Lack of Trust

I just got off the phone with a senior member of the Texas House of Representatives.  He told me the session is becoming filled with animosity mostly because of a few freshman members. 

The latest talk on the floor is about a meeting held last night by the freshman Republicans.  Apparently, the new members were trying to figure out how to save the water bill.  There was a differencing of opinions on how to do this.  Meetings like this are pretty common and happen daily at the end of a legislative session.  What is causing all the animosity though is the fact that someone in the meeting was in contact with Michael Quinn Sullivan while at the meeting. He tweeted the contents of that meeting while it was still in progress. 

This was not a public meeting.  This was a private meeting among colleagues.  They were not legislating, the members were discussing options that might make sense or might not make sense. 

This nonsense is exactly why we will have a special session.  90% of the members are good people trying to do the right thing for Texas and their district.  10% are suck ups trying to destroy the process by leaking private talks to lobbyist and the press. 

Please send me an email of the person you think or know leak the info in the meeting.  I promise I will keep the source confidential but I will post the name of the person who leaked the info if it comes from a credible source.  shurttexas@gmail.com

House Republicans Dump the Lottery Commission – Why?

So the Austin elite is chattering non-stop about the House Republican Members refusing to reauthorize the Texas Lottery Commission…  No, MQS did not have anything to do with it.  No, it wasn’t the Feisty Freshman getting one over on the old farts…

It was simply a matter of legislative slap down.  Both to the Democrats and to the education groups who always want more money. Republicans have done a good job at funding education this session – at least by most reasonable measures.  But the education unions and Democrat members have not given them any credit – as matter of fact, these two groups take any and every opportunity to bash Republicans and leadership on their attempts to fund public education. There are multiple areas of government that need funding but big education always wants more.   

Democrats and education groups know there will be a special session to comply with the court order coming down the pike. So Republicans see the grandstanding as nothing more that political gamesmanship.

The Lottery represents roughly $1.1 billion each year in funding for Texas public schools. See how that works?  You f*ck with me I take away a big funding mechanism that by the way my constituents really don’t like.   

How you like them apples?

Height of hypocrisy

It was only a matter of time before Empower Texas had to make some noise for his client “big out of state casinos”.  Yesterday Empower Texans wrote a brief blog bashing the Chairman of Business and Commerce John Carona  for having a hearing on letting Texans decide the fate of expanded gambling in Texas – yes the driver of “free markets” does not want Texans to decide on gambling.  It would hurt his financiers from other states.

Empower Texan’s biggest complaint is that the expansion of gambling would increase bureaucracy in Texas and limit the expansion of gaming by limiting its locations.  This argument doesn’t hold up.  Empower Texan’s founder, Tim Dunn, runs and oil and gas company, which is highly regulated.  If the average Texan wanted to go start an oil and gas company it would take years to get the proper permits etc to start up – something MQS does not have a problem with.  Furthermore, everything we do in Texas is highly regulated – you can’t go start up a convenience store on any corner – you have to get approval and just about everything the store sold would be regulated.  Just try to sell alcohol at that convenience store.  There are literally thousands of examples but I think you get my point.  But Empower Texans is silent on those issue and many more.

I also have not heard a peep from Empower Texans on Jane Nelson’s bill that would test welfare recipients for drugs.  I spent two minutes looking at the fiscal note of her bill and found that in the first biennium it would end up costing the state of Texas $1.2 million.  So the expansion of gambling is bad even though it would make the state of Texas billions and provide thousands of jobs for out of work Texans who are on welfare but a bill costing the state of Texas millions is good?  Which piece of legislation would do more to get Texans off welfare?  This is the height of hypocrisy – Michael does not want Texans to be able to spend their money as they wish but he implies that he wants to empower them?  B*llshit!  He is in the pocket of out of state gaming interest I believe. 

Lastly, Empower Texans takes issue with the way Carona handled the one “Tea Party” representative that spoke in opposition of his bill.  As I have pointed out before, two years ago I would have considered myself a Tea Party activist but I don’t now because they have been taken over by Washington handlers and anyone can say they are part of the Tea Party and represent that they speak for thousands of Texans.  It is also worth pointing out that the Republican Party testified against Carona’s bill, which is odd.  They have never done that before but then again last year was the first time RPT took money from out of state casino interest – specifically the Choctaw Indian tribe out of Oklahoma.  Makes you wonder doesn’t it. 

Empower Texans won’t open their books for Texans to see who is financing them and we do not know how much money RPT has taken in corporate dollars from out of state casino interest.  Until they open their books and come clean, their arguments on everything should be highly suspect. 

