Texas Take

As Hurricane Harvey approached landfall, gale-force political winds continued to howl in Austin as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick continued criticizing House Speaker Joe Straus over the death of property-tax reform in the special legislative session.

In a series of interviews since the 30-day summer session concluded a week ago, Patrick has labeled Straus "a quitter" for not letting the bill pass the House, even to the point of suggesting Straus should get the boot as speaker.

He continues to call Straus a "big-spending liberal Republican."

For his part, the speaker has been silent, apparently having moved on after some acrimonious exchanges with his rival in recent weeks.

It is rare for a lieutenant governor -- and governor, for that matter -- to be as critical of a speaker as Texas' No. 1 and 2 officials have been of Straus.

Make no mistake: The unpleasantness of the special session is as much about the Republican primary election next March as it was about any legislation that did or did not get passed.

Patrick and Abbott want new leadership in the House. The House seems content with keeping Straus.

The political storm continues not just in Texas, but also in Washington, where, like Austin, Republicans control both the legislative and executive branches of government.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban offers a new take on the Trump presidency, which he has criticized: It's like political chemotherapy, where a guy who is not a politician if offering America a taste of what it's like to elect a real outsider, not a politician, just as voters wanted.

We've got the lowdown on all the political action under the Pink Dome in this week's Texas Take, where we give the inside scoop on what's really going on in state government -- from the recent federal court decisions on redistricting and voter ID to Abbott's firing of a San Antonio lawmaker who blasted him about ethics.

From Mike Ward, the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, comes Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics -- now coming to you in collaboration with Texas Public Radio.

The special legislative session from you know where is all over but the crying. And, boy, is there crying. Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick are both blasting House Speaker Joe Straus for allowing the House to adjourn early on Tuesday and, in doing so, killing property-tax reform and school-finance changes among 10 other issues that were among the 20 that Abbott wanted passed.

As the special legislative session heads to its finale, Gov. Greg Abbott will be getting a few of his 20 must-pass priorities on his desk.

A few.

Maybe six, perhaps seven.

On Friday, after weeks of political bickering and gamesmanship, the House and Senate delivered to the governor the first three bills -- two on continuing the operations of Texas' medical regulatory agencies and one to crack down on mail-ballot fraud.

Abbott immediately signed all three into law.

The rest? Bills on property-tax reform, a maternal mortality study, end-of-life protections and new rules for tree-cutting ordinances in cities and abortion restrictions were moving, slowly, but were moving for possible final votes this weekend.

Others, such as the bathroom bill, were considered all but dead.

For his part, Abbott publicly was remaining optimistic that he would get much of his conservative agenda approved by the time lawmakers go home on Wednesday. But lawmakers in both chambers predicted the bottom line will look more like what House Speaker Joe Straus predicted before the session even started -- that some would be approved, but the most controversial would not.

For those Texans who are just ready for all this hair-pulling to end, and want something else to think about, we dissect the reported move by U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso, to gain tea party support in his underdog campaign to unseat Republican Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a tea party darling.

And we'll respond to listener blowback on our debate last week over Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's reference to "soda pop," which some folks thought was un-Texan.

We've got the lowdown on all the political action under the Pink Dome, as the Austin statehouse is called, in this week's Texas Take. That's where you get the inside scoop in unvarnished, straight talk that every Texan can understand.

From Mike Ward, the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, comes Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics -- now coming to you with contributions from Texas Public Radio.

As Texas' special legislative session enters its second week, it just keeps getting more and more special. So special, in fact, that the fight over bathrooms has now become a fight pitting Big Business against their usual Republican friends.

Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau Chief Mike Ward is once again on assignment in Washington, DC. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of material being offered up by Texas’ elected leadership. 

As always, we've got the lowdown on all the political meltdowns on the Texas Take, where you get the inside scoop in unvarnished, straight talk that every Texan can understand. From Mike Ward, the Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, comes Texas' leading podcast about Lone Star politics.

[Mike Ward is on special assignment, traveling to Washington this week so Scott tackled the podcast duties solo today.]

It’s official: Governor Greg Abbott announced his re-election campaign just after 3 p.m. today in San Antonio, where he also announced his first gubernatorial campaign exactly four years ago. As of yet, Abbott is facing no serious gubernatorial opponents, so he turned to George Soros and Nancy Pelosi to rile up the crowd against “far left liberals.”

