Yesterday was a rough day for Milton Rister, the Republican campaign operative who in 2003 2006 was appointed by Tom Craddick to lead the Texas Legislative Council. (As one reader pointed out, it just feels like 6 years). Over the years, many Democratic and dissenting Republican members have complained that Rister's position endangers the legitimacy of the Council's work and the secrecy enjoyed between legislators and the lawyers who draft their bills.
Craddick may be gone, but Rister still leads the Lege Council, which is now mired in a controversy over the erasure of computer files from Craddick staff computers in the last hours of Craddick's tenure as Speaker. Members have called on Rister to resign over the incident, which may have deleted documents of a historic nature, as well as documents detailing the level of coordination between Craddick's office and major Texas lobbyists.
But Rister may not need to resign if HB 1088, filed yesterday by Marc Veasey of Fort Worth, is passed into law. Under the bill proposed by Veasey, the leader of Lege Council would have to be a licensed attorney, something Rister is not. Veasey is a Democratic representative from Fort Worth, and in previous sessions has served as the Democratic caucuses' whip. He says his bill is designed to "restore trust" between legislators and the Lege Council.
This Rister controversy reminds us that though Tom Craddick may have been ousted, lingering damage from his speakership remains. We need to hold our legislators' feet to the fire to ensure that, by the end of the 81st Session, all the damage Craddick did to our state government has been addressed. Last week's rules revisions, and this week's bill by Veasey are solid steps in that direction. |
