House Speaker Joe Straus released the names of 98 106 111 state representatives who he says have pledged to elect him to a second term as speaker in January 2011.Straus says a few more names have trickled in since he released this list — he's now released two supplemental lists — and says he's confident he's got the support he needs for another two years in the job. Straus' Republicans hold a 76-74 majority in the Texas House. A few of the Democrats who pledged to the speaker did so, he said, with the understanding that they'll leave the fold if Democrats win the majority in the next election cycle. "Most just signed the pledge card," he said. Straus hasn't presented the members with a set of ideas about what he'd do with a second term — that'll come later, he said. But he wants to "play a role in setting the agenda" in his second session — something he didn't have time to develop in his sudden rise from sophomore member to speaker in January. Update: Straus started with 98 names, and added eight more: Republicans Joe Driver, Patricia Harless, Sid Miller, John Smithee, and Larry Taylor, and Democrats David Farabee, Jessica Farrar, and Donna Howard. Update #2: Add Democrat Diana Maldonado, and Republicans Charles "Doc" Anderson, Betty Brown, Susan King, and Debbie Riddle. The full lists (as of 6/11) follow. Democrats (55): Roberto Alonzo, Carol Alvarado, Rafael Anchia, Valinda Bolton, Joaquin Castro, Norma Chavez, Ellen Cohen, Garnet Coleman, Joseph "Joe" Deshotel, Dawnna Dukes, Craig Eiland, Kirk England, David Farabee, Jessica Farrar, Stephen Frost, Pete Gallego, Veronica Gonzales, Ryan Guillen, Roland Gutierrez, Ana Hernandez, Abel Herrero, Scott Hochberg, Mark Homer, Chuck Hopson, Donna Howard, Carol Kent, Tracy King, Eddie Lucio III, Diana Maldonado, Marisa Marquez, Armando "Mando" Martinez, Ruth Jones McClendon, Jim McReynolds, Jose Menendez, Robert Miklos, Joseph Moody, Rene Oliveira, Solomon Ortiz Jr., Aaron Peña, Joseph "Joe" Pickett, Paula Pierson, Chente Quintanilla, Richard Peña Raymond, Allan Ritter, Eddie Rodriguez, Patrick Rose, Mark Strama, Kristi Thibaut, Senfronia Thompson, Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles, Chris Turner, Allen Vaught, Marc Veasey, Michael "Mike" Villarreal, and Tara Rios Ybarra. Republicans (56): Charles "Doc" Anderson, Jimmie Don Aycock, Dwayne Bohac, Dennis Bonnen, Dan Branch, Betty Brown, Angie Chen Button, Byron Cook, Frank Corte Jr., Brandon Creighton, Drew Darby, John Davis, Joe Driver, Rob Eissler, Gary Elkins, Charlie Geren, Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton, Richard "Rick" Hardcastle, Patricia Harless, Linda Harper-Brown, Bryan Hughes, Todd Hunter, Carl Isett, Jim Jackson, Delwin Jones, James "Jim" Keffer, Susan King, Tim Kleinschmidt , Lois Kolkhorst, Edmund Kuempel, Jodie Laubenberg, Ken Legler, Jerry Madden, Brian McCall, Thomas "Tommy" Merritt, Doug Miller, Sid Miller, Rob Orr, John Otto, Tan Parker, Diane Patrick, Ken Paxton, Larry Phillips, Jim Pitts, Debbie Riddle, Ralph Sheffield, Mark Shelton, Todd Smith, John Smithee, Burt Solomons, Joe Straus, David Swinford, Larry Taylor, Vicki Truitt, Randy Weber, and John Zerwas. Unsigned Democrats (19): Alma Allen, Lon Burnam, Yvonne Davis, Jim Dunnam, Harold Dutton, Al Edwards, Joe Farias, Kino Flores, Helen Giddings, Joe Heflin, Terri Hodge, David Leibowitz, Barbara Mallory Caraway, Trey Martinez Fischer, Elliot Naishtat, Dora Olivo, Sylvester Turner, Hubert Vo, and Armando Walle. Unsigned Republicans (20): Leo Berman, Fred Brown, Bill Callegari, Warren Chisum, Wayne Christian, Joe Crabb, Tom Craddick, Myra Crownover, Allen Fletcher, Dan Flynn, Dan Gattis, Kelly Hancock, Will Hartnett, Harvey Hilderbran, Charlie Howard, Phil King, Tryon Lewis, Geanie Morrison, Wayne Smith, and Beverly Woolley.

