(C) Texas Tribune This story was originally published by Texas Tribune and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Blast: Bipartisan leadership? You won’t. [1] [] Date: 2024-06 The Texas House Republicans who want to cut Democrats from committee chairs have shown their hand, and they appear to make up half of the caucus. Forty-three incumbents and nominees signed a memo today saying they won’t vote for a speaker who allows Democrats to serve as committee chairs next session, concerns that House Speaker Dade Phelan needs to address before they turn into outright rebellion. “In a collective effort to respond to Republican voters and reform the Texas House, we will only vote for a candidate for speaker pursuant to the Platform and the Caucus By-Laws who will only appoint Republicans as committee chairs,” reads the statement. “The absence of a member’s or nominee’s name from this statement does not necessarily mean the individual is opposed to this statement,” the memo continues. “All members and nominees are invited to sign on to this statement.” Short and to the point. All signatories of the Contract with Texas signed the memo, which was first shared by The Texan’s Brad Johnson. But, those signatories are to be expected. More notably, Reps. Briscoe Cain and Cody Vasut — two members of the leadership “in-crowd” — signed the letter, as did more than a dozen rank-and-file incumbents. “We’re now way beyond a manageable group of outliers,” one Capitol veteran told The Blast. The number of signatories, 43, doesn’t seem like a coincidence. That is exactly half of the current strength of the Republican caucus. Not every incumbent or nominee is a shoo-in, and one comes from a district held by a retiring Democrat, Republican Don McLaughlin in the race to succeed Rep. Tracy King, D-Uvalde. However, it’s a symbolic count. And as the concluding part of the memo suggests, others certainly share their view. During a primary runoff debate, John McQueeney, the presumptive successor to future Congressman Craig Goldman, R-Fort Worth, was asked whether he believes Phelan should be the speaker next session. “One of the criteria that I will use in voting for that speaker to represent us is the banning of Democrat chairs,” McQueeney said. And that’s from a candidate who pulled off an upset against the Contract with Texas-signing Cheryl Bean, with help from Gov. Greg Abbott and the business side of the party. As recently as March, Phelan has affirmed his support for keeping Democrats in some chairmanships for the sake of bipartisan relationships. “It keeps us from being like Washington, D.C., where everything shuts down,” Phelan told Spectrum News. “We don’t want the chaos that is in Washington, D.C. We want to get things done for the folks here in Texas.” Part of the scuttle that preceded the memo is that the conservative wing of the party wants the speaker’s race to play out in public, not in smoke-filled rooms from which one member emerges and says, “I have the pledge cards,” before the rest rally around that candidate. Even people in Lege circles usually don’t know who the speaker will be until someone announces they have the numbers. Keeping the speaker’s race public will allow the grassroots to apply pressure on candidates from now until November, and until January, and until March 2026. Hyping up the Democrat chairs issue could be an early step to keeping the race as public-facing as possible. A key part of the speaker’s race math is that Republican caucus bylaws call on the caucus to select their speaker candidate by a two-thirds majority. With the current count of 86 Republicans — or 87, if McLaughlin or someone else flips a seat — 58 votes is the threshold for a supermajority. In theory, the 43 signatories have the numbers to deny someone the caucus’ vote. But the caucus bylaws aren’t binding. The only number that matters is 76. With 64 Democrats, as there currently are, all you need is 11 Republicans plus the speaker candidate themselves to get to 76. Following the memo’s publication, former state Rep. Ron Simmons raised that exact concern on Twitter. “Please just acknowledge that you understand that this opens up for the real possibility of a liberal Republican to gather 10-15 similar R’s and all the D’s and be the Speaker,” Simmons wrote. “Just admit that you are willing to take this real risk.” Signers of the Contract with Texas seized on that and taunted, “You won’t.” “We’re here for it. That will be another 10-15 Republicans back in the workforce, stimulating the economy in 2026,” tweeted Mitch Little. “You just described Phelan’s path to the speakership. That’s always been a risk. If 10-15 want to betray Texas, they’ll be voted out next cycle,” said Rep. Nate Schatzline. “The difference is that if they run that play this time, it will be on the floor in the light of day instead of under the cloak of darkness,” added Brent Money. Unsurprisingly, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick joined the fray. “The attached letter … makes it clear the only way Speaker Dade Phelan … can be re-elected Speaker is by a handful of a small minority of Republicans and a huge majority of Democrats,” Patrick wrote. The good news for Phelan is that banning Democrats from committee chairmanships is a survivable compromise. Yes, it would corner Democrats, who would then raise hell on every small issue, but banning Democrat chairs is a core — if not the core — component of the Contract with Texas, and accepting that position could stop the bleeding. [END] --- [1] Url: https://mailchi.mp/texastribune/the-blast-bipartisan-leadership-you-wont Published and (C) by Texas Tribune Content appears here under this condition or license: Used with Permission: https://www.texastribune.org/republishing-guidelines/. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/texastribune/