Whether one supports or opposes the actions of the Craddick D's last session, they chose to establish themselves as a separate group in the Texas Legislature. Calling themselves "Democrats for Reform," they laid out an agenda at the start of session. At the end of session, they claimed their agenda was a success, and that the key successes for Democrats this session were the result of the deals they had struck with Speaker Craddick. They also touted the personal victories they won for their district by supporting Craddick, and many were proud to call themselves "Craddick D's."
It should be noted, though, that only a handful of those who attended the first press conference (announcing the Democrats for Reform, at the start of session) attended the second (after the challenge to Craddick at the end of May). More over, the voracity to which "their agenda" can be called a success was called into question.
With the announcement that Chairman Robert Puente will retire, I thought it would be appropriate to see exactly how those "Democrats for Reform" are doing today. This is merely meant as an update -- trying to keep track of our Democrats in the Texas House. I select them out as a group not out of hostility, but because they chose to set themselves apart from the House Democratic Caucus.
Update: To clarify, I designated whether or not any of the following State Representatives would "still vote for Craddick" based on their last known public position -- which I sourced as best as possible in the middle column. Any additional news that any of the Members or anyone else wish to share, please send me an e-mail or post a comment, and I will update the chart appropriately.
The Craddick D's: Where We Are Today - October 22, 2007
Voted "present, not voting" during Rep. Haggerty's roll call speech; Rep. Chavez was quoted in the Houston Chronicle saying she would support new leadership in 2009.
No
Deshotel, Joe
Voted "against" Craddick during Rep. Haggerty's roll call speech.
No
Dukes, Dawnna
Though there were rumors that some in Austin were looking for a primary challenger, none have surfaced. The last known public statement was that Rep. Dukes stands by Craddick - though I'm not certain she'd vote for Craddick again.
Was one of the handful of Democrats proudly trumpeting the "Democrats for Reform" agenda at the end of session. No other public indication of her stance, and no primary news to date.
Yes
Guillen, Ryan
No challenger, no news. Though if the budget committee is still this hard, would he want it?
On the motion to vacate at end of session, was said to be "flip-flopping." No news, though with Rep. Puente's retirement, she is the only Craddick-supporter in San Antonio.
Of the 15, there are definitely 5 fewer supporters for Craddick, two "maybes" (three, if you include Rep. Turner), three Craddick D's facing primary challenges, and maybe a few more who would no longer call themselves Craddick D's.
Some stories just slip through the cracks when there is an interesting U.S. Senate primary going on. Not sure if you noticed, but the primary map is getting interesting around the state.
Clay Robinson wrote a week ago that some “Craddick D’s” are more likely than others to garner primary opponents than others. His list included:
Among the so-called "Craddick Democrats" — Democratic House members viewed as loyal to Craddick, including a number of committee chairmen — those most likely to draw opponents in their party's primary include Kevin Bailey of Houston, Robert Puente of San Antonio, Aaron Peña of Edinburg and Kino Flores of Mission.
Two of those men have either a declared opponent or one looking at the possibilities--Aramando Walle and Roland Gutierrez has started making the moves to challenge Kevin Bailey and Robert Puente respectively.
Armando Walle, an aide to U.S. Rep. Gene Green of Houston, is preparing to challenge Bailey, and San Antonio Councilman Roland Gutierrez is considering a race against Puente.
Another race of interest is Rick Noriega’s seat. Since Noriega cannot run for both a state and federal office his House Seat will be opening up. House District 145 has a few candidates interested.
Elias De La Garza, owner of a busy Gulf Freeway fronted insurance office, is being wooed for the House District 145 race as an alternative to Houston Councilwoman Carol Alvarado and other potential contenders the local Democratic establishment might rally behind as a replacement for Noriega if Noriega gives up the seat.
There's also speculation Roy Morales, a retired Air Force Lt. Col. who ran twice for city council in the last two years, might run for the HD 145 race as a Republican in 2008.
All of these seats are known for being strong Democratic areas. While the newly created TexBlog PAC isn’t going to be involved in influencing the outcomes of these races, we will do our best to continue to cover them. If you have tips, news, or comments please feel free to write a journal or e-mail me at matt@burntorangereport.com.
State Rep. Anna Mowery (R) confirmed Friday night that she is retiring from the Texas House and won't seek re-election in 2008. The Fort Worth Republican is the first to acknowledge plans to retire. Mowery is a supporter of Speaker Tom Craddick. In facing Democrat Dan Barrett last November, she pulled only 56% of the vote, under performing the 61% top of the ticket average. Given the successes of Dallas area Democrats in 2006, expect Mowery's HD-97 to be on the target list as an open seat.
