Bonnen warns against waging Texas GOP civil war
AUSTIN — Republican House Speaker Dennis Bonnen tried to snuff out any remnants of the GOP civil war Monday, saying attacks from the party’s arch conservatives are not worth stressing about and threatening consequences for House members who campaign against each other in the next election.
With the legislative session over, lawmakers will soon turn their attention to the 2020 elections. Each of the 150 members of the House is up for re-election.
Bonnen threatened political retribution against members who campaign against each other ahead of the 2020 elections, as had happened in the 2018 midterms. That year, for example, Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, sent members of his staff to Houston to campaign against Republican Rep. Sarah Davis.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott also opposed Davis, as well as two other incumbent GOP lawmakers, in primary races.
If that sort of thing happens in 2020, Bonnen said he would publicly come out against members who take part and penalize them in the next legislative session, should he be reelected speaker. The speaker assigns bills to committees but also assigns members to committees and chairmanships, doling out power and influence.
Bonnen said the warning applies to members of both parties and those who serve as party chairs.
“We accomplished unprecedented things,” Bonnen said, referencing an $11 billion plan lawmakers passed Saturday to change how schools are funded and curb the growth of property taxes. “If members of the Legislature are out campaigning against each other, you then don’t accomplish things like that because you bring the elections into the legislative process and you don’t get over the wounds and the battles.
“And then people turn into Washington and you’re simply here to legislate on politics, not on policy and not on accomplishment of success.”
Bonnen also dismissed an influential conservative group that has funded primary challenges against incumbent Texas lawmakers in an effort to push the Legislature further to the right.
The group, Empower Texans, has trashed Bonnen all year for tanking bills that would have furthered anti-abortion efforts and strengthened certain gun laws. Empower Texans, aligned with the tea party, has funneled millions of dollars into Texas elections.
Dozens of lawmakers followed the organization’s lead in early 2010, although the group’s electoral victories dwindled to about 10 in the November midterm elections. The group did not respond to a request for comment Monday afternoon.
Other groups, such as Texas Right to Life and Texas Gun Rights, also have criticized Bonnen’s leadership on those issues.
“They aren’t worth responding to,” Bonnen told reporters Monday. “If we passed every pro-life bill filed in the history of the state, they would say we had not done enough. You will never please or appease those folks and I’m sure as hell not going to waste my time trying.”
Empower Texans uses disrespect and attacks to raise money, Bonnen said, adding lawmakers would be ill-advised to chase the group’s agenda.
“You are fooling yourself and you are not respecting your constituents and you are not respecting this institution if you are chasing their wants and their desires,” he said.
The Legislature did not advance bills that would curtail access to abortion this year, irking Texas Right to Life. But it passed legislation that would cut off funding to affiliates of abortion providers, such as Planned Parenthood, which provide STD and cancer screenings.
Texas Gun Rights and Lone Star Gun Rights are frustrated a measure to allow all gun owners to openly carry their weapons in public failed to gain traction. Executive Director of Texas Gun Rights, Chris McNutt, went as far as to hand out fliers in Bonnen’s neighborhood advocating for the bill’s passage, setting off a public clash between the two and the bill’s demise.