TUE brief 7.12.22
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Today’s Stories
DEMOCRAT COMMITTEE CHAIRS, and their proposed elimination, continue to make House “leadership” sweat.
[Note: In the Texas House, committee chairs are primarily doled out based on seniority (not partisanship). This means Democrats, despite being the minority party, always hold a significant number (usually around ⅓). GOP activists have derided this practice for years.]
The Speaker’s team is playing defense, which is interesting.
More fascinating is how this issue gets under their skin. They do not want to discuss it; at all.
A similar outsized reaction was displayed a few years back when abolishing taxpayer-funded lobbying first gained identical traction.
In both cases, House “leadership” became visibly uncomfortable when forced to defend the insider status quo.
You know the usual playbook: Say something bombastic on Fox News, then quietly kill (or gut) measures behind the scenes. Democrat-run committees, like allowing local governments to hire lobbyists, are examples of how the latter works in practice.
All of which leads to two observations:
At the strategic level, unrigging the process should remain a top priority.
At the tactical level, it’s politically profitable to force those who benefit from the rigged process to defend it.
Make of those observations what you will.
To illustrate why a “Republican” majority chamber likes a rigged process, see the next item.
JAY DEAN, a nominally “Republican” state rep from East Texas, says rural communities won’t be able to buy gas for police cars unless the legislature guts (fundamental) taxpayer protections were passed in 2019.
With all due respect to representative Dean, rural Texas’ primary challenge is that agriculture has become increasingly efficient over the past two centuries. That means, fundamentally, that fewer people are needed. It’s a global phenomenon.
This decline has created a perverse dynamic in rural Texas. Local governments (e.g., school districts and counties) are frequently the largest employer. This gives those who run them tremendous power. Dean, of course, knows this.
Rural officials’ tendency to operate in the gray area between feudal barons and Tammany Hall-style ward bosses is a phenomenon House leadership would like to obscure.
KEN PAXTON has signed onto an amicus brief in support of Alabama’s prohibition on sex changes for minors. This is both good on the merits and good for pressuring the Texas House to pass a similar ban (aside, see “rigged process” discussion in the previous two items).
HOUSTON’s lack of zoning continues to pay dividends.
Related: New York remains a cautionary tale.
Hit the Links
The Rise of Hispanic Religious Republicans
House GOP marches into deeper blue terrain
Abortion is VERY unpopular in non-rigged polling
…and not particularly popular in the rigged polls
The Culture War Between States
Wealthy Democrat SHOCKED Middle-Class Republicans don’t listen to him.
The GOP would never be this based (lib fears notwithstanding)
Thanks for reading
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