Word comes today that there may be a retirement on the Democratic side of the aisle as well. Rep. Arron Pena (D) who has been the point of discussion at BOR the last weeks of the session, has told the Valley Morning Star that he may seek to retire as well.
Rep. Aaron Pena, D-Edinburg, strongly suggested in an interview Friday evening that he might not run again for the Legislature now that his six-year quest to have a drug treatment center built in the Valley is coming to a close.
...
"When I first ran, my commitment was to build a drug-treatment center, and now that it’s done, I feel like my work is done here," Pena said. Pena, 47, said he did not know when he would decide definitively whether to run for another two-year term. His term ends in January 2009.
"It’s like you run a race and you’ve finished," he said. "I never expected to finish this quickly. I don’t need to run again. I’m going to go home and reflect and enjoy my time with family and decide whether I want to do this again."
Of course, the actions of Craddick and the treatment of the House Rules may of course be playing into members' decisions. Why would anyone want to come back for another session to see the process tortured in such inconceivable ways?
Some people prefer to play petty politics than pass good public policy. That was never more evident than what transpired over the last few days regarding the Innocence Commission bill. I wasn't sure who to believe at first about why the bill died in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, since there were conflicting accounts. I found it hard to believe that any elected official would kill a bill out of pettiness, but then I saw that Aaron Peña had redirected a link to a blog critical of him to this Toilet Sounds website where you can hear the sound of a flushing toilet. It was then that I realized that Aaron Peña was probably not the most high-minded person in the Legislature, so he probably was indeed petty enough to vote for a bill and kill it at the same time.
Peña had a change of heart and has stopped linking to the toilet sounds website, but not before I was able to make a video of it. Watch the video. You will see Peña's blog. I click on the link to the Edinburg News on his blogroll. Instead of being taken to the Edinburg News, Peña sends me to the toilet sounds site.
(Grits points out that there is still a chance to save the Innocence Commission. Far be it from us to point out procedural methods that could be used to save this bill if it truly has the support to pass. - promoted by Burnt Orange Report)
Burnt Orange Report has received some attention this past week.
With only a week left in the 80th Legislative Session, rumors are still flying that any day now, Speaker Craddick will become just another Rep. Paul Burka and this community did not necessarily see eye to eye on who should be the next Speaker of the House or the events that may lead to that. While we disagreed with Burka on the Speakers race, we did not remove a link to his site.
Rep. Aaron Pena on the other hand, did just that. After we reported on a bill lagging in committee, Rep. Pena heard the bill. Sadly, that bill was killed, but at least the vote was held before a procedural deadline killed it without a vote. It would have been inappropriate for us to ignore this legislation considering it was referred to a committee packed with Democrats and lead by a Democratic Chair (Pena) and Vice-chair, and supported by Democratic leaders in the Senate. Rep. Pena has decided that he will remove his link to us from his site. That's his choice, but we see no reason to engage in such pettiness.
Sure, we are saddened that Rep. Pena blames us for the death of SB 263 (odd considering we aren't the chair of the committee that was supposed to pass the bill). In this case, Burnt Orange Report and Grits for Breakfast could only shine light on his bill as we could not vote on it for them. If we could have, Rep. Pena and the people of Texas would have had two more aye votes last week and maybe an Innocence Commission.
Sometimes we disagree. That's part of politics and it's certainly part of blogging. It is not our job to be complacent or accept the good because we do not want to fight for the perfect. If there is an opportunity to fight for something better, then that is what we will do.
As staff members at the capitol, campaign operatives, former elected officials, and pundits, Burnt Orange Writers are more than just the UT Students who started this blog. We have political agendas and electoral priorities. Here at Burnt Orange Report we will continue to support Democrats and progressive positions.
With only one full week left of this session and an interesting election cycle on the horizon, we promise to continue to do what is right regardless of whether it is popular. That's a promise.
After nearly a decade of work, Senator Rodney Ellis finally passed out SB 263, legislation which would create an Innocence Commission to address and fix the problems of the Texas criminal justice system. Republican opposition in the Senate had held up this legislation for years, but the bill finally made it through this session. So why is the Democratic Chair of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, Aaron Pena, holding up the bill?
After sitting on the bill for several weeks without setting a hearing, now the chairman refuses to allow a vote on the bill. Supporters of the bill tell Burnt Orange Report that they definitely have a majority of votes to pass it out of committee, yet Chairman Pena will not let the bill come up for a vote. All bills must be passed out of committee by this Saturday, or else they die.
Senate Bill 263 would create an independent commission to examine cases where innocent citizens who have been wrongfully convicted, identify the causes of those convictions, and recommend changes in the criminal justice system to prevent such future miscarriages of justice. While it was watered down by Senate Republicans, it remains a good bill and a powerful statement of the need to change Texas' woeful criminal justice system.
