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As a challenge looms, Straus confident that he will remain Speaker

Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus is confident that he will remain Speaker for the 84th legislature.

WASHINGTON — Despite potential opposition from conservative groups, Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, is confident that he will be reelected to the speakership when the 84th Texas Legislature convenes in January.

Speaking in Washington after a breakfast with the Texas State Society, a group for Texans in the capital, Straus said he feels state House members are pleased with his leadership.

“I have a hand in setting priorities and making appointments, but it’s really a House run by the members. And I think they like it that way,” Straus said. “I feel very confident in their support.”

In his bid for a fourth term as Speaker, Straus could face opposition from Republican factions that view him as too moderate.

Backed by conservative groups like Empower Texans, Rep. Scott Turner, R-Frisco, is expected to challenge Straus for the House’s top spot.

The threat has Straus playing offense. Over the next month, he will send out mailers to Republican districts that tout the House’s conservative victories under his watch, according to the Houston Chronicle.

If elected, Straus sees getting the different voices within the GOP to harmonize as a major hurdle.

“The challenge is to keep reinforcing that every member’s ideas and opinions are important and considered, within the Republican party and within the House as a whole,” he said.

As for the legislature’s top priorities, Straus named education, water issues, and transportation. He’s optimistic about making progress on them, given the House’s recent record.

“I’ve been very proud of the way the House has come together in the last few sessions on important issues. More often than not you see the most promising legislation passing with large bipartisan majorities,” he said.

Texas manufacturers oppose gutting franchise tax

At Weir SPM in White Settlement, machinist Martin Ramos in 2011 worked to manufacture one of the powerful pumps used in the hydraulic fracturing process of gas and oil wells. (Tom Fox/Staff photographer)

Jockeying over tax cuts intensified Wednesday when the Texas Association of Manufacturers came out against repealing the state’s franchise tax on businesses.

In its top 10 priorities list, the group said lawmakers instead should concentrate on property tax relief and spending more on infrastructure, such as roads and water supplies.

“TAM believes the Texas Franchise Tax is a fair system that provides necessary revenue while allowing all businesses to share in the cost of running our state,” the group said in a separate position paper on the franchise tax.

As I reported in this story in Wednesday’s paper, Gov.-elect Greg Abbott is interested in trimming, and perhaps eliminating, the franchise or “margins tax.”

Tony Bennett, president of the Texas Association of Manufacturers (2013 courtesy photo)

Lt. Gov.-elect Dan Patrick has stressed reducing property taxes, though in the past he has championed measures that exempt a lot of small businesses from having to pay franchise tax.

As the manufacturers group pointed out, the small businesses paid six percent of all franchise taxes collected before 2006, when a massive tax swap was passed to allow the state to escape a school finance lawsuit. Today, the smallest businesses are off the hook. And there has been other relief granted, the manufacturers group noted.

But it warns that increasing property tax bills “will soon scare away future business and industry growth.” That is in its position paper on property tax.

The old franchise tax zapped manufacturers and refineries because it taxed assets. They have lots of assets. The 2006 changes, by contrast, not only reached out to bring under the tax limited partnerships and professional associations, it shifted some of the burden away from capital-intensive industries. Some of that fell on the retail and service sectors of the Texas economy. So the manufacturers association is quite happy, thank you. Please, refrain from further nibbling around the edges of the margins tax, it all but said Wednesday.

For those following the early tax-cut posturing, there are two lessons here: 1) It’s not about personality. While at first blush the manufacturers might appear to favor Patrick’s emphasis over Abbott’s, they actually don’t like some of Patrick’s ideas, either. For instance, their paper warned of a “split tax roll,” where either homeowners or businesses are treated differently. Patrick has strongly backed tighter caps on growth in home appraisals, which industry fears would shift more of the local property tax burden on it. 2) It’s about the bottom line. That varies by sector and by individual company. Which is what makes tax fights so much fun.

“Texas is the No. 1 state to do business,” said association president Tony Bennett. “We look forward to working with Texas lawmakers to keep Texas on top.”

Of course, everyone has a different prescription on how to do that.

