Dan Patrick loses in special session, but allies will reload for March primaries
Gromer Jeffers Jr. says although many of his priorities stalled, the lieutenant governor and his cronies won’t spend time licking wounds.
The Texas Legislature’s special session was largely a bust.
Gov. Greg Abbott tried to make it all mean something, placing 20 items on the agenda. But after 29 days and over $1 million in taxpayer costs, lawmakers have little to show from legislative overtime that critics say was more about manipulating the Republican voting base than working toward good public policy.
The Legislature was able to approve sunset legislation to keep the Texas Medical Board going, something that could have occurred in the regular session. They approved about half of what Abbott wanted, including a bill that would require women to buy separate health insurance plans for abortion and a measure that tightened penalties for mailin vote fraud targeted at the elderly. That should be appetizing for GOP base voters.
But the biggest items on Abbott’s wish list didn’t make it, including a bill that limits property tax increases and the controversial bill that would restrict where transgender residents can use the bathroom.
House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, who made clear his opposition to the bathroom bill, stood firm as the proposal never reached the House floor. He had the backing of business leaders inside and outside the state, as well as Republicans and Democrats who feared the legislation was discriminatory and bad for the Texas economy, given the potential of boycotts that could have impacted the Texas hospitality industry.
The failure to approve a bathroom bill and tax reform legislation was a significant defeat for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the prime proponent of both pieces of legislation.
Before and after the session, he blasted Straus for not playing ball, ultimately conceding that it might take until 2019 to revisit the issues.
Patrick and his cronies won’t spend much time licking their wounds.
With the March primaries in view, House members loyal to Straus are likely to face opponents. There could be more contested primaries than in recent memory, and anti-Straus and pro-Patrick folks will wave the special session’s stained flag to convince conservative voters that lawmakers who didn’t support the bathroom bill are out of step.
That means the business community and others must step up again and protect the legislators that bucked the Patrick or stayed loyal to the speaker.
If they don’t, Straus will have less wiggle room in 2019, and Patrick will be emboldened to revisit the bathroom bill and other legislation he wants.
Straus and business leaders won this time, but the special session is part of an ongoing fight within the conservative movement. And that fight is far from over.