Lobby Power Rankings for 2025 Reflect
Ties to New Speaker from Same Regime

Capitol Inside
January 27, 2025

The bare-knuckled leadership brawl that Speaker Dustin Burrows won in historic fashion on January 14 could have a mixed bag of effects on the statehouse lobby as the Texas Legislature's 89th regular session unfolds this year. Burrows' victory and initial moves at the helm of the House should be a stabilizing force as a product of the same regime that produced the last two Texas speakers.

The lobbyists in Austin won't be forced to reinvent themselves for the sake of plying their trade in the House like they would've been if conservatives would have toppled the current establishment that Burrows represents based on a pledge to take power away from Democrats. That would have culminated in chaos, shattered allegiances and epic uncertainty for lobby members who'd spent years developing connections with the Republicans who've been running the show in the House for years.

The Capitol Inside Texas Lobby Power Rankings for 2025 reflect the status quo stability that Burrow's elevation to the pinnacle of power in the west wing ensured to a large degree. Robert Miller - one of the Austin lobby's most influential members in the era of Republican rule - has emerged for the first time in the number one spot on the list of hired gun contract lobbyists in the Lone Star State. Miller is close friends with Dennis Bonnen - the former House speaker who Burrows calls the general and has allowed to have a hands-on role in the transition to the dais. Miller was a key fundraiser for Burrows in the successful quest for speaker.

Bonnen is making his debut in the rankings as the fourth highest-rated hired gun with Neal T. "Buddy" Jones and Mike Toomey as the only other lobbyists who are higher besides Miller himself. Toomey is back in the saddle after stint as chief of staff for Republican Dade Phelan during his final five months as the speaker who passed the torch to Burrows in early December when it became apparent that he'd become too radioactive to win a third term with the gavel.

Toomey replaced Enrique Marquez as Phelan's top aide during the summer. Marquez and spouse Brandy Marty Marquez are paired together in the 10th slot on the hired guns list. Brandy Marquez is a former Public Utility Commission member who also served as Rick Perry's chief of staff in the governor's office - a job that Toomey also performed under Perry and Bill Clements as the first Republican to lead the state since Reconstruction. Jones and Toomey are both former House members. Jones, who's been ranked number one more than anyone since the power rankings conception in 2003, has clashed with Bonnen at times. That spawned perceptions that his firm HillCo Partners was helping Burrows' rival David Cook in the leadership sweepstakes. But Jones' team is second to none when it comes to confronting adversity and playing the long late-train game as lobbyists who lets their money do the talking on the campaign trail.

But the outcome of the closest speaker's vote on the floor in modern times could also be a ticket for a two-step on a tightrope across the rotunda where Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick already has a hit list with selective representatives whose legislation he says will be dead the moment it arrives in the Senate. Patrick supported Cook for speaker as the party caucus choice for the race. The Senate president even threatened to go after House Republicans who failed to follow his lead in that regard.

The name of Miller's firm has changed from Locke Lord to Troutman Strategies after a merger. A former Senate aide who's a lawyer, Miller built a lobby practice with an emphasis of cultivating strong relations with lawmakers from both parties and the key players on both sides of the rotunda here as well. The shops that Miller and Jones lead are ranked number on separate lists for law firms and lobby teams respectively. Bonnen in the meantime will be hoping that he and his colleagues at Second Floor Strategies aren't persona non grata in the Senate where the lieutenant governor has long view him as an adversary. Someone like Jones could get a bump in Patrick's view simply because both have locked horns with Bonnen in the past. Bonnen, who has few if any rivals when it comes to institutional knowledge on the Capitol's west side, will have to learn how to pass bills in the Senate if he's going to live up to his current ranking and reputation.

The list of high-powered lobbyists with close ties to the Bonnen-Phelan-Burrows triumverate features Gardner Pate at the crowning spot on the Rising Stars of the industry here in 2025. Pate is more like a star who's rising again after a long stint in public service that culminated with an assignment as Governor Greg Abbott's chief of staff and campaign chairman in a 2022 re-election bid. Pate served for more than a year as Dennis Bonnen's general counsel and policy director in the House speaker's office. Pate joined Abbott's staff during the first month of the Covid pandemic.

Shera Eichler - Bonnen's partner at Second Floor Strategies - worked on his staff in the speaker's office as the chief of staff and senior advisor. Eichler is ranked in the top 25 on the hired guns lobby list this year. Margo Cardwell is second only to Pate as a rising star who'd lobbied some before spending most of the past four years as Dade Phelan's policy director and general counsel during two terms as the speaker. Even Autry is ranked among the to 30 hired guns as Phelan's former political director during his reign as the House's number one leader. Gavin Massengill worked as a chief of staff for Bonnen as well. The former Texas Legislators who lobby now include several who were influential committee chairs under Phelan like Dan Huberty and rookie lobbyists such John Kuempel and Andrew Murr.

