The Texas Report 9/25

The Texas Report 9/25

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick vs. House Speaker Dade Phelan

Since the resolution of the impeachment trial for Ken Paxton, tensions have never run hotter between the Texas House and Senate. Lt. Governor and leader of the Texas Senate, Dan Patrick, has now regularly called for House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) to resign and even posted a fake video (later taken down) of a conversation by a seemingly intoxicated Phelan talking to Karl Rove.

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick served as the judge for the trial and, following its conclusion, gave a speech bashing the House process.

Following his speech, the Lt. Governor and Speaker have been trading barbs back and forth with Patrick, recently going on a podcast to defend the Senate process.

The Speaker has yet to engage online as much as the Lt. Governor but recently released an op-ed in his local paper, the Beaumont Enterprise. In his article, Phelan begins by describing the importance of the House's actions to impeach Ken Paxton and how he hoped there would be a fair process in the Texas Senate.

Patrick took a $3 million donation from the Political Action Committee pushing for Paxton's exoneration, which routinely spent money on mailers, social media influencers, and more on behalf of the Attorney General.

Since the end of the trial, Patrick has pushed back on the narrative that those funds impacted his judgment and instead pointed out that he has taken contributions from members of the "other side," like the powerful political organization Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) and some of their donors.

The difference between TLR and Paxton's allies is that TLR had nothing to do with the trial and let the Senate process run its course without advocating like some pro-Paxton organizations.

Following Paxton's victory, the Attorney General has been taking a massive media victory lap and regularly calling for change in the Texas House.

Paxton was on the Tucker Carlson Show on X (formerly Twitter), which received over 7.2 million views. During the show, Paxton goes after several prominent Texas officials, individuals, and organizations. The Attorney General alleged that Karl Rove was behind the impeachment and that the Bushes helped organize it.

He also goes after:

• TLR

• Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar

• US Senator John Cornyn

• House Speaker Dade Phelan

• The Texas State Appeals Court (and more)

Paxton has yet to provide any evidence that the above entities had anything to do with the impeachment. At a recent Texas Tribune political festival, Karl Rove responded to the allegations with:

The Senate Republican caucus penned a letter defending Patrick.

Since there has been so much discussion about the fairness of the trial, I decided to look at the recent contributions of Patrick. (Additionally, in a recent podcast, Patrick pushed back on the narrative created by Paxton and allies that TLR had anything to do with the impeachment.)

• In the run-up to the trial, Patrick received $3,100,100.00 from Defend Texas Liberty, compared to $25,000 from TLR.

• Patrick has made the case that many of his donors are the same as TLRs. In their most recent campaign finance reports, ten donors overlapped between TLR and the Lt. Governor. In total, those ten gave $575,000 to the Lt. Governor.

• That $3 million also comes from a much more politically active group. Three oil billionaires fund most of Defend Texas Liberties, while TLR has dozens to hundreds of major donors.

• The leaders behind Defend Texas Liberty are staunchly pro-Paxton and have regularly given hundreds of thousands to the Lt. Governor over the last several years.

Over the next few days, we're reviewing Patrick's campaign reports to better understand how much he's received from Defend Texas Liberty and allies.

Questions about the impartiality of Patrick have come from both House members and subtly referenced (and not so subtlety) by Democratic state senators. (More here)

The above-mentioned recent podcast by Patrick regarding his perspective "behind the scenes" of the trial.

Understanding the significant difference between the pro-Paxton groups and the alleged "anti" is their conduct during and before the trial is important.

Paxton's allies spent thousands to engage and manufacture support on his behalf to add pressure on Republican senators. I regularly received text messages from organizations affiliated with Defend Texas Liberty calling on me to contact my senator, and several thousand used to pay conservative influencers to post friendly messages on Paxton's behalf.

There's no way to quantify Defend Texas Liberty's impact or even prove any action by the Lt. Governor on Paxton's behalf.

