Anybody But Craddick

Rep. Brian McCall (R-Plano) plans to step into the Speaker's race against Tom Craddick next week. More on McCall in another post, but suffice it to say this is very good news as McCall is a fair person who plays well with others. Craddick plays well - at partisan politics. He instills fear in the lege by promising to send recalcitrant members of both parties to "Siberia", aka immensely undesirable committee assignments, if they don't follow him lockstep, taking away access to big money donors, and, if you are a moderate Republican, running someone more cooperative against you in your primary. The vote for Texas Speaker of the House on Tuesday, January 9th will be the most important vote taken at the Legislature this session. It's the first order of business for the House. If Craddick wins, there will be no increased funding for education, no expansion of children’s health insurance, no ethics reform and continued corrupt, reactionary special-interest rules. If he loses, which seems more likely with McCall announcing for the race, then these and other good things are likely to happen. Who is willing to risk the wrath of Craddick and bolt? Most Austin insiders believe that at least 10, perhaps 15, moderate Republicans are willing throw their support to someone besides Craddick. They've already been "sent to Siberia" and had money poured into their opponent's race in their primaries, so what to they have to lose? Very little. 76 votes are needed for Speaker and there are 69 Democrats and 81 Republicans. If 65 Democrats hang tight against Craddick, he loses. However, Craddick is being propped up by 6-10 Craddick Democrats, especially House committee chairs, who are going to support Craddick for Speaker so they can remain committee chairs unless they hear from Democratic activists that voting for Craddick is unacceptable. We need to shame these Craddick Dems with a stern warning that we WILL run someone against them in their next election if they have anything to do with returning Craddick as speaker. The shaming will begin in subsequent posts. The hard-core Craddick Democrats (and their Committee chair assignment) include: Robert Puente (San Antonio, Chair Natural Resources) Kino Flores (Pharr, Chair Licensing) Norma Chavez (El Paso, Chair Border and International Affairs) Helen Giddings (Dallas, Chair Business and Industries) Harold Dutton (Houston, Chair Juvenile Justice) Kevin Bailey (Houston, Chair General Investigations) Sylvester Turner (Speaker Pro Tem; Appropriations Committee) The sad thing is all these “Democrats” represent low income, people of color districts and supporting Craddick and his agenda directly harms their constituents! There is very little time to make a difference in this race. I encourage other bloggers and activists to do their part to make sure we get Anybody But Craddick on January 9th.