While he was scaring the base of the GOP with that, we also took a look at what average Texans are saying now that Gov. Abbott is once again running for the state's top elected position.

With less than a week to go before the start of the special session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick shifted his focus to address Speaker Joe Straus’ top priority: Public education. As has been the case all year, they do not see eye to eye on a path forward. The speaker, however, welcomed Patrick to the debate he’s been asking for all along. In response, Straus said, “It’s encouraging to see the Lieutenant Governor’s newfound focus on school finance reform."

Also, Beto O'Rourke, the El Paso congressman taking on Sen. Ted Cruz for his seat next year was able to out-raise Cruz for this reporting period. O'Rourke's campaign announced it had raised $2.1 million in April, May, and June to Cruz's $1.6 million. Cruz has 5.7 million cash on hand to O'Rourke's $1.9 million. 

As always, we've got the lowdown on all the political meltdowns on the Texas Take, where you get the inside scoop in unvarnished, straight talk that every Texan can understand. From Mike Ward, the Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, comes Texas' leading podcast about Lone Star politics.

Fresh off the long holiday weekend, it appears the reset button has been pushed on the upcoming special session of the Texas Legislature.

Mike Ward is on assignment this week so Quorum Report Editor Scott Braddock welcomed journalist Erica Grieder to the Texas Take Podcast. Grieder's work appears in The Week and The Economist, among other publications. She's also the author of "Big Hot Cheap and Right – What America Can Learn from the Strange Genius of Texas."

Here's some of what's covered on the show:

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was rocked back on his heels and clearly on defense early in the week after Texas House Speaker Joe Straus opened a new line of attack on Patrick's push to restrict restroom access based on gender. In short, Straus said he is concerned that the legislation will cause some vulnerable transgender Texans to take their own lives; it is a population that already has a high suicide rate.

In an interview with the New Yorker, Straus said he rejected overtures from Patrick to resolve the issue because Straus was "disgusted by all this" and "I don't want the suicide of a single Texan on my hands."

Patrick's office pushed back, saying the Lt. Governor certainly doesn't want anyone to do harm to themselves and again argued he wants to protect women in public restrooms.

Straus, in the New Yorker interview, insisted the House is not obligated to address any of the 19 potential topics that may be added to the special session by Gov. Greg Abbott once a bill has been passed by the Senate to avoid a partial government shutdown.

Meantime, Texas is one of the few states cooperating, at least partially, with a request for voter data made by a Trump Administration commission investigating the president's suspicions of widespread voter fraud. What happened to this states' default position being adversarial with the federal government, regardless of party?

As the Houston Chronicle has reported, the Texas Senate's proposed property tax reform measureswill not amount to any real savings for homeowners around the state. That's according to the Senate's point man on the issue, Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston. Bettencourt instead argues that the reforms aren't "tax cutting" measures but instead are meant to stave off more pain that would be otherwise felt if the legislation isn't passed.

Same-sex marriage is legal so why wouldn't same-sex benefits be guaranteed? The Texas Supreme Court has opened wide latitude for a lower court to overrule same-sex benefits in Houston.

Jonathan Saenz with a group called Texas Values said "It's clear that the payment of same-sex benefits by the City of Houston is still illegal under state law. We look forward to continuing our litigation in the trial court, where we are confident that we will secure judicial relief against the city of Houston's unlawful actions and we are thankful for the important role of Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton in this case."

Oh, and while some of his Republican colleagues were accused of hiding from voters in other states, Sen. Ted Cruz took the heat from Democrats in the Valley on July 4. Meantime, the Democrat who's announced a challenge to Cruz, Rep. Beto O'Rourke of El Paso, seemed to be having a great time in very Republican Lubbock.

We've got the lowdown on all the political meltdowns on the Texas Take, where you get the inside scoop in unvarnished, straight talk that every Texan can understand. From Mike Ward, the Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, comes Texas' leading podcast about Lone Star politics.

Is Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick really the Conservative North Star of Texas Politics?

That's what a confidant, Houston Sen. Paul Bettencourt, told a group of pastors, explaining that the Senate's presiding officer "doesn't change. He doesn't move. Every night, you get up and he's right there."

Bettencourt was explaining how the solidly conservative Senate will again pass the controversial bathroom bill during an upcoming special legislative session, despite opposition in the House, as he predicted the clubby Senate will pass all 20 of Gov. Greg Abbott's priorities within the first 10 days they are in session.

