The Madden Report - January 16, 2007

High Noon as the 80th Texas Legislature Convened Tuesday, January 9th

The 80th Texas Legislature convened Tuesday, January 9th at noon.  For some members it was definitely High Noon. 

The session started with the same amount of fireworks as the movie of the same name, although unlike the movie it is harder to identify the guys in white and the guys in black. 

The days leading up to the opening ceremonies had been filled with tension, intrigue, mystery, maneuvering, tactics, and grand strategy.  This is the first session in many years where there was a contested race for Speaker of the House and where the results were not certain until the actual debate had begun. 

The background is easy to paint. 

There have been many conflicts in the House in the last several years.  They did not start, as some would like to believe, with the advent of a Republican majority in 2003, but had started years before when there was a growing Republican minority.  There was clearly conflict then between rival philosophies then as there is now.

This rivalry took on new tones with the advent of the Republican majority and the election of our first Republican Speaker, Tom Craddick, in 2003.  Since that time there have been conflicts over the agenda of our Republican Majority, and the style of the leadership.

These differences have lead a group of Democrats to oppose Speaker Craddick primarily on policy differences, which would be there with any Republican speaker.  They have also complained about the style of the leadership and that difference along with some policy disagreements have also affected some Republicans. 

After the last election cycle where some Republicans lost primary races to other Republicans -- particularly over school issues and in the general election where the Democrats gained 5 seats -- there were members who felt a need for change in the Speaker's office.  These members combined with the Democrats in the group identified above joined forces to challenge for the Speakership.

A Speaker's race is actually a pretty simplified high stakes election.

What then played out would remind me of one of the poker tournaments now popular on television.  High stakes, filled first with the cards one has available, added to by trying to figure out what your opponent is doing, filled with drama, bluffs, intentional misstatements, the dealing of more cards, and the courage to take high risks. 

It also had some inside Austin liberal press involvement, a lot of other players who would be affected by the outcome, and some time to think and sweat it out. 

While it came down to who had the best hand, was willing to make and counter bluffs, and knowing when to lay the cards down, it was also filled with people on both sides who respected the playing skills of the participants, were friends with them all, and who wanted to work with all sides in the race. 

In the end it came down to the skills of the 3 candidates, their ability to overcome obstacles, and the true loyalty of members.

For me the decision was hard in one way and easy in the other. 

Brian McCall has been a close friend and Collin County colleague for a long time.  I respect and admire him greatly.  Jim Pitts has been a good member and a hard worker. 

But all of the same characteristics of leadership they have are also shown by Speaker Craddick and after the last regular session of the 79th Legislature I had given my pledge to support Tom Craddick.  There were no other people in the race, no Nov 2006 elections that had transpired, and no opponent -- but I did not give my pledge to Speaker Tom Craddick.

I gave it to him openly and freely, and to me it was my honor at stake if I did not keep my word. 

I think you all know I do everything possible to keep my word to you and to everyone in this political arena.  Despite the political or other consequences, I did keep my word in the race and I am proud of that.

I felt Rep. McCall had a great deal of momentum right after he announced, but Rep. Craddick worked hard in the days between Christmas and New Years to turn that momentum. 

There were very nervous members on both sides of the races.  The momentum for Brian seemed to slow somewhere the time around New Years, when the Committee Chairmen letter of support for Rep. Craddick was issued. 

The dynamics changed again when Rep. Pitts entered the race. 

It also changed when Rep. McCall through his support to Rep. Pitts, but I did sense a mood among many of the legislators that said Rep. Pitts cannot get a lot more votes than Rep. McCall would have gotten.  Also my contacts with members led me to believe that the list put out by Rep. Craddick was in fact a good list of supporters, and that while some members may have been willing to switch to Rep. Pitts, most of the Craddick votes were pretty solid. 

I felt all along in the last 2 weeks that Rep. Craddick had the votes to win.

There was a now well publicized meeting in Austin Sunday evening the 7th, and it was very clear at that time that Speaker Craddick had the votes to win.  While there may have been some last minute maneuvers, none of them came to pass and on the House floor I sensed a mood of we know who is going to win this battle and that almost all members were totally committed by then to their choice. 

The issue we knew would be the critical vote would be on the acceptance of the rules on the voting for speaker.  The issue was on whether the Speaker vote should be open or closed from public scrutiny. 

I truly believe as a legislator we represent you and that you should know how I vote.  If it also tells someone else how I voted so be it. 

When that vote came out 80 votes (not to cast a secret ballot) with only 68 supporting it, we all recognized for certain that Tom Craddick would be reelected. 

The only real regret I had on that day was that a day of celebration and parties for the newly elected members with their families, their friends and supporters were held in most cases without the newly elected members being able to enjoy them.  I hope their friends and supporters had a great day in the Capitol and am sorry I did not get to see most of their supporters and family members.

As you may know, we have spent many days and hours the last 18 months working on Corrections Committee items dealing with prison building, programs to divert people from prison, alternative education problems, and others which I truly feel will change Texas for the better in the coming years. 

My concern about the Speakers race was that they were interfering with the efforts we have been making to express our vision and possibly making it a lot more difficult to get the right things done in these areas for Texas. 

These efforts are now back on track and moving forward.  They include our work on prison building, efforts to provide alternatives to incarceration, revised probation funding formulas, drug courts, alternative education programs, virtual schools, added protections for our judges, and many more.

I will try to give my readers an overview of those things we are doing in the Corrections area with legislation and oversight in the next report I do next week. 

But the highlights of the vision are based on 4 programs I have seen & believe will make huge difference for our Texas future.  They include:

1.)  The Nurse Family Partnership which I am carrying in the House and which Senator Florence Shapiro has in the Senate.  This program provides for nurses to visit low income first time mothers from pregnancy until the child is 2, and has some of the most unbelievable results in changing the future for many young mothers and their children. 

2.)  Programs in school to change behavior and take young people who have disciplinary problems in the classroom through a counseling program in the Public Schools (similar to a program now on going in the Austin area school districts.)

3.)  A treatment protocol called Prometa, which appears to have outstanding results in breaking a persons desire for meth, cocaine, and alcohol.  We are currently running a pilot and the legislative action would be to start and fund a larger pilot.  If we can break a persons desire for meth, cocaine, or alcohol just think about what that could do to change society.  And

4.)  Expand an existing program in Texas Prisons called the Prison Entrepreneur Program(PEP) which teaches select inmates how to do business plans, resumes, presentations and is given by and supported by many fortune 500 companies here in Texas. 

I can tell you I am working hard this session to get a lot of important things done.  I am very optimistic this will be a great session of your Legislature.