Anti-Straus groups promise to hold reps accountable for speaker votes
AUSTIN – A tea party-backed lawmaker is causing a stir in one of the state’s most conservative strongholds with his announcement that he is supporting Speaker Joe Straus, highlighting the long odds state Rep. Scott Turner faces in his bid to oust the three-term House leader with less than two months until the Legislature convenes.
“The reality is, there is no race for Scott Turner versus Joe Straus,” state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, said Monday night at a meeting of the NE Tarrant Tea Party, according to a video released by the organization. Capriglione added Turner – a state representative from Frisco – only has “nominal” support within the GOP caucus and “just doesn’t have the depth when it comes to policy and analysis.”
A day later, the North Texas Tea Party, one of the state’s largest groups of its kind, posted an all-caps message on its website warning that any state representatives that vote Straus for speaker over Turner will not receive its support, and activists already were discussing plans to find a challenger to run against Capriglione in 2016.
The backlash underscores just how much some conservatives are placing their hopes in Turner, a one-term legislator who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and earned the backing of the state’s most powerful anti-Straus forces. Turner wants a floor vote on his challenge to Straus, something that never materialized in 2011 and 2013 when the speaker’s opponents realized the numbers were not on their side. Texas’ conservative powerbrokers, nonetheless, are promising to hold accountable those who do not back Turner.
“This is the No. 1 vote,” said Cathie Adams, head of the Texas Eagle Forum. “This is the vote that will matter more than all the rest.”
‘Grown men crying’
By almost every account, Straus, R-San Antonio, will remain speaker come January, even as outside groups are expected to ramp up their campaigns against him next month. Capitol watchers predict Turner will not be able to rally more than 20 colleagues to his side if the vote were held today -something Capriglione all but acknowledged Monday night.
In the video, audience members could be heard gasping before the end of Capriglione’s comments, which came in response to a questioner that reminded him he “ran against Joe Straus” to win his seat two years ago.
“There were grown men crying in that room, I will tell you. Dozens of them. It wasn’t just one guy getting emotional,” said state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford, who sat beside Capriglione and, like the other lawmakers on the panel, voiced his support for Turner.
Capriglione’s about-face was a welcome development to Straus allies who long have viewed the speaker’s opposition as a small but vocal bloc ginned up by outside organizations such as Empower Texans and tea party groups. Those groups argue Straus has been an impediment to a wide range of their priorities over the years, standing in the way of everything from a TSA anti-groping bill to 2013 anti-abortion legislation that was not passed until a special session.
State Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas, said it is only a matter of time before more lawmakers, like Capriglione, come to grips with reality.
“When you start losing people like Giovanni, you are going to see other tea party people you don’t expect to lose peel off at the last minute,” Villalba said. “There are a number of them who already have begun to make that calculation that Giovanni made and realize a vote against the speaker would be a vote for the losing team.”
Steep climb
Straus’ team is not taking anything for granted, sending a series of mailers into GOP districts over the next month detailing “conservative results” under his leadership of the lower chamber. A Straus spokesman said the speaker is glad to help members of the House tell their constituents what they have accomplished.
Allan Saxe, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, predicted Straus will be “overwhelmingly re-elected,” though not without noise from his right. In the meantime, Saxe added, Capriglione’s position is not helpful for anti-Straus forces already facing a steep climb to knock off the speaker.
Turner supporters in the House expressed disappointment with Capriglione’s stance, but some played down the speaker’s race, arguing the contest was about policies, not personalities.
“At the end of the day, we all do the state a disservice by making this vote something much bigger than it actually is. It’s a freaking vote,” Stickland said. “I think we build these things up in our head as being something that it’s not, and it’s really sad.”