According to Senator Ellis' most recent press release on the issue, the legislation will "create an Innocence Commission to launch in-depth investigations each time an innocent person is wrongfully convicted, review what went wrong in these cases, why, and spell out the changes necessary to ensure these injustices are not repeated."
According to release, over 200 people nationwide have been cleared through DNA testing after they were convicted. In Texas 29 men have been exonerated by DNA testing and 14 of those cases have come out of Dallas County in just the past five years.
With all the troubles of the Texas criminal justice system, we are shocked that Aaron Pena is strangling this bill.
**UPDATE**Grits for Breakfast made a post on the same subject today. Chairman Pena commented in that thread that the bill should be heard on Friday.
However, Chairman Pena also stated in the comments on the Grits post that, "I am somewhat disappointed to learn from a lobbiest that his staff has sent out a press release to Burnt Orange Report that has muddied the water." To clarify, the press release we linked to was originally sent out on April 24. Our sources told us about what was happening, and upon further research, we found the press release on Sen. Ellis' website.
Glad to see everything the bill will be voted out before the Saturday deadline.
Absence of two Valley Reps proves crucial on key Voter ID amendment.
AUSTIN - The absence of two Rio Grande Valley lawmakers from the House floor on Monday proved crucial on a closely fought amendment to a controversial Voter ID bill.
The article then goes on to make much of the same points that were made here at Burnt Orange last night, specifically about the one-vote margin of defeat that happened on Rep. Jim Dunnam's amendment. The article also notes that Flores was "unwell" and that Pena was back home in McAllen giving a speech about crime victims.
Flores' statement would carry more weight had not another Representative who has been sick with pneumonia not sat on the house floor through the hours of debate just to vote no. And as important as it is to recognize victims of crime and the suffering that they have gone through, HB 218 was a pretty important bill.
Two notable lines from the article, below the fold.
Update 7:30 pm:Looks like some offices read the BOR as Pena and Kino just paired their votes with Goolsby and England. Good job on the England/Goolsby pairing though guys, you just took those issues off the table for their '08 elections.
Just a quick update on House floor action for the Voter Disenfranchisement legislation currently on the floor.
Voting has begun to settle along party lines as members feels they need to get their say while everyone else tunes them out.
Of interest, however, are two absent legislators whose districts are directly affected by these bad pieces of legislation.
Remember the Craddick 15. The 15 Democrats who helped Tom Craddick retain his seat as Speaker of the House. As a result, here are the assignments Papa Bear Craddick gave to his children:
Sylvester Turner: Speaker Pro Tempore; CBO of Regulated Industries; Calendars; Appropriations
Kevin Bailey: CHAIR of Urban Affairs; Business & Industry; General Investigating & Ethics
Norma Chavez: VICE CHAIR of Calendars; Appropriations; CBO of Financial Institutions
Joe Deshotel: CHAIR of Economic Development; Redistricting; Transportation
Dawnna Dukes: CBO of Culture, Rec & Tourism; Appropriations; Calendars
Kino Flores: CHAIR of Licensing & Administrative Procedures; Redistricting; Ways & Means
Helen Giddings: CHAIR of Business & Industry; VICE CHAIR of House Administration; Higher Education
Ryan Guillen: VICE CHAIR of Appropriations; Calendars; Natural Resources
Harold Dutton: CHAIR of Juvenile Justice & Family Issues; General Investigating & Ethics; Public Education
Tracy King: CHAIR of Border & International Affairs; Environmental Regulation
Eddie Lucio: CBO of Environmental Regulation; Appropriations; Local & Consent Calendars
Ruth Jones McClendon: CHAIR of Rules & Regulations; CBO of Pensions & Investments; Appropriations
Aaron Pena: CHAIR of Criminal Jurisprudence; Ways & Means
Robert Puente: CHAIR of Natural Resources; Local Government Ways & Means
Patrick Rose: CHAIR of Human Services; Higher Education
(Oh how I love numbers... - promoted by Sam Jones)
Here's a list that's been on my mind since last year, a list of the hundred "least-educated" "cities" in the country. Texas features prominently.
The level of education is measured by the percentage of people with (or without) high school diplomas or college degrees, and "city" is defined as a place with a population of 5,000 or more. Many are merely "census-designated places" rather than actual cities. The "least-educated city" list, of course, signifies much more than educational attainment level. The cities and places tend to be low-income, low-opportunity and isolated--they are pockets of poverty--the poorest of the poor. Fifty-four are in California, 24 are in Texas.
