Bonnen will not seek re-election

[rtschl]

Sounds like somebody "made him an offer he couldn't refuse".

Just hope this turns out better than when Straus stepped down....

We don't need two former Republican Speakers working against Texas. One's enough.

[The Annoyed Man]

Sounds like somebody "made him an offer he couldn't refuse".

Just hope this turns out better than when Straus stepped down....

Well, maybe the rest of the GOP caucus will figure it out too. THEY voted for both Strauss and Bonnen. Surely they can do better. Is there a supermajority needed or something? Why do they have to pick someone that satisfies the s̷w̷a̷m̷p̷ ̷r̷a̷t̷s̷ f̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶s̶w̶a̶m̶p̶ s̶ǝ̶ᴉ̶z̶ɐ̶ɹ̶ɔ̶ democrats?

[Flightmare]

Sounds like somebody "made him an offer he couldn't refuse".

Just hope this turns out better than when Straus stepped down....

Well, maybe the rest of the GOP caucus will figure it out too. THEY voted for both Strauss and Bonnen. Surely they can do better. Is there a supermajority needed or something? Why do they have to pick someone that satisfies the s̷w̷a̷m̷p̷ ̷r̷a̷t̷s̷ f̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶s̶w̶a̶m̶p̶ s̶ǝ̶ᴉ̶z̶ɐ̶ɹ̶ɔ̶ democrats?

You would think that they wouldn't need to. Unfortunately, some members of the house ran as republican because that was the only way to get elected in their respective districts. While officially it may have been 83-67, it was much closer in reality. It's not too early to start getting to know candidates running for office, and helping to get name recognition for those candidates. If your state rep/senator is an incumbant, this is the time to communicate with them the things you felt they did right, and what you would like them to do different.

[joe817]

Wouldn't surprise me a bit if that person switched party affiliations.

[NotRPB]

[jason812]

Well, bye

[ScottDLS]

I wonder if our fellow Texans in his district realized what a RINO he was and he thought he'd lose a primary. I'm also upset that our Lt. Governor is pushing for "universal background check". I'm sorry NO! This is Texas. I moved here from Virginia 28 years ago when I got out of the Navy, because I viewed it as the biggest pro-freedom and individualism state! I grew up in North Carolina and lived in NY, RI, and VA. I was born in MA. I chose Texas while I was serving (yes my parents moved here so it was legit ) I've lived here over half my 53 years. I voted against Anne Richardson in 1990. I voted for George Bush in 1994. I'm darned if we're going to let the California transplants and fake Hispanic Irishmen take our great state. My job for the last 24 years has taken me to Europe, South America, India, and all over the US. I worked in Argentina and Brazil for a year. Whenever mu business associates asked me where in the US I was from and I said TEXAS! they liked it. Taxi drivers in Buenos Aires and Mexico City wanted to hear about Texas and Dallas. My Spanish stinks, but I think they still wanted to hear about our great state.

[SQLGeek]

I wonder if our fellow Texans in his district realized what a RINO he was

Judging by the number of glowing comments on his Facebook posts from people in his district, I'd say not enough.

[powerboatr]

outstanding, saw on the 10 pm news out here.

[dru]

Sounds like somebody "made him an offer he couldn't refuse".

Just hope this turns out better than when Straus stepped down....

Well, maybe the rest of the GOP caucus will figure it out too. THEY voted for both Strauss and Bonnen. Surely they can do better. Is there a supermajority needed or something? Why do they have to pick someone that satisfies the s̷w̷a̷m̷p̷ ̷r̷a̷t̷s̷ f̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶s̶w̶a̶m̶p̶ s̶ǝ̶ᴉ̶z̶ɐ̶ɹ̶ɔ̶ democrats?

It comes down to game theory and a form of the median voter theroem.

Basically, there are 150 seats in the TX house. 83 are held by R's and 67 held by D's. To select a speaker, all members of the house vote and only a simple majority is needed. If all the R's voted for their guy and all the D's voted for their guy, then the speaker would be chosen effictively by the R's. However, not all the R's in the house are conservative/libertarian, many are RINOs. They basically say that they aren't going to vote for the guy that (for example) John Strickland would also vote for because that person is too extreme, and intead will vote for someone else. There's not enough of a R majority in the house to make their threat irrelevant so whoever the R's pick will be someone more toward the center, because the hardcore R's know that if they dig in their heels, the speakership will be chosen by the D's and RINOs who will vote together.

What Bonnen did was, knowing that he didn't have the support of a lot of the non-RINO R's, pledged committee chairs to D's to get their support. The D's also know he's a bit of a RINO so they viewed him as their best realistic shot at having some sort of legislative control At the same time, Bonnen was threatening R members that if they ran against him or opposed him, there'd be consequences in terms of committee assignments, etc. This is why you saw both D & R votes for Bonnen. No R wanted to run against him and effectively split the R vote because the consequences of that would have been a D speaker, which, in their view is far less preferable than a RINO speaker (I disagree with that analysis but whatever) - and they also didn't want to be Bonnen's target since the speaker wields a lot of power in the TX lege.

And that's why you had Bonnen torpedoing gun laws and appointing anti-gun D's to chair key committees....that was essentially the price of his speakership. Amazing what people will do for power.

[C-dub]

[SigSour]

It appears that one of his chair committee appointees (Poncho Nevárez) has a bit of a problem...

https://newsbreakinglive.com/2019/11/14 ... sentative/