Milton Rister, who resigned last week as executive director of the Texas Legislative Council, is exploring a run for the Texas House.Rister, a Georgetown Republican, is looking at the HD-20 seat currently held by Republican Dan Gattis. There's a string here that starts with speculation that Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, will leave the Legislature; he told the Austin American-Statesman last week that he'll make a decision in the fall. Gattis is a possible candidate for that Senate seat and has told supporters he'd be interested. That would leave his spot open. Gattis says he talked with Rister and thinks it's a conditional thing. Gattis says he will definitely run for Senate if Ogden does. In that case, Rister would run for the Gattis seat. Rister, reached later, confirmed that, saying he'll support Ogden and Gattis if they seek reelection to the jobs they've got now. Rister, a former political consultant for former House Speaker Tom Craddick and others, held staff positions with Sen. Jane Nelson, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and was executive director of the Republican Party of Texas before signing on as head of the TLC three years ago. He announced his resignation from that job last week. He's run for office twice before: In 1986, for Midland County Commissioner, and in 1994 for Williamson County Judge. He got 14 percent in the first race, and 42 percent in the second. "I'm shooting for 51 percent this time," he says.

As expected, Comptroller Susan Combs says the state has all the money it needs for the budget lawmakers approved during the legislative session. Combs didn't comment on the economy or offer any reservations in her letter to state leaders. She just said there's enough in the till to cover the bills.

My constituents adamantly believe it is wrong for the "Big Brother" State to take their private property away from them unnecessarily. The battle being fought for beach landowner rights is the same fight timber and pasture landowners face in our district. We have a statewide official who wants to take private property from Texans and the Legislature said no.

Hurricane Ike devastated our Texas coast and did damage well into our district. None were affected to the extent of those on the Bolivar Peninsula. Hundreds of Texas families found their homes simply wiped off the map. My family was one of those and we do not lose our Constitutional Rights afforded to citizens when I pledge to uphold those rights for my constituents.

When session started, Commissioner Jerry Patterson's staff from the General Land Office (GLO) came to my office and provided me with their plan to delay construction permits on all property along miles of beach until the vegetation line grew back. His staff requested I lead and support their legislative agenda because I was directly impacted. In other words, it was proper for me to be a part of the program until I disagreed.

Communication with the GLO continued, and I learned their office has a "temporary vegetation line." I asked, "if people rebuilt using GLO's temporary line, would it honor all environmental concerns and accelerate recovery by up to two years?" The GLO said "yes." My question to the GLO became, "why make these devastated communities wait?"

By using the "temporary vegetation line", construction could resume that would not intrude onto the public beach and still comply with the Open Beaches Act. By using the current "temporary vegetation line", as the Legislature has recommended, houses that were too close to the beach water prior to the storm cannot be rebuilt. Thus by following this rule, no property owner can limit public access to the beaches or build too close to the water.

It has been insinuated that I am trying to build my family's house in the middle of the beach. I had to use binoculars to check on my daughters from my deck when they played along the water. Between our home and the water were dunes, cars parked along the dunes, three lanes of traffic, cars parked along the waterfront and enough sand for volleyball games, sunning, and castle-building; all this was used by the public not personal guests! By using the GLO's temporary line as the standard, it will not reduce public access to the beach at all.