Flores vies for Republican Study Committee chair; Gohmert lags in 3-way race

Rep. Louie Gohmert is one of three candidates for chairman of the Republican Study Committee. (Alex Wong/Getty)

WASHINGTON – The race to chair the Republican Study Committee for the 114th Congress is down to three candidates, including two Texans.

Bill Flores of Bryan, Louie Gohmert of Tyler, and Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina are running for chairman of the influential conservative bloc, according to an RSC aide.

The Hill reports today that Flores and Mulvaney are the two main contenders, with Mulvaney leading, and Gohmert a distant third.

The RSC chairman is not an official member of House Republican leadership. But more than two-thirds of House Republicans are members, including every Texan.

Gohmert, who is known for his outspoken and sometimes outlandish style, announced his candidacy in June.

The same month, Flores told The News that “Louie has said a lot of things publicly that I think could cause him some heartburn with the Republican Study Committee as a whole.”

Previous RSC chairmen have risen to other leadership positions.

Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana gave up the chairmanship this summer to become Majority Whip, the No. 3 spot in the House. The position became open after former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost a primary in Virginia and resigned.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Dallas chaired the RSC from 2007 through 2008. He went on to chair the House Republican Conference from 2011 to 2013 –the No. 4 post — and now chairs the House Financial Services Committee.

Hensarling is backing Mulvaney in the RSC election, according to The Hill. The election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 18.

The group favors a conservative agenda. Its main policy initiatives include a simplified tax code, repealing the Affordable Care Act, and increasing defense spending.

Patrick names transition team

Lt. Gov.-elect Dan Patrick, during his victory speech in Houston Tuesday (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

Lt. Gov.-elect Dan Patrick has named his long-time aide Logan Spence as head of his transition team, which will include Dallas insurance executive Roy Bailey.

“After 15 months of arduous campaigning, the hard work has only begun,” Patrick said in a statement.

He said Bailey, who signed on last fall as one of his top campaign money men, “will bring his business acumen and perspective to the transition team.”

Dallas businessman Roy Bailey (2002 photo by Richard Michael Pruitt/Staff photographer)

The team “will help me carry our conservative vision to the lieutenant governor’s office in January,” Patrick said.

Patrick, now a state senator from Houston, quickly ticked off his priorities of border security, property tax cuts and “making our schools the best in the country.”

Houston GOP campaign guru Allen Blakemore, who was chief strategist for Patrick’s first statewide race, will assist the effort, along with San Francisco GOP media consultant Bob Wickers and Texans for Lawsuit Reform publicist Sherry Sylvester, Patrick said.

He said people interested in working for him in the lieutenant governor’s office can apply here for jobs. That’s part of Patrick’s new website, www.PatrickTransition.com.

Switching hats, Staples says leave fracking to state regulators

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, who resigned Friday, played his last ceremonial role as a politician Thursday, presiding over a Family Land Heritage event in the House chamber. (Robert T. Garrett)

The new top lobbyist for the Texas oil and gas industry, just-resigned state Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, says local referendums such as Denton’s ban on hydraulic fracturing this week are not the answer.

“That’s not the way to craft public policy,” Staples said in an interview Thursday, his fourth day on the job as president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association. The association has sued to block the ordinance from taking effect in 30 days.

“Our thought is that the Railroad Commission has the authority to govern oil and gas activities,” Staples said. He said the commission, whose Chairwoman Christi Craddick said Thursday should keep giving permits to companies that seek to drill in Denton, must balance local community concerns with the need for uniform policies, “where we can grow and have capital attracted to Texas.”

Staples, who resigned as agriculture commissioner on Friday, said he would register as a legislative lobbyist next year but play a mostly behind-the-scenes role as a strategist for the trade group’s existing lobbyists.

“I’ll obviously help coordinate those activities,” he said. Staples ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in this year’s GOP primary.

So who’s minding the store at the Texas Department of Agriculture? The answer is Drew DeBerry, Staples’ long-time deputy.

While Republican former state Rep. Sid Miller has been elected to the post, state law puts the deputy agriculture commissioner in charge if the commissioner has “a necessary and unavoidable absence” or an “inability to act.”

