This legislative session will be more difficult than any I have experienced. The transition of leadership from Democratic to Republican hasn't been easy.
Rural representatives have ruled the Texas House for many years, but now rural Texans are only a small part of the population. Now the city folks are in charge.
Not that Texas bucks national trends of urban/rural partisan voting, so much as just trending Republican everywhere—and urbanizing at the same time. I assume that Chisum will continue to work through the Rural Caucus to represent these interests. He issues the platitude that “the state should not duck its obligation to “people who are unable to pay [for health care],” mumbles something about decisions regarding economic development taxes being made locally, and states that he intends to continue to bash gays by amending the Texas Constitution—a document that, after 129 years, already looks like the excavation of ancient Troy, city built on city built on city.
For more on Chisum’s record, or to add your own expertise to our own, check comments.
SPACEDARK
- Was the tobacco industry's legislative point man. Chisum offered four separate amendments designed to sabotage the tobacco-control bills. A majority of House members roundly defeated three amendments that Chisum proposed to undermine the childrens' access bill. A fourth Chisum amendment, which prevents the tobacco industry from having to disclose toxic and other ingredients that it rolls into its products, passed the House.
ReplyDelete- Calling it a biblical issue, a state lawmaker on Monday proposed an amendment to the Texas Constitution that would ban the state from recognizing gay marriage.
- Voted for parental notification on abortion in a test vote
- Is considered by various organizations to be pro-gun, anti-choice, extremely anti-gay, and extremely pro-tobacco
- Ironically, however, was removed by House Speaker Tom Craddick as chairman of the Environmental Regulation Committee. Apparently, he made the mistake of voting in an environmentally responsible way one out of three times during the preceding session, according to the environmentalist scorecard. Some environmentalists think that Chisum, although a staunch advocate of industry rights, was deemed by Craddick as "too fair" in his leadership on the Environmental Regulation Committee.
I thought I'd blow the dust off the exclusive Panhandle Truth Squad mind-reading machine to tell you what Warren Chisum's really thinking when he says: "I would be grateful for your prayers through this session. Or if not, I would be grateful for some suggestions about how to better run state government."
ReplyDeleteHe really means: "Thanks for all your support, good Christians! And you godless heathen tell me what you want, too, all the better to ignore your secular humanist wishes!"