The Eve of HB 1 & the 11 Misfits

             The Texas Tribune article by Aman Batheja titled “House Freshmen Launch Coordinated Strike on Budget” goes directly to the point in my last post. The eleven members listed in the article just don’t get how to be respectful and work together with others. They give the entire freshmen class a bad name as they indulge themselves in self aggrandizing stunts. And I am sure that at some point, probably when their amendments (political stunts) go down in flames, but definitely when anything they propose is stripped off in conference committee, they will wail about how they were picked on and disrespected. They just cannot, or will not, grasp the importance of the job they were elected to do.

                  It would help if this group and the folks that write about their antics would stop acting as if the freshman class is staging an uprising as a unit each time this minority group promotes a position. This is not the freshmen class. The supermajority of this class are hard working, respectful, serious members that came here to do serious business. The supermajority of the new members don’t parrot MQS and TPPF at every opportunity. The supermajority of the freshmen are respectful of the hard work done by committees and the chairs in bringing important and well-vetted ideas to the floor.

                  This minority group continues to be disrespectful of fellow members. The Appropriations Committee has one of the most grueling schedules in the entire House. None of this minority group of 11 freshmen is on Appropriations or bothered to sit in on the untold hours of hearings on these subjects. Nor are any of them on the Pension Committee, which has TRS oversight and has not seen a need for this additional funding, or determined that TRS-Care is in jeopardy of going broke. TRS has issued no cry for the help these 11 are proposing in these 37 amendments. There are several explanations for their actions.

                  It is apparent these members disrespect not only the chairman who guide these complex issues, the members that hear these issues and the House as a whole. It is also apparent by their amendments to shut down the successful economic development funds administered by Governor Perry that they consider him to be wasteful. Attempting to portray themselves as the only true conservatives in the House, these members continue their disrespectful attack on the work product of our conservative Governor Perry and his enviable success at bringing business to Texas.

                  A review of the bills filed by the 11 freshmen members reveals that none of them filed any legislation to close down these economic development funds or save the (not drowning) TRS-Care system. What is the source of their interest in these matters now?  Is it purely ideas hatched by Luke Macias and Kevin Brannon, their erstwhile consultants? Or is it driven solely by MQS and TPPF?

                  The Governor and the veteran members of the House, who have given decades of their lives to public service, have long since tired of the antics of MQS, and his captive disenchanted Republican consultants. They are now bound to be tiring of the lack of respect, respect they have earned over many years of service, being shown them by this group of 11.

                  Can't you see MOS is using you to have members he wants to defeat cast what he thinks are bad votes?  Can't you see that next March when you are defending your decisions  you will be asking for help from the Governor you attacked, the chairmen and members you insulted, and the business groups you ridiculed. You will find that MQS and Alice is of no help(auto dials don't win elections), your consultants have no message to sell your constituents, and the voters don’t appreciate your political stunts in Austin. Your challengers will have numerous examples, such as your budget amendments, to justify replacing you with serious folks.

Good luck tomorrow - you will need it!

 Til tomorrow - adios mofos

Exciting Times

The attempt by MQS to take over the PUC sunset bill was an abject failure, with his self-generated “grassroots” support for a floor amendment by Krause and Sanford falling far short of anything resembling success. In a post following his defeat, MQS rails about the Republicans that supported Chairman Cook. In typical fashion, his fatwa on the “Gang of 33”, as he calls those Republican members, neglected to attack the other 54 Republicans who defied his orders and voted for passage of the final bill. Sullivan had sent out orders for his minions to blindly support the Krause amendment and then vote against the whole bill if he didn’t get his way. Well, he didn’t get his way, his minions, save 6, voted for the Cook bill, and he forgot to attack this group. Good attempt at saving face in light of the continuing exposure of the lack of MQS (and his TPPF brethren) having any ability to impact legislation.

But, the debate on the Krause amendment had some interesting moments.

First there was the way Rep. Krause laid out his amendment. He had no justification for his amendment short of its purported acceptability to the author. The only questions he could answer about its impact were those that were obviously rehearsed with Rep. Schaefer. (Hint to new guys: we have all seen this play before and it has no affect on debate. We know it’s just a way to get some softballs in there when the you are fanning the fastballs being zinged at your head by Sylvester and others.)

It was obvious from the start that Chairman Cook didn’t accept the Krause amendment. In a gentlemanly effort to save the members from an embarrassing vote against the R Caucus policy committee recommendation, Cook was going to let the amendment on and strip it later. Had Chairman Cook let Krause give his weak layout and then moved to table, the amendment would have failed faster than Simpson’s speaker bid.

The dismissive comment made by Chairman Keffer towards Rep. Krause from the back mic was out of order. However, the wailing by some of the freshmen at their collective outrage at the comment was much more offensive. When is this class going to toughen up? Texas politics is a tough sport, and if you choose to participate in floor debate, you’re going to get roughed up, no matter how long your tenure.

