The Speaker's Support: Craddick open to mandated recorded votes

Make water transfer part of a regional solution

08:42 AM CDT on Monday, June 19, 2006

Call it lighting the way. Setting a good example. A positive direction.

Whatever phrase you hang on it, Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick did the cause of good government a service with a personal call for repeated record votes during the Legislature's recent special session on school finance.

His motivation?

"I thought their constituents should know how they voted," Mr. Craddick told us in a recent interview.

Bingo. On that score, we're on the same page with one of the two longest-serving members of the Texas House.

Where we have parted with House leaders in the past, however, is on the question of making it mandatory for members to put their names on every vote on nonceremonial measures. This newspaper – as well as nearly 200 organizations and leaders across the state – has made repeated calls for legislation requiring just that, but such measures have been bottled up in committee.

Mr. Craddick told us he wanted to dispel any notion that he stands against proposed voting reforms and is open to a change, if that's what members want.

"I don't have a problem with recorded votes," he said.

Mr. Craddick was careful to defend the committee process and the role of House chairmen to independently handle pending legislation assigned to them. Imposing his will on members would disrupt that system, he said.

Granted, but it's significant for members to hear the speaker's openness to the proposals. It's also significant for them to hear a commitment he made to this editorial board that a measure on recorded votes would get a fair committee hearing and, if reported out, would get a floor vote.

The cause of open government demands a clear up or down vote by each House member. The Senate last year unanimously passed a bill by Dallas Sen. John Carona to mandate voting reform for the entire Legislature.

Resisting calls to pass their own bill – one of them introduced by Dallas Rep. Dan Branch – some House members said strengthened internal rules accomplished the same thing. Others worried that repeated record votes would bog down the bill-making process.

We take issue with the assertion that a House rule has as much teeth as a state law or constitutional amendment. As for time management, members did not try in good faith to fashion a bill that would address their concerns. Nor did they bother to examine how it is that nearly every other state in the nation manages to make mandated recorded votes work.

With the speaker's example fresh in their minds, we hope members put a proposal to a vote.

As Mr. Craddick said, their constituents should know where they stand.