Craddick challengers promise a different style if elected House speaker

By Matt Pulle | Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

Recently, I spoke to a pair of engaging candidates looking to upend House Speaker Tom Craddick: State reps Pete Gallego, a young Hispanic Democrat from a border district in South Texas, and Delwin Jones, a silver-haired Republican from West Texas.

You wouldn’t think they’d have much in common, right? Well, in a nod to just how autocratic and arbitrary Tom Craddick’s reign has been, both lawmakers could have been reading from the same script.

Here’s Gallego:

“It’s not about campaigning, it’s not even about issues, it’s about fairness, it’s about process, it’s about making sure people elected by their districts have a say in the legislative process.”

And here’s Jones:

“There is too much concentration of power; committee chairs were not able to function like they are supposed to. The general word was that if he didn’t give his approval, legislation wouldn’t come under committee. This wasn’t written down but that was the atmosphere we operated under.”

It’s the dominant, if somewhat predictable, theme of our speaker’s race: Improve the process, decentralize power, let everyone speak. In other words, try this democracy thing on for size. We’re shaping vital issues — health care, education, juvenile justice, school finance — let’s not act like a squabbling homeowners association. And let’s never, ever have a speaker who says this:

“The speaker’s power of recognition on any matter cannot be appealed.”

Just about every candidate who is running for speaker is trying to position themselves as the first among equals — an even-handed leader who won’t try to leave his footprint on every debate.
Here’s Burt Solomon, a Republican rep from Carrollton, a former supporter of Craddick, on why he’s running for the speaker against his former ally (from the Dallas Morning News’ excellent Trail Blazers blog):

“We have different perspectives on the body, and in my opinion I believe the body wants to have more meaningful input into the issues of the day, how we’re going to govern, into our rules, into everything. I believe it’s time to try to ensure that happens. And that’s really what this is about. It’s really putting the entire body in a position to feel good about being public servants, address the issues of the day and make sure that everybody has equal input. Everybody.”

I could go on and on. So I will. Here’s Rep. Tommy Merritt, a Republican out of Longview, talking to Texas Monthly’s Paul Burka:

“My platform is simple. Under my leadership, the Texas House will be an open body where each member works the floor, works the committees, and is allowed to express views of support or dissatisfaction for a bill. I will diligently work to make sure each member’s views are respected, regardless of party or political leaning.”

And here’s Alan Ritter, a Democrat out of Nederland, explaining his philosophy to Burka.

“I want to return power to the House members so that the House could remove a sitting Speaker for a loss of confidence in the Speaker’s leadership. I would also restore the seniority system to reduce the Speaker’s control over key committee assignments, open the Calendars process to make it fair and accessible to all House members, and return control of the flow of legislation to committee chairs and their committee members.”

You could practically play a drinking game here. Every time a speaker candidate says the words “open,” “fair,” “process,” or “control,” you’d have to take a shot. You wouldn’t make it 20 minutes.

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