According to an article published in the Houston Chronicle, Texas is only the 18th most conservative state.  You could have fooled Red, since Republicans have had a lock hold on state-wide elective office for over 20 years or ever since George W. Bush’s election as Governor.

Despite Texas’ reputation as a Republican bulwark and a stronghold for conservatism, the state’s electorate doesn’t lean as hard to the right you’d think. Not by a long shot. Data from Gallup Daily tracking interviews in 2014 – which interviewed more than 177,000 U.S. adults – showed that Wyoming and Utah are the top two most Republican states again. Wyoming (Republican advantage: 35.5 percent) and Utah (33.1 percent) have topped the list every year since 2008.

The 10 most Republican states all hold advantages over the Democratic Party by more than 10 percent. But Texas is not among these “solid Republican” states nor the “leaning Republican” states (states where the party gap is between 5 and 10 percent). Instead Texas is among the 18 competitive states, with Republicans holding a 3.9 percent advantage over Democrats.

That small percent still means a more than 1 million voter-advantage for Texas’ Republicans. Still, with the state’s changing demographics, analysts expect that gap to dwindle even further. However it could be at least a decade before Texas realistically has a shot of becoming a purple state. 

Red aint holding his breath.

A Texas Tribune report on Speaker Joe Strauss’ rejoinder to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s call for Texas National Guard troops to remain at the border beyond their current deployment is somewhat telling as to Strauss’ attitude towards the controversial Lt. Governor.  Straus was interviewed by Jim Henson, a political science professor at UT-Austin,  as part of the  Tribune’s Texas Politics Project Speaker Series. 

Regarding border security, Henson pointed to Straus’ statement Tuesday after Lt. Gov.Dan Patrick’s call for $12 million to maintain a National Guard presence at the border. “I appreciate [Lt.] Gov. Patrick’s remarks, but Gov. Abbott is the commander in chief, and he will decide whether to extend the National Guard’s deployment,” Straus said.

 “I did just state an obvious fact. We only have one governor at a time,” Straus said. “The commander in chief [of the state’s military forces] will make that decision.”

Former Governor Rick Perry (words we sometimes wondered would ever be spoken) gave his thoughts on the current drive to allow the open carry of handguns in Texas.

“We license (encourage)  people (big money contributors to my campaign) to drive on our highways (get huge state contracts without bidding). We give (after they give through the nose) them that privilege (quid pro quo). The same is true with our concealed handguns (my presidential campaign) … I don’t want the bad guys (Democrats, Communists, and Independents) to know if I’m carrying (dumb as a box of rocks and corrupt). I don’t want to be the first person shot (to lose in Iowa) if something’s going down (I screw the pooch in another debate).”

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has incurred the ire of some open carry supporters for his statements earlier this week seemingly discounting the possibility of passing an open carry law this legislative session.

The Austin American Statesman reports:

“Second Amendment rights are very important, but open carry has not reached the level of being prioritized at this point,” Patrick said during a Texas Tribune event Tuesday morning. “I don’t think there’s support in the Legislature to pass it.”  There have not been enough votes to send an open-carry bill to the governor in past legislative sessions, he said, and this session, “I haven’t had anyone bring it up to me.”

It’s too early for an “I told you so”, but see Red’s predictions for 2015.

Sen. Cornyn displayed why he is better suited to serving in the U.S. Senate than practicing his chosen profession of attorney in yesterday’s brilliant questioning of U.S. Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch.

Cornyn: “Let me just stipulate, you’re not Eric Holder, are you?”

Lynch: “No, I’m not, sir.”

We learned a lot from that exchange.  Move on Sen. Cornyn.

Cornyn then launched into a long, laundry list of Tea Party criticisms of Eric Holder before asking,

Cornyn:  “How will you be different from Eric Holder?”

Lynch:  “I will be myself, I will be Loretta Lynch.” 

At least those troublesome identity questions are all cleared up.

State District Court Judge Bert Richardson denied Rick Perry’s request to dismiss his indictment for abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant.  Perry’s legal team argued that the statutes under which Perry was indicted were unconstitutionally vague as applied and that the indictment on the charge of coercion failed to negate the exception for a government official acting in their official capacity.  Richardson dismissed both complaints and it seems fairly clear from his opinion that Perry’s lawyers have a tenuous grasp on the ins and outs of Texas criminal procedure.  The Houston Chronicle reports:

Richardson said that state law doesn’t allow him to decide at this point in the process whether the law was unconstitutionally applied to Perry, as his lawyers contend.

“Simply put, the court’s hands are tied,” Richardson wrote.

Perry’s high-profile defense team contended that the case against Perry violates his constitutional rights and his authority as governor. In a signal of the high stakes, Perry has paid them more than $1 million from his campaign fund.Perry’s team on Tuesday quickly filed notice that he will appeal the decision.

