80th Legislature: Why The House Elections Committee Assignments Are A Problem

Earlier this morning, I noted that the makeup of the House Committee on Elections for the 80th Legislature is a complete and total unmitigated disaster.

The makeup of the Elections Committee is perhaps the worst comprised committee of the entire list of 42 committees, which says a great deal about its makeup.

First off, the person Craddick has placed in the role of Chairman is a radical-right-wing lightening rod who has no place chairing this committee. Take a gander at some of the legislation Chairman Leo Berman (R-Tyler) has filed this session. Notice all of the anti-immigrant legislation? It’s already been the subject of negative state and national press.

To boot, during the 79th Legislature, Berman did not author, co-author or sponsor a single piece of legislation relating to elections. Of the bills he authored, co-authored, or sponsored, a significant quantity were “anti-something,” i.e., anti-gay, anti-abortion, etc.: typical red meat for the Republican faithful.

Dwayne Bohac (R-Houston), who continues as Vice Chair for the Committee, has a history of proposing legislation that makes it more difficult to vote and register to vote. HB 1268, which is now law, is from the 79th and added requirements for driver license and social security information on voter registration cards.

During the 79th Regular, Bohac was a joint author of HB 1706 which would have required voters to provide photo ID at a polling place or two other forms of identification, all of which constitute voter suppression tactics aimed at minorities and the poor. Luckily, the legislation died in State Affairs, but  not before Howard and Berman had a chance to vote for it on a third reading as amended.

There was a laundry list of groups against the legislation: the Texas Democratic Party, MALDEF, Advocacy Inc., Common Cause Texas, Unlock Your Vote Campaign and the Texas AFL-CIO.

Anchia was the lone voice against reporting the bill out of committee during the 79th.

Kirk England (R-Grand Prairie) is CBO on the committee and also has no proven track record when it comes to election legislation. Charlie Howard (R-Sugar Land), another Republican on the committee, likewise has a slim track record when it comes to elections issues.

The bottom line is that Craddick has stuffed the committee with a 4-3 majority of right-wing idealogues who will support things like voter ID programs and other impediments that will make it harder for the poor and minorities to vote. It’s plain and simple.

In spite of the fact that Democrat Lon Burnam (D-Fort Worth) is the most senior Democrat on the committee and will fight to protect the idea that voting sould be easy and not jump-through-a-million-hoops complicated, he’s only got two natural allies on the committee: State Reps. Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas) and Joe Farias (D-San Antonio).

We can expect a lot of “4-3″ votes that send things like Voter ID to the House Floor. I’m confident, though, that voter rights advocates have three strong people in the committee in Anchia, Farias and Burnam.

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