So yes -- one of the House Parliamentarians is using an exposed-anonymous name to post a letter that argues that he should keep his job. But hey -- whatever works. From the comments (emphasis added is mine):
This letter was issued by Rep. Harold Dutton to Burt Solomons:
After reading in the newspaper quotes attributed to you that were extremely disturbing to me and other members, I initially considered it best that I not put my thoughts in writing. I don't recall the actual quote in the newspaper but after reading the quote, I remember letting the dog do his business on it and I quickly discarded the paper with the dog poop. However, I also remember thinking how in the hell does Burt Solomons know what I want, do or think. Or what gives him the right to disparage me? I haven't spoken to you since last session and unless you have some cosmic powers I am not aware of you can't know what I have been doing, thinking or desiring. Yet you attack me and several Democrats without speaking to either of us.
I did question who is Burt Solomons talking to and more especially who is he listening to. Do you remember the king who had no clothes? It's worst to have no thoughts-of your own.
As you critique my past support for Tom Craddick, let me put it bluntly, with a majority Republicans in the House, I stayed with Craddick because I failed to grasp why I would change a Midland Republican for a Waxahachie Republican. You can throw in-- a Carrollton Republican -- if the shoe fits.
I assume the media accounts are correct that you are running for speaker. That's good. I just wish we had a rule that if you run for speaker and lose, then your seat is vacated and you must leave the House. That would force speaker campaigns to be less tasteless. It would certainly reduce the number of show horses and blowhards, leaving only serious candidates who must speak with each member and more especially listen to every member. Certainly it would be most unlikely that a candidate would begin a campaign by disparaging other members. I think you get my drift. Running for speaker does not cloak you or anyone else with the right to be stupid. That should be reserved for those who would vote for you.
The media quote you as suggesting that the House is so divided and can't come together under Tom Craddick. What? And you begin your campaign by attacking members and now you have even targeted the parliamentarian. If that's your method to heal the House and bring members together, you leave me speechless-almost. When I last checked the speaker appointed the parliamentarian. So, all you have to do is become speaker and you get to choose your parliamentarian. As my coach was fond of saying-stay focused. Abandon the pit bull attack.
Your December 5 Memo further states that your House colleagues joined you in calling for Terry Keel' resignation. First, as one of your House colleagues, you do not speak for me. Secondly, Terry Keel and I had some rather spirited debates on the House floor but I always maintained the highest respect for Terry Keel as a lawyer and a legislator. I still do.
Leadership is defined as "the catalyst that changes struggle into progress." So far, your leadership style seems to be consumed by a last session hangover. Let that go. When your rear view mirror becomes larger than your windshield, Texans don't progress-we just struggle. Every Speaker candidate and each member of the House must commit themselves to transform our independence into an interdependence that fosters a better Texas. Democrat or republican, that's the kind of member Texans want-and deserve. Speaker, too.
Harold Dutton
I've got to say -- arguing that someone is being too negative and acting like a pit bull, only using negative pit-bull attacks to make your point, doesn't make the most effective of arguments. For me. But Rep. Dutton's point and opinion is an argument that carries as much weight as any other's, and his arguments are real and felt not just by him, but by other Members.
Rep. Dutton, though, isn't arguing for Craddick as Speaker. Remember this quote:
Dutton suggests that Democrats embrace Craddick because on his watch, Republicans have frittered away the 26-seat majority voters gave them in the 2002 elections.
Could be, Dutton said, that Craddick gets two more years on top and Democrats recapture their House majority in the 2010 elections.
My experience was Rep. Dutton is that he spoke his mind, whoever and whatever the position may be. I say that to suggest to our readers that his letter isn't necessarily a defense for Craddick, but just an honest assessment of how he feels Rep. Solomons has carried out his campaign to this point.
Rep. Solomons has taken an aggressive approach. There's some logic to that approach -- you can't beat a hardball politician if you're not willin to play hardball. Craddick sure isn't leaving anything to chance, and though he has yet to release more than 13 names of support a full month after Election Day, I'm sure he's still doing everything he can to retain power.
