnam, and just about every other House Member you can think of And who was that anonymous Republican source?
That is how many members appear to be committed to a course to elect a new speaker. It’s the 64 Democrats plus the 11 members of the ABC coalition (some of whom are not hardcore ABCs) plus the Gattis 4. It’s time to count Smithee in this camp, judging from
A noncombatant Republican, not a member, sent me this e-mail about several conversations Craddick had over the weekend with supporters, which were duly reported to my source: Over the weekend, there were some telephone calls made by Tom Craddick in which (according to the report from one of the people
It will be Dan Gattis, John Smithee, or Burt Solomons. Gattis has to build some momentum. The test, in a speaker’s race, is not whether a candidate can reach out to other members. It’s whether other members, believing that a candidate is for real, reach out to him. These next
Everyone wants to attend Craddick’s funeral, but the corpse is still breathing—barely. One more nail in the awaiting coffin: The Democrats published their names. It’s vital, as January 13 approaches, that the insurgents do everything possible to bolster their credibility, and the best way to do that was lay out
Too much fun. Wool “bacon” phone carrying cases. See video to believe.
Plate & Vine is a new online cookbook with recipes from Texas chefs. One neat thing about it is that it automatically adjusts the recipes for the size of your group and it will generate a shopping list, too. It’s from the Wine and Food Foundation of Texas and they
The long Christmas weekend is about over. Keep an eye on the Ethics Commission tomorrow (Monday) for new filings for speaker. Gattis is a possibility. McCall is a possibility. It was this time last year that he filed. I talked to one of the ABC’s on Saturday. He said that
I had a conversation with one of the ABCs. His comment: “It didn’t look like they were close to an agreement.” This does not come from an attendee, but from the proverbial “knowledgeable source”: The statement following the meeting said that eleven people attended. What it didn’t say was that
Our three children are home, my sister is visiting from Califormia, and we’re enjoying a nice evening together, as I hope all of you are. Thank you for reading the blog and for your contributions. — paul
The ABCs have said that they will choose a candidate on January 2. How are they going to do this? Will they decide among themselves? Will the Democrats have a say in the selection process? Will the pool of candidates grow? Who would make the best candidate? The important thing
The beloved scruffy building that housed downtown Austin’s Las Manitas Mexican restaurant is gone–razed Monday by the property owner. Ironically, plans are on hold for constructing a giant Marriott Hotel on the site. Of course, the demolition changes nothing. Las Manitas was doomed anyway and the building’s removal was only
The Quorum Report has the news that the ABCs have gone public with eleven R’s who will not support Tom Craddick’s reelection as speaker. This is the scenario I have been writing about for the last week: If the ABCs and the Dunnam D’s get together, Craddick’s speakership is over
Houtopia, a Bayou City blogger, offered this comment to my sourpuss post about why Chris Bell lost. I am going to publish it here, because I think it is very smart, without being right. Mostly I agree that this race was lost for Bell the moment the Austin
A commenter keeps insisting that I write about the Chris Bell race. Boring. Look at the Georgia Senate race. The people who voted Democratic on election day did not care about down-ballot races. They voted straight ticket, but they only cared about Obama. They didn’t come back to vote in
To: Bill White, John Sharp CC: David Dewhurst, Florence Shapiro, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Roger Williams, Michael Williams, Kay Granger, Greg Abbott, members of the Texas congressional delegation Re: Texas Senate race You folks might want to reconsider your decision to run for the vacancy that will be created when Kay
Politico today reports on the race for chairman of the Republican National Committee. Six candidates are seeking the position, including incumbent Mike Duncan, who wants a second term. After all, this one was such a resounding success. This is the Texas angle: Ken Blackwell: The former Cincinnati mayor
The Quorum Report today reports that the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call has a story saying that John Cornyn is encouraging Greg Abbott to join the Senate race to serve out the remainder of Kay Bailey Hutchison’s term. I was surprised to see this. Abbott supposedly has ruled out a
It’s probably too late to ask the question, because it appears to have already been answered. With Bill White and John Sharp in the race to serve out the remainder of Kay Bailey Hutchison’s term, no obvious candidate remains to challenge the winner of the primary between Hutchison and Rick
The following is an interesting post from a reader who identifies himself as “Yellow Armadillo,” in response to my post on Speaker’s Math 101. No one yet has mentioned something I believe is a procedural issue that would favor Craddick. As one of its first orders of business, the House
The story about Kino Flores’s cabin in today’s American-Statesman brings back some memories of the time when I worked as an attorney in Senator Babe Schwartz’s office. During the interim before the 1973 session, Babe held hearings about environmental issues along the coast. Jack Giberson, the longtime chief
A lot of readers have been commenting about my post, “The Kuempel Kandidacy,” saying that Kuempel can’t win because he doesn’t have, as one commenter put it, “gravity.” I think he means “gravitas.” My response was, You don’t need gravity—or gravitas—to be speaker. All you need is 76 votes. The
Harris County: Absentee vote: Huffman 70-30 Early vote: Huffman 58-42 Combined early vote: Huffman 62-37 Reports from other counties: Brazoria early vote: Huffman 62-37 Chambers: no returns Galveston: no returns Fort Bend: Huffman 70-30 Jefferson: Bell 83-17, but only 1,368 votes cast
My source estimates the deficit at around 2,500 after early voting. A second source in Houston backs him up. If that is accurate, it’s going to be hard for Bell to make up the difference today. The report is that the turnout is light. Assuming that Huffman wins, you have
Paul Burka on Ed Kuempel, Terry Keel, and why mistresses should form their own union.
