It was a sea of people. Capitol staffers, reporters, dozens of elected officials from both sides of the aisle, and a few tourist all mixed under the rotunda today.
Every balcony was full with camera flashes and inquisitive pointing.
I sat front and center among TV cameras from across the city and state. Constantly bumped by paper media, citizen journalist and the unfortunate souls simply at the wrong place at the right time.
Because of the size, I broke the press conference into two parts-- Straus and Straus supporters.
The reality of it was that Straus spoke, his supporters from both sides of the aisle spoke, and then he took nearly 5 minutes of questions. The Q&A was particularly interesting because Craddick has avoided cameras since November 2008. Already we see a huge departure of access and transparency in the Speakers office.
Straus has already announced 96 Representatives pledged to support him or roughly 2/3 of the entire House of Representatives. One of the few names surprisingly missing is Rep. Frank Corte who also represents San Antonio. It seems Representative Corte would want a Speaker from San Antonio in order to better serve his district.
Democratic Representatives Joaquin Castro, MALC Chair Trey Martinez Fischer, Mike Villarreal, Joe Farias, Roland Gutierrez, and David Leibowitz have all just announced their "enthusiastic support" for fellow San Antonian Republican Joe Straus.
Democratic members of the Bexar County Delegation have enthusiastically thrown their support behind Representative Joe Straus (R-San Antonio), who will be elected Speaker of the House of Representatives on January 13th.
After bipartisan discussions this weekend in Austin, Representative Straus has been selected as the consensus candidate to run the House of Representatives. He is expected to have the majority of votes from House members, including the support of most Bexar County Democrats.
Representatives Joaquin Castro, Trey Martinez Fischer, Mike Villarreal, Joe Farias, Roland Gutierrez, Jose Menendez, and David Leibowitz have all extended their full support to Representative Straus and believe his election as Speaker will be a historic victory for the Alamo City, especially in a moment when the stakes are so high.
Representative Straus will significantly help advance San Antonio's agenda in the upcoming legislative session.
During the 81st Legislative Session, lawmakers are expected to name a third top tier research university in the state, making the University of Texas at San Antonio a front runner for consideration. Straus as Speaker of the House would make up for the absence of a San Antonio member on the important Texas Transportation Commission, and a Speaker Straus will be invaluable in securing funding for critical infrastructure projects, and private sector development in Bexar County.
Democratic members of the Bexar County Delegation are excited to join Republicans and Democrats from across the state to support Representative Straus in his candidacy for Speaker of the House of Representatives, and they look forward to the opportunities this will present for San Antonio in 2009. The Delegation urges other uncommitted lawmakers to throw their support behind Representative Straus.
Representative Straus is expected to publicly identify his list of more than 76 supporters within the next 18 to 24 hours.
The most interesting part of this whole release is the very last paragraph.
Democrat Rep. Joaquin Castro is running against Republican Nelson Balido. The race, in what is shaping up as a parallel to the Casteel-Macias race in the GOP primary last March, has tightened up in recent weeks. This line from the San Antonio Express-News sums it up best:
Suddenly, the race, which was once considered a cakewalk for Castro, has become more difficult to predict.
The line comes from an article titled, "Amateur video of sabotage could spur Leininger even more." The article discusses video that the Balido campaign shot of an alleged Castro supporter doing damage to a mock toll booth Balido's campaign put up in the district.
The best way to talk about the race is to show how it parallels the Casteel-Macias race. For those who aren't familiar, Rep. Carter Casteel was one of five Republican House members that was targeted by multi-millionaire James Leininger for her stance against school vouchers. Leininger, the largest voucher proponent in the known universe, sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars into Nathan Macias, her challenger, in order to defeat Casteel. Here's how that race parallels the Castro race:
Leininger Money - First and foremost, the money. Leininger, through his own donations and through third-party PACS, spent at least $800k in support of Nathan Macias (view total donations here). Leininger has already given $25k to Balido, and -- according to the San Antonio article -- intends on giving a lot more.
Toll road critics - One thing Macias continually hammered (despite the truth) against Casteel was her support for toll roads. Terri Hall, regional director of the San Antonio Toll Party, frequently attended Casteel's outings to challenge her on toll roads. Now, Hall is doing the same to Castro, as seen in this Express-News article titled, "Toll road critics blast Rep. Castro, endorse Balido":
The San Antonio Toll Party on Wednesday targeted state Rep. Joaquín Castro, accusing the two-term incumbent of siding with the "toll lobby."
The toll critics endorsed his main challenger, Republican Nelson Balido, in the race for Texas House District 125.
Damaged campaign material - During the Casteel/Macias race, Macias launched an offensive on Casteel, claiming her campaign was destroying his yard signs. However, Casteel's campaign manager went to the New Braunfels paper with evidence of Macias' campaign destroying their own signs in attempts to taint Casteel. Now, a video has emerged with an unidentified woman destroying Balido's campaign material. Don't be surprised if her identity is never discovered.
Overall, I still believe Castro will pull through and win the seat. But he better not take the race lightly -- there's a lot of money for Leininger to spend in his hometown of San Antonio, and I'm guessing he'll spend a whole lot of it in the coming weeks.