Rep. Hartnett -- one of Craddick's largest supporters -- has suggested that it will come down to the first day of session. We could be in for an interesting few weeks -- remember, two years ago, all the real "action" for the Speaker's race happened after Christmas.
I'm excited that I'll be in Austin for the first day of session, whatever happens.
The House Rules should not ever become a complex set of protective measures for the Speaker, but rather should always remain simply as “our” Rules in how we conduct business and the process for passing legislation; and, not as an “us” versus “them” set of procedural nonsense. [...]
I must respectfully call for you to step down as Parliamentarian prior to the first day of the 81st Session and not as a Temporary Officer in the capacity of Parliamentarian on the first day of the session. It is my conclusion that a majority of my House colleagues are not confident that your advice and parliamentary interpretations will be unbiased, and you will continue on a parth of tortured interpretations and rulings designed solely to protect the current Speaker and frustrate the House parliamentary process. From your statements and advice since the beginning of your service as parliamentarian at the end of the 80th Session, it has become apparent to my House colleagues and myself that you are working for the current Speaker and not the body.
We are joining with Rep. Burt Solomons today and calling for House Parliamentarian Terry Keel to resign his position. Additionally, we believe Ron Wilson should also step down immediately. We need a Member’s Parliamentarian, not a Speaker’s Parliamentarian. It is clear that Mr. Keel and Mr. Wilson are more interested in serving Speaker Tom Craddick than serving the entire House. We need to begin the 81st Legislative Session with a clean slate. The replacement of Mr. Keel and Mr. Wilson will send a clear signal that this next Legislature is making a clean break from the last Legislature which led to embarrassing floor fights over power and put the people’s needs behind the needs of the Speaker.
Burka was on this early this morning. He emphasized the push for the secret ballot in Solomons' letter -- something Rep. Merritt also discussed in a second letter (another component I'll write about later). However, I want to focus on the Terry Keel resignation ask first:
House Parliamentarians are not supposed to be polarizing figures. The House Parliamantarians are employees of the House, not the Speaker. The importance of the House being comfortable with the Parliamentarians is incredibly important:
If a House Member needs to go to the front of the House to ask for anything -- to speak against a bill, to get clarification on whether or not a Point of Order should stand, to file an amendment, to get clarification on a procedural matter, anything -- then they talk with a Parliamentarian first. In this role, the Parliamentarians are invaluable gatekeers of the business of the House Floor. If the House, as a body, is not comfortable with who is protecting them -- even if the perception is there that their concerns or questions will not be fairly listened to or addressed -- then they cannot be comfortable operating on the House floor.
Ultimately, this is about a secret ballot. On a member-to-member level, though, it's about cordiality vs. intimidation. That such a letter would even need to come from Rep. Solomons et. all -- in the very public glare of a Speaker's race, no less -- should be a strong signal for how discontent House Members truly are with Craddick at the front, and how little confidence anyone has that Craddick would reform his current practices in the least.
Documents obtained by KVUE from the Texas AP show the improvements include custom wood cabinets and granite countertops for $61,200; two brass chandeliers totaling $29,000 and two 42" LCD screens for $2,200.
The improvements are being made in the often unseen Texas House Members Lounge.
Tom "Smitty" Smith of Public Citizen told KVUE, "At a time when Governor Perry says we need to cut out budgets, why are we spending $140,000 on a private club? You have to wonder, who did authorize it, and why at this time."
You can see the full report here:
Interestingly while the story starts as House Speaker Tom Craddick's spokesperson, Alexis DeLee and State Preservation Board and the House pointing fingers at each other, the story continues down a different path. Elise Hu writes on her blog:
Later in the afternoon, I got a word that the two brass chandeliers (worth $29,000) were going to go up, so our photographer, Robert, headed back to the back hall. That's when he encountered the Speaker's press secretary, Alexis Delee. Delee asked him to leave, citing security reasons.
Robert said he wanted to speak with security directly, and instead of security, Delee sent Terry Keel and Ron Wilson! Robert says Wilson came down the hallway wearing a big black shirt and sunglasses, even though they were indoors. But Keel (who is now House Parliamentarian) did the talking. He let Robert in to the lounge, to shoot what he wanted. We were thrilled to get what we could get, but would have loved anyone from the Speaker's office to go on camera. We were denied.