Don Adams Gaylord Armstrong Dick Brown Billy Clayton Jerry "Nub" Donaldson Jack Erskine Walter Fisher Galt Graydon Jack Gullahorn Gaylord Armstrong Ed Howard Dickie Ingram Gordon Johnson Robert Johnson Neal T. "Buddy" Jones Rusty Kelley Gib Lewis Demetrius McDaniel Bill Messer Bill Miller John Pitts Sr. Jack Roberts Stan Schlueter Clint Smith Mike Toomey Tommy Townsend

Governor's School Vouchers Vengeance
Fuels Exodus from Legislature to Lobby

The competition in the Austin lobby could intensify in 2025 thanks in part to Governor Greg Abbott and the school vouchers revenge crusade he waged in the GOP primary election and runoff last year. At least three of the House Republicans who the governor targeted - Travis Clardy of Nacogdoches, John Kuempel of Seguin and Justin Holland of Heath - are gracing the list of former legislators who've made the trip through the revolving door into the lobby.

The new names on the list of ex-Texas lawmakers turned lobbyists also features a former representative who Abbott tried but failed to save in 2024 in Jacey Jetton of Sugar Land. Jetton, a former Fort Bend County GOP chairman - is part of the team that Matthew Conner has assembled at Arete Public Affairs. Jetton counted Burrows and Phelan among his allies before his unseating by a primary challenger who ran hard to the right.

The list of former legislators making debuts in the lobby includes Drew Springer - a Muenster Republican who served eight years in the House and two more in the Senate before giving up the seat without a re-election bid in 2024. Springer is a Burrows ally who should fare well in the House. Springer could find a face a more uncertain future across the rotunda as a consequence of the alliance with a speaker who Patrick encouraged House members to vote against.

Another rookie lobbyist - Andrew Murr of Junction - could find the Senate to be a tough nut to crack as well after leading the probe that culminated in Attorney General Ken Paxton's impeachment in the House as the General Investigating Committee chairman during his final regular session in 2023. Paxton was acquitted in the Senate where Patrick blasted the impeachment as an epic waste of time and public money. Murr was born with government service and politics in his blood as the grandson of a former Texas governor - Democrat Coke Stevenson.

Tommy Williams crowns the list of former legislators who lobby as a former senator and representative who served as an assistant chancellor for Texas A&M University System after leaving the Legislature. The ex-solon's team at Williams Public Affairs expects to be a significant player at the Capitol this year as the 10th-ranked group on the power list for lobby teams.

Thirty-four former Texas legislators - 28 who are established lobbyists along with six newcomers to the public advocacy industry here - appear on the list for professionals who've made the leap from public service as elected officials to private citizens who hope to cash in on their experience making law under the dome.

Some of the former lawmakers in the lobby are specializing on issues that they'd taken the lead as elected leaders. Dan Huberty and Larry Taylor are prime examples as members of the Moak Casey firm that focuses on strengthening public education. That will be a more imposing challenge than ever with Governor Greg Abbott claiming to have the votes to pass a school choice measure that he failed to push through the Legislature in 2023 as his signature priority that year.

But there are more. Buddy Jones, Mike Toomey and Dennis Bonnen all served in the Texas House. Bonnen was a member of the Legislature's lower chamber for two dozen years including two as the speaker. Bonnen had a spectacular regular session in 2019 before blowing up a re-election race a month after it ended in a colleague targeting scheme gone bad. Burrows was Bonnen's partner in the plotting that conservative superstar activist Michael Quinn Sullivan exposed with a secret tape recording after an attempt by the two to lure him in. Bonnen probably could have claimed a second term in the dais if he hadn't raised a white flag to surrender when the heat intensified by pulling the plug on a bid for a new term in his home district on the coast.

John Pitts Sr. Enters Lobby Hall of Fame
after Defying Death and Bouncing Back

The hired gun roster has a familiar face missing this time around. John Pitts Sr. - the founder and longtime leader of the power firm Texas Star Alliance - has made the transition to the Texas Lobby Hall of Fame after being ranked for a decade or more in the top 10 for contract lobbyists. Pitts is slowing down a bit after a heart attack that left him technically dead at the Capitol during a regular session in late 2023.

But Pitts says his demise as a working lobbyist has been greatly exaggerated and that folks can expect to see him around again this year. Pitts is one of the most genuine, intelligent and highly-respected people who've walked the halls under the pink granite dome. The good news is that Texas Star Alliance has John Pitts Jr. to take the wheel.

John Pitts Sr. served as general counsel to Democrat Bob Bullock in the lieutenant governor's office where he drafted the state's first comprehensive water plan for future needs. Pitts served as the Senate chaplain during that time as well. Pitts has been one of the lobby's foremost experts on health care at the Capitol for years.

The elder Pitts' twin brother - Jim Pitts - served as the House Appropriations Committee when Joe Straus was the speaker. Jim Pitts died last year in June. John Pitts Sr. joins several other active professional public advocates in the Hall of Fame including Rusty Kelley, Demetrius McDaniel, Stan Schlueter, Galt Graydon, Toomey, Jones and HillCo co-founder Bill Miller.

Art of Ranking Lobbyists Leads to Slightings
that Are Inevitable Without AI for Blaming

The Texas Lobby Power Rankings made its debut online at the outset of the regular session in 2003. There were a grand total of 15 names on the inaugural and only list 22 years ago. Today there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 lobbyists who are ranked on 11 different lists as individuals or team members or both.

With more than 1,800 lobbyists registered at the Texas Ethics Commission during the last two regular sessions, the lion's share of those do not appear in the rankings here. Some of those are going to feel like they've been unfairly omitted or ignored. That's inevitable. But it goes with the territory. But anyone who is not listed and thinks they deserve to be could do some old-fashion lobbying next time around to enlighten us.