Speaker's race update

November 2 was a true Tsunami election that swept out Democrats in statehouses and in the Congress, and swept in stronger Republican majorities. Here in Texas, the conservative grassroots that got 99 Republican Texas State Reps elected are demanding a conservative Speaker of the House, to turn our massive majority into an organized conservative legislative body. This has turned the Speaker's race into a passionate race involving more than just the members of the Texas House. Interested parties from Redstate to Mike Huckabee are piling on.

November items for Your Information on the Texas Speaker's race:

(1) Flowchart on the Speaker race, created by The Texas Tribune. The flowchart shows the "who's who" in the Speaker's race:
http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/texas-house-speaker-race-flowchart/

(2) Video: "The Battle for the Texas House", http://j.mp/fPGdC2. In this video David Barton sums up what “we the people” seem to be saying—that Texans want a conservative Speaker! It lays out the history and the issues clearly and completely.

(3) Rep Ken Paxton now has his Speaker of the Texas House campaign website up at:
http://paxtonforspeaker.com/

(4) The Austin American Statesman has a “postcard” history of its coverage of the Speaker’s Race which includes stories way back to January 9th, 2007:
http://bit.ly/eV8x0E

(5) Empower Texans’ (Michael Quinn Sullivan’s group) Letter On Leadership:
http://www.empowertexans.com/issues/letter_on_leadership

(6) The Dallas Tea Party blog has a lot of information on the Speaker’s Race:
http://dallasteaparty.org/

(7) On Nov 30, State Rep Van Taylor endorsed Ken Paxton for Speaker. This brings the number of newly elected 'freshmen' State Reps endorsing Paxton publicly to 9: James White, Erwin Cain, Cindy Burkett, Bill Zedler, Charles Perry, Jim Landtroop, Kenneth Sheets, and David Simpson are also on the Paxton endorsement list.

(8) HUCK PAC has endorsed Ken Paxton for Speaker of the Texas House (Huckabee is on the Flowchart of Item 1):
http://bit.ly/hlprHR

(9) FreedomWorks / Dick Armey Oppose Speaker Straus, Announce Support for Paxton (Armey is on the Flowchart of Item 1):
http://bit.ly/fM27jA

(10) On November 10, 2010 Rep Brian Hughes withdraws his pledge to Straus, says that House leadership is trying to oust Reps Flynn and Cain and told Hughes that if he did not go along (i.e. support Straus) he would fall victim to similar retribution. Chairman Hopson’s General Investigating and Ethics Committee investigates the allegations and dismisses them after taking sworn testimony from Hughes and unsworn testimony from Rep Larry Phillips, who made the threats (Hughes and Hopson are on the Flowchart of Item 1):
http://bit.ly/fAmfiN , http://bit.ly/gGnZgX and http://bit.ly/hOTWMf

(11) Straus Chairman Shuts Out Public From Speaker Race “Threats” Information at so-called “Public Hearing”—related to Item 10 above:
http://bit.ly/gCgSUT

(12) Rep Warren Chisum announced his candidacy for Speaker of the Texas House on October 13, 2010:
http://bit.ly/ewxj8l

(13) Rep Leo Berman, first Rep to file as opposition candidate to Joe Straus (June 23, 2010—see http://bit.ly/i8OkIj and http://bit.ly/eusjYM ) wrote an Open Letter to Joe Straus on Nov 8, 2010 which is chopped full of enlightening information for those of us on the outside of the House of Representatives (Berman is on the Flowchart of Item 1):
http://bit.ly/gFJSY8 and http://ainn.ly/gSTUyL

(14) Erick Erickson (of RedState) blogs that Ken Paxton should be Speaker of the Texas House: http://www.redstate.com/erick/

(15) Gun Owners of America endorse Ken Paxton for Speaker of the Texas House:
http://bit.ly/hG7JMW

(16) On the other side, we have primarily one group that is the apologist for and promoter of Speaker Joe Straus—that is, Conservatives4JoeStraus:
http://www.conservatives4joestraus.com/home/

(17) Higher Education Committee Chair, Dan Branch questioned the constitutionality of the proposal of a Republican Caucus picking a consensus candidate for Speaker, as mentioned in the Flowchart of Item 1:
http://bit.ly/eqRGbh

(18) If you want to read what Texas Monthly’s Paul Burka is saying in his left-of-center BURKABLOG, you can follow the following link (you might need to use the blog’s search engine to find all the relevant posts):
http://www.texasmonthly.com/blogs/burkablog/

“The quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail. But hope remains, if friends stay true.”
- Elf Queen Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring
The above items and quote are courtesy of "Freedom Ain't Free".