Miller will be sworn in a few minutes after midnight on Dec. 31, said Todd M. Smith, his campaign consultant. At a second event later on New Year’s Day, Miller will have a purely ceremonial oath-taking, Smith said.

Administering the oath will be Gov. Rick Perry, a former agriculture commissioner, he said.

Former lawmakers give advice to conquering GOP

WASHINGTON – After a long, expensive slog to Election Day, Republicans will control both chambers of Congress in January.

Now comes the hard part.

Former senator Olympia Snowe (Pat Wellenbach/AP)

That was the message from former lawmakers and Beltway operatives on Wednesday, when the National Journal hosted a panel on the impact of Tuesday’s  midterm elections.

The panelists agreed that the elections were a referendum on President Obama’s policies, and inaction by Congress. But they also emphasized that before pursuing a legislative agenda, Republicans must learn lessons in bipartisanship and compromise.

“It was certainly a broad and sweeping repudiation of the status quo,” said Olympia Snowe, a former Republican senator from Maine. “I think it’s abundantly clear that Congress is going to have to move forward and learn how to legislate and govern.”

Republicans needed to pick up six seats to claim a majority in the Senate. They got seven, with races in Alaska and Louisiana still to be decided.

Republicans also padded their majority in the House, where they’ll enjoy their largest advantage in decades.

On Wednesday, panelists said the midterm results called for a new course of action – or any action at all. With only the lame duck session remaining, the 113th Congress has a chance to be the least productive ever.

“It was an election that sent the message ‘get something done for a change.’ That’s something that people want,” said Celinda Lake, president of the Democratic polling group Lake Research Partners.

Immigration reform could top Congress’ to-do list.

According to Martin Frost, a former House Democrat from the Dallas area, passing immigration reform would be a “true test of bipartisanship.”

“Immigration reform is a horribly complex issue,” he said. “Trying to solve this issue will be a real test to whether you can operate on a bipartisan basis.”

Former Rep. Martin Frost (Tom Gannam/AP)

Any immigration bill will require the president’s signature to become law.

Steve LaTourette, a former Republican congressman from Ohio, said that the president’s willingness to compromise will determine the success of the Republican agenda.

“The president has to dance,” LaTourette said “But if the president dances, you can get a lot of stuff done.”

In a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Obama said that he was “eager to work with the new Congress,” but added that “Congress will pass some bills I cannot sign.”

Before worrying about the president though, Republicans will first need to reach an accord within their own ranks – no easy task, according to Whit Ayres, president North Star Opinion Research, a Republican polling group.

Ayres said that whoever unites the various the factions within the GOP could hold the keys to the party’s presidential nomination.

Its nominee will have to bring together “the Tea Party, libertarians, establishment, social conservatives, and internationalist Republicans all in one coalition.”

“Whoever wins it will…get enough of those groups to build a majority,” Ayres said.

Poll: Patrick entered Tuesday losing Hispanic vote by 39 points — so he won landslide among non-Hispanics?

Texas GOP lieutenant governor candidate Dan Patrick speaks to the media before his watch party in Houston Tuesday. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

An election eve poll sponsored by national Hispanic groups suggests — at least, by inference — that Republican Dan Patrick captured a towering percentage of Tuesday’s non-Hispanic vote in the race for lieutenant governor. And that Hispanics probably didn’t vote in increased numbers, as Democratic diehards hoped.

The Latino Decisions pollshowed Hispanics in Texas broke decisively in favor of Patrick’s Democratic rival, fellow state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte. She had 68 percent to his 29 percent, in the poll sponsored by the Latino Victory Project, National Council of La Raza and America’s Voice.

The poll was conducted Thursday through Monday among Hispanics who had already voted or were certain to vote. Texas was among 10 states in which pollsters interviewed a larger number of Hispanic voters, to obtain a statistically reliable sample. The margin of error was plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

So Van de Putte’s 39-point margin among Hispanics theoretically could have been as small as 29 percent.

Meanwhile, with three quarters of precincts reporting Tuesday, Patrick was beating Van de Putte by 21 points — 59 percent to 38 percent.