Ironically, David Dewhurst, a Republican incumbent who Patrick unseated two years ago, thought he was a North Star in the Senate, comments that drew laughter from some at the statehouse.

No yuks about the Patrick crack, so far.

Abbott has announced he will call the Lege back for a special session starting July 18 to finish business they left undone during the regular session that ended in May.

On the agenda: Laws that would block cities from regulating tree-cutting on private property, a move that Austin Mayor Steve Adler is openly mocking.

At one public rally, Adler applauded the Legislature for Abbott for focusing on school finance reform, a most important issue for Texans, in the special session. No wait, he said, I'm wrong ... it's trees they're more interested in.

Just as the bathroom bill promises to be contentions in the special session, so do a number of other laws the Lege enacted during the regular session -- starting with Senate Bill 4, the ban on sanctuary cities that is tied up already in court.

Ironically, as protests grow in Texas to the ban and as Abbott takes to Snapchat to deflect the complaints as baseless that it will punish Hispanic Texas families, similar legislation before the U.S. House is causing quite a stir in Washington.

We've got all the lowdown on the political meltdowns in both Washington and Texas in this week's Texas Take, where you get the inside scoop in unvarnished, straight talk that every Texan can understand.

From Mike Ward, the Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, comes Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics.

If the Texas political fight of the week was most recently in Austin, it's now moved to Washington.

U.S. Senate. John Cornyn of Texas has pushed ahead on a GOP Senate plan to dump Obamacare, and Democrats have all jumped ship, saying it was hatched in secret and, essentially, sucks.

The Senate's leading Democrat, Charles Schumer of New York, insists that even Republicans aren't thrilled with it. If they were, he insisted during a tense debate with Cornyn, Republicans would be sending "brass bands down every Main Street in America," which they aren't.

Cornyn snapped back by likening Obamacare to a serious car wreck, and accused Democrats of "driving right by" without stopping to render aid to the seriously injured victims of the ill-fated plan passed by Democrats.

Count on this: The fight over this reform in coming days won't be happy time in the U.S. Senate.

Never the supportive player for Cornyn, junior U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who has railed to repeal Obamacare for what seems like forever, says he is a 'no' vote for the present on the GOP plan.

Cornyn has not commented on that, but he can't be happy with his Lone Star colleague.

If that's not enough political drama for the week, Houston doc and conservative GOP activist Steve Hotze is publicly calling for House Republicans to give House Speaker Joe Straus the boot when the special session starts on July 18.

Hotze, you see, is a political ally of Gov. Dan Patrick, who is no fan of Straus, who he considers too moderate in his politics compared to his ultra-right views

Then there's Texas Monthly's Best & Worst list, the review of lawmakers from the recently concluded regular session. Lots of Houston senators and reps on both lists this year and, as you would expect, some are unhappy about how they were ranked.

We've got all the lowdown on the political meltdowns in both Washington and Texas in this week's Texas Take, where you get the inside scoop in unvarnished, straight talk that every Texan can understand.

From Mike Ward, the Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, comes Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics.

House Speaker Joe Straus seems sick and tired of it all.

After months of critical swipes from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick at him and his legislative chamber, and a week after Gov. Greg Abbott said lawmakers will be lazy if they don't pass all 20 of his agenda items in a special legislative session starting July 18, the normally reserved Straus has responded with both barrels.

Addressing school administrators in San Antonio, Straus blasted his fellow Republican leaders by comparing Abbott's special-session agenda to a pile of manure and saying Texas is off-track with proposals such as the "bathroom bill" championed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the clubby Senate.

He said the state should instead be focusing on reforming the way it finances public education, a far more worthy issue.

The criticism, which surely did not please Abbott or Patrick, might come as no surprise, given that ultra-conservative Republican groups that have applauded Abbott's special session agenda and have considered Patrick a hero for years have repeatedly blasted Straus' more moderate positions.

No secret: Straus and Patrick have never been close buddies.

As the acrimony beneath Austin's "Pink Dome" grows, so does the intrigue building over just how ugly the fighting could become during the midsummer special session -- "special," as in perhaps really special.

We've got all the lowdown on the meltdown of the Republican Party leadership in Texas and more in this week's Texas Take, where you get the inside scoop in unvarnished, straight talk that every Texan can understand.

From Mike Ward, the Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, comes Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics.