Vol 28, Issue 23 Print Issue

Anti-Washington, in More Ways Than One

by Ross Ramsey Julián Aguilar, Reeve Hamilton, Ceryta Lockett, David Muto, Jay Root and Morgan Smith
June 13, 2011

Serving in the U.S. Congress is a pretty big deal.

Inside Intelligence: The Best and Worst Legislators Were...

by Evan Smith
June 13, 2011

We asked our insiders this week about Texas Monthly's forthcoming list of the Ten Best and Ten Worst Legislators — perhaps the most talked-about and eagerly anticipated media pronouncement in the state in any odd-numbered year.

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Quotes of the Week

An unnamed top Republican official, on why a string of Newt Gingrich aides — including Rick Perry loyalists Dave Carney and Rob Johnson — quit en masse: “There were different visions as to how the campaign should be run.”

Gov. Rick Perry in a letter to the nation’s governors inviting them to his August prayer event at Houston’s Reliant Stadium: "Given the trials that beset our nation and the world, from the global economic downturn to natural disasters, the lingering danger of terrorism and continued debasement of our culture, I believe it is time to convene the leaders from each of our United States in a day of prayer and fasting."

Tim Wildmon, the president of the American Family Association, the group sponsoring Gov. Rick Perry's August prayer event: "It's not just Jews or Muslims. It's anybody that rejects the free gift of salvation through Christ. The Bible teaches there's heaven and hell. Those who believe go to heaven. Those who don't go to hell."

Mark Potok, the Southern Poverty Law Center's director of intelligence, on the American Family Association, the conservative group sponsoring the governor’s prayer event: "The governor has invited haters to help him put on a day of prayer which seems ultimately aimed at demonizing gays and lesbians."

Houston Mayor Annise Parker on plans by the American Family Association, one of the nation's leading anti-gay groups, to sponsor the prayer event in Houston: "They can come back on a monthly basis if they'd like as long as they spend money."

U.S. Senate hopeful Elizabeth Ames Jones on her anti-abortion credentials, at a Texas Tribune candidate forum: "I'm the only one up here that's felt life inside my body."

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, upon learning of the early morning shootout between alleged Mexican cartels operatives and U.S. law enforcement near the Rio Grande in Hidalgo County, in a statement: "Despite the repeated assurances of President Obama and Secretary Napolitano that our border is secure, today’s brazen attack on law enforcement provides further evidence for what Texans already know. Cartel-related violence along our border is real and escalating, and the Administration cannot continue to deny it when American lives."

Chihuahua Gov. Cesar Duarte on how Ciudad Juárez became inundated with at least 9,000 cartel members, to the El Paso Times: "What happened is that the cartels entered into a conflict, and then organized crime began to get involved in common crimes. What happened when we confronted this is that the Juárez cartel, which then had 500 people who controlled [their operations] throughout the state, added 5,000 gang members to its force."

The Week in the Rearview Mirror

After a week of uncertainty and media attention, a graduation ceremony at Medina Valley High School proceeded on Saturday with the valedictorian allowed to pray if she wished. A judge earlier in the week had prohibited a public call to prayer at the ceremony, but after an emergency appeal to the 5th Circuit Court, the school was allowed to follow its original program, which included an invocation and benediction. Whether such prayer would be considered school-sponsored remains at issue in federal court.

All incoming college students in Texas must be vaccinated for bacterial meningitis under new state law. Previous law required the vaccine only for students who lived on campus, but authorities felt that left too many other students vulnerable to the disease, which can spread quickly in crowded living quarters. The new law takes effect in January.

National news media descended on East Texas on Tuesday as law enforcement authorities received a tip about a mass grave of dismembered bodies in Liberty County. Generating massive media coverage as they searched the property, officials were forced to concede that there was no crime scene and that a woman who claimed to be a psychic had placed the call.

Record numbers of wildfires in Texas this year have led at least five Texas counties to ban Fourth of July fireworks. Though burn bans are in effect in most counties, Gov. Rick Perry has also extended disaster declarations initiated in Panhandle counties to cover the holiday.

A House committee has approved a Texas Windstorm Insurance Association reform bill, which now heads to the full House and Senate. Gov. Rick Perry added legislation on the troubled quasi-governmental agency, which has been tied up in legal problems since Hurricane Rita, to the special session agenda. Lawmakers failed to pass a bill in the regular session after disagreeing about limiting the amount of damages plaintiffs could collect in punitive damages against the association.

Oil and gas producers cheered as U.S. Sen. John Cornyn introduced an amendment seeking to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from listing the dunes sagebrush lizard as an endangered species. Its habitat is partially in the oil- and gas-producing Permian Basin in West Texas, where such a designation by the EPA could take a toll on the industry.

Legal aid to low-income Texans could get an unexpected boost in a finance bill making its way through the special session. Members of the Texas Supreme Court pushed senators to find a way to fund programs that help low-income individuals with civil legal problems like foreclosures and child custody disputes. Lawmakers planned to raise the money through an increase in court fees, but that proved unnecessary when Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, amended the finance bill to add $17 million for legal aid and $7 million for an indigent defense program.

Political People and their Moves

A number of high-level staffers and aides in Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign resigned on Thursday, includingRob Johnson and Dave Carney, both of whom have strong ties to Gov. Rick Perry. While they told reporters the move is unconnected to the governor, it has fueled speculation about Perry’s presidential ambitions.

Gov. Rick Perry reappointed three members to the Texas School for the Deaf Governing Board. Jean Andrews of Beaumont is a professor of deaf education and division director for the doctoral program in deaf studies and deaf education at Lamar University. Shalia Cowan of Dripping Springs is retired from working for the Texas Education Agency. Connie Sefcik-Kennedy of Austin is a program assistant for the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services Board for Evaluation of Interpreters.

Perry also named Lee Chayes of El Paso chairman of the Assistive and Rehabilitative Services Council and appointed three members to the council. Chayes is president of Axis Business Academy. Tom Fordyce of Huntsville is a retired director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Agribusiness Department. Jon Arnold-Garcia of San Antonio is vice president of Drexel Hamilton LLC. Thomas W. Grahm of Tyler is a board-certified neurosurgeon and a partner at Tyler Neurosurgical Associates P.A.