Lubbock] was great to work with in the end, but at first it was: “We cannot do this. The senator that I’m carrying it for does not want it. We need a clean bill, otherwise it’s not going to pass.”

We fought tooth and nail for it. And I started working the floor. I remember that day he was literally working the floor, telling people, “If he does this, it’s going to kill the whole bill.”

Well, I liked his original bill. It was OK. I wasn’t super-excited about it, but I would have voted “yes” for that bill. And I told him that—“I’m not trying to kill your bill. I’m not trying to put the poison pill in here. I really do think that the people will like this and this is a good amendment.” I worked for ten hours on the floor, and he was literally on the opposite side going behind me and fighting against. We were looking at each other and working it.

And finally I said, “Look, I think the people are behind me on this when it’s explained. And I’m going to go this back mike and you’re going to have to tell people in front of the whole state of Texas that you think it’s OK for this, and, John, that’s not a good idea.” We were kind of playing chicken. So we started the exchange, and about five minutes into it he said, “Alright, I’ve decided to take it.” Huge victory.

TM: Was he objecting to it in theory?

JS: I think he was objecting because it was–because of me. Truthfully. He was worried that if Stickland got a bill amendment onto the bill that leadership would have said, “Oh, that guy,” whatever the case may be.

And I understood that. Again, I wasn’t trying to torpedo it, so I covered my bases. I played nice with everyone for about 24 hours, didn’t do anything crazy, you know, whatnot. It ended up working out really well for us. At that point we started talking about it in public and trying to generate some buzz, and he started to feel like, hmm, maybe this is a good idea. Frullo actually ended up being great to work with after we got past that initial game of chicken. He’s got to be pleased now because this has blown up all over, especially the Internet. I mean, literally, we’ve been contacted by other states on this--”What’s going on? How did you do this?” Even other legislators, they didn’t know that this was the case in their own state.

TM: How about law enforcement—did they object to the measure itself?

JS: Law enforcement was all over us the whole time. One of the first things I did was join up on what we call the “Vampire Cop” bill with (Rep.) Sylvester Turner (D-Houston), which was an amazing alliance. We found that bill and then I went to him and said, “This is awesome. Can I please get on it?” And he was like, “I’ve been filing this forever, and you’re the first Republican that has ever . . . ”

TM: The vampire cop bill?

JS: It required anybody who takes blood to be a registered phlebotomist, so the cops can’t be out there sucking blood. So Sly calls me. [Stickland points to a picture of him and Turner on his bookshelf.] He’s probably one of my closest friends, to be honest with you. He calls me the night before and he’s like, “We got a hearing in approps that I cannot miss. Do you want to lay out this vampire cop bill before committee, or do you want us to reschedule?”

I was like, “Let’s do it.” I walk in and there’s 15 cameras and every cop from the state of Texas. And I’m like, what in the hell did we just do? Again, this is one of the first things I did, so I was just completely naïve to the process. We had the vampire cop bill. We had my email bill. We had the hidden camera bill that we were pushing. Also, I filed a resolution to get rid of the metal detectors here at the capitol.  

So the cops were just like, “This guy? This conservative Republican?” They’ve never dealt with it before. They never had to fight a Republican before. They’re always fighting Harold Dutton [a Democratic representative from Houston] on marijuana or whatever.

TM: In the context of PRISM and the collection of citizens’ metadata, do you wish you had strengthened the bill?

JS: I don’t know how we could have, from a state standpoint. It’s as strong as we could have possibly made it in the state of Texas with what we have control over. It’s going to be up to the AG and everyone else to see if they want to have the 10th Amendment showdown on this issue. I think we should. I think we’ll win.  

TM: As a freshman, how’d you learn to play the game in the legislature?

JS: I went with my gut on a lot of things, to be honest with you, and I also modeled it after people who I felt were effective. For different reasons, I respect the heck out of TMF [Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, a Democrat from San Antonio], to be honest with you. Those are actually the guys who are moving the House.

One of the things that I noticed very quickly in this whole process—and this was a major disappointment, but also, once I thought through it, where I became excited--was that there’s only about fifteen to thirty people, depending on the issue, who actually have opinions here. I know that sounds kind of crazy, but when I look around the floor, most people are following a certain person, or they’re doing what a certain third-party group does, or, you know, whatever they’re told.

I sat next to Tom Craddick on the floor, and had a