Dade Phelan Rips Covey on SB 4 Deception
But Gives Patrick Break for Same Offense
Capitol Inside
March 20, 2024
GOP Speaker Dade Phelan gave Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick a pass on Wednesday when he accused primary runoff challenger David Covey of falsely portraying his record on border security in a shameful attempt to deceive the voters in Texas House District 21.
Patrick ignited a tempest on Tuesday when he parroted Covey's claim that Phelan showed his true stripes when he declined to cast a vote for the controversial migrant criminalization and deportation plan that the Legislature approved last fall in Senate Bill 4. But Phelan unloaded on Covey this morning in a vitriolic social media tirade that ignored Patrick's critical role in the attempt to smear the speaker on a subject that should be a major asset for him in a re-election race at home in HD 21.
Phelan is scrambling to save a House seat that he put in serious jeopardy with a series of moves that have backfired dramatically from the failed impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton to a decision to force the House to vote last fall on a school vouchers measure that never had the support to pass.
A former Orange County GOP chair, Covey led Phelan by 3 points in the March 5 primary election in a bid to become the first challenger to oust a House speaker at the polls for the first time in more than 50 years. The fifth-term incumbent from Beaumont would make history with an overtime loss as the first House speaker here to ever lose a re-election race after leading the chamber in a regular legislative session.
Covey received 46 percent of the first-round vote compared to 43 percent for Phelan and 10 percent for a challenge who wasn't competitive in Alicia Davis of Jasper. Covey had Donald Trump, Patrick and Paxton in his corner while Phelan's most prominent supporter up to now as been Rick Perry - the former Trump energy secretary and governor here 10 years ago.
The speaker could have as much as $10 million for round two if needed with record sums of campaign cash from old-guard establishment interests in Austin and the ability to pour substantially more in family wealth into the salvation quest at home. Phelan plans to meet on Thursday in Austin with lobbyists to lay out the strategy that plans to employ for the runoff.
While money will be the last of Phelan's worries, the vitriolic verbal barrage that he unleashed at Covey today appears to be a sign that he's scraping the mister-nice-guy approach and going for the challenger's jugular instead.
"With no record or proposals of his own to stand on, David Covey is unfortunately lying AGAIN to Southeast Texas voters, knowingly misleading them to try and get their vote," Phelan contended in a post on X.
"David Covey made the absurd statement that I do not support border security because I “did not vote for SB 4”. News flash: I passed it. Twice," the speaker added. "And because I did, Texas is now home to the strongest border security law in the nation."
But Phelan didn't mention that Patrick had made the same exact claim about his position on SB 4 in a Tuesday tweet.
SB 4 - for the record - would put the state of Texas for the first time in the business of enforcing immigration law at the Rio Grande. But the law has been toothless up to now while gummed up in the judiciary where the U.S. Supreme Court has blocked it three times from taking effect. Phelan and Patrick both made the mistake on Tuesday afternoon of declaring victory on SB 4 after the nation's highest court gave state officials the green light to start enforcing it before the 5th Court of Appeals put it on hold against in another surprise ruling last night.
Phelan defended his record on the border in the face of his foes' attempts to dupe the voters about his position on the issue.
"What David Covey also deliberately omits is that I have passed more money for border security than any other Speaker in history ($6.5 billion last year alone)," Phelan wrote. "He also leaves out the fact that Texas House Speakers rarely cast votes -- as has been the case over the course of Texas history -- but that as Speaker, I’ve shepherded the most conservative agenda in Texas history, including funding Operation Lone Star, building a border wall, passing constitutional carry, ending abortion, and passing the largest property tax cut in American history.
"I’m not sure what’s worse: David Covey knowing the truth and still making the choice to lie to HD 21 voters, or David Covey lacking a basic high-school-civics-level understanding of our legislative process, doing zero critical thinking of his own before blasting out bad information at the casual arm twisting of billionaire outsiders who want to buy our district for themselves.
"My unprecedented record on border security measures and outspoken support of Senate Bill 4 are well documented and publicly available to anyone who wants to know the truth. David Covey has seriously jeopardized his credibility and continues to sink to new depths with every lie he tells. At this point, you can’t be sure if anything he says is the truth," the speaker said.
But Phelan ignored the most telling statistic on the Texas border security program - the fact that the state has yet to force a single migrant back to Mexico and has no idea if it ever will. The taxpayers here have spent close to $10 billion or more on border security and have nothing to show for it up to now beyond unsubstantiated political rhetoric and a new law that could be worthless.
more to come ... |