Patterson has now admitted about 200 houses cannot rebuild now because of his desire to wait on the grass to grow. Imagine the economic impact 200 houses built in these devastated communities could bring! If each of these 200 houses were rebuilt, it would add about $250,000 per property to the tax roles, for a grand total of about 50 million dollars! This does not include the additional cost savings to the state by preventing the state's purchase of these properties and the continued costs the state would incur by providing the sole maintenance of this frontage properties. Before Ike, frontage property owners shared the responsibility of maintaining the dunes and vegetation because we knew the importance they play as the front line defense of our property and the peninsula.

The Legislature agreed that every legal option should be utilized to protect property owners. Because grass "may/may not" grow on a citizen's property over the next two years is an unjustified use of eminent domain laws that take private property.

The amendment by Rep. Hamilton, approved by the Legislature, was not a last minute "secret deal," as alleged. This language was approved months before the session's end by the majority of the House members who represent the Southeast Texas coast and in full cooperation with the Governor's staff. In the end, the decision was made to use the GLO's temporary line and start rebuilding now.

The fight with Commissioner Patterson is unfortunate. The citizens of District 9 have allowed me to serve them for over a decade. I would never betray that trust. I encourage all of my constituents to contact me if they have questions. This is a fight for private property rights, which is what I was elected to do.

Christian, R-Center, represents HD-9 in the Texas House of Representatives.

---

Texas Weekly's Soapbox is a venue for opinions, spins, alternate takes, and other interesting stuff sent in by readers and others. We moderate submissions to keep crazy people out, and anonymous commentary is ineligible. Readers can respond (through the moderator) to things posted here. Got something to submit? We're interested in everything from full-blown opinion pieces to short bits to observations or tidbits that have escaped us and the mass media. One rule: Your name goes on your words. Call or send an email: Ross Ramsey, Editor, Texas Weekly, 512/288-6598, ramsey@texasweekly.com.

There will be a special session to finish work left undone by the Legislature, but the date hasn't been chosen, Gov. Rick Perry said today. The Senate closed shop a week ago without extending the lives of five agencies on the list for periodic review. If those sunset reviews aren't done, the agencies expire unless lawmakers change the expiration dates. Transportation, insurance and three other agencies are now set to go out of business in September 2010 unless lawmakers return before then. Transportation has some particular problems to fix. The expiration date is at the top of the list. If the agency doesn't get its date changed, officials there have doubts about whether they can legally let new contracts. Next on their list: Lawmakers didn't authorize the sale of $2 billion in bonds approved by voters in 2007. The state budget would let TXDOT sell the bonds starting in January, but without the agency can't do anything without the authorization. That bond money is needed for about a third of the "lettings" in next year's agency budget. The Legislature also stopped before approving a revolving fund that would have leveraged the transportation bonds — borrowed against them — to raise up to $5 billion more for toll roads and other projects. That argues for a special session sooner rather than later, but there's the matter of a political year in 2010, and Perry wants to avoid anything that looks like things aren't running smoothly in Austin. He'll be running against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, arguing that things aren't running smoothly in Washington. A legislative mess now could turn into a political mess in the March primary. Democrats fear Perry will add Voter ID to the agenda if he calls a special session. That could be an obstacle to a deal on the transportation issues. Perry could cut a deal with the Democrats — fix transportation and we'll leave Voter ID alone — but that could upset his own supporters. He's not saying publicly when he'll call lawmakers back or what will be on the agenda — just that they're coming back sometime before the next regular session in 2011.

Gov. Rick Perry broke his collarbone in a mountain biking accident this evening. Here's the official statement:

At approximately 7:30 pm tonight Gov. Perry broke his right collarbone and received a minor abrasion to his right elbow due to a mountain biking accident near his residence. He was taken to the emergency room at Seton Medical Center Austin... and will be released tonight.

Texas lawmakers filed 12,226 bills and resolutions during the regular session, or nearly 2,000 more than they filed in 2007 — the previous record year.

If you throw out resolutions — including the 190 proposed constitutional amendments, the 372 non-binding "concurrent resolutions" whose main purpose is to display the Legislature's opinions, and the 4,245 plain resolutions mostly used for commemoration, memorials and such — they filed 7,419 House and Senate bills. That's more than ever — a 19.9 percent increase over the 2007 total.

