Rep. Warren Chisum today announced that he and nine other anti-Straus House Republicans formally will call for a meeting of the chamber's GOP caucus on Jan. 5, nearly a week before the start of the new session.
The intent is to break with Texas tradition and force selection of the next speaker to occur within a party caucus.
"We need a Republican caucus to meet and select one conservative candidate for speaker," said Chisum, R-Pampa (above, AP photo). He and Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, have challenged incumbent Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, saying he's too moderate.
Chisum and Paxton have said that the Nov. 2 GOP landslide, which has given their party a two-thirds House majority, requires a more conservative speaker.
"We need to respond to the will of the voters and work together to select a single Republican nominee for speaker," Chisum said in a release.
Under the caucus' rules, 10 members can force a meeting of the caucus by sending the chairman -- Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood -- a letter. He then has seven days to call a caucus. Chisum said he'll give Taylor the letter on Dec. 29, which allows all 101 House Republicans to plan for a Jan. 5 caucus meeting. He said the letter will be signed by House members Allen Fletcher, Dan Flynn, Kelly Hancock, Rick Hardcastle, Charlie Howard, Phil King, Geanie Morrison, Debbie Riddle, Randy Weber and himself.
Bottom line: Chisum's announcement reveals that Fletcher, Hancock and Hardcastle no longer consider their past pledges to Straus to be, as they say, operative. There is still no sign, though, that caucus chairman Taylor and some other stalwart House conservatives -- such as Dallas' Will Hartnett and Dayton's John Otto -- are abandoning Straus. By my count, Straus still has 67 or 68 Republicans on his pledge list.
Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/12/chisum-throws-down-the-gauntle.html
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