By Robb Orr, GalleryWatch.com
Austin, TX –
Election Day has come and gone, and in its wake is praise from state leaders pleased with this year's 18 percent turnout rate, the highest turnout for a constitutional amendment election since 1991. Sen. Todd Staples (R-Palestine) said this was due largely to voters coming out in support of Proposition 2, the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Its landslide passage reflects "the will of mainstream Texans," said Staples, one of the amendment's authors.
Of the nine proposed amendments, only two failed to pass: Proposition 5 would have authorized the legislature to exempt commercial loans from state usury laws that set maximum interest rates. Business groups were disappointed by this measure's failure since it would have made it easier for companies to obtain large commercial loans locally, which they viewed as a stimulant to the Texas economy since.
Proposition 9, the other failed amendment, would have changed terms for Regional Mobility Authority board members from two-year terms to staggered six-year terms. While supporters said it would provide the institutional memory needed for lengthy road projects, the majority of voters apparently were uneasy that it would lead to more toll roads and decreased accountability of board members.
The other Nov. 8th election item, the Special Election for House District 143, resulted in a run-off between attorney and former House staffer Ana Hernandez and commercial real estate agent Laura Salinas. The winner of the run-off election will replace a seat vacated by the late Rep. Joe Moreno (D-Houston), who was killed in a car accident earlier this year.
Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) on Monday came out swinging in response to Gov. Rick Perry's selection of appointees to the newly formed, 24-member Texas Tax Reform Commission. The panel, charged with reforming the state tax system, is in no place to recommend increases in the state sales tax or other consumer taxes until it includes workers, consumers and educators on the panel, which is currently does not, he said. Sen. Eliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso) echoed Coleman's sentiments and criticized the commission's "predictable" direction given the large number of members representing the business sector.
Another long-time state legislator announced plans for retirement this week. After seven terms in the Texas House of Representatives, Rep. Ray Allen (R-Grand Prairie) on Tuesday said he is stepping down from representing House District 106. House Speaker Tom Craddick (R-Midland) lamented Allen's departure, saying the two have worked together for many years and that Allen "could always be counted on to give his best."
Despite coming under the microscope for his own political contributions to Republican leaders, Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson bypassed Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle's request that he recuse himself from any role in U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's criminal trial and on Wednesday assigned San Antonio Judge Pat Priest to preside over the case. Related cases involving DeLay's co-defendants John Colyandro and Jim Ellis were also reassigned to Priest this week.
Attorneys representing DeLay later filed a motion to transfer the venue of the trial from Travis County to Ft. Bend, DeLay's home county. Soon after the motion was filed, Betty Blackwell, a longtime defense attorney in Austin, submitted an affidavit stating her belief that DeLay could receive a fair trial in Travis County. By Thursday, DeLay's legal team had submitted a request that Earle turn over any internal documents recommending against seeking an indictment against DeLay.
The next step in the highly politicized trial is DeLay and his co-defendants appearing for the first time before Judge Priest on Nov. 22.
Amid the ongoing buzz regarding DeLay's indictments for money-laundering and conspiracy, four political reform groups on Thursday called on 54 corporations that spent corporate funds to influence Texas' 2002 state elections to adopt policies that would prohibit such actions in the future. Each of those corporations directly donated corporate funds in 2002 to TRMPAC, DeLay's political action committee, or the Texas Association of Business. The groups, calling themselves the Texas Corporate Responsibility Alliance, issued a set of principals created by the Center for Political Accountability in Washington, D.C. and urged corporations to adopt McCain-Feingold 'issue-ad' restrictions.
The day before the U.S. House of Representatives was set to bring the federal budget reconciliation bill to the floor, a statewide coalition of research and advocacy groups on Wednesday issued a last-minute plea to the Texas congressional delegation to vote against the measure, alleging it slashed taxes for the wealthy while making deep cuts to vital services to families. The group, which includes the Center for Public Policy Priorities and TexPIRG, sent a letter to all 32 members of the Texas delegation indicating that $54 billion would be cut from programs serving struggling families and threaten the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR).
Ultimately, despite provisions related to ANWR and school vouchers being removed from the bill at the 11th hour, growing division among moderate Republicans regarding cuts to social services resulted in the House leadership postponing a vote on the bill. U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), the new U.S. House Majority Leader, said he would bring the bill before the House next week.
Afterthought: Who ever heard of needing a permit to walk through town? Apparently Rep. Aaron Pena (D-Edinburg) never had - and wasn't about to apply for one when San Antonio police officers threatened to arrest him and other people for walking into town without paying a parade deposit. Fed up with the lack of military medical facilities in the Rio Grande Valley, more than a dozen war veterans spent the week walking 260 miles from Edinburg to San Antonio, demanding a veterans' hospital for the Rio Grande Valley. Pena, who accompanied the vets for the entire journey, told The Monitor that San Antonio police stopped the group at the city limits, then again inside city limits, saying they would arrest the group for not paying a $13,000 parade deposit.
"One of the officers was very gung ho about arresting everybody," Pena told the Rio Grande newspaper. "He was quite irate over the dispute of the insurance bond money." Ultimately, Pena made a phone call to one of the mayor's political advisors, warning him that the situation would only "embarrass the mayor and the city," according to The Monitor. The advisor later agreed: he put the $13,000 bond on his personal credit card to avoid a political embarrassment.