Top Paxton Revenge Targets Teaming Up
to Pass Hat at Texas-OU Weekend Event
Capitol Inside
September 25, 2023
As some Republican colleagues slowly begin to come to grips with a nightmare they created for themselves, Texas House GOP leaders are giving supporters an opportunity to get on the hit list for Attorney General Ken Paxton's reckoning tour with an invitation to a fundraiser in Dallas next month.
The event is set for October 5 at the Highland Park home of James Francis - a lawyer and business owner who'd who'd been a pillar of the Texas business establishment with close ties to the Bush family. The fundraiser at the Francis residence is being staged on the night before the Red River Rivalry when the Texas Longhorns do battle with the Oklahoma Sooner.
The event will feature the three most prominent faces of the failed impeachment bid with Speaker Dade Phelan as the biggest draw along with State Reps. Andrew Murr of Junction and Jeff Leach of Allen as the one-two punch for prosecutors in final arguments before Texas senators who served as jurors.
Murr served as the field general for the impeachment as the chairman of the General Investigating Committee and captain of the House managers who Phelan appointed to prosecute the case. Leach emerged as a major player at the end of the trial with a speech that the House managers sandwiched into the final summation of the evidence and allegations that they'd lodged against the state's top lawyer.
Murr's presentation was essentially a rehash. But Leach took a more unique approach with a personal account on how Paxton had been a close friend before he'd lost interest in their relationship at some point. Leach appeared to get choked up when he revealed to senators how disappointed and saddened he'd been after realizing that he'd been jilted as a friend who he described as mentor and "brother in Christ" as well.
At a time when the House managers would have been desperate and grasping if they realized the case had been unraveling through the trial, Leach's mournful serenade appeared to be a red-herring Hail Mary in lieu of a proverbial smoking gun. He capped it off with a lecture to Senate jurors on how the historic nature of the votes they were about to cast and why they should have heavy hearts with the most important decisions of their careers.
While it was never clear exactly what Leach hoped to accomplish, some of the Senate Republicans he was trying to influence found it highly offensive and absurd. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick mocked Leach's speech it failed to turn a vote against Paxton. Murr was equally unsuccessful with final argument that revolved on a Sam Houston quote that he repeated throughout the case on doing right and risking consequences.
Phelan, Murr and Leach are Paxton's top three initial targets in a revenge crusade that he's vowing with Donald Trump, the state Republican Party, the GOP's two biggest donors in Texas and the entire far right on board for the ride. The State Republican Executive Committee voted 58-2 on Saturday to call for Phelan's resignation.
House leaders will expect to have the Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC in their corner after its own failed bid to take Paxton out in the GOP primary election in 2022. But TLR is wounded - and Paxton is threatening to seek revenge against its contributors. The big-giving group could decide to lay low to keep from putting its donors at potential risk.
Republican State Reps. Keith Bell of Forney, John Kuempel of Seguin, Brooks Landgraf of Odessa, John Lujan of San Antonio, Will Metcalf of Conroe, Morgan Meyer of Dallas, Lynn Stucky of Sanger and Gary VanDeaver of New Boston are listed on a fundraising invitation that went out on Monday. Meyer was a member of the House managers as well. All of the Republicans on the invite voted to impeach Paxton.
more to come ... |