Updated: Lieutenant governor-elect Patrick says liberals “picked wrong battleground”

Dan Patrick and Leticia Van de Putte, Texas Senate colleagues and rivals for lieutenant governor (AP pool photo, Sept. 29 KLRU debate)

Update at 9:45 p.m.: Dan Patrick said his election reaffirms the state’s conservative tilt.

“Texas voters sent a powerful message to the rest of the country – the liberal, Washington-style agenda my opponent so proudly boasted simply has no place in Texas,” he said in a written statement. “Tonight’s decisive victory proves they picked the wrong battleground.”

Van de Putte told supporters that she called Patrick and offered “sincere congratulations on a well-disciplined campaign.” Van de Putte, who didn’t have to give up her Senate seat to run statewide, added that she assured Patrick “I would continue in my public service.”

Update at 8:28 p.m.: Van de Putte has conceded, congratulating Patrick for “running a disciplined campaign.”

In a statement, she thanked supporters and said she looks “forward to continuing to serve my community and this great state.” See note below about how she retains her Texas Senate seat.

“This campaign and my service have always been about securing the future for the next generation, para mis hijos y nietos,” Van de Putte concluded.

Update at 8:16 p.m.: AP has called the race for Patrick.

Original item at 8:08 p.m.: Republican and tea party darling Dan Patrick established a solid lead over Democrat Leticia Van de Putte in Tuesday’s tally of the early vote for lieutenant governor.

With more than 2.1 million early votes counted, Patrick is leading Van de Putte with 56 percent to her 41 percent.

Playing rope-a-dope in the fall contest, Patrick avoided gaffes and lowered his public profile. This was after he ran a highly combative campaign to capture the GOP nomination earlier this year.

But while Patrick coasted through the general election, he didn’t tone down his staunchly conservative views.

Au contraire.

Seizing full advantage of the summer’s influx of unaccompanied children from Central America, the rise of the Islamic State in the Middle East and the arrival of Ebola in Dallas, Patrick hewed to his hard line on immigration and border security.

He raised the prospect of Islamic terrorists crossing the Texas-Mexico border in his fall TV ads.

In other ads and his single televised debate with Van de Putte, he also stood firm against abortion, under any circumstance; and for school voucher-like proposals to shake up public schools.

Van de Putte, not well-known beyond her San Antonio base, didn’t raise the big money that fellow state Sen. Wendy Davis did in the governor’s race.

But as Patrick’s senior colleague in the Texas Senate, Van de Putte soon could be in an interesting position: Last year, she drew a four-year Senate term and thus did not have to give up her seat to run for lieutenant governor. If she loses to Patrick, she can sit back and watch him preside — and offer critiques, if she chooses.

Carona makes peace with Patrick, Van de Putte pulls more Planned Parenthood help

Sen. John Carona talks with a supporter in Dallas on primary night in March. (Kye R. Lee/Staff photographer)

Update at 3:25 p.m.: Have corrected date of Paul Reyes’ and Helen Carona’s contributions to Patrick: They gave on the same day in 2013, not this year.

Original item at 12:43 p.m.: Dallas state Sen. John Carona has continued to make peace with fellow Republican and lieutenant governor candidate Dan Patrick.

The political action committee at Carona’s business Associa Inc., which manages homeowners’ assocations across the country, gave Patrick $5,000 earlier this week, according to telegram reports to the Texas Ethics Commission.

As my colleague Terrence Stutz reported here nearly 2 1/2 years ago, Carona called Patrick a “snake oil salesman” and a “narcissist that would say anything to draw attention to himself.”

Patrick, R-Houston, said in an email to all senators that Carona had spread a false rumor that Patrick and his wife, Jan, were divorcing. Carona, R-Dallas, replied that Patrick should have first checked with him regarding the allegations before contacting their colleagues. Carona also raised the ante, mentioning rumors about Patrick’s sexual orientation as well. Patrick dismissed as “a lie” suggestions he is gay and demanded Carona apologize.

At the time, Carona didn’t. Late last year, though, the Associa PAC gave $30,000 to Patrick, even as Carona didn’t personally endorse him in the GOP lieutenant governor primary.

In March, Carona lost his Senate seat to tea party-backed Republican Don Huffines in a GOP primary. Since then, he has endorsed Patrick.