Of the various permutations that could produce a governing coalition in the House, the two most likely are the Craddick loyalists plus the Craddick D’s, and the 64 Democratic loyalists plus the ABCs. The problem for the first group is the perception, right or wrong, that Craddick has stalled, and
This should not come as a surprise: I have been told by a source I trust that representatives of the speaker—I have no idea whether this means staff, political allies, members, or any particular individual—have approached the secretary of state’s office to ask that Terry Keel be named temporary parliamentarian
In a recent post about Roger Williams’ entrance into the race for U.S. senator (see, “Roger Williams joins the Senate race, December 12”), I wrote that the office of secretary of state, which Williams previously held, has been a political graveyard, with the exception of Mark White. I made an
As most readers know, Jim Keffer has proposed several reforms for the House of Representatives, and Dan Gattis has proposed a constitutional amendment to provide a means of removing the speaker. Let’s see whether they have merit. First, the constitutional amendment: Gattis would add this language to the boilerplate about
No one should be surprised that Hutchison has a substantial lead over Perry. She has always polled better than he has. What is surprising—according to the Hutchison camp—is that his support among Republican primary voters is down 10% since his 2006 race. (I will ask the Perry forces for their
The search for a successor to Mark Yudof as UT chancellor has become a heated high-stakes political battle. The two top choices are former state senator John Montford, who has served as chancellor of the Texas Tech system and more recently has been an executive with AT&T, and Dr. Francisco
The poll was conducted by Voter Consumer Research between December 7 and December 9. The telephone survey included 601 general election voters and 466 Republican primary voters. The margin of error for the general election survey was +/- 4.1%, and +/- 4.6% for Republican primary voters. Favorability: * 67% of
This was the question at a debate sponsored by NPR. Click here for the transcript and the broadcast. Debating for the affirmative: Simon Jenkins, a columnist for the Guardian and the Sunday Times, and Jacob Weisberg, chairman and editor-in-chief of The Slate Group, an online publishing group owned
In case you think the governor is running for reelection just to keep from being a lame duck, you might want to read this letter that went out to supporters: Message from Texas Gov. Rick Perry: We have only begun to fight Dear Friend, While I was certainly disappointed by
UPDATE: I should have given Roger Williams credit in this writeup for his outstanding performance in the chair on the first day of the 2007 session, when he presided over the speaker’s race. He showed no favoritism and made a crucial ruling, overruling a point of order, that a secret
This is the text of a letter Armey sent dated December 4. During Hutchison’s political career, her commitment to conservative principles has been attacked at various times. The Perry forces have already raised the issue of her support for the bailout, which Perry opposes. Armey’s letter is a preemptive strike.
Cook is a known member of the anti-Craddick faction. He was a Ten Best legislator in 2007, and I regard him as an outstanding member. He gave a personal privilege speech against Craddick last session. He is a man of principle, but, as is the question with all candidates, I
The former state comptroller announced his candidacy today. He does not plan to form an exploratory committee but will begin raising money immediately. This will be Sharp’s second bite at the Senate apple. In 1992, when Lloyd Bentsen resigned his seat to become Secretary of the Treasury in the first
This is politicalwire.com’s quote of the day for Monday, citing the Austin American-Statesman as the source for Rove’s remark: “I’ve got behind-the-scenes episodes that are going to show how unreceiving they were of this man as president of the United States. I’m going to name names and show examples.” I
Your daily space queen video! It’s worth clicking on just to see what I look like when I forget to sit on a telephone book. Paul Burka on the secret speaker’s ballot, and why he was for it before he he was against it. (Flip flopper.) Honorably mentioned: Speaker Craddick,
I hope this won’t be seen as poaching; a lobbyist sent me the story from Capitol Inside. Here are the first two paragraphs: There’s speculation that State Rep. Joe Straus may be seriously considering a race for the Texas House’s top leadership post if no other candidate catches
The Associated Press has removed its poll from being a factor in the Bowl Champion Series ratings. The top three in the poll that came out today: 1. Florida 2. Oklahoma 3. Texas Texas needed to be #2 to have a shot at winning the AP national championship. That’s gone
I was in touch yesterday with two people who were watching the SREC meeting–in particular, the discussion of the resolution concerning the speaker’s race. The advocates of the resolution were careful to present it as a neutral action that did not take sides in the speaker’s race. However, two pro-Craddick
I just heard a scenario for the BCS that would have Oklahoma and Texas in the BCS title game. The argument is that Florida, which trails Texas by .0372 in the BCS standings, does better than Texas in the polls but worse in the computer rankings. The question is, will
The text of Merritt’s release: Rep. Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, is very disappointed with the State Republican Executive Committee’s decision today to adopt a resolution that condemns selection of a new Speaker of the Texas House by private ballot. “The private ballot is part of the foundation of this nation and
This is the letter from Burt Solomons to Terry Keel, with copies to all members and members-elect. It is sent as a memo: Date: December 5, 2008 To: Mr. Terry Keel, Parliamentarian, Texas House From: Rep. Burt Solomons cc: Members and Members-Elect of the 81st Texas Legislature Re: Call for
This was predictable. In fact, I predicted it: Craddick will mobilize the state party to bring pressure on members to support his reelection as speaker. The State Republican Executive Committee is expected to adopt a resolution today calling for an open ballot for speaker. This is, of course, a de
Ordinarily, the resignation of a second-tier county official would not be big news. But Paul Bettencourt is a high-profile figure and a stalwart in conservative Republican circles. He has been a strong voice for the GOP concern about voter fraud, having testified before the Elections Committee of the Texas House
OK, so maybe he hasn’t “posted” any “updates” on Kay Bailey Hutchison’s exploratory committee, but I did catch Burka in the hall to do a video with me to at least talk about the interview he had with her yesterday. And I’m all, yesterday? She never returns my calls. In