We've talked at nauseum about Patrick, Paxton, and Phelan. However, this context is important to understand the different sides leading the Texas legislature because millions will be poured into Republican primaries by Defend Texas Liberty to try and beat incumbent Republicans.

Paxton allies in the House have already begun calling for the Speaker's resignation, and there will likely be a motion to vacate the chair at the beginning of the next special session on school vouchers. Attempts to replace the Speaker are highly improbable, and should Phelan protect the majority of his incumbents, there's no reason to think he won't continue to lead the Texas House.

The recent acquittal has encouraged Defend Texas Liberty (aka Empower Texans). In the short term, everyone should expect an increase in further right Republican candidates (primarily in the Texas House). One of the real questions is how Texas Democrats use the Paxton impeachment trial on their behalf? In upcoming election cycles, it will undoubtedly be a significant sticking point for the state's minority party.

This increased tension has also made voucher hopes much more unlikely as Texas House Republicans will be much less inclined to work with their Senate allies.

Other things happening around the state:

• The State Republican Executive Committee, which leads the Texas State Republican Party, has also called for the resignation of House Speaker Phelan. (more here) This isn't much of a surprise as the state GOP has battled with the Speaker since he got elected and supported his most recent opponent for Speaker.

Now Phelan opponents in the House are calling for Representative John Smithee (R-Amarillo) run for Speaker. Smithee has served in the Texas House since 1985 and is the former Insurance & Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Chair. Smithee has gotten much more attention recently for his speech against the House proceedings to impeach Paxton. That speech has been regularly mentioned by Dan Patrick and Paxton allies. However, Smithee is far more moderate politically than the House members currently signaling support.

Smithee was one of the 20 "least conservative" rated House members by Defend Texas Liberty, but now many of their elected allies are throwing his name out there. This is their attempt to build support around a more moderate member since none of the Empower Texans-backed candidates could get anywhere near the requisite votes to ever be Speaker. It's hard to imagine this having any real impact.

A year after ‘political stunt’ flights to Martha’s Vineyard, migrants — and legal action — moving forward (From the San Antonio Report)

One year after 49 migrants were flown from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, investigations into those believed to have organized what has been called a political stunt have concluded and will move forward in the coming weeks. Days after the flights in September 2022, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar opened an investigation into whether the people who “lured” migrants onto planes to the Massachusetts island did so “under false pretenses” in San Antonio. After the investigation concluded, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office filed criminal charges against two female suspects who face 49 counts of unlawful restraint. On May 15, the case was sent to the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office.

The DA’s office will next present the case to a grand jury, which will evaluate charges and evidence, but the office did not confirm when the case will move forward. “Those people were in Bexar County legally at that point,” Salazar said of the migrants. Florida Gov. Ron “DeSantis’ administration, I believe, saw that as an opportunity to make a statement with these folks, and they thought they were not going to be held accountable for it.”

There is a civil lawsuit alleges DeSantis architected and benefited from a plot to inhumanely manipulate the 49 migrants, including four children. The lawsuit claims he did so by targeting recruitment efforts onto Latino migrants in San Antonio to promote his political stage before he announced his run for president.

The lawsuit alleges the plan was set months before it was executed.

Migrants interviewed by the San Antonio Report last year said they took the opportunity because they were desperate to get to their host cities but had no resources to get there and had to sleep on the streets. Some migrants in similar situations stood outside the San Antonio Migrant Resource Center (MRC) on Thursday with either no money to get a plane ticket to their host city or had cash in hand but no debit cards to book the ticket.

Since early September, migrants by the thousands have made unauthorized crossings into the United States at the southwest border and voluntarily surrendered themselves to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The agency releases the migrants within days, with some obtaining permission to remain in the United States legally while they go through the asylum process. Most migrants at the MRC on Thursday were from Venezuela, Peru and Haiti and had just arrived in San Antonio hours before. They said they had heard from other migrants making the same journey in Mexico that migrants can cross into the United States until Sept. 18.

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