If Phelan loses, chaos could triumph
An inelegant sport in the best of times, politics can be brutal in the worst. Look at Texas. A good man is being vilified for the crime of standing on principle. And he faces multiple opponents in this battle, many of them his colleagues in the Legislature.
Forced into a runoff following the primary earlier this month, House Speaker Dade Phelan faces another heated battle with David Covey, the former chairman of the Republican Party in Orange County.
Phelan is the first House speaker in 52 years to be forced into a primary runoff.
The two men represent contrasting styles and ideologies. Both are conservatives, but Covey is an extremist who wants to eliminate property taxes and strengthen already oppressive transgender measures.
The stunning outcome has ramifications beyond this race. The speakership is one of the most powerful positions in the state, and Phelan has handled the responsibility with skill and integrity. He could be replaced, if he loses the runoff, by someone with little of either, sending the lower chamber into chaos.
Third-party groups, hoping to oust the speaker and likeminded officials, poured millions of dollars into campaigns across the state. Attack ads glutted the airwaves, and campaign workers knocked on countless doors. Phelan called it a “flood of special interest dollars.”
“This runoff is not just another race, it’s the frontline of the battle for the soul of our district,” Phelan said in a statement.
The feud began raging last summer, when the speaker spearheaded the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton, who was acquitted in September on 16 articles alleging bribery and corruption. The feud has been raging ever since. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick entered the fray, calling on Phelan to resign last year.
With Paxton and Patrick leading the charge, legislators censured Phelan for his vote to impeach Paxton, accusing him of a “lack of fidelity to Republican principles and priorities.”
They were right, but only if you consider the “principle and priorities” of the current GOP. Extremists no more represent traditional conservatives than white supremacists represent the freedom fighters of the 1960s.
“The barrage aimed at our campaign over the past year was meant to be my undoing, and yet here I am,
emerging from the most contentious and expensive primary in state history still fighting and more determined than ever,” Phelan said.
Covey won 46% of the vote, Phelan 43%, and the incumbent will need that determination against foes who have been hounding him for months.
“The speaker and his team rammed through the first impeachment of a statewide official in Texas in over 100 years,” Patrick said after the acquittal in the impeachment trial.
The feud mirrors the intraparty squabbles in Washington, D.C., where Republicans act as it they belong to different parties. This battle is different, narrower in scope and harsher in tone. It is also more personal.
“If you’re an incumbent in a runoff, you’ve got trouble,” Bill Miller, an Austin lobbyist, said.
Of all Phelan’s socalled transgressions against the GOP, the most heinous was his support of the impeachment trial. Paxton was accused of helping his friend, Nate Paul, harass and investigate his enemies. The struggling real estate investor, according to the articles of impeachment, repaid Paxton by renovating his home and helping him cover up an extramarital affair with a former Senate aide.
The battle began after the impeachment trial, and there have been numerous flare-ups since. Phelan opposed school vouchers, a pet project of Gov. Greg Abbott. The legislation was defeated, and some Republicans started calling the speaker a RINO, or Republican in Name Only.
The speaker also had had the temerity to assign Democrats to key House committees, a tradition in Texas. But tradition is not what it used to be. Partisanship now guides many agendas.
“Any Republican backing Phelan is a fool, and should be disassociated from the Republican Party,” former President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, last month.
It would be a disaster if Phelan, who had the integrity to defy Trump sycophants, lost the runoff. Phelan deserves to remain in office. It is his critics who should be escorted out the door.
Outcome of House speaker's runoff has ramifications beyond his district