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.
Time is running out for Tom Craddick and John Smithee. Joe Straus has added three more to his list.
As KT reported earlier, Straus announced a list of 85 pledged votes. With the addition of the below mentioned Representatives, Straus is sitting on 88 or nearly 60% of the entire Texas House.
Speaker Pro-Tem Sylvester Turner
Representative Ryan Guillen
Representative-Elect Angie Chen Button
The h/t goes to Elise Hu who is doing a masterful job reporting the pre-session craziness.
Quorum Report verifies rumors circulating that the Gang of 11, the 11 Republicans committed to anybody other than Craddick, have selected San Antonio Republican Joe Straus.
Straus has not filed as an official candidate for Speaker according to the Texas Ethic Commission.
