Texans should hope for the best from 2019 legislative session
Some Texans are eagerly anticipating the forthcoming biennial legislative session, which runs from Tuesday until May.
Some Texans are dreading the 86th Legislature, though, in light of their experiences the last time legislators gathered in Austin for a regular session, in 2017. Others are simply nervous, given the retirement of Speaker Joe Straus. Straus has been a reassuring presence in state politics in recent years and often served as a counterweight to Republican leaders like Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. I’m optimistic about the 86th Legislature and even planning to darken the doors of the Texas Capitol. The legislators and advocates I’ve spoken with lately are ready to get to work, and the issues they’re hoping to tackle are substantive ones, such as school finance.
I’m also hoping to meet some of those newly elected who will bring a fresh perspective. There are quite a few of them, and most of them are Democrats.
Democrats picked up 12 seats in the Texas House, for example. Republicans will be in the majority, but they’ve definitely noticed that.
State Rep. Sarah Davis, a Republican from Houston, would like the incoming members to know they can count on their colleagues on both sides of the aisle as they bumble their way through their first session.
“We want to see you succeed, and people will be there to help you,” she said recently, when I asked her if she had any advice for the freshmen, many of whom were first-time candidates.
Davis is one of the more effective legislators in the chamber, and she’s likely to have a unique role in this year’s legislative session. Abbott embarrassed himself during the 2018 midterm elections with his ham-fisted and unsuccessful meddling in the Republican primary in her West University-area district.
It remains unclear why Abbott thought Davis could be unseated in the primary by a seasteading attorney named Susannah Dokupil, and why he would want to do that in the first place.
The governor has some kind of grudge against Davis; that was clear enough from his attacks on her during the primary. But voters in the 134th District were not tempted by his candidate or receptive to his attacks on her.
Davis routinely outperforms the rest of the Republicans in Harris County.
She won the Republican nomination by a doubledigit margin and went on to defeat Democrat Alison Lami Sawyer.
I hope Abbott can resist the temptation to attack Davis during the course of the 86th Legislature. She’s one of the most capable members of the House, and she says she’ll be focused on her work.
“You have to realize the campaign is over,” Davis advised. “You have to conduct yourself as a policymaker, not a candidate.”
That might be harder than usual in a year like this one, given how polarizing politics has become. But it can’t hurt to try.
And legislators who’ve conducted themselves as candidates in recent sessions will come to regret it. State Rep. Dennis Bonnen has never liked clowns, and he’ll officially become the speaker of the House on Tuesday. (Some small measure of sanity was restored to state politics in November, when he declared victory in the speaker’s race.)
Bonnen, a Republican, has served in the House since 1996, as the representative from the 25th District, which covers Brazoria and Matagorda counties along the Gulf Coast.
He played a pivotal role in the 84th Legislature in 2015 as chair of the Ways & Means Committee.
However, Bonnen seemed a bit subdued during the 85th Legislature, which took a particular toll on the Texas House. He continued to lay low after Straus announced his decision to retire.
Then, in November, Bonnen abruptly declared victory in the speaker’s race — at a brief news conference a few days after the Democrats won 12 seats.
In retrospect, it’s clear why Bonnen seemed subdued: he was planning, even then, to be Straus’ successor.
While that left some legislators and advocates with jangled nerves, I’m feeling optimistic about the 86th Legislature and I’d encourage Texans to hope for the best.
It’s hard to see how it could be worse than the 2017 session.