Straus Sells the Farm: Dems Have Higher Win-Rate Under Straus than Dem Majority in ‘01
Anybody that follows Texas politics knows that Speaker Joe Straus is no conservative. His election as speaker was accomplished by Democrats joining with eleven of the most liberal Republicans. From there he gave committee chairmanships to Democrats (a practice never observed under Democrat speakership)...but after all...it was those guys who elected him!
Yesterday there was a study published that looks at the rates that each party won votes on final passage. The graphs below look at the '01 Legislative session (under Dem control), the '03 (under GOP control and Craddick's speakership) and the '09 session (GOP Control and Straus' speakership.)
The results are staggering. Liberal Democrats had higher rates of victory under the speakership of a Republican and a GOP majority than they were able to accomplish in 2001 under a Democrate Speaker and Majority.
With the November elections 70 days away and the GOP facing a strong chance of increasing it's majority, the first order of business when the session opens is clear: Straus must go!
Check out the rest of the article for some very interesting analysis!
A popular perception of the Texas House of Representatives in 2003 and in 2009 sees the two legislative sessions as very similar because during each there existed a Republican majority and a Republican speaker. Here I present a different vision suggesting that, in important respects, the 2009 House was very distinct from the 2003 House, with the Democratic House leadership playing a much more prominent role in 2009 than at any time since the party lost its majority status in 2003.
Contrary to common public perception, these data indicate that the Texas Democratic Party appears to have played an integral role in the legislative process during the 2009 House session. The Democratic Party leadership's de facto negative agenda control (ability to keep legislation off the agenda that was rejected by a majority of the Democratic representatives) and substantial positive agenda control (as evidenced by the high Republican roll rates and low win rates of the most conservative Republicans) suggest that, in many respects, Democrats were near-equal partners in House legislative governance during the 2009 session, either explicitly or implicitly backing virtually all legislation that was passed during that year.
Read more at blogs.chron.com
