Texas Legislature latest, TEA head testifies, Cornyn vs Paxton, and more: TWITP
The Brief
The stage was set this week in Texas politics for what could be a legislative session of high drama and infighting.
FOX 7 Austin's chief political reporter Rudy Koski and our panel of analysts have a look at some of the top stories this week.
AUSTIN, Texas - The stage was set this week in Texas politics for what could be a legislative session of high drama and infighting.
FOX 7 Austin's chief political reporter Rudy Koski and our panel of analysts have a look at some of the top stories this week.
A longer discussion can be found on the FOX 7 YouTube page.
RUDY KOSKI: Snakes under the Pink Dome and a Starbase city hall. Wow, what a week it has been. So, let's get our headlines from our panel. And we'll begin first with Brad Johnson from The Texan. Brad, what's your headline?
BRAD JOHNSON: The Senate draws a line in the sand on bail reform.
RUDY KOSKI: Political analyst Karina Kling. What's your headline?
KARINA KLING: Saddle up. Things are starting to move in the Texas legislature.
RUDY KOSKI: Harvey Kronberg with the Quorum Report. Give me a headline.
HARVEY KRONBERG: The House successfully fights off hostile takeover.
RUDY KOSKI: For the past few weeks, the Texas legislature looked like that Super Bowl game, pretty one sided with the Senate scoring votes like the Eagles making touchdowns. But now the statehouse has finally kicked off, finally organizing with committee assignments on Thursday, Brad, Democrat Joe Moody, he's back. Senate Pro-Tem, after being put in time out for that walkout a couple of years ago. What are you hearing about this?
BRAD JOHNSON: Moody's back as pro tem. That's really the only from the right. It's the only thing that I've seen that's drawn substantial criticism.
KARINA KLING:I will note, you know, one of the things that I noticed was the lack of women in leadership roles. All but two of the committees and subcommittees are run by men.
HARVEY KRONBERG: He's leaning into power sharing both with the folks that opposed him and with Democrats. He's trying to build a governing majority. Remember, his adversary is not Democrats. His adversary is Dan Patrick in the Senate.
RUDY KOSKI: The state Senate is really pumping out legislation kicking out this week SB 4 another tax cut plan. Bail reform is waiting in the wings for a vote. Karina last session of both issues really hit a brick wall.
KARINA KLING: The committee chair is back again, Morgan Meyer, who led the efforts on the House side last time around. And we saw that standoff between what the House wanted versus what the Senate wanted. We haven't seen a House bill yet and we'll see kind of what happens there.
RUDY KOSKI: The week started out with the head of TEA testifying before the Senate Finance Committee. Mike Morath put up a red flag, TH commissioner saying his agency needed money or layoffs would happen in the unit that investigates teachers accused of misconduct. Karina, you know, does this factor into the school choice debate that's coming?
KARINA KLING: It revealed a gap in maybe in the school choice proposal kind of voiced by Appropriations Chair Jo Ann Huffman. Morath said the state has no way of tracking, you know, quote unquote, bad teacher for bad teachers hired by a private school. And Huffman saying that that needs to be addressed.
RUDY KOSKI:The Sweetwater Jaycees were back at the Capitol this week with their rattlesnake demonstration. But concerns about a different kind of snake in the grass that came up in a hearing on the lottery commission.
BRAD JOHNSON: This is up for Sunset Commission. Sunset Review. And we'll see what the final bill comes out as, what reforms that the legislature implements towards the lottery commission. But then, you know, it's up to these guys to implement it. And if they didn't take the tongue lashing they got the other day too heart. There'll be more to come.
RUDY KOSKI: A new poll this week came out that looks ahead to the next primary cycle. It shows a possible close gap in the GOP primary race between John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton with Congressman Dan Crenshaw as a dark horse. Harvey, Senator Cornyn is sure is facing a lot of pushback from hardcore Republicans, but he spent a lot of time fence mending. Does that save him or is he in trouble?
HARVEY KRONBERG: Well, he is in trouble. However, having said that, if if they do engage, there's an enormous amount of oppo research on Ken Paxton. He survived his impeachment proceedings, but all the money that was spent, was spent on his behalf. We may have to litigate the impeachment in a Republican primary.
RUDY KOSKI: Governor Greg Abbott was back in D.C. this week asking congressional leaders for an Operation Lone Star reimbursement. But this time he described this $11 billion border payback as a real estate deal. Brad, that's pretty shrewd.
BRAD JOHNSON: Part of what he's talking about is the federal government purchasing, you know, say the easements that the state government has purchased to build the wall. Now, there are other, you know, operational expenses the state would hope to get reimbursed for. So it's kind of half and half, I'd say.
RUDY KOSKI: A possible out of this world real estate deal is brewing in South Texas. Cameron County has given a Go for a May election to determine if the Space X launch site near Brownsville, built by Elon Musk, can incorporate as a small city.
KARINA KLING: I think it's interesting that the votes that are going to be taking place are mainly coming from people that are part of the company. So, I don't see how this does not get across the finish line.
RUDY KOSKI: You can catch our full longer discussion on our YouTube page and also on Fox Local. But now let's wrap things up with one word for the week and we'll start off with Harvey, Your word for the week. Harvey.
HARVEY KRONBERG: Independence.
BRAD JOHNSON: Hardball, straight from the lips of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick.
KARINA KLING: How about love, fellowship?
RUDY KOSKI:And a chocolate ending it is. So, we'll wrap it up with that and a box of candy. And that is This Week in Texas Politics
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