Opponent didn’t pass any bills? We found one

A North Texas Democrat nominated for the Texas Senate told a Dallas crowd that the incumbent, Bob Hall of Edgewood, has an empty legislative record.

Kendall Scudder of Sulphur Springs was quoted by The Dallas Morning News as saying at a July event: “None of you should be surprised to find out that Bob Hall never successfully passed a bill before. And we’re going to keep it that way.”

Hall, a businessman who joined the Senate’s ruling Republicans in 2015, told the newspaper: “I’m not one to try to get my name in lights when it comes to passing bills. I see myself as part of a team.”

Still, has Hall not advanced any of his own measures into law?

We gauged Hall’s record by searching the Texas Legislature Online website maintained by the Texas Legislative Council.

Our searches for proposals authored by Hall that Gov. Greg Abbott signed or allowed to become law showed one such accomplishment. In the 2017 regular session, the Hall-authored Senate Bill 102, clarifying position titles in the Texas National Guard, made it through the Senate and House and was signed into law on June 1, 2017.

Hall said in a June 2017 statement of intent filed with the proposal that lawmakers previously created new general officer positions within the Texas National Guard, but the federal government didn’t recognize or fund the position titles. “This bill would clarify these new general officer titles and duties to allow for proper recognition and fund- ing,” Hall said.

Hall otherwise authored 52 proposals in 2015 and 69 in 2017, records indicate.

In the regular sessions and a summer 2017 special session, records show, Hall co-sponsored measures offered by others — some of which passed into law. In 2015, Hall was aco-sponsor of seven House bills that passed into law, and in 2017, Hall co-sponsored three House measures in the regular session that became law and three House proposals that passed into law after action in the special session.

Scudder told us his point in