After Governor Perry blamed Senator Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, for the failure of the sanctuary cities bill, the Senate Republican caucus issued a statement of solidarity dated June 28 (yesterday). The text of the statement follows:

On Saturday, June 25, the Senate Republican Caucus convened to discuss the issue of possibly merging sanctuary cities issues into S.B. 1. After a lengthy discussion of the issues, the caucus encouraged Senator Duncan and the Republican Senate conferees on S.B. 1 to keep the issues separate, as combining them would put them both at risk of not passing. S.B. 9 was a strong bill that would have delivered significant reform to Texas citizens. Senate Republicans unanimously supported and passed S.B. 9 nearly two weeks ago on the Senate floor.

* * * *

And so, at the very end, somebody stood up to the governor. Perry was unwise to push for sanctuary cities. It ran into problems during the regular session and there was substantial opposition to it in the
Senate, including Perry allies. House members, ever groveling to the Tea partiers, wanted the bill so they could have an immigration vote in their quiver, even though they got one during the regular session.

Could the fate of sanctuary cities legislation come back to haunt Duncan? It is possible that one of the House members in the Lubbock area–Landtroop? Charles Perry?–might be able to make an issue of sanctuary cities in an area of the state where tea party strength is robust. Duncan could also be vulnerable as a spender, for coming up with money for the budget.

A different scenario is that the Tea parties may be too busy focusing on defeating Obama (or electing Rick Perry, perhaps) to get involved in state races. This is one of the unknown factors of the 2012 cycle.

Tagged: rick perry, robert duncan, sanctuary cities

Michael Quinn Sullivan has a bone to pick with me. I am the subject of a blog post by Sullivan published on the Empower Texans web site yesterday under the headline, “Texas Monthly: Disclosure-Free Zone.” Sullivan objects to the fact that in an April column about higher ed reforms, I did not disclose that I have taught at UT from time to time. Here are some pertinent paragraphs:

Paul Burka, the “senior executive editor” at Texas Monthly has taken to defending the higher education status quo – skyrocketing tuition and a lack of transparency. He follows the administrative bureaucracy party line by deriding reformers, disparaging them and calling motivations into question.

Couldn’t be because he has a financial interest in the status quo, could it? Mr. Burka received $10,159 in compensation ($9,295 in salary) for teaching 13 students. (NOTE: the numbers are from UT’s own data, which the institution says may or may not be valid or accurate.)

He hasn’t disclosed in any recent writings supporting the higher-ed establishment that he is a “visiting lecturer” for the University of Texas, teaching a three credit-hour class – ironically titled “Right And Wrong In Politics.”

Mr. Sullivan has a point, though he overplays it to a ridiculous extreme, as is his custom. I should have included a parenthetical statement in that April column saying that I had taught at UT on various occasions in the past (though I was not teaching there or receiving compensation at the time that I wrote the column). But it is far-fetched to suggest that I have any permanent attachment to UT, or a financial motivation to defend the university. I am not an academic, I am a journalist. Over the past twenty years or so, I have been fortunate enough to teach courses at UT (and also at St. Edwards). During that time, I have written several editorial columns about the university. One was supportive of tuition deregulation; one was critical of a watered-down degree program I referred to as “B.A. Lite” (this one, alas, is not yet available online). I have not tried to hide the fact that I teach at UT; in 2001, for example, I wrote about volunteering to evaluate applications for admission to the Plan II honors program, as I was eligible to do as an instructor. I have also written a skeptical column about the athletic department’s efforts to find a home for the Longhorns after the breakup of the Big XII conference. In short, I choose subjects that Texas Monthly believes are important, and I try to call ‘em as I see ‘em. I leave it to readers to judge for themselves whether they believe that my reporting on UT is influenced by what Mr. Sullivan refers to as my “financial interest in the status quo,” or whether it reflects my strongly held personal belief in the importance of allowing state universities to pursue excellence free of political interference. (more…)

Tagged: disclosure, Empower Texans, higher ed, michael quinn sullivan, paul burka, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, texas monthly, transparency, UT

I was surprised to read in Saturday’s Houston Chronicle that the state Department of Motor Vehicles needed one more vote to authorize a license plate celebrating the Confederacy and displaying the image of a Confederate battle flag. Is this a good idea? I am a history major, and I don’t believe in censoring history. I would not vote to prohibit the license plate.

At the same time, my personal belief is that secession and the Civil War were the worst things ever to happen to Texas (as Sam Houston predicted they would be) and we should be restrained about celebrating what in fact was a catastrophe, for Texas and for the nation. Texas is both a southern and a western state, and, of the two, I much prefer the western heritage to the southern. To me, the Confederate flag is inextricably linked with a dark part of our history, namely, segregation. That is my personal reaction; I do not ascribe that view to others. I had a history professor who liked to say, “Every man his own historian,” by which he meant that each must make our individual judgments about history.

The west, on the other hand, is a land of great vistas and rugged landscapes and endless distances that reinforce our state’s great myths of the wide open spaces and the great ranches and oil fields that sat atop land so unforgiving that only the devil could love it.

