Patrick Paints Phelan as Foe of SB 4
as Leaders Debate HD 21 Trip Motive
Capitol Inside
March 19, 2024
The Texas Legislature's two most powerful leaders split hairs on Tuesday on the purpose of a trip that Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick took to the Beaumont area on primary election night to cheer for GOP challenger David Covey in a bid to oust House Speaker Dade Phelan in the House District 21 race.
Phelan suggested that Patrick had rallied behind Covey in a backdoor bid to control the lower chamber through an opening in the dais. But Patrick landed the most brutal blow when he gave the impression that Phelan had opposed the migrant arrest and deportation act that took effect on Tuesday in a development that had been completely unforeseen.
The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the new Texas law that's contained in Senate Bill 4 three times in two weeks. The justices appeared to put the measure in the deep freeze on Monday for an indefinite period of time before a stunning turnabout today in a 6-3 vote that allowed the law to go into effect despite appeals that have yet to be exhausted and could still be successful.
Phelan hit a nerve initially when he said he agreed that Patrick jumped the gun with the excursion to House District 21 on election night for a victory celebration for Covey in a race that he fell short of winning in round one. The speaker said his Senate counterpart had underestimated his strength at home.
Patrick "came down thinking I was going to lose the primary," Phelan said in Dallas. "He didn't fly down for a runoff announcement. He flew down for a victory party, and he was incorrect."
Phelan had taken Governor Greg Abbott up on an invitation to join him at the University of Texas at Dallas for an announcement on his first appointments to a Texas Semiconductor Innovation Consortium Executive Committee. The governor said Patrick had been invited to the photo op but did not show.
Patrick fired back in a clarification on social media - insisting that he'd gone to cheer Covey's advancement to overtime in HD 21.
"As usual, Dade is wrong again," Patrick said in a post in X. "I specifically flew down to celebrate the run-off. That was a huge accomplishment for David Covey. The fact is, Dade is the first Speaker who couldn’t win his primary in 52 years. Despite outspending his opponents by millions of dollars from Austin elites, he is second in the run-off to David Covey."
Phelan actually is even with Covey at the starting gates for the HD 21 runoff. Patrick was referring to the speaker's finish as the runner-up in HD 21 in the initial election when Covey led Phelan by 3 points while a third contender who received 10 percent was eliminated. Covey and Phelan garnered 46 percent and 43 percent respectively in the election two weeks ago.
But Patrick gave Phelan more cause for anger than his motive for his election night agenda when he sought to drag the new Texas law that makes illegal entry a crime that's punishable by jail in the Lone Star State or deportation to Mexico.
"Dade let Democrats run the House and the voters know it," Patrick contended. "He even refused to vote for #SB4, the historic bill allowed to become law today by the Supreme Court, to keep his Democrats, who keep him as Speaker, happy."
Phelan - in line with longstanding tradition in the west wing of the statehouse - has rarely voted during two terms as speaker on issues while presiding over the lower chamber. One of the few - if not the only vote that the current speaker cast in 2023 - came when he voted for Attorney General Ken Paxton's impeachment on the regular session's final weekend last spring.
But every Republican in the lower chamber backed SB 4 with Phelan's blessings from the chair. The speaker's supporters would view Patrick's portrayal of the speaker's position on SB 4 as a cheap shot below the belt.
Patrick - to be fair - did not vote for the bill that will make Texas the first state to force migrants to go back to Mexico unless they prefer to jail here instead. But Patrick as the Senate president only votes in the event of ties - an event that doesn't happen in a chamber where the Republicans all vote the same on most every major issue.
more to come ... |
