Special Session: Broaden the call?

[nitrogen]

If you're on twitter, send the word out there! I did!

As with anything I do regarding this site, I used #txchl.
You should too!

Oh, I'll also do the old fashioned phone thing, too.

[The Annoyed Man]

I was at the Grapevine Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon yesterday, and our guest speaker was Vicki Truitt, my local State Representative. I had the opportunity to speak with her directly, and I asked her if the parking lot bill would likely to be among those that Governor Perry would include for the special session. Although she supported the bill, she said that she didn't think that Perry would include it this time in the special session, and that it was probably a dead issue until the next regular session.

[jamullinstx]

Contact made and opinion provided.

[stevie_d_64]

Doesn't it feel good to bring our voices to bear on this!!!

I'd keep the pressure on...

I also called and told my Rep to "keep your bags packed son...You be headed back to Austin!"...

Git er dun!

[mikeintexas]

Governor and Rep's office contacted!

[fickman]

Email + phone call last week.

[EHS]

Done, I sent an email. One can hope.

[Purplehood]

Makes one wonder if someone floated this concept of a Special Session just to see who still really supports what.

[NcongruNt]

IMO, that would be a mistake. While gun bills are important, there is still only a very small portion of the population that is actively involved in seeing progression on firearms issues. Special sessions bring incredible focus on any specific issue, and unless it's something that directly effects everyone (such as budget/spending issues), you're likely to garner a net effect of bad press and misinformation from the media, making for a more difficult situation.

Understand that for our legislators, they have a large number of issues and topics in which they have to work. When we gather support from some of them, they are often spending political capital because much of their support may oppose our legislation. Doing so during a legislative session isn't so risky, because they have other bills and work getting done that benefits those that may oppose our legislation, making for a net positive, even if those people don't like our legislation that gets passed. In a special session, you're going to be forcing a legislator to take a stand on a single issue which may cause a significant problem with his or her constituency, with nothing else to offset the perceived negative. That's dangerous because that may cause the ouster (come election time) of a legislator who has worked for us. To avoid that, a special session may cause loss of support on gun legislation, where you would then label said legislator as not on our side.

Politics is a long-term game, much like football, where progress is a result of aggregate actions. This is something that organizations like OCDO do not grasp. They want to run a Hail Mary every time, when in reality the game is won with a series of incremental movements forward. Sometimes there are setbacks, such as the death of the bills this session, but we still need to push forward and utilize those who work for us in an effective way. Honestly, I don't think a special session is the way to go about it. It may get our legislation passed (and that's a big maybe), but at the potential loss of those who have worked for us.

[joe817]

Well put. I think that is the opinion of many of here as well.

[aardwolf]

The dirty rats allowed good bills to die to block a fair vote on the ID bill. I think Perry should call a special session for the ID bill to send them a message. Otherwise they'll do it more and more, like a four year old throwing a tantrum to get his way.

[Douva]

IMO, that would be a mistake. While gun bills are important, there is still only a very small portion of the population that is actively involved in seeing progression on firearms issues. Special sessions bring incredible focus on any specific issue, and unless it's something that directly effects everyone (such as budget/spending issues), you're likely to garner a net effect of bad press and misinformation from the media, making for a more difficult situation.

Understand that for our legislators, they have a large number of issues and topics in which they have to work. When we gather support from some of them, they are often spending political capital because much of their support may oppose our legislation. Doing so during a legislative session isn't so risky, because they have other bills and work getting done that benefits those that may oppose our legislation, making for a net positive, even if those people don't like our legislation that gets passed. In a special session, you're going to be forcing a legislator to take a stand on a single issue which may cause a significant problem with his or her constituency, with nothing else to offset the perceived negative. That's dangerous because that may cause the ouster (come election time) of a legislator who has worked for us. To avoid that, a special session may cause loss of support on gun legislation, where you would then label said legislator as not on our side.

Politics is a long-term game, much like football, where progress is a result of aggregate actions. This is something that organizations like OCDO do not grasp. They want to run a Hail Mary every time, when in reality the game is won with a series of incremental movements forward. Sometimes there are setbacks, such as the death of the bills this session, but we still need to push forward and utilize those who work for us in an effective way. Honestly, I don't think a special session is the way to go about it. It may get our legislation passed (and that's a big maybe), but at the potential loss of those who have worked for us.

You make some good points, but the flip side is the old adage "Strike while the iron is hot." Right now we (theoretically) have the support of both the legislative and executive branches of the Texas government. There is no guarantee that we will have that support in two years.