Dan Patrick and Leticia Van de Putte shake hands at their televised debate last month. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

As I reported in a story in Wednesday’s newspaper, Associa executive Paul Reyes, a former Carona Senate staff aide, contributed $20,000 to Patrick. That was on top of $5,000 Reyes gave to Patrick in August 2013 — the same day Carona’s wife, Helen, chipped in $2,500 to the Patrick cause.

It appears that Associa may have some legislative irons in the fire.

Meanwhile, Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, Patrick’s Democratic colleague and opponent for lieutenant governor, reported more than three times as many late contributions as did Patrick.

This week, she took in more than $82,000, to about $23,500 for Patrick.

Just more than half of the contributions on Van de Putte’s telegram reports came from groups supporting abortion rights. Planned Parenthood’s PACs in New York City and Austin donated nearly $30,000 of staff time, phone calls and postage. Annie’s List gave the San Antonio lawmaker a $13,000 check.

As I noted in Wednesday’s story, Patrick strategist Allen Blakemore belittled Van de Putte’s matching Patrick’s fundraising haul of $2 million between Sept. 26 and Saturday. Blakemore noted that one-third of her money was in-kind donations from Planned Parenthood, the liberal group Texas Organizing Project and voter-organizing Battleground Texas.

On Thursday morning, Logan Spence, a long-time Patrick aide, seized on the late assists from Planned Parenthood PACs as a sign Van de Putte would try to lead the Senate in a very different direction on abortion than Patrick would. But then we knew that, didn’t we?

Here’s Spence’s tweet on the subject:

The great two-thirds rule debate has begun

Sen. John Whitmire, the dean of the Texas Senate (2008 AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)

Update at 4:00 p.m.: Checked tape, made minor changes to Whitmire’s and Nelson’s quotes.

Original item at 11:29 a.m.: The Texas Senate has begun its expected debate over whether to abandon a rule that for many decades has protected partisan, geographic and racial-ethnic minorities.

At a briefing on taxes for new Senate budget writers Wednesday, the chamber’s longest-serving member, Houston Democrat John Whitmire, launched a wry if somewhat backhanded defense of the “two-thirds rule.”

It can protect from attack things highly valued by rural senators, such as an exemption of agricultural equipment from the sales tax, Whitmire said at a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee.

The rule requires two-thirds of senators to agree before a bill can be taken up on the Senate floor.

Earlier this year, GOP lieutenant governor candidate Dan Patrick promised to reduce the influence of Democratic senators by weakening the rule and reducing the number of committees they chair. Patrick is a Houston senator.

On Wednesday, Whitmire interrupted a presentation by the comptroller’s office to discuss the sales-tax agricultural exemption.

He called it the “largest, broadest exemption we have.” Whitmire said urban tradesmen could view it as unfair, given they pay tax when they buy vehicles and equipment needed in their work. But the ag exemption has worked well, he said.

Then came the caveat.

“To preserve it, we need to make sure our rural members have a place at the table,” Whitmire said.

Senate Finance Committee Chairwoman Jane Nelson (2009 AP Photo/Harry Cabluck)

Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, said the Legislature tightened administration of the ag exemption in recent years. Beneficiaries have to attest they are engaged in food and fiber production, he said.

Whitmire, though, said that in the next revenue crunch, it and all other exemptions could be reviewed. The state may again face “challenges to find sufficient revenue,” putting the ag exemption at risk, he warned.

“The rural members should be mindful that the Senate rules currently allow them to block any consideration of repealing that,” he said.

Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, interjected, “You talking about the two-thirds rule?”

Whitmire replied, “That would probably be the No. 1 thing that would come to my mind.”

A few minutes later, members of the panel began raising questions about the regressive effects of higher sales tax. Democrats mentioned Patrick’s proposal to decrease local school property taxes, perhaps by adding a penny or two to the state’s 6-1/4-cent sales tax.

Finance Committee Chairwoman Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, quickly cut them off, though.

She noted that higher sales tax is just one way to pay for property tax relief.

“Many of us would like to reduce property taxes,” Nelson said. “We’re going to look at a lot of different possibilities.”