December
20, 2012
Fantasy Legislature
Majority Party Would Dominate Draft with
Lawmakers in High Stations
Going First in Selection Pool for Leagues
with Standard Scoring System
Fantasy
Politics
BY
MIKE HAILEY
You know the Texas Legislature
will be coming to town soon because the
fantasy football playoffs are getting under
way later this week.
A
simplified statistical analysis suggest
that as many as three million Texans compete
in fantasy football leagues out of an estimated
35 million who play this game nationwide
with NFL players they drafted, snagged as
free agents, picked up off the waiver wire
or acquired in trades. Some of us have more
than one NFL team and field fantasy basketball
and baseball squads as well. You can sign
up for fantasy hockey, golf, soccer, college
football, NASCAR and all sorts of spinoff
games on the big web sites like ESPN, Yahoo,
CBS, NFL.com and countless others online.
There are psychiatrists and psychologists
who specialize in treating fantasy sports
addicts if your obsession begins to interfere
with the more important things in your life
like work and family.
But
if you're a political junkie who has discovered
the joy of fantasy football and other sports
without letting it ruin your life, it might
be fun to imagine what it would be like
to play fantasy Texas Legislature. This
isn't a novel idea considering - a web site
called Fantasy
Politics popped up earlier this year
as a way to duke it out at the national
level in the second most popular contact
sports behind football itself. But no one
to our knowledge has developed the software
at this point to play legislative fantasy
at the state level. So here's an idea of
how it could be structured complete with
a hypothetical team for 2013 if we had that
ability.
Team
A
standard league would have eight teams with
two state senators and seven House members
on each team. Each team would have to have
a minimum of two House freshmen and at least
two House members from one political party
or the other. Each team would have to have
either a Republican and Democratic senator
or one member from either party and one
freshman. A third senator can be added as
a utility player as long as he or she is
from a different political party from the
other two Senate members on a particular
team. The House speaker and lieutenant governor
would not be eligible.
Scoring
A
points system could be based on five basic
stats including committee assignments, election
results, campaign fundraising and social
media popularity. The most important statistical
category for weighted scoring purposes would
be legislation - the number of bills filed,
the priority nature of bills authored and
co-sponsored, how far they progress in the
process, votes in committee and on the floor
and whether they eventually pass both chambers
and go to the governor. Party leadership
posts would be worth points as well.
Rotisserie
scoring might be the easiest way to go at
first with the option to switch to Head-to-Head
competition in which one team plays another
each week. Rotisserie is fantasy talk for
leagues with everyone competing against
everyone with running totals from start
to finish. The 2013 season would end on
June 16 - the last day Governor Rick Perry
can sign bills into law or veto them.
The
Draft
For
hypothetical instructional purposes, this
columnist will be the owner-manager for
all eight teams in a pre-session draft that
might look something like this below. Draft
order could be determined by picking numbers
out of a hat. The draft is based on the
re-election of House Speaker Joe Straus
in the leadership election on the opening
day of the regular session in January. The
draft selections would change dramatically
in the event of a victory in the speaker's
race by the only current challenger, Republican
State Rep. Bryan Hughes of Mineola, or anyone
else besides the incumbent himself.
The
first round picks are an elite cross-section
of GOP lawmakers who wield immense amounts
of clout in a variety of ways. State Senator
Tommy Williams of The Woodlands and State
Rep. Jim Pitts of Waxahachie are the equivalent
of the NBA's Kevin Durant and LeBron James
when it comes to fantasy lawmaking as the
chairmen of the Senate Finance Committee
and House Appropriations Committees respectively.
Pitts and three other round one selections
- Republican State Reps. Todd Hunter of
Corpus Christi, Charlie Geren of Fort Worth
and Byron Cook of Corsicana - are three
of Straus' highest-ranking lieutenants as
the leaders of the Calendars Committee,
Administration Committee and State Affairs
Committee respectively. Republican State
Senators Robert Duncan of Lubbock and Jane
Nelson of Lewisville would be scooped up
in a fantasy Legislature draft in the opening
round as well as the respective chairs of
the State Affairs Committee and the Health
& Human Services Committee in the Capitol's
east wing. State Senator John Carona, a
Dallas Republican who heads the Business
& Commerce Committee, is a first round
choice in the number eight spot more as
a result of aggressive style and subsequent
production than the magnitude of sway that
his actual position of leadership bestows.
In
a legislative arena that Republicans have
controlled exclusively for almost 10 years,
no Democrats were selected in the fantasy
draft until State Senators Judith Zaffirini
of Laredo and John Whitmire of Houston were
plucked up with the top two picks in round
three. Whitmire is the Senate's longest-serving
member - and he's chaired the Criminal Justice
Committee east of the rotunda since Republican
Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst took
over as the chamber's presiding officer
in 2003. Zaffirini, who ranks second in
Senate seniority, appeared to lose some
clout when Dewhurst shifted her from the
Higher Education Committee chair to the
top spot on the Government Organization
Committee this fall. But Zaffirini has been
the Legislature's hardest working member
and one of its most skilled tacticians -
and she'd be a highly valuable fantasy player
as someone who'll find ways to maximize
her power while leading a panel that oversees
sunset legislation that keeps state agencies
in business or shuts them down.
