What will Tom Craddick’s fall mean to Dallas-Fort Worth area representatives?

by Bill Baumbach of The Collin County Observer

The election of a new speaker will affect many state house committee assignments, and especially committee chair appointments.

The news today is that Tom Craddick will not be re-elected Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.

The election of a new speaker will affect many state house committee assignments, and especially committee chair appointments. Craddick is well known for freezing out those that displease him and rewarding his faithful with powerful committee assignments.

Following the election of a new speaker, two Collin County legislators may loose their powerful committee chairmanships.

Plano's Jerry Madden, [unfortunately] a loyal Craddick supporter, has become a highly respected expert in prison and criminal justice reform. He was the chair of the Corrections Committee, co-chair of the committee for oversight of the Operations and Management of the Texas Youth Commission, and co-presiding officer of the joint Criminal Justice Oversight Committee.

Rep. Madden earned high marks for his handling of the TYC scandals that broke onto the news as the last legislature was just beginning. I hope the new speaker will recognize Mr. Madden's work and expertise. Texas needs substantial prison and criminal justice reform. Jerry Madden has proven that he can build consensus, and look beyond rhetoric in seeking innovative approaches to making our state safer on a limited budget.

Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, another Craddick sycophant, is chair of the Public Health committee. Frankly, I hope the new speaker recognizes that she is utterly unqualified and is ill-suited for such an important position.

I first met Ms. Laubenberg shortly after the 79th legislature killed much of the CHIP program. I attended a town hall meeting she had called. We listened to her read from a Craddick playbook and blame all budget cuts on prior democratic rule (even though the last legislature had left a huge surplus). Answering my question, she asserted that, "not one Texas child would lose benefits" under the stripped down CHIPs appropriation she voted for.

In fact, over that year and the next, more than 100,000 Texas children (PDF) lost their medical benefits.

The Dallas Morning News is currently publishing an investigative series that, in part, details the horrific effects of Craddick's policy to privatize public health benefits. Ms. Laubenberg has not the intellectual heft, independence, nor the imagination that will be required to reform a broken healthcare system.

An example of her handling of difficult issues: In the last legislature, Ms. Laubenberg authored HB 3154, a bill that called for a task force to hold public hearings on seeking a regional solution to indigent public health care. As I detailed in "Laubenberg throttles regional health care committee," there were no public hearings, the committee only met once, and the report which was due on September 1 has still not been written.

The whole process was a sham, as is Jodie Laubenberg's concern for the millions of Texas' uninsured.

Plano's Brian McCall is not a committee chair - he made the mistake of challenging Speaker Craddick a few years ago for the speakership. McCall presently serves on the Financial Institutions committee and is vice chair of the Education Committee. Rep. McCall is a seasoned legislator and is highly regarded by his peers.

He is well positioned for advancement after being one of the "Gang of 11" Republican legislators who chose and pledged support for Joe Straus of San Antonio to be the next Speaker. Look to see his star ascend in the upcoming legislative session. My guess is that he will pick up a very important committee chairmanship.

Rep. Ken Paxton has shown little to recommend himself to either the past or future leadership. He currently is Vice Chair of the State Affairs committee and Vice Chair of the Property Tax relief and Appraisal reform committee.

Now if just one of these guys could get back our SH 121 billions.....