The discussion of the license plate inevitably leads to politics. Very little happens in state government without Rick Perry having a hand in it somewhere, and so the question that intrigues me is whether Perry has a position on the Confederate license plate. If the plate is authorized, I believe it will be a national story that will have an impact on Perry’s presidential ambitions. It will play well in the South, of course, and among all who chafe at the intrusions of the federal government, but I suspect it will be less well received in that part of the country that was on the winning side in the Civil War. My advice to Perry would be to forget about it.

Tagged: confederate license plate, dmv

How else to characterize Susan Combs’ statement today detailing senior staff changes in the comptroller’s office? She so doesn’t get it. The problem in the comptroller’s is lack of competence. So what does she do to fix it? She hires a political operative. His name is David White. Here are his credentials for dealing with the fallout from the release of the personal information of 3.5 million Texans and other serious technology issues at the comptrollers’ office.

1. Served as political director for Rick Perry’s reelection.
2. Worked on various local and statewide campaigns and policy issues.
3. Chief of Staff for State Rep. Wayne Christian.
4. Served as Christian’s lead public policy advisor on several key committees (Regulated Industries, State Affairs, Business and Commerce). I’ll say this for Mr. White. If ever the comptroller should need a revenue estimate for the cost of gender studies at state universities, or for the study of developing a curriculum for a course in the contributions of western civilization, she’s got her man.
5. Served three years as State Chairman of Young Conservatives of Texas concurrent with working for the Legislature.
6. Consultant for the Republican party of Texas.

These aren’t qualifications. These are connections. And you can’t fix a real problem with someone whose only qualification is his political connections.

There is a one-word description for Combs, and it is CLUELESS. Here she is, with her agency and her reputation in ruins and facing gazillion-dollar lawsuits, and she hires … a political consultant. And not just any consultant, but Wayne Christian’s chief of staff. This is classic Combs.
She thinks that substantive problems require political solutions. There is no bottom to this pit of incompetence.

We can all breathe a sigh of relief that the problems at the comptrollers’ office will soon be but a memory. No doubt Mr. White will bring to his job the same analytical powers demonstrated by his previous boss.

Combs doomed herself shortly after taking office, the day that she fired deputy comptroller Billy Hamilton, one of the most competent and respected public servants in the history of the comptrollers’ office. If Combs had a lick of sense, she would have hired Hamilton instead of White and given him total authority to investigate and fix the problems in the office. But she could never do that, because she would have to admit that she should never have fired him. She’d rather be wrong than own up to a mistake. David White couldn’t hold Hamilton’s number two lead pencil.

Tagged: comptroller, david white, susan combs

Readers may recall that a lawsuit brought by a California-based “public interest” law firm resulted in a ruling by the Texas Supreme Court that sudden (the technical legal term is “avulsive”) changes in the profile of the beach due to storms could erase public rights of access that have been recognized by Texas courts in several precedents and in the state constitution. This holding, which favored private property rights over public rights, created considerable controversy. The State asked for a motion for rehearing, which was granted. The case was reargued on April 19, and not a peep has been heard from the Court over the past two months.

Subsequently, the case has taken a course favorable to the protection of public rights. The Attorney General’s office sent the following letter to the Court upon learning that the plaintiff had sold all of her beachfront property:

The State respectfully submits this letter to notify the Court that Carol Severance has rendered this case moot by selling her last remaining property at issue in this lawsuit. We respectfully urge the Court to follow the established practice of vacating the last opinion—issued before this Court granted rehearing—and returning this matter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to dismiss as moot.

Assuming that the Court does as the AG’s office has asked, the State and the people of Texas will win a significant victory. However, if the case is indeed moot, the legal issues–foremost among which is whether the public’s easement to have access to the beach “rolls” or shifts to follow the changes in the shoreline–remain in legal limbo, to be decided at some future date. For now, it seems as if public rights are secure once more, notwithstanding the Court’s earlier decision to eviscerate them.

Tagged: open beaches act

This is the first poll taken this year by Iowa’s leading newspaper. It was published tonight (Saturday).

Mitt Romney 23%
Michele Bachmann 22%
Herman Cain 10%
Newt Gingrich 7%
Ron Paul 7%
Tim Pawlenty 6%
Rick Santorum 4%
John Huntsman 2%

Neither Sarah Palin nor Rick Perry was included in the poll. Palin is scheduled to campaign in Iowa this week. Pawlenty has campaigned heavily in Iowa without a lot to show for his efforts. He is the big loser tonight.

The obvious question is whether, when two clear front-runners in Iowa have captured almost half the vote, there is any room for a relatively unknown candidate like Perry to carve out a constituency. Romney and Bachmann have campaigned heavily and have spent a lot of money in the state. What Perry has going for him is that he is a fresh face in a field of familiar faces. But the clock is ticking, and he is starting from behind. And Iowa is just one state, albeit an important one. I just don’t know if he has enough time to do all the things necessary to be competitive in the race for the Republican nomination. Consider, too, that Iowa is a caucus state, and caucus states are much harder to organize (as Hillary Clinton found out) than states that have more traditional electoral processes. I do not underestimate Perry, but it is realistic to say that he faces formidable obstacles in building an organization capable of making a national race.