You have to ask, who is in charge, and why isn't there any over site?
Senate District 17 still needs our help; the Texas Senate needs one more Democrat. Kyle Janek vacated his seat before his term expired to anoint Republican Austen Furse. Because of Republican infighting, Furse lost and only received 10% of the vote. The winner on the Republican side was uber-conservative Joan Huffman, who squeaked in to a runoff with only 26.13% of the vote.
Simmons did what she was supposed to do: she forced a runoff. Simmons received 13.8% of the total vote in the high turnout election, and pushed it to a low turnout runoff. To add insult to injury, if you combine this percentage with Chris Bell's numbers, the Democratic Party received 52.2% of the total vote.
Because Edwards and Wilson decided to support the TLR candidate and force a runoff, taxpayers will be required to spend more money on another election during an economic downturn. On the other hand, Democrats need to step and help Congressman Bell overcome these political games by donating today.
Democrats can be cautiously optimistic going into the run-off. Bell was the top vote getter in every county except Brazoria. In Brazoria, the Republican runoff candidate Joan Huffman won with only 2,101 votes. On the other hand, Bell was the top getter in Democrat friendly Jefferson County with 6,335 votes (which is 3,433 more than Stephanie Simmons received).
The other high note is Bell's resounding victory in Harris County. Bell won 37.6% of the vote in Harris and the Democratic Party received 52.8% of the vote. Harris County also represents 36.4% of the total vote.
While the numbers favor Bell, the district is drawn to be Republican. While Democrats have done well in special elections recently, they are harder to win and money and a good ground game mean more.
Chris Bell can win, but what Dan Barrett and Donna Howard have proven is it takes statewide focus for us to win in a special election.
Kirk Watson wrote today:
Many of you have already given generously of your time and resources during this election cycle, and I wouldn't be asking you again if the stakes for Democrats weren't so high.
With the election of Wendy Davis on November 4th, Democrats will hold 12 of 31 seats in the State Senate. With Chris as our lucky number 13, Senate Democrats will be able to make a real difference for Texas families by fighting for high-quality public schools, affordable utility rates, and accessible health insurance.
Having 12 Democrats in the Senate makes a difference. Having 13 means more. 13 can be our lucky number in the Senate. Having Chris Bell and Wendy Davis in the Senate requires a bipartisan approach to legislating.
Texans for Lawsuit Reform gave Simmons $201,745 just to force a runoff. Ron Wilson gave her another $30,000 and loaned her $7,000 more.
This has to be a people powered campaign. Help Chris today by donating your time or money.
Senate District 17 has proved to be one of the most politically compelling stories of the election cycle. It all began with a series of deals, broken promises, and half-truths that centered around the coordinated exist of incumbent State Senator Kyle Janek (R). The scramble among Republicans to replace Janek has caused considerable bad blood in the conservative community.
Consider, for example, this excerpt from a post by Paul Burka (whose account of the bad blood in the race is an excellent primer in order to understand what exactly is going on among Republicans in the district):
To say that the race to fill the Houston-area state Senate seat being vacated by Kyle Janek has heated up is an understatement. Melted down is more like it.[...]
The real heat in this race is generated by what amounts to a Republican primary between Furse and Huffman for the right to take on Bell in a runoff. Janek has aroused some resentment by trying to handpick his successor. First he embraced former Houston oiler and TV commentator Spencer Tillman, only to find at the last minute that Tillman did not live in the district. Then he turned to Furse. This was too much for Jim Hotze, a former SREC member for District 17, who wrote a long article detailing Janek’s maneuvers for the Texas Conservative Review, an online newsletter edited by Gary Polland, whom Janek defeated to win his Senate seat.
Burka goes on to detail the exchange between the candidates. Go read the post, if you haven't already.
Meanwhile, Bell is doing well in the polls. He has over 40% support while Republican challengers are scrambling around the low teens between 8 and 12 points. Should the race go into a runoff (which is likely), Bell's high name ID and the bad blood amongst Republicans could provide a path to victory for Democrats.
