January 7, 2007

Craddick Backers Ponder Paper Ballot
while Alleging Misinformation by Foes

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

Speaker Tom Craddick's supporters emerged from a Sunday night dinner meeting more confident of victory than they've appeared in weeks despite what they say is a last-ditch campaign of misinformation designed to give the impression that some key members had abandoned the incumbent and joined the opposition.

Emboldened by their own vote count and the number of members who showed up at the Austin Club for the strategy session, the speaker's supporters reiterated their opposition to a secret ballot but appeared amenable to a proposal that would require votes to be cast on slips of paper that would be deposited into a box at the same time as opposed to a roll call vote. Each member's vote would not be announced until all of the paper ballots had been submitted.

The paper vote plan came up as a reaction to a flurry of criticism that was fired at Craddick from challenger Jim Pitts' camp amid reports that the speaker's team team planned to push for a roll call vote similar to verifications on bills and amendments. But Craddick supporters apparently aren't that concerned about how the vote is conducted as long as it's not closed to public view.

Craddick supporters swapped stories of being deluged with calls from the opposing camp during a full-court weekend blitz by colleagues trying to peel support away from the incumbent. Some House members pledged to Craddick said they were falsely told that key legislators such as Republican State Rep. Jim Keffer and Democratic State Rep. Aaron Peña of Edinburg had switched their support to Pitts. Craddick backers speculate that the claims had been made by Pitts supporters in hopes of sparking a wave of defections from the incumbent. Keffer and Peña are still considered solid Craddick votes at this point in time by the speaker's time.

The only weekend defections that have been confirmed, however, came when Democratic State Reps. Chuck Hopson of Jacksonville and Richard Raymond of Laredo announced that they were abandoning pledges to Craddick and getting behind Pitts. Another Democrat, State Rep. Armando "Mando" Martinez of Weslaco, also recalled his vow to vote for the incumbent but said stopped short of endorsing Pitts. Martinez indicated that he'd announce his vote for speaker when the time came to cast it.

But the losses were reportedly offset by the return of several House members who'd wavered in recent days including State Rep.-elect Eddie Lucio III, a Brownsville Democrat who will be sworn into his first term when the regular session opens in less than two days immediately before the speaker's election.

Craddick's supporters didn't seem to overly concerned about reports that a couple of Republican House members - State Reps. Charlie Geren of Fort Worth and Edmund Kuempel of Seguin - were shifting their support to Pitts. But Craddick team members hadn't considered Geren or Kuempel to be in the incumbent's camp since Pitts entered the competition - leading them to view the announcement as a thinly-veiled ploy to make it appear that the challenger had wooed more votes away from the incumbent in hopes of sparking a wave of 11th-hour defections.

While about four out of every five House Democrats appear to be siding with Pitts, the most impassioned defense of Craddick at the meeting reportedly came from Democratic State Rep. Sylvester Turner of Houston. Turner focused on the importance of upholding honor at a time when a fairly significant number of Pitts' apparent supporters have withdrawn prior promises to back Craddick in his bid for re-election for a third term.

Republican State Rep. Will Hartnett of Dallas reportedly had a key role at the meeting as well as the Craddick supporter who brought up the possibility of a paper ballot instead of a roll call procedure. Craddick pledges who attened the meeting estimated there to about 80 House members on hand, although that number is unsubstantiated at this point.