The issue of gun rights, like most issues, is cyclical. Sometime you're on offense, and sometimes you're on defense. We've been on offense (making incremental movements forward) for so long that some of us are starting to think that things are always going to be that way.

Texas has had pro-gun governors for the past 15 years, and we've gained a lot of ground in that time. But imagine how those tables might turn if the 2010 gubernatorial election kicks off 15 years of governors who are lukewarm on gun issues. We could spend the better part of the next two decades just fighting to hang onto the gun rights we have right now.

It's also possible that we could enter the 2011 legislative session with a less gun-friendly legislature. If we lose the governor and/or the legislature, we can forget about gaining any new rights or making incremental movements forward. At that point, it'll be all we can do not to lose ground.

We sometimes take for granted how good we have it here in Texas, where most gun rights battles are fought against a vocal minority trying to kill our bills through parliamentary procedure. But we could wake up in 2011 to find the deck stacked against us, as is already the case with our counterparts in many other states.

So, while I understand the desire not to put our supporters in the state legislature on the spot, I'm definitely of the "strike while the iron is hot" mentality. Our bills have already weathered a glut of bad press, and our most vocal opponents have already staked their territory. While a special session might garner more scrutiny for our bills and more criticism for our supporters, I think such risks pale in comparison to the risk of losing these fights indefinitely to changing political tides.

Of course, I could be wrong. To paraphrase what famed screenwriter William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) said about the film industry, when it comes to politics, nobody knows anything.

[Locke]

Perry getting his picture taken at Larue Tactical recently was no random occurrence. I think he's polishing his conservative credentials for the next election. If we're lucky he may add some of our bills to the agenda for the special session to polish them up even more. Long Shot but I can dream.

[phoneguy]

The dirty rats allowed good bills to die to block a fair vote on the ID bill. I think Perry should call a special session for the ID bill to send them a message. Otherwise they'll do it more and more, like a four year old throwing a tantrum to get his way.

Then the dems will just run to New Mexico and hide like they did during the redistricting fight in 2003. Our biggest mistake then was letting them back into the state.

[Charles L. Cotton]

IMO, that would be a mistake. While gun bills are important, there is still only a very small portion of the population that is actively involved in seeing progression on firearms issues. Special sessions bring incredible focus on any specific issue, and unless it's something that directly effects everyone (such as budget/spending issues), you're likely to garner a net effect of bad press and misinformation from the media, making for a more difficult situation.

Understand that for our legislators, they have a large number of issues and topics in which they have to work. When we gather support from some of them, they are often spending political capital because much of their support may oppose our legislation. Doing so during a legislative session isn't so risky, because they have other bills and work getting done that benefits those that may oppose our legislation, making for a net positive, even if those people don't like our legislation that gets passed. In a special session, you're going to be forcing a legislator to take a stand on a single issue which may cause a significant problem with his or her constituency, with nothing else to offset the perceived negative. That's dangerous because that may cause the ouster (come election time) of a legislator who has worked for us. To avoid that, a special session may cause loss of support on gun legislation, where you would then label said legislator as not on our side.

Politics is a long-term game, much like football, where progress is a result of aggregate actions. This is something that organizations like OCDO do not grasp. They want to run a Hail Mary every time, when in reality the game is won with a series of incremental movements forward. Sometimes there are setbacks, such as the death of the bills this session, but we still need to push forward and utilize those who work for us in an effective way. Honestly, I don't think a special session is the way to go about it. It may get our legislation passed (and that's a big maybe), but at the potential loss of those who have worked for us.

You are absolutely right and that's precisely how we have operated for decades. This call is different for a couple of reasons. First, if the Democrats take more seats in the House in the 2010 elections, and this is what everyone expects, we will have a Democrat as Speaker of the House and he will appoint Democrats as chairmen of the committees. This is not good in spite of the fact that some of gun owners best friends are Democrats. As a general rule, our Democrat friends don't want to hurt us, but they also don't take the lead in carrying controversial or high profile bills. If you look back to the days of Democrat Speakers such as Pete Laney, we didn't pass much legislation, but we were able to kill any bad bills.

Secondly, industry had already resigned itself to the fact that the parking lot bill was going to pass and they were satisfied with the amendments. Even the chemical counsel knew passage was inevitable because of constant pressure by NRA and TSRA and their members. They were shocked by the last minute sellout by a particular person on Calendars Committee. When your enemy has accepted his defeat and your victory, you'd better finish them off quickly or they will be emboldened next time around. The attitude in 2011 will be "if we could stop the onslaught in 2009, we can stop it this time."

This is the first time I/we have ever supported putting one of our bills in a special session call and it probably will be the last. But alas, it's nothing but an academic exercise at this point.

Chas.