A Medical School Blunder By McCall Or The El Paso Times Creating An Issue To Report On?

As with anything in the Speaker’s race, this story from the El Paso Times could be played any number of ways:

Two of the three Republican candidates jockeying to lead the Texas House have said they support funding the medical school in El Paso, but at least one political expert had a word of caution for local legislators deciding for whom to vote.

State Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, has said the medical school funding is a major factor in her decision to stick by House Speaker Tom Craddick.

State Reps. Joe Pickett and Paul Moreno, both El Paso Democrats, and El Paso Republican state Rep. Pat Haggerty have said the money is not a consideration for them as they choose between the candidates.

On the eve of the announcement another Republican would challenge his leadership, Craddick told El Paso legislators $43 million for the Texas Tech University medical school would be in the state s base budget next year.

His spokeswoman said then the move indicated Craddick supported funding for the school.

Chavez has said she believes legislators will come through with the funding this time because there is a more solid commitment from Craddick to send the money to the school.

“I have his word,” she said.

Pitts helped write the budget that now includes money to hire faculty at the medical school. He is chairman of the powerful budget-writing committee and on Thursday announced his intention to unseat Craddick.

“I’m a candidate for everybody, and I’m going to be representing El Paso to East Texas to the Panhandle to South Texas, and border issues are very important to me,” Pitts said.

McCall, who announced his candidacy before Christmas, said he did not have time to answer a reporter’s questions about his stance on the medical school money.

One of McCall’s Republican supporters who wished to remain unnamed said the speaker s election was “not an issue-by-issue race” but was instead about how the chamber would be run.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

First off, it was a bad move on McCall’s part to tell the reporter he didn’t have time to answer the question. That’s a Dick Cheney/Tom DeLay/Tom Craddick move, and McCall is above that. He could have easily answered the question with a simple phrase about building consensus on major projects and respecting the entire state.

Second, the way the El Paso Times crafted the story, it seems as though McCall may have sent one of his supporters running behind him to clean up this little boo boo. Hopefully that’s not the case.

We’ve also got to consider that McCall’s behavior on this issue could be interpreted by some in the House as him “sending a message.” I doubt this is the case, but an observer (or legislator) could read this and say, “woah, McCall is sending a message to those reps and it sounds like one Craddick would send!”

The second way to look at this is that the El Paso Times simply was trying so hard to localize a story on the Speaker’s Race that the story perhaps became a bit bigger than reality.

However, you will recall that time and time again I’ve told you  that the speaker’s race could come down to things like appropriations for individual areas…

Time will tell.

Tweet This Post   Ping This Post

Bookmark It