Straus May Be Caught in Political Squeeze
Speaker must thread a political needle to stay in power

Republican Joe Straus (HD121 – San Antonio) became Texas House Speaker in 2009 because of Democrats.  Straus reached the 76 votes needed to win the Speaker’s seat when over 60 Democrats decided to form a coalition with fewer than a dozen moderate Republicans to back the San Antonio representative.  If the decision had been made only within the Republican caucus – which is dominated by extreme right-wing ideologues – Straus would never have been considered for Speaker and Tom Craddick would likely have stayed in power (Source: Austin American-Statesman, January 4, 2009).  Straus benefited from Democrats winning just enough seats to ensure that Craddick lost his post, but not enough seats for Democrats to claim a majority and elect a Speaker of their own.

Joe Straus

At the same time, since becoming Speaker, Straus has failed to give Democrats any reason to consider him anything other than the "least bad" option (Source: Associated Press, February 23, 2009).   He alienated more Democrats than he pleased with his partisan committee assignments and embittered nearly every Democrat by allowing a partisan effort to impose Voter Photo ID, deadlocking the House and preventing consideration of more substantive legislation (Source: Associated Press, May 25, 2009). 

If Texas Democrats can overcome a challenging national political environment and capture a House majority, they should be able to unite and elect a Democratic Speaker so Straus would be out.  This year, Republican primary voters chose several right-wing nominees, providing centrist Democrats an opportunity to appeal to mainstream voters, who will determine the outcome of several pivotal House races.

More interestingly, even after serving as Speaker for almost an entire term, Straus still may not have built a critical mass of support among Republicans.  If Texas Republicans were able to pick up more seats in the House, a more extreme Republican caucus could oust Straus and turn to a more reliable right-winger.

No fewer than five separate political organizations have been formed that are controlled by Republicans other than Joe Straus.  Also, three of the "Gang of 11" Republicans that led the charge against Craddick have either retired and will be replaced by extreme right-wing Republicans, or were beaten outright in the 2010 Republican Primary by candidates running far to their right.  Tommy Merritt and Delwin Jones were both defeated by right-wing, Tea Party activists; retiring state Rep. Brian McCall’s chosen replacement, Mabrie Jackson, was beaten by Tea Party endorsee, Van Taylor.

To survive as Speaker, Joe Straus must either drop his moderate-to-conservative façade and find a way to earn the trust of the GOP extremists who control the Texas Republican Party, or hope that Democrats once more do relatively well but fall just short of a Democratic majority – leaving few options aside from again turning to Straus as the lesser evil.

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