Take solace: They passed 1,459 bills — 23 fewer than two years ago.

The statistics from the last ten sessions (courtesy of the Texas Legislative Reference Library) show the latest one was busier than average, if down a bit from the last. They were busier than average both in terms of bills filed and bills passed. They set the record for filings, but fell well short of the 1999 high-water mark of 1,622 for bills passed.

They were off the charts with all their resolving stuff.

One number's still missing. At this posting, Gov. Rick Perry had vetoed only one bill and was still going through the stacks sent by legislators. This is his fifth legislative session as governor and he's vetoed 200 bills — an average of 50 per session. His biggest total was in 2001, when he zapped 82 bills; his low was in 2005, when he let all but 19 become law.

While the governor is frozen out of fundraising by state law, his primary challenger is not, and says her finance committee will match contributions to her campaign from now until the end of the month.In her latest pitch to potential supporters, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison says her finance committee will match contributions. But that comes after she takes some jabs at Gov. Rick Perry, a fellow Republican, for what she calls mismanagement and a failure of leadership.

"As I travel the state, people have expressed frustration with the current leadership in Austin. They tell me the Governor is putting his personal political agenda in front of an agenda that will move the state forward. And you know what, I agree with them. "We find ourselves at a crossroads. People from all parts of Texas feel it is time for a change in Austin. "After nearly a decade in office, our Governor is not offering a clear vision of how we can solve the issues facing a changing state. And there is a real sense that our leadership in Austin is getting distracted and consumed attempting to clean up the mismanagement problems caused at the Governor's agencies. Picking a fight with the federal govemment is not a long-term strategy to move Texas forward."

Elected state officials can't raise money during a legislative session or during the 20-day veto period that follows. That blocks Perry and other Texas pols from trying to fill their treasuries before the end of the current reporting period, which ends June 30. But federally elected officials like Hutchison aren't bound by that law, so she gets to work the circuit while he can't. And it's one reason why she should be able to show bigger numbers when those reports are unveiled July 15. "Once again the only thing the Senator has to offer is negative Washington rhetoric," said Perry spokesman Mark Miner after seeing Hutchison's pitch. "The thousands of people moving to Texas she mentions in the letter are the result of a fiscally responsible government, jobs, good schools and roads and low taxes, all a result of the work by Governor Perry and the Legislature. If the Senator's idea of success is what's going on in Washington, all Texans should be concerned." Hutchison's letter (click the image to download a printable version):

Whitacre, Clements/Jones, and DaSilva

Ed Whitacre Jr., retired chairman of Dallas-based AT&T Corp., will take the reins at General Motors after a bailout transition there. He's a longtime player in Texas public affairs and headed the board of regents at the Texas Tech University System.

Bill and Rita Clements — the former governor and first lady — signed on as honorary chairs for Elizabeth Ames Jones' exploratory run for the U.S. Senate. Jones, a Texas Railroad Commissioner, has her eye on the seat Kay Bailey Hutchison is expected to yield on her way to a run for governor next year.

Joe DaSilva is the new executive director at the Texas Pharmacy Association. CEO Jim Martin is leaving that association at the end of the month and DaSilva will take his spot. DaSilva has most recently been running his own lobby shop; he was at the Texas Hospital Association for 28 years before that.

Judge Lawrence Meyers will run for reelection to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, a post he's held since the 1992 elections. A win next year would mean a fourth term for Meyer, who's the longest serving member of that court.

Angela Olige is the new assistant commissioner over the Texas Department of Agriculture's food and nutrition division. She had been a deputy assistant in that division.

Matt Mackowiak, formerly the spokesman for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, is opening his own politics and public affairs shop. The Potomac Strategy Group will have offices in Austin and Washington, D.C.

Indicted: Former county attorney, county judge, and state Rep. Luther Jones of El Paso, on federal charges of bribery and mail fraud stemming from a long-running public corruption investigation in that city.

Deaths: Former Rep. Frank Eikenburg, R-Plano, of complications from liver cancer. He was 64.