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Despite Chron Headline, No Craddick Landslide
Rep. Tom Craddick fought off a challenge to be re-elected as Speaker of the Texas House yesterday, but contrary to today's Chronicle headline, the only "landslide" vote came after challenger Jim Pitts withdrew from the race. The key vote of the day was to decide how long to keep each individual member's vote confidential after the election for Speaker election was completed. Craddick wanted each House member's individual vote made public immediately after the ballots were counted, so the new Speaker could reward or punish members accordingly when assigning committee positions. Pitts wanted the votes kept confidential until after the Speaker appointed committee chairs and assigned members to committees, so that his supporters could vote without fear of punishment if his effort fell short. In either case, every member's vote would ultimately be made public. The difference amounted to no more than 3 weeks. The vote was a test vote for the strength of Pitts' challenge. While a few members who sided with Craddick or Pitts on this vote might have voted differently on the vote for Speaker, it would clearly establish the trend. A victory for Pitts' side on this measure would also ease the fear of retribution by the winning candidate, increasing Pitts' advantage. Craddick won the vote, but by only 80-68. While relatively close, Pitts saw that some members he hoped to have on his side had stayed with Craddick. With the pattern clear, Pitts withdrew from the race, leading to the "landslide" the Chronicle reported for Craddick on a vote that listed Craddick as the only candidate. By focusing on the wrong vote, the Chronicle also overstated the amount of Democratic support that Craddick had. On the key vote, only 15 of 69 Democrats sided with Craddick. After Pitts withdrew, most Democrats, voted to ratify the re-election of the Speaker, although 27 still showed their disapproval by voting no. I voted with Rep. Pitts on the confidentiality vote. I voted with the majority after Pitts withdrew from the race. In the next couple of weeks we will learn our committee assignments, and we will see if the fears of retribution were or were not well- founded.
Scott Hochberg
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