Hopefully, none of the more than $100,000 in taxpayer money that has gone to Perry’s defense was used to make the seemingly frivolous arguments made in the futile attempt to avoid a trial for the ex-Governor.

New Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick trimmed down the number of Senate committees from 18 to 14 as one of his first acts to establish control of the chamber. Patrick axed panels on open government, jurisprudence, economic development and government organization.

Open Government – Clearly there is no commitment to this as Patrick will rely on a so-called citizens’ committee comprised primarily of big money Republican donors.  No need for the common folk to see what is going on behind the smoke and mirrors.

Jurisprudence – Why have a committee that might actually oppose further restrictions on the rights of ordinary folks to sue?

Economic Development –  Not interested in anything beyond more tax breaks for big business.  No committee needed for that.

Government Organization –  We want our government to be as disorganized as possible.

Fresh off his inauguration, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (Tea Party-Houston) pushed through a change in the Senate rules that will make it easier for the Republican majority to pass legislation.  For decades, the Texas Senate had a 2/3rds rule requiring the votes of at least 21 of the 31 Texas Senators to bring a bill up for debate on the Senate floor.  Senate Republicans pushed through a rule changing the super-majority requirement to 3/5ths.  Now only 19 votes will be required to bring legislation to the Senate floor.  Conveniently, the Republicans control 20 seats in the chamber.  The Houston Chronicle reports:

The vote was mostly along party lines, with state Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, voting for the change and Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, not voting. The two thirds rule, which had been in place since 1947, has enjoyed support from both sides of the aisle over the years, as a way to maintain the collegiality of the chamber, as well as provide political cover for lawmakers on controversial bills that fail to gain a vote. Democrats warned that the change will breed partisan discord that will make the chamber do business more like Washington, which is a frequent target for criticism. They voiced opposition to the bill during a two-hour debate, the longest public discussion of Senate rules in decades.

Image from http://www.texasmonthly.com

The Dallas Morning News reports that the Bible traditionally used to swear in a new Texas Governor may or may not have actually belonged to Sam Houston.  The evidence for the authenticity of the Houston Bible seems sketchy at best.  The Bible which is in the possession of the Texas Supreme Court cannot be definitively traced to Houston.

“Here are the undisputed facts: The publishing date inside is 1816. The binding is original, but the book was re-cased and is now more flexible. Souvenir-seekers would tear out pages and pocket them, then sheepishly hand them back after being chased down. Houston’s connection to the book is fuzzier, and big clue is long gone: The bible’s flyleaf reads ‘Supreme Court of the Republic of Texas,’ but the bottom half is torn away. A Texas Supreme Court justice told colleagues in the 1940s that he saw Houston’s signature on the now-missing half of the page. That recollection satisfied amateur historians for a long time. When Bush was inaugurated in 1995, he called it ‘Sam Houston’s own bible, simple and worn.’

But the story doesn’t quite add up, according to court archivist Tiffany Shropshire. The torn flyleaf was long blamed on a janitor, who in the 1970s stole thousands of pages of old Supreme Court archives. But the janitor is off the hook — Shropshire found a 1941 newspaper article that described the torn flyleaf. She also questions whether Houston ever signed the bible. In 2012, she asked three Houston historians to inspect the handwriting on the remaining portion of the flyleaf. Each said it looked like Houston’s. Her skepticism deepened, though. None was a handwriting expert. And letters found in state archives show the penmanship closely resembles that of John Hemphill, the court’s first chief justice, she said.”

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott launched an full-fledged attack on local government control yesterday when revealed an initiative to prevent Texas cities from issuing regulations that he personally doesn’t like.  The Houston Chronicle reported on Abbott’s remarks:

“Texas is being California-ized and you may not even be noticing it,” Abbott told hundreds of government officials, lobbyists and business leaders at the Texas Public Policy Foundation event. “This is being done at the city level with bag bans, fracking bans, tree-cutting bans. We’re forming a patchwork quilt of bans and rules and regulations that is eroding the Texas model. We need to peel back some of these ridiculous, unnecessary requirements.”

This is a curious position at best for Abbott, who can’t sue Pres. Obama or federal agencies often enough in his crusade to challenge federal legislation that he personally believes is bad for Texas.

“Gov. Abbott is talking out of both sides of his mouth as fast as he can,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, of Texas Public Citizen. “On one hand, when it comes to the federal government telling states what to do, he says ‘local control.’ When it comes to cities taking steps to protect themselves, he says ‘statism.'” 

In other words, local government control is good as long as it comports with Abbott’s personal view of how the world should run.

For the full story see  http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/politics/texas/article/Abbott-attacks-local-regulations-as-state-leaders-6003099.php