April 20 , 2006
House Sophomores Having Real Impact
But Previous Classes Set Power Standard
By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor
With more than two dozen conservative Republican members, the Texas House freshmen class of 2003 transformed the lower chamber from a Little Bighorn for Democrats to a land of promise for the GOP with the first transfer of power in more than 130 years. A record 27 Republicans in the 36-member class enjoyed immediate strength in record numbers and made it possible for GOP leaders to pass almost anything they wanted with the obvious exception of a school finance plan.
A product to some extent of the first House redistricting process controlled by Republicans in more than a century, the Class of 2003 is now starting to have significant impact as legislators grapple again with school finance during their fourth special session on the issue in the past two years.
Two Republicans who entered the House in 2003 are now key players in the debate on schools and taxes. State Reps. Rob Eissler of The Woodlands and Dan Branch of Dallas both were named to a special school finance committee during their rookie season and both won appointments to the House conference committee that haggled with the Senate over public education reform last year. Branch and Eissler are now considered to be among the top candidates for the job of Public Education Committee chairman when that comes open between now and the end of the year. They were both listed by Speaker Tom Craddick's office as sponsors of the property tax cut bill that cleared the House Ways and Means Committee this week.
Three of their classmates - Republican State Reps. Wayne Smith of Baytown, Corbin Van Arsdale of Tomball and Larry Taylor of Friendswood and - have been members of a group of special lieutenants who will work to build majority support for the leadership's agenda as the special session that began Monday unfolds. Smith is the interim County Affairs Committee chairman for the second time in three years.
The sophomores who have leadership roles as tax plan supporters will encounter opposition that's being led by several other second-term Republicans including State Reps. Bill Keffer, Linda Harper-Brown, Jodie Laubenberg, Ken Paxton and Debbie Riddle. Harper-Brown's lead role in the fight against gambling the past two years is one of the reasons video lottery plans have failed in the House.
The tax plan opponents are among 14 House members who entered the chamber in early 2003 and are now vice-chairs of 15 standing committees. Paxton, Laubenberg and Harper-Brown are vice-chairs of the General Investigating, Public Health and Land & Resource Management panels respectively. Riddle is second in command on the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. Republican State Rep. Martha Wong - a former Houston City Council member - holds down the number two posts on two separate committees. The list of sophomore commmittee vice-chairs includes State Reps. Dwayne Bohac, Byron Cook, Dan Flynn, Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton, Bryan Hughes and Larry Phillips. Another second-term Republican - State Rep. Glenda Dawson - is one of three House members on the Legislative Reference Library Board. Craddick and the House's chief budget writer are the others.
Five second-term representatives - State Reps. Dan Gattis, Ryan Guillen, Aaron Peña, Glenn Hegar and Branch - are members of the Appropriations Committee that develops the state budget. Gattis was chosen during his second regular session to be on the conference committee that negotiated a budget deal with the Senate. Hegar will be a Texas senator come January as long as he beats a Libertarian foe in the November election - and Branch has been mentioned as a future statewide candidate. So has State Rep. Patrick Rose, a sophomore Democrat who was an accidental but award-worthy star of a highly-acclaimed documentary on Texas politics. One Class of 2003 member - ex-Rep. Timoteo Garza - was featured on television news shows last year when he and several others were indicted on federal charges of embezzling money from a South Texas Indian casino.
Garza, who'd already lost his first bid for re-election by the time he got in trouble, and five of his classmates are no longer in the Legislature. Four more sophomores will be ex-lawmakers at this time next year including Republican State Rep. Scott Campbell, who lost a primary runoff election despite having help from campaign financier James Leininger, and State Rep. Carter Casteel, a GOP member who was defeated by a primary foe recruited and funded almost exclusively by the San Antonio businessman and physician. Hegar - by contrast - sailed to victory against two GOP primary foes with 55 percent of the vote in a race for an open Senate seat that's been held by Democrats. Another departing Class of 2003 member - Republican State Rep. Bob Griggs, a former school superintendent who decided not to seek another term - provided some of the inspiration behind a move to recruit candidates who won primary elections with help from other educators.
But while the 30 remaining members are leaving their marks in a variety of ways, it's still too early to say whether the Class of 2003 will ever have as much or more overall influence and impact on the process as some of the previous groups of representatives who entered the chamber together in previous years have or do now. Here's how five previous House classes stack up - ranked in descending order for the power and sway each group's members are having in the lower chamber today.