Oliverson Playing with Fire with Bid
to Milk Impeachment in Speaker Race
Capitol Inside
March 21, 2024
State Rep. Tom Oliverson of Cypress sought to capitalize on a critical vote that he'd skipped when he emerged from the clear blue on Thursday as a candidate for the Texas House's top leadership post with a scathing review of Speaker Dade Phelan's handling of Attorney General Ken Paxton's impeachment last year.
"I think the secretive way in which this was handled, surprising members in the waning days of a regular session and giving them less than 72 hours to decide was a colossal failure of leadership," Oliverson said.
Oliverson announced his campaign for speaker at a Texas Public Policy Foundation conference in Austin where he knew he could expect a friendly audience as a Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick ally. Phelan appeared a few hours later at a strategy briefing in downtown Austin with big special interest donors and key lieutenants in a show of solidarity on the speaker's fight to stay alive in House District 21 in a runoff with first-round leader David Covey.
Oliverson promised that school choice would be his top concern on the policy front with the elimination of Democratic committee chairs as a major priority as well. But Oliverson ventured into potentially perilous territory when he employed Paxton's impeachment as a weapon against the speaker after he'd been the only no show among the Republicans in the lower chamber for the modern Legislature's most historic vote.
Oliverson was present for roll call on May 27 when the House was preparing to vote on Paxton's fate. But Oliverson ducked out before the impeachment vote because he had more important business in his district based on a motion that GOP State Rep. Craig Goldman of Fort Worth submitted on his behalf on the chamber floor.
The final tally showed 60 Republicans voting aye for impeachment along with 61 Democratic colleagues. Twenty-three GOP representatives voted against impeachment while freshman State Rep. Richard Hayes of Plano was shown as present not voting. Oliverson was the only House member from either party to be listed as absent for the vote on the first impeachment of a statewide leader in Texas since James "Pa" Ferguson got the boot as the governor back in 1917.
But Oliverson appeared poised to back the Paxton impeachment on the eve of the vote when he was quoted in the Dallas Morning News as saying that "nobody is above the law" - a common talking point among Republicans pushing for the AG's ouster. Oliverson has served as the Insurance Committee chairman on the Phelan team during two terms at the helm.
All of the other House committee chairs voted to impeach the attorney general. They and other Republicans who turned against Paxton have suffered substantial grief from the party base for their disloyalty. House Republicans who opposed impeachment have caught criticism for their votes as well.
Oliverson could find that some Republicans could resent the fact that he left them to bear the backlash and is trying to milk it now.
more to come ...
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