Another Democrat, Stephanie Simmons, is running after successfully employing Republican Speaker Tom Craddick's parliamentarian Ron Wilson to ensure she stayed on the ballot. Questions still surround who is funding her race -- whether or not she is a stalking horse for Republicans to depress Bell's Democrat base turnout -- since D. Davenport Ron Wilson is her biggest public supporter.
We will have more details on Republicans in the race in the coming days.
Bell has high name ID, which is a major positive for him in the race. For now, we categorize the race as "Lean Bell" since we expect he'll easily have the most votes on November 4. In the coming weeks, we hope to have more quantitative information to show you why he could even win outright on Election Day.
Here are some links to previous coverage of the race on Burnt Orange Report:
As readers may have noticed, we at BOR have taken a particular interest in the open SD-17 special election (you can read most of the posts here) and have raised over $1,000 for Chris Bell.
Now it seems like someone else is interested in the race, too: Ron Wilson.
You would stand a better chance being raped by a water buffalo than having any accurate information on Ron Wilson or Tom Craddick.
Former Craddick assistant parliamentarian Ron Wilson seems to not only be interested in SD-17, he seems to be working with Republicans to recruit and keep questionable candidates and the ballot. Wilson is also spinning the Republican talking points and defaming Democratic candidates and their supporter.
Before I go much further, it's time to let everyone know that Ron Wilson is not Baby Snooks as one reader speculated. That did get me wondering though, about the writing pattern of user "D. Davenport" who has only shown up a handful of times to attack Democratic House Leader Jim Dunnam, defend failed candidate Latreese Cooke, defend Donna Keel's brother-in-law and Craddick Parliamentarian Terry Keel, and Craddick D Sylvester Turner.
D. Davenport has an extensive understanding (although faulty interpretation) of House rules. D. Davenport has written almost exclusively in Austin, but seems to know a lot about Houston elected officials and races. Most interesting, D. Davenport has made it a point to lie about matters of public record including payments and statements on the House floor.
At one point in June of last year, D. Davenport said, "You have no idea who you are corresponding with nor do you need to know."
After some investigation, we can tell you we know who D. Davenport is.
D. Davenport is none other than Ron Wilson.
That's right, former Assistant House Parliamentarian and State Representative Ron Wilson is the one who has been attacking readers and calling people racists on Burnt Orange Report.
Like all our registered community members, Ron Wilson provided an e-mail address when he registered. The e-mail he provided only had two results when you google it. One site is the state bar of Texas. The other is a car forum, where a guest, "ron_wilson" talks shop about high end cars.
The point here is that D. Davenport, like Buck Smith is a paid political operative. They concealed their identity, picked fights with our community members, and expected to get away with it. We don't go looking up every user account. (For one, there are over 4,000 users and besides that, we generally expect people to play fair.)
In fact, if a reader hadn't speculated that Baby Snooks was Ron Wilson, we never would have found out who D. Davenport was. I wouldn't have looked through his 20 comments to realize a pattern.
Because of "D. Davenport's" comments, one reader called to tell me Ron Wilson admitted to recruiting Stephanie Simmons to challenge Chris Bell in Senate District 17 -- saying simply, "What do you think about what we did to your boy Bell?"
How do you feel about that? We don't like it and we don't like "Buck Smith" or "D. Davenport" style deception on Burnt Orange Report.
If you don't like it either, please feel to give a dollar for every comment Buck Smith and or D. Davenport has made on BOR to either TexBlog PAC or the House Democratic Campaign Committee (HDCC) to make sure we can end this sort of deception in Austin.
Ron Wilson's request for a hand out continues to be suspect. On October 27th, Phil reported that Wilson asked Rick Perry to appoint him as Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety (DPS).
Wilson's bid for Commissioner is troubling. Not because he supports Craddick's bid for total power. Not because he was a top lieutenant in the push to institutionalize and fund vouchers in Texas. The fact that DPS refuses to release video tapes that may show James Leininger on the House floors isn't the biggest issue either. The problem is, you can tell a lot about a person by the company he keeps, and Wilson's friends don't seem like friends of the DPS.
