I've read that he is supposedly Republican, and to the left of center and that his preference is to let bills die by calendar. So I guess the question is whether he supports the platform and stated mandates as priority...or is he simply a RINO? And how was it that he hasn't ticked off enough folks to lose the SoH?
Joe Straus is the archetypal Texas Republican legislator: entirely self-serving and unabashedly statist, but says Republican-sounding things to a Republican constituency, and the morons keep electing him. To make matters worse, so many other standard Texas Republican House members want to be just like him that no one ever seriously opposes him for Speaker. Ultimately, the fault lies with Texas Republican voters: the only thing they ever vote for is the letter R. Good game, Texas Republicans.
According to my conversations with Rep Lozano, he's gonna have a tough time killing OC and Con. Carry bills this session due to the overwhelming support. I also hope and suspect our Gov would call a special session to make it happen. Fingers crossed....
How is he going to have a tough time? If he doesn't take action to make it happen, it doesn't happen. He controls the legislative calendar of the House. All he has to do is not assign it to a committee, and it never goes anywhere. He was even more brazen last session: despite a near-super majority in the Texas House, he appointed Democrats as the chairs of both of the House Committees that OC and campus carry bills would be assigned to, and they were of course assigned to one of them. The bills died in committee, because the chairs never scheduled them for debate (or were reported out too late to be considered by the full house, I can't remember which; the result is identical).
Texas Republicans keep electing Joe Straus to the Texas House, and Texas Republicans keep electing him to the Speaker's office. If you want to blame someone for the lack of OC or campus carry in Texas, the only people you can blame are Texas Republicans.
