| My gut reaction was, this seems fair.
Republicans control the House so there should be a Republican slant in the committees and with Republican chairs. Seems logical.
Texas Insider has a story outlining exactly where the Gang of 11 were put:
- District 7: Rep. Tommy Merritt - Chair of Public Safety
- District 10: Rep. Jim Pitts - Chair of Appropriations
- District 15: Rep. Rob Eissler - Chair of Public Education
- District 17: Rep. Byron Cook - Chair of Environmental Regulation
- District 44: Rep. Edmund Kuempel - Chair of Licensing & Administrative Procecures
- District 60: Rep. Jim Keffer - Chair of Energy Resources
- District 65: Rep. Burt Solomons - Chair of State Affairs
- District 66: Rep. Brian McCall - Chair of Calendars
- District 83: Rep. Delwin Jones - Chair of Redistricting
- District 99: Rep. Charlie Geren - Chair of House Administration
- District 121: Rep. Joe Straus - Speaker of the House
That means the gang of 11 control the three most important committee's Calendars, Appropriations, and State Affairs.
Texas Insider aptly describes the committees as:
Calendars - controls the order and placement of bills on appropriate calendars.
State Affairs - oversees bills on hot button social issues such as abortion rights and Voter ID.
Appropriations - jurisdiction over all bills that request money to or from the state treasury.
That makes sense, the Gang of 11 chose Straus and with the Democrats, pushed Straus to victory. What doesn't make sense are the hyper partisan committee creations Straus made.
The best example is Criminal Jurisprudence which is filled with conservative Republicans who pushed for tort reform. Another committee that signaled how dismissive Straus was to Democrats is the Elections committee. As one lobbyist pointed out, the Elections committee under Todd Smith could produce some very scary legislation.
Phi has already aptly pointed out the structure of the Elections Committee virtually guarantees voter ID legislation gets to the floor.
Straus has marginalized key House Democratic leaders too.
After Rep Jim Dunnam secured nearly 70 votes for anyone to challenge Tom Craddick, he is placed on Environmental Regulation and Transportation. Dunnam did get a nice megaphone to attack Rick Perry's refusal to accept federal aide as Chair of the select committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding, but it comes with out a natural base of support unlike State Affairs or Regulated Industries.
Another good example is Rep. Senfronia Thompson. Thompson was a candidate for Speaker and an early endorser of Straus. She is currently serving her 17th term. What committee assignments did she receive? Insurance, Licensing & Administrative Procedures (Vice Chair), and Local & Consent Calendars (Chair). The Local and Consent Calendar Committee is were non-controversial bills go if they have received unanimous support in committee. This is a thankless job and is one of the weakest chair positions Straus could give out. Rep. Thompson is too good to be chair of this thankless committee.
Straus also showed that he was willing to be as partisan as past Republicans. He painted a nice target on freshmen Democrats giving them lower weaker committees. Democrats like Kristi Thibaut, Robert Miklos, Chris Turner and others will do incredible work in smaller committees. One Democratic freshman got some solid committee assignments-Diana Maldonado.
Maldonado was placed on the powerful State Affairs committee and Defense & Veterans' Affairs.
As the same lobbyist put it, this is because Williamson County is trending too rapidly to the Democratic Party. Maldonado won a tough election in an open race. Now she is an incumbent and Annie's List incumbent at that. With work from WilCo and Travis County Democrats, Diana should be fine.
On the other hand, Todd Hunter is being propped up.
After winning a close election against Juan Garcia, Hunter was given three committee assignments and one chairmanship. Hunter will be on the General Investigating & Ethics and Insurance Committees and will chair Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence. This is a double slap to Democrats. Garcia campaigns on reforming the Insurance Commissioner's office and making that an elected position and was backed by the Texas Trial Lawyers Association.
Now we know how Straus feels about both of those things.
Straus is better than Craddick. That is absolutely true. However, Straus as Speaker shows how important it is for us to take back the House. If we want to really stop Voter ID, reregulate tuition, or provide insurance for all of Texas' children, a Democrat needs to hold the House gavel. |