Ron Wilson's client, friend, and rapper, Lil' Flip has something to say about public safety.
Lil Flip - I Got Flow
Cause I got flow, you know I got flow
If I ain't in your gal, I'm in the studio
Maybe that one isn't too bad. How about…
Lil Flip- 7-1-3 (Remix)
I got a lot of girls, some of em give me head
Some of em give me bread, when my money get low
I use to fuck, one three days in a row
But she wouldn't let me drive her car
So I found me a bitch, with a Jaguar
Now I got, two herbs in mind
So don't try and jack, cause I'll burst a nine
That's one shot, two shot, three shot, fo'
And if you don't die, I'ma shoot five mo'
Yeah nigga, I'm on my grind
I'm just like Nas, I'm a mastermind
You got a plan, before you try to do something
Get a rubber, before you try to screw something
......
We can't forget Ron Wilson
He got the Lamborghini, you see it
Just for fun, here is another Lil Flip shout out to his boy Ron Wilson.
Lil Flip - We Blow Endo
Lil Flipper da Leprachun ak da Freestyle King
Sucka Free, Fuckin wit dat Ron-C on dat Dodo tshhh
Nigga ya'll blowin bull shit, Endo nigga dats what we blow
Maybe there is a different Ron Wilson with an Endo who represents a Houston rapper. Actually, Mr. Wilson was a guest star in Lil Flip's music video, "This is the Way we Ball".
As a private citizen, Wilson has the right to do whatever he wants as long as it is within the bounds of the law. However, public servants are held to a higher standard. How can he be the commissioner of the Department of Public Safety while his friends and business partners are out there talking about shooting people on the streets, doing drugs, or screwing around?
Wilson has already shown a complete disregard for the rules. Perry and Craddick continue to use cronyism to reward friends instead of considering actual qualifications. There is no reason Wilson should even be considered for this job. Ever.
PAAT is more or less a trade association for lobbyist, and not surprisingly, lobbyist were interested to hear how the rules will be changed for the 81st legislative session.
Keel and Wilson were the only panelists for the presentation entitled "The Official Rules of the Process." Ostensibly, they were there to explain what would happen on Opening Day 2009, but referred to the events of the last week of the 2007 session.
After the new parliamentarian finished his powerpoint, he made some other comments, he stressed a bizarre policy.
When asked what sort of access the lobby would have to the parliamentarians, Keel responded with a gleeful, "our office is your office" and added, "We'll help you as best we can".
Keel also made it a point to say that the Speaker's absolute power may eliminate elected official ability to offer points of order that keep the legislative process open and accessible. Keel suggested that it might be time to eliminate the ability for democratically elected officials to go to the back mic to ask parliamentary questions or bring up points of order. Instead, the unelected Keel may require elected officials to submit all inquiries in writing.
Ironically, this would give the lobby more access to the parliamentarian while the 150 elected House members would be restricted in doing their job.
Quorum Report quotes Wilson as saying:
Wilson also said that House Rules were an extension of the Speaker and that when the House adopted rules, they were buying into the vision of the leader they had selected.
If this is the case, then Wilson validates the need for a new, Democratic speaker.
Terry Keel and Ron Wilson have some questionable practices in their past and present. Rep. Garnet Coleman wants some answers.
Garnet F. Coleman (D-Houston) delivered to the Texas Ethics Commission on Saturday two ethics complaints against former State Representative Ron Wilson, who is currently serving as Speaker Tom Craddick's Assistant Parliamentarian.
The first ethics complaint states that Mr. Wilson has not yet paid an $8,300 fine to the State of Texas for failing to disclose his campaign finances before his March 2004 defeat in the Texas Democratic Primary. In failing to disclose his campaign finances before his defeat, Mr. Wilson hid $10,000 from the "All Children Matter PAC," which is run by Dr. James Leininger
"Ron Wilson has failed to pay an $8,300 to the state of Texas," Rep. Coleman said. "We should not have an Assistant Parliamentarian advising the Speaker on rules when the Assistant Parliamentarian cannot follow the rules himself."
