Texas Monthly Injects Dose of Sexual Sizzle
into Best and Worst Lawmaker List for 2023
Capitol Inside
June 13, 2023
Texas Monthly sought to showcase the GOP majority's lively libidos and preoccupation with the sex lives of political enemies in the biennial list of the best and worst state legislators that it released on Tuesday with a mix of selections that were predictable in some cases and wildly unexpected in others.
TM dished out praise and scorn alike for Republican lawmakers who'd been central figures in tales about promiscuity, infidelity and intercourse with married colleagues, campaign professionals and staff members including at least one who was a teenager at the time.
The magazine's heavy emphasis on sexual sizzle under the pink granite dome culminated in the selection of GOP State Rep. Lacey Hull of Houston for the list of the most outstanding legislators in the regular session in 2023. Texas Monthly made a case for Hull by delving into unsubstantiated rumors and innuendo involving multiple partners as a rookie in the House two years ago.
"During her freshman session, in 2021, reports of Hull’s alleged romantic relationships with another representative and with a political consultant circulated through the legislative community," the magazine reported. "Embarrassing text messages were published."
But TM applauded Hull for having the nerve to run for re-election and to work with Democrats on legislation on maternal health care to paternity leave to restrictions on the restraint of disabled children in Texas schools. Hull's bipartisan efforts and resiliency after her reputation had been sullied.
The article didn't mention that Hull's former husband filed for divorce a month after her initial election to the Legislature in 2020 amid accusations of adultery with a future colleague during the campaign season. TM also omitted the fact that Hull is no longer married - something that the men who the magazine portrayed as love interests can't say about themselves. But the four relatively unknown authors of the Texas Monthly project suggested there'd been no allegations of sexual abuse or rape in the honored House Republican's private affairs.
"These relationships, though salacious, were said to be consensual," TM added. "They didn’t amount to major offenses, but it was the kind of embarrassment that would cause a lot of folks to pack it in."
Hull's appearance on the 10 best list is arguably the most significant honor of a brief career. She may not be that thrilled about the idea of sharing it with family with the lascivious depiction of activities that she has not denied even though the TM writers appear to have no proof that the gossip is true.
Texas Monthly wasn't as forgiving in the case of Republican Bryan Slaton - a Royse City Republican who'd been a Class of `21 member as well. TM branded Slaton as the "cockroach" of the regular session - which he failed to complete before his ouster from the Texas House in its first expulsion of a member in 96 years.
TM portrayed Slaton as a bumbling nuisance who colleagues despised before a unanimous vote to strip him of the House that he'd won twice based on revelations about a sexual escapade with a 19-year female on his staff in Austin. The House based on the historic maneuver for the most part on the testimony of a pair of staffers for another representative whose stories were based on heresay and replete with contradictions that would have discredited their accounts in a court of law.
Texas Monthly also failed to point out that the Slaton aide who was an actual witness had filed a lawsuit against a freshman Republican congressional member's chief of staff last fall. The House overlooked this highly significant piece of information when it expelled Slaton last month in a unanimous vote.
The magazine named the leader of the Slaton expulsion efforts - GOP State Rep. Andrew Murr of Junction - to the best list as the chairman of the General Investigating Committee that initiated the process that brought the North Texas lawmaker down. Murr's panel went on to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton two weeks later on 21 counts of House rule and state law violations including bribery involving a mistress who used be the chief of staff for a state senator.
Murr's ranking as one of the best lawmakers in Texas this year was no surprise given the extraordinary nature of an expulsion and the first impeachment of a statewide official here since 1917 in a span of only two weeks in May. Democrat James "Pa" Ferguson got the boot from the governor's office in 1917 for misdeeds that were not sexually related.
Texas Monthly cited legislation that revolved on public school porn and drag show restrictions in the piece while leaving out a passel of other measures that cleared the Legislature in regular session in an unprecedented attack on transgender youth. The magazine also eschewed the opportunity to note that there are countless of Republicans in both the House and Senate who've been targets of speculation on cheating from a sexual perspective on spouses and families in recent years. But none are as unpopular as Slaton or as widely respected and beloved as Hull.
more to come.. |