The
freshmen House members that each team must
have would go in the final two rounds of
the draft as a consequence of the fact that
first-time lawmakers simply don't get the
opportunity to wield significant influence
in obvious ways. Some teams would be forced
to draft Democrats in the last round over
Republicans they might prefer to stay in
line with the partisan player limitations.
Some
House Republicans who might not be chosen
if Straus is still speaker could expect
to go high if the teams were disbanded and
a new draft conducted in the event of a
change in the speaker's office. State Rep.
David Simpson - a Longview Republican who
took on the establishment on a number of
key issues during his first session two
years ago - is a prime example of a legislator
whose value would soar if Hughes or another
conservative knocked Straus off the dais
in the leadership election next month.
Fantasy
Legislature - like the other professional
sports with fantasy competition - would
have its fair share of surprises and sleepers
who make a significant splash after going
undrafted and picked up subsequently as
free agents or waiver wire selections. For
now - however - here is our first stab at
a mock draft for the regular legislative
session that convenes in Austin on January
8.
Team
1
Round
1: Tommy Williams (Senate R)
Round 2: Jim Keffer (House R)
Round 3: Judith Zaffirini (Senate D)
Round 4: John Smithee (House R)
Round 5: Garnet Coleman (House D)
Round 6: Helen Giddings (House D)
Round 7: Doug Miller (House R)
Round 8: Jason Villalba (House R)
Round 9: J.D. Sheffield (House R)
Team
2
Round
1: Jim Pitts (House R)
Round 2: Dan Patrick (Senate R)
Round 3: John Whitmire (Senate D)
Round 4: Glenn Hegar (Senate R)
Round 5: Susan King (House R)
Round 6: Bill Callegari (House R)
Round 7: Phil King (House R)
Round 8: Bennett Ratliff (House R)
Round 9: Mary Ann Perez (House D)
Team
3
Round
1: Robert Duncan (Senate R)
Round 2: Harvey Hilderbran (House R)
Round 3: Brandon Creighton (House R)
Round 4: Royce West (Senate D)
Round 5: Diane Patrick (House R)
Round 6: Rene Oliveira (House D)
Round 7: John Davis (House R)
Round 8: Greg Bonnen (House R)
Round 9: Giovanni Capriglione (House R)
Team
4
Round
1: Todd Hunter (House R)
Round 2: John Zerwas (House R)
Round 3: Robert Nichols (Senate R)
Round 4: Sylvester Turner (House D)
Round 5: Larry Taylor (Senate R)
Round 6: Dan Flynn (House R)
Round 7: Wayne Smith (House R)
Round 8: Chris Paddie (House R)
Round 9: Justin Rodriguez (House D)
Team
5
Round
1: Jane Nelson (Senate R)
Round 2: Jimmie Don Aycock (House R)
Round 3: Bob Deuell (Senate R)
Round 4: Leticia Van de Putte (Senate D)
Round 5: Craig Eiland (House D)
Round 6: Ruth McClendon (House D)
Round 7: Linda Harper-Brown (House R)
Round 8: Trent Ashby (House R)
Round 9: Travis Clardy (House R)
Team
6
Round
1: Charlie Geren (House R)
Round 2: Kel Seliger (Senate R)
Round 3: Larry Phillips (House R)
Round 4: Senfronia Thompson (House D)
Round 5: Ken Paxton (Senate R)
Round 6: Harold Dutton (House D)
Round 7: Dan Huberty (House R)
Round 8: Cecil Bell (House R)
Round 9: Poncho Nevárez (House D)
Team
7
Round
1: Byron Cook (House R)
Round 2: John Otto (House R)
Round 3: Dennis Bonnen (House R)
Round 4: Craig Estes (Senate R)
Round 5: Charles Schwertner (Senate R)
Round 6: Jodie Laubenberg (House R)
Round 7: Lyle Larson (House R)
Round 8: Kyle Kacal (House R)
Round 9: Justin Rodriguez (House D)
Team
8
Round
1: John Carona (Senate R)
Round 2: Drew Darby (House R)
Round 3: Patricia Harless (House R)
Round 4: Allan Ritter (House R)
Round 5: Kelly Hancock (Senate R)
Round 6: Jim Murphy (House R)
Round 7: Tan Parker (House R)
Round 8: Ken King (House R)
Round 9: Gene Wu (House D)
With
the team player restrictions in effect,
some Republicans who might have more scoring
potential were left off to make room for
Democrats that were necessary to keep teams
in compliance. Some state lawmakers who
would be drafted might have been omitted
while some on the list would probably be
drafted higher or lower. But the list is
simply a hypothetical example of how a draft
could shape up in the Fantasy Texas Legislature
competition if we had the computer program
up and running in the next month.
Mike
Hailey's column appears regularly in Capitol
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