Texas GOP Governor Seeks to Crush Rebellion
with Plan that Outgoing Speaker Wants to Pass

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor
September 24, 2020

Governor Greg Abbott took a page from his counterpart in Florida on Thursday with the unveiling of a series of proposals that are designed to protect the police in Texas by cracking down on the social justice movement that's swept across the country during the coronavirus pandemic.

Working off the same script that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis employed three days ago, the Abbott so-called Back the Blue package increase the punishment a long list of criminal offenses from damaging property to striking police officers to the shooting off fireworks at protests.

Abbott announced the plan at a news conference in Dallas where Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen enthusiastically endorsed the proposals and promised to help the governor pass them during the regular session that convenes in January.

The GOP speaker for the record won't have as much muscle at the state Capitol in 2021 as he's had for most of the past two years in light of the fact that he's not seeking re-election this fall in a district where he no longer lives. But Bonnen made it clear that he's all in on the Abbott push to come down hard on protesters that get out of line.

"I want to thank @GregAbbott_TX for making TX a leader in the #BackTheBlue effort," Bonnen said on Twitter immediately after the media briefing. "We just announced a series of proposals that will enhance criminal penalties for those who incite or organize riots, cause injury to people or property, or target officers in the process."

Bonnen said that "tens of thousands of Texans" including elected officials and candidates have signed the Back the Blue pledge that the governor floated earlier this month. Abbott has yet to identify lawmakers who've penned their names to the vow that's part of President Donald Trump's to save his job by capitalizing on a summer of monumental unrest in a nation that he'd pledged to make great again.

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick was conspicuously missing from the Dallas publicity event. Patrick is close to a group of conservative Republicans who are suing Abbott for an emergency order that added six days to the early voting period that's set to get under way on October 13. But Patrick - unlike Bonnen - will be back at the statehouse in 2021 as a Texas Senate president who's not on the ballot in November.

Texas Democrats portrayed the Abbott-Bonnen plan as a blatant red herring designed as a distraction from the COVID-19 crisis in a state that erupted into the U.S. epicenter this summer after the governor overturned local mask orders during the spring. About 750,000 Texans have been infected with the virus in the past six months including more than 15,000 who the disease has killed.

Abbott released the legislative package the day after Trump suggested that he might not give up the presidency voluntarily if he loses to Democrat Joe Biden in November in a country where the incumbent is the consensus underdog.

“Abbott’s press conference today is a pathetic and weak attempt to sway the conversation away from his and Trump’s failed coronavirus response and their failures to keep Texans safe," Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Manny Garcia said. "Instead of covering this farce, everybody in the media should be covering Trump’s refusal to commit to a peaceful transition of power should he lose this election or where a real, science-based plan is to secure Texas' health, keep workers safe, and reboot our economy.

“Our democracy is at stake," Garcia added. "Trump and Abbott have already proven that they cannot manage crisis situations. Abbott can continue to parade around hosting these press conferences but Texans know the real issues keeping their families up at night. Abbott is already the worst governor in modern Texas history. Now, he’s become the most pathetic.”

Abbott and the Republicans have been doing their dead best to cash in on the Austin City Council vote in August to slice police funding by more than 30 percent in the state's safest major city. While the Capital City is the only example of police defunding in the Lone Star State, the governor and his allies have been giving the impression that this will happen in other major Texas cities if Austin is allowed to get away with the law enforcement cutbacks.

more to come ...