Governor Greg Abbott Calls Shots on Virus Response as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrich and Speaker Dennis Bonnen Watch - AP Photo

Dan Patrick Lieutenants Take Aim at GOP Governor
on Early Vote Order after Having No Say in Response

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor
September 23, 2020

The emergence of several Texas Senate Republicans on Wednesday as co-plaintiffs in a lawsuit aimed at blocking the extension of the early voting period next month raises the specter of Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick maneuvering behind the scenes in a brewing clash over the separation of powers during the coronavirus crisis.

A pair of key Patrick allies - State Senators Donna Campbell of New Braunfels and Charles Perry of Lubbock - added their names to a suit that Houston activist Steve Hotze filed a month ago in an attempt to have the Texas Supreme Court overturn Governor Greg Abbott's emergency order that extended the early voting period by a week with a start date of October 13.

State Senator Pat Fallon - a Patrick loyalist who's the GOP nominee in a congressional race this fall - popped up on the expansion of the Hotze suit that revolves on the general assertion that the restrictions that the Republican governor has taken during the pandemic are unconstitutional.

Texas GOP Chairman Allen West and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller also joined the legal battle in Hotze's corner in the case that targets Abbott and Secretary of State Ruth Hughs in hopes of having the high court trim the early voting back to the two-week period prescribed in state election law.

Hotze - a doctor who's led the fight against LGBTQ rights in Texas - also enlisted State Reps. Cecil Bell Jr. of Magnolia and Steve Toth of The Woodlands and outgoing State Reps. Dan Flynn of Van and Bill Zedler of Arlington as well for the Supreme Court challenge. Royse City Republican Bryan Slaton, who defeated Flynn in the primary runoff election in July, was included in the initial group of plaintiffs. A trio of former tea party representatives - Rick Green, Matt Rinaldi and Molly White - also are co-plaintiffs.

The state party chief for the past three months, West has been attacking Abbott's emergency actions since the surfacing of COVID-19 in Texas in March. Miller has been a West ally.

But it's highly unlikely that Perry and Campbell would join a bid to undermine Abbott's authority without a quiet nod from Patrick - a former state senator who has a reputation for punishing senators who break ranks with him.

Campbell and Perry serve as the chairs of the Veterans Affairs & Border Security Committee and the Water & Rural Affairs Committee respectively. Neither Perry or Campbell had been committee chairs until scoring appointments to their current leadership posts from Patrick.

While Patrick tries to give the impression of being an Abbott ally with his public persona in front of the cameras. But the lieutenant governor has clearly been frustrated with the neutering of the power he's accustomed to wielding with Abbott's relegation of him to the sidelines during the pandemic. Patrick has stood behind Abbott at media briefings on the virus response before and after calling without success for the ending of emergency restrictions with the Abbott statewide mask order in July as the most heated point of dispute within the GOP here.

The Republicans who are suing their own governor are especially perturbed that Abbott inserted a provision into the decree that will allow voters to deliver marked mail ballots to local election officials in person throughout the three-week period for early voting here. Texas law limits the ability to do so to election day.

President Donald Trump and other Republicans are scared that Democrats are going to try to steal the election with mail ballot schemes.

But the Hotze petition for a writ of mandamus appears to be as a pressure tactic designed to compel Abbott to call a special session of the Legislature to decide which of the laws that he's suspended with the Texas Disaster Act of 1075 as the legal justification should be reinstated or allowed to stay in place.

"Given the extraordinary circumstances Texans have faced over the past seven (7) months, it is shocking that Governor Abbott has continued to unilaterally suspend laws while refusing to convene the Texas Legislature," according to the lawsuit that Houston attorney Jared Woodfill has filed on the plaintiffs' behalf.

"If ever a special session was justified, now is the time," the plaintiffs assert. "Abbott’s Executive Orders are unprecedented and have had life and death implications, destroyed small businesses and family’s livelihoods, have had a crippling effect on every single community, and now have the ability to impact local, state and national elections."