EDITORIAL: The Time Is Now For Democrats To Back A Democrat For Speaker

None of the more than half dozen Republicans running for Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives should receive a single vote from Democrats in January when that body convenes to elect a new Speaker.

Instead, Democrats should deprive any Republican candidate of their votes–and thus any real mandate to govern the House–and assume the role of a vocal, forceful, minority in the Texas House for the next session.

After all, what real good does a Democratic coalition to elect a Republican speaker accomplish? Unless a GOP candidate for Speaker is willing to pledge to giving Democrats half of the committee chairmanships and agrees to block legislation related to Voter ID and many of the nasty anti-immigrant bills proposed by rightwing members like Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler), Democrats uniting behind any Republican candidate for Speaker accomplishes nothing that really furthers the Democratic cause.

Even the most moderate and tempered of Republican candidates are, at the lowest common denominator, Republicans. They adhere to their party’s platform, are beholden at least in some way to Republican donors or, at worst, will govern out of fear of alienating the party’s statewide base in advance of the 2010 elections. We don’t mean to say that all of the Republican candidates are bad people or would even be as bad as Craddick was as Speaker. But none has, to date, demonstrated themselves to be the kind of statesman who can unite the House to do the business of the people of Texas while holding at bay the right-wing of the Republican Party on issues near and dear to Texas Democrats.

Democrats should adopt a strategy that involves giving the votes of the entire caucus to one of the Democratic candidates now running for Speaker. For us, Senfronia Thompson (D-Houston) is, far and away, the best choice. Absent getting a handful of Republicans to cross over (a remote possibility if a secret ballot is used), the Democratic unity candidate will lose the race. Under no circumstances, no matter how many ballots are required for a Speaker’s Election, should Democrats give their votes to any Republican candidate because there is no valid reason to do so.

After the speaker’s election, no matter what Republican gets the Speakership, Democrats should remain united and not be tempted by appropriations bill carrots dangled before them to compromise their agenda.

In this particular session, House Democrats have the opportunity to accomplish more as a vocal, uncompromised minority than as a a fractured minority or a minority working with Republicans to help tack their agendas on whatever agendas Republicans elect to push.

There is almost no question that in 2010 enough Democrats will be elected to elect a Democratic speaker. Given the likelihood the majority will be razor-thin, House Democrats should get into practice when it comes to remaining united on important issues if they hope to shape an agenda that benefits the people of Texas heading into redistricting.

There is ample support in recent history that shows the strategy of a becoming a united vocal minority will work to the favor of House Democrats. In 2005 and 2006 when Democrats began to engineer the takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives, the minority was more united and more vocal than ever before. Congressional Democrats’ assumption of the role of a vocal and confrontational minority worked. In November 2006, Democrats won enough seats in Congress to hold a comfortable majority. That, in turn, helped increase those majorities in 2008 and aided in the election of a Democratic President.