July 23, 2007

Speaker Defends Ruling as Allies Warn
of Havoc and Filibusters on AG Request

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

Speaker Tom Craddick and two top allies contend that Attorney General Greg Abbott shouldn't be making calls on Texas House rules and procedures but would find that none were violated during an attempted coup at the end of the regular session if he looks into issues raised by Republican lawmakers who helped lead it.

The central question before the state's top lawyer is whether Craddick erred when he refused to recognize a motion for a vote to replace him in the chamber's top leadership post and declared that the ruling could not be appealed. Craddick argued that House rules give the speaker "unequivocal and unappealable authority" to recognize members or to deny recognition when he sees fit - and Keel and Chisum warned of dire consequences if such a rule wasn't in place.

Chisum, a Pampa Republican who Craddick tapped early this year to lead the budget-writing panel, accused Keffer of misusing the authority he has as the Ways and Means Committee chairman to request opinions from the state attorney general. Chisum warned that there would be "severe adverse consequences" if speakers could be routinely removed and replaced at any time during a legislative session. Noting that the revolt in the closing days of the session threatened to derail the state's two year budget, Chisum argued that House procedures could be ground to a halt for the sake of certain political agendas if the speaker's power of recognition was diluted.

"First and foremost, there is no such thing in the House rules as a motion to vacate the chair," Chisum asserted. "It has never existed, and for good reason."

Keel, an Austin attorney who served in the House before a bid for the Court of Criminal Appeals last year, had been hired by Craddick as a substitute parliamentarian when his predecessor resigned on the spot amid the rebellion three days before the session ended. Keel decided to stay on the job in a full-time capacity last month. A former Travis County sheriff, Keel contended in a five-page letter to Abbott that House members would have the ability to filibuster for the first time in the chamber's history if the speaker lost the authority to deny motions for recognition during floor debate.

"The opinion request is an attempt to take the debate from the House floor and absolve responsibility for the outcome from House members, placing it instead onto an executive branch office and on the shoulders of the attorney general," Keel wrote.

Craddick told Abbott that the answers will be clear if he "wades into the political thicket of arbitrating internal disputes regarding House rules and procedures." But the speaker suggested that the attorney general should avoid such a thicket.

"The cost to constitutional separation of powers is too severe and the practical danger of subjecting parliamentary decisions of a legislative body's presiding officer to unbound collateral review is too grave," Craddick contended.

Keffer had bolted from the leadership team and filed papers to be a candidate for speaker if the move to oust Craddick prevailed. By the end of the session, the list of Republican candidates for speaker also included State Reps. Fred Hill of Richardson, Delwin Jones of Lubbock, Brian McCall of Plano and Jim Pitts of Waxahachie. Cook, who was in his first session as the Civil Practices Committee chairman, withdrew his support for Craddick in a personal privilege speech but did not file to be a candidate for the top leadership post.

Craddick's foes predicted that they would have had enough votes to force a leadership change had they been recognized. But Craddick loyalists contended that the speaker would have survived even if a vote on the motion to vacate the chair been taken.

One of Craddick's top Democratic allies, State Rep. Sylvester Turner of Houston, filed as a candidate for speaker shortly after the session came to an end.