Report on TX House Inauguration Day 1/11

[sonias]

This was the first of these ceremonies I'd ever been to, despite living in Austin. And the main reason for even going today, was to be there for the Hubert Vo rally. The gallery was packed so I didn't get in there. I hear it was full by 11:00. The overflow room in the capitol extension was almost full as well, but I did get in there. The one thing that I was impressed with was the diversity of the people in the overflow room. Why heck it looked like the big tent Democratic party. I sure wish we could turn out these crowds for something more than a ceremony. I quickly picked up on some crowd favorites. Lots of "I'm a Vo Supporter" stickers and 15-20 Abel Herrero T-shirts sitting in the crowd. After the ceremony I spoke with one of them to find out about Abel and heard he's a Democrat from Robstown/Corpus Christ area. (Nueces County)

http://www.abelherrero.com/about.html
Sounds like he'll be a great representative. It was great to see people get excited about getting a new Representative they worked to put in office. Herrero is taking a seat previously occupied by Jamie Cappelo (sp?) who was very unethical. Herrero beat Cappelo in the primary. Unfortunately Cappelo was a Dem.

Another popular Representative was Jessica Farrar (D-TX) Texas House District 148. Lots of her supporters in the overflow room, as well.

The ceremony itself was long winded as most of these things are. Only three highlights I wanted to list.

One elected House Rep refused her seat, apparently by letter. Elizabeth Ames Jones (Dist. 121 somewhere near S.A.) apparently is being appointed to the Railroad Commission so she won't be seated. She is a repuke so that probably means a special election in that District.

On to the Craddick for House Speaker vote. Lets keep in mind that we are talking about the same man who is still under possible consideration of indictment in the TRMPAC corporate finance scandals. He personally delivered the checks from corporations to the House members that pledged their support to him last year. Oh but never mind, under the TX DeLay rules even if he is indicted he won't have to resign.

I can't even remember who nominated him, she was a repuke and I didn't really care about the nice little lie of an upstanding citizen she was portraying Craddick to be. But then Terry Keel's second was truly disgusting. Keel had the audacity to invoke Martin Luther King's speech about the measure of a man with respect to Craddick. These people have no respect. I'm sure MLK would not have approved of Craddick's disenfranchisement of millions of minority voter's in Texas, all done at the bidding of his slave master DeLay. Keel you are a Texas size S.O.B.

The other disturbing things about the several other seconds of Craddick were two of our own. Roberto Puente D-San Antonio honestly made me want to hurl. He talked about how Craddick didn't tear his head off when the Dems came back from Ardmore, and how that was a noble thing. How Craddick was so accommodating and truly bi-partisan in spirit. He actually felt guilty about defending his constituents. At least that's how he sounded to me. He even used their language about "coming home and getting back to work". Gee Roberto are you sure you're in the right party?

Finally the 4th or 5th second, was another of our own Harold Dutton from Houston. At least Dutton you could tell was playing a better game. He talked about all sessions being struggles and leadership meaning progress during struggle. I think he agreed to do this for ceremony and possibly a good chairmanship position. His was the last second and he asked to close nominations and call for a recorded vote. Since I have never been to one of these I don't know how unusual a record vote is for something this ceremonial. With no other nominations, it's not like they had a choice of any other candidate. Anyway there were 4 no votes and 1 present and not voting. I know Lon Burham was a No. Yeah Lon, and I don't know who the other 3 brave House Reps were. But kudos to them!

More boring ceremonial stuff went on and I went outside to wait for the Vo Rally.

Sonia

[crispini]

1. Great post, thanks! nt