Tagged: Des Moines Register presidential poll

Not Tom. His daughter Christi. Rick Perry has a vacancy to fill, following the resignation of Michael Williams in April. (Williams, through his consultant, had previously insisted to me that he was unequivocally running for the U.S. Senate; he now has his sights set on one of the 17 or so new congressional districts in Travis County.) I’m told that a relative of Jose Aliseda is also a possibility. I have also heard that if Christi doesn’t get the appointment, she may run against whoever does get it.

Tagged: christi craddick, michael williams, railroad commission, tom craddick

It’s hard to entertain a serious discussion of this bill. It is hard to contemplate that 112 members of the House would sign on to this bill as co-sponsors. I’m almost at a loss for words, except that by now we ought to be used to the idea that this is the worst legislature that the Capitol has seen in forty years and there is no end to the silliness (not to mention the harm) it is willing to perpetrate.

Here is the operative language in the bill:

A person who is a public servant [acting under color of his office or employment] commits an offense if the person:
–while acting under color of the person’s office or employment [he]:
–intentionally subjects another person to mistreatment or to arrest, detention, search, seizure, dispossession, assessment, or lien that the actor knows is unlawful;
–intentionally denies or impedes another person in the exercise or enjoyment of any right, privilege, power, or immunity, knowing the actor’s conduct is unlawful; or intentionally subjects another person to sexual harassment; or while acting under color of the person’s office or employment without probable cause to believe the other person committed an offense
– performs a search for the purpose of granting access to a publicly accessible building or form of transportation; and … intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly:
–touches the anus, sexual organ, buttocks, or breast of the other person, including touching through clothing; or … touches the other person in a manner that would be offensive to a reasonable person.

I do not see how this statute can have any force or effect. It is an attempt by the state to create a criminal offense that applies to federal officials carrying out their lawful duties. In any other year, this piece of legislation would be allowed to die peacefully without a hearing. Not this year.

If a federal official thinks that a person should be “patted down” in order to ensure public safety, it is the duty of that official to take all necessary steps to protect the public–and I don’t mean protect persons from being groped. I mean protect them from the kind of calamity that can result from the failure to detect and prevent a threat to the public safety.

If a federal official engages in conduct that is prohibited by federal law or TSA regulations, that person should be prosecuted by federal authorities under the applicable federal laws. An attempt to prosecute under state law can have no force or effect if the official is carrying out his duty according to federal laws and regulations. It violates the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution. I know that this is a quaint thought these days, when states rights is all the rage in the Legislature. But the Legislature is playing with fire. If the statute makes it impossible for federal officials to perform their lawful duties the federal government can close airports. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but this attempt to prevent federal officials from doing their lawful duty could have grave consequences for Texas air travel and for the Texas economy.

Tagged: TSA anti-groping bill

Last Thursday Nate Blakeslee and I sat down with Evan Smith to discuss our picks for this session’s Best & Worst Legislators. Here’s the video of our conversation.

Tagged: best and worst legislators, evan smith, texas tribune

The 20th edition of the “Best & Worst Legislators” story is complete. Yesterday we posted, on Twitter and on this blog, the names of the ten Best, the ten Worst, the Bull of the Brazos, and the Rookie of the Year. Today the write-ups for all of these 22 members are available online. The full story, including honorable and dishonorable mentions, furniture, and the very special features that mark the 20th edition of the story will be available in the magazine, which will begin reaching subscribers this weekend, and on our website next week.

I have been involved in nineteen of the twenty previous articles, and I cannot recall a more difficult year when it came to selecting the members on both lists. This was a session without heroes. All the usual jokes about naming 5 Bests and 15 Worsts were on point, for a change. The budget dominated everything, with the result that there were few major bills. I count three: Truitt’s effort to regulate payday loans; Ritter’s attempt to get funding for the state water plan (one of several occasions on which Perry could have exercised leadership for the state’s future but did not); and Keffer’s bill regulating hydraulic fracturing in shale formations. The rest was noise. Particularly cacophonous was the governor’s “emergency” agenda, which consisted of nothing but red meat for Republicans. Republicans got to vote on abortion, immigration, voter fraud, tort reform, and, shades of the fifties, state’s rights. Democrats got to vote no a lot. Even the major Sunset bills didn’t seem to generate any interest. You could look out across the House floor during any debate and see few members engaged.

The House Republican caucus was a curious organism. Its members preferred to vote as a block, as if they lived in fear that their age-old enemies, the Democrats, might perhaps be resuscitated to offer a scintilla of opposition. The group-think voting was reminiscent of the refrain sung by the “Monarch of the Sea” in Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore: “I grew so rich that I was sent/by a pocket borough into Parliament/I always voted at my party’s call/and never thought of thinking for myself at all.” The anemic Democratic caucus, meanwhile, mustered up occasional resistance, mostly with parliamentary maneuvers, but the D’s were so outnumbered, and so demoralized by their election rout, that they never seemed to have a leader or a plan. Not that it would have made any difference. (more…)

Tagged: best and worst legislators, jim keffer, John Zerwas, judith zaffirini, rick perry, robert duncan, Steve Ogden, vicki truitt, wendy davis