The Gentleman of the Day award goes to Chairman Cook. With less than 48 hours notice, a major part of his bill became objectionable to TPPF, their mouthpiece TPPA, and their cohort MQS. This is a bill that the Chairman and the Sunset Commission had worked on for 3 years. Not a peep out of these yahoos until the bill was set. No testimony, no nothing, for 3 years. Then along comes Rep. Krause, a known acolyte of MQS, and with a vast 72 days on the job, decides to challenge the State Affairs chairman on an important bill that represented 3 years labor. That’s where the disrespect was in this whole process.

And while we are discussing incompetence, how about Rep. Creighton, R caucus chair, and Rep Kleinschmidt, R caucus policy committee chair. Both of these members were complicit in the whole debacle. Both of these gentlemen have their sights set on statewide office, so that had to figure into their embarrassing support of the TPPF/MQS backed Krause amendment. If this is how they are going to support the Republican House members, it’s going to be a long session. Can Senators Taylor and Hancock please return? If not, could you please roll tape of your outstanding work last session in the caucus so the new chair can figure it out before he hurts himself?

Take aways from the PUC bill:

1.     If the Calendars chair is the right hand of the Speaker, the State Affairs chair is the left hand. You don’t mess with his serious work with superficial, pandering amendments.

2.     New members, if you want respect you need to learn to be respectful.  You don’t automatically get respect by getting elected. It’s earned. You are fortunate enough to be on the floor with folks who have sacrificed much longer than you have and done great things for this state. Learn from them, help them and make the state better.

  3.   MQS, confine your lobby efforts to topics you know something about. You’ve never been one to offer solutions, but the ambush tactics don’t work; the members aren’t afraid of you and never have been. Try just once to participate positively in this process. Or, quit being a coward, and give up your life and run for office like the 150 House members have done.

 Til Next Time - Adios Mofos!

Oops

I was told the other day that Attorney General Abbott has hired Dave Carney as his general consultant.  I didn't think much of it besides questioning the AG's judgement.  I mean Carney knows Texas pretty well but he has not been all that successful with the exception of Perry.  Remember Dave ran former Speaker Tom Craddick's political shop, Stars over Texas, that resulted in Craddick losing a bunch of house seats and is ultimately to blame for Craddick losing his Speakership. 

And Dave was Governor Perry's consultant in his failed Presidential bid.

Then it hit me.  Dave Carney knows everything there is to know about Governor Perry.  He knows where all the bodies are buried and he knows how to beat Perry.  If this is not the biggest signal yet that Greg Abbott intends to run for Governor I don't know what is.

If the Perry decides to run for another term as Governor the primary will be interesting to say the least.  There is no love loss between Carney and the Governor since Perry dumped him and brought in Joe Allbaugh. 

Got to love Texas politics.

Til Next Time - Adios Mofo

We couldn’t be more pleased

As reported by the Dallas Trail Blazer's Blog:

A new conservative organization, inspired by the Texas Public Policy Foundation to push the cause of free markets and less government spending in the Texas Legislature, will begin providing lawmakers with daily summaries and analyses of bills reaching the floor of each chamber.

The fledgling outfit calls itself the Texas Public Policy Action. It announced its launch in two emails late Monday. 

The group’s floor report presumably will offer more advocacy and more of the conservative point of view in its daily floor report for the House than one distributed for years by the House Research Organization. The House Research Organization calls itself a “nonpartisan independent department” of the House. It’s overseen by a steering committee with eight Republican House lawmakers and seven of their Democratic counterparts.

Still, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the conservative think tank that’s been around for two decades, is growing rapidly.

Texas Public Policy Action executive director Nathanael Ferguson, while stressing its independence from the think tank, praised the foundations as “an outstanding resource — and agent of change.”
“Being able to complement [the foundation's] record and agenda with detailed bill analyses during the legislative session is a privilege — and we look forward to laying down our own record of accomplishment for Texas liberty in the years to come,” Ferguson said.

In a separate email, Texas Public Policy Foundation president and CEO Brooke Rollins said, “We couldn’t be more pleased.”

I would normally think this is a good idea but I can't help but think this is Brooke's way of distancing TPPF from the members of the House of Represenatives since one of her board members gave over 100K to Speaker Joe Straus' opponent in the Republican primary.   In addition, they hired Brendan Steinhauser as the TPPF communication director.  If you will remember he was the person at FreedomWorks who ran a campaign against both Straus as Speaker and David Dewhurst in his bid for US Senate. 

So TPPF shoots at and misses two of the most powerful leaders in Texas politics.  This effort by Brooke is pretty transparent.  I don't think the members are going to buy it and if I was a member and wanted to move legislation I would keep it as far was from TPPF and the "new, separate" Texas Public Policy Action.  I wonder if Tim Dunn is a board member as well?