Texas Politics 2021

Back the Blue Takes Plunge on Priority List
Despite Patrick's Promises Before Election

Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside
February 24, 2021

Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's relegation of police defunding to a low-tier priority for the Texas Senate this year could be a sign that he and other state leaders might have been wrong when they sought to blame riots in major cities here on ANTIFA and other left-wing extremists from other states.

Patrick promised last fall that legislation to have the state take over the Austin police department would be one of the GOP-controlled Senate's five highest priorities during the regular session in 2021. Patrick served up the pledge five days before the November general election at a press conference in Houston where he and Governor Greg Abbott signed a vow to Back the Blue.

The lieutenant governor's remarks on the proposed shift of local law enforcement in Austin to the Texas Department of Public Safety gave law enforcement officials the impression that police defunding would be one of the Legislature's highest priorities. Abbott lived up to his end of the bargain on February 1 when he declared the fight against police defunding to be one of the Legislature's five initial official emergencies in a move that had been widely expected.

But Patrick balked for reasons unknown on Wednesday when he rolled out his agenda for the current session on Wednesday with police defunding ranked as the 23rd most important issue facing the Legislature in 2021.

The hostile takeover of the Capital City police that the state's two highest-ranking leaders had touted failed to make the Patrick list of 31 priorities that he expects the Senate to tackle in the final three months of the regular session.

This might not sit well with law enforcement officers who'd appeared with Abbott and Patrick at the Back the Blue event. Police groups may have cause to feel like they've been shortchanged after working hard throughout the fall to help the GOP save its majority in the Texas House at the ballot box in 2020.

The Republicans had been underdogs in the battle for the House until they found a way to capitalize on violence at racial and social justice protests in the spring by seizing on some of the events that transpired in the months following Houston native George Floyd's murder by police in Minneapolis in May. Abbott and Patrick had sought to pin the blame

Abbott and Patrick seized with a vengeance on an Austin City Council vote in August on a reform plan that the Republicans characterized as police defunding. Liberals on the council had shifted about 30 percent of the Austin Police Department budget to other criminal justice-related priorities that had the same basic goal of keeping the city safer.

The GOP power duo and other major Texas Republican leaders had set the stage for the police defunding campaign in June when they sought to blame ANTIFA and other leftist radicals from other states for the violence at protests that Floyd's death triggered in the largest Texas cities. The Republicans here ignored substantial evidence of right-wing white supremacists being involved in the riots in Texas last spring. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas conducted subcommittee hearings that tried to establish anti fascists as the culprits in the violence here.

Patrick tried at the Back the Blue event in Houston to portray the city where state government is based as a troubling example of what to expect when cities defund the police.

"The city of Austin is a disaster - if you haven't been there," Patrick contended. "A great city - now one of the most dangerous cities in America - and definitely in Texas."

While Patrick's claims were blatantly false, they appeared to be significantly effective as a campaign scare tactic when the Democrats' visions of taking the Texas House back crashed in a break-even election that the lieutenant governor depicted as a major victory for the GOP.

But Patrick's declining interest in police defunding could be tied in some way to his admission that ANTIFA and other leftists hadn't been responsible for the riot that killed five people at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 as some Donald Trump supporters on the hard right were claiming.

Patrick could have been affected by reports of former and current law enforcement officials being arrested in connection with the violence in Washington D.C. where one Capitol police officer was killed in the mayhem and at least two have committed suicide since the attack.

Or Patrick might have decided that Back the Blue had the potential to snag on the definition of police defunding. That could open a can of worms at a Capitol where Abbott and the Republicans in the Legislature - based on the recent rhetoric - defunded the state police four years ago as a result of budget cuts that cost more than 100 troopers their jobs.

Patrick Top 30 Priorities Plus One

Senate Bill 1 – The State Budget

Senate Bill 2 – ERCOT Reform

Senate Bill 3 – Power Grid Stability

Senate Bill 4 – Star Spangled Banner Protection Act

Senate Bill 5 – Statewide Broadband Access

Senate Bill 6 – Pandemic Liability Protection Act

Senate Bill 7 – Election & Ballot Security

Senate Bill 8 – The Heartbeat Bill

Senate Bill 9 – Abortion Ban Trigger

Senate Bill 10 – Stop Taxpayer Funded Lobbying

Senate Bill 11 – Appellate Court Reorganization

Senate Bill 12 – Protect Free Speech on Social Media

Senate Bill 13 – Oil & Gas Investment Protection

Senate Bill 14 – Business Freedom and Uniformity Act

Senate Bill 15 – Ban Sale of Personal Data from Certain State Agencies

Senate Bill 16 – Protect State-held Personal Data

Senate Bill 17 – Protect Texas Trucking

Senate Bill 18 – Protect Second Amendment Businesses

Senate Bill 19 – Stop Corporate Gun Boycotts

Senate Bill 20 – Second Amendment Protections for Travelers

Senate Bill 21 – Bail Reform

Senate Bill 22 – First Responders Pandemic Care Act

Senate Bill 23 – Stop Local Police Defunding

Senate Bill 24 – Law Enforcement Transparency Act

Senate Bill 25 – Family Nursing Home Visitation Rights

Senate Bill 26 – Protect Our Freedom to Worship

Senate Bill 27 – Expanding Virtual Learning Options

Senate Bill 28 – Charter School Equity Act

Senate Bill 29 – Fair Sports for Women & Girls

Senate Bill 30 – Remove Racist Restrictions from Real Estate Deeds

Senate Bill 31 – Senate Redistricting Act

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