Follow-Up On Last Week's Show

Sorry to be late with a post about last week's show, especially since IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST SHOWS WE'VE HAD. Our guests were State Representative Eddie Rodriguez and Texas Monthly CEO Evan Smith.

Representative Rodriguez talked about the recently completed legislative session and his accomplishments in transportation, affordable housing, public education, health care, enviromental protection. Then we visited with him about his future political plans. He mentioned how Austin's Senator Kirk Watson is being discussed as a potential Democratic candidate for Governor in 2010. If he runs for Governor, his state Senate seat will open up. Eddie announced that, if Watson jumps into the Governor's race, he will most likely be a candidate for the Senate seat.

Evan Smith visited about his recently-announced decision to leave Texas Monthly, where he's been an editor for almost two decades and as President and CEO since last year. Evan is leaving to become the CEO of the Texas Tribune, an non-profit, non-partisan, non-paper "public media organization whose mission is to promote civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government, and other matters of statewide interest." Evan will lead an extraordinary bunch of journalists, headed by Ross Ramsey, editor of Texas Weekly (which the Texas Tribune has purchased) and friend of the show. Other writers include Elise Hu, political reporter for Austin KVUE Channel 11 News (and friend of the show); Matt Stiles, staff reporter for the Houston Chronicle; Brandi Grissom, Capitol reporter for the El Paso Times; Emily Ramshaw, from the Capitol staff of the Dallas Morning News.

This coming Friday (the 31st), Ann Kitchen joins us to help make sense of the national debate over health care.

July 17 -- SD-25, Campaign Finance Reports

In 20o6 JOHN COURAGE ran a, well, courageous campaign against Republican congressman Lamar Smith, who's represented his custom-gerrymandered district since the Civil War. After his loss, Courage founded the True Courage Action Network to encourage political and legislative activism.

John Courage is out guest today, announcing his run for state senator against incumbent Jeff Wentworth. Wentworth represents SD-25, which runs from San Antonio to South Austin. Courage will make his case for the race.

Also, longtime Capitol reporter PEGGY FIKAC, who writes for the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News, will visit with us about the campaign finance reports that came out this week and the SD-25 race.

TEXAS POLITICS TODAY airs every Friday from 2-3 pm Central on KOOP, Austin's community radio station. Tune in at 91.7 FM or over the Web at http://www.koop.org/.

Palin To Step Down As Alaska Governor

Check it out. More later.

The Sharpest Tool in the Box

In 1998, John Sharp -- Comptroller and former Railroad Commissioner, Senator and House member -- narrowly lost to Rick Perry in a very close Lieutenant Governor's race. Sharp ran for Lieutenant Governor again, in 2002, and lost to multimillionaire David Dewhurst (whose tenure as Lieutenant Governor has been less than stellar).

Sharp is running again, this time for the U.S. Senate seat likely to be vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison. Sharp is our guest today on Texas Politics Today. We also interview some Texans old and new about what Independence Day means to them.

Texas Politics Today airs every Friday from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. Central time on KOOP, Austin's community radio station. KOOP can be heard at 91.7 FM in Austin and live over the Web at http://www.koop.org/. Tune in, and have a Happy Independence Day!!

I Didn't See That One Coming

TEXAS POLITICS TODAY has been eager to cover Speaker politics. In Texas, politics is a full-contact sport, and nowhere does it get bloodier than on the floor of the Texas House. At the end of the last session, a full-blown insurgency paralyzed the House during the last four days and provided the best show in town, whether you sat in the House Gallery or watched it on cable TV.
Tom Craddick and his parliamentarians, Terry Keel and Ron Wilson, held off the insurgents with a novel theory of parliamentary procedure: that the Speaker has the right to refuse recognition to any member for any purpose, even if that member is making a so-called "privileged motion," which to ordinary mortals means IT MUST BE ALLOWED, CONSIDERED AND VOTED UPON.

I don't know if parliamentarians get together for conferences, the way lawyers or engineers or accountants -- updates on the latest developments in the profession, with some night life in a fun place like New Orleans or Las Vegas thrown in. But if they did, you can bet all the conference this last year or so have had a seminar on "The Craddick Rule."

In any case, the insurgency did not die and has re-emerged since the November election. Tonight, 11 ABC ("Anybody But Craddick") Republicans announced that they'd agreed upon an alternative to Craddick: two-term House member Joe Straus from San Antonio. Straus seems an unlikely choice: he joined the House less than four years ago, elevated in a special election. He's not distinguished himself in the House, although he seems popular and serious.

On the plus side, he is wealthy and, through his family, very well-connected in Republican circles. He's not a winger, though -- he supports stem cell research, among other transgressions. He's probably pretty representative of the Alamo Heights district he's from.

The ultimate question is, can he translate the consensus among the 11 ABCs into a majority? Will the 64 members of the Democratic caucus who've pledged not to support Craddick "under any circumstances" hold together and, better yet, jump in with Straus? If so, then he's right at the 75 votes he needs. We may see a stampede this weekend or the first part of next week.