Election fallout and looking toward the regular session: This Week in Texas Politics
TEXAS - This Week in Texas Politics was dominated by the Election on Tuesday night, and the fall-out that followed the vote count. Some hot issues also came up regarding the upcoming regular session.
FOX 7 Austin’s Chief Political Reporter Rudy Koski and our panel of political analysts take a look at some of the big stories this week.
RUDY KOSKI: This Week in Texas Politics. We certainly got a lot of headlines on the election night. Let's get a few more headlines from our panel. And we'll start first with Philip Jankowski with The Dallas Morning News. Philip, what's your headline?
PHILIP JANKOWSKI: Texas Republicans dominate, Leaving Democrats in Despair.
RUDY KOSKI: Annie Spilman with Main Street Relations. Andy, what's your headline?
ANNIE SPILMAN: Texas Republicans Rewrite State's Political Playbook.
RUDY KOSKI: And Brian Smith with St Edward's University, your headline.
BRIAN SMITH: Move over, Grover Cleveland. You have company.
RUDY KOSKI: Texas certainly went a brighter shade of Red on election night and the GOP won some new ground in some counties that traditionally go hard blue. So, Philip, what was the big surprise for you?
PHILIP JANKOWSKI: I mean, the big surprise was just the utter dominance of it all, I guess, you know, up and down the ballot, seeing margins that were just really beyond what anyone even imagined.
ANNIE SPILMAN: I think it was a shift. I mean, two of the House districts that flipped were in rural working class Hispanic districts.
BRIAN SMITH: Well, for years we've been talking about the Democrats turning the state blue. And the Republicans knew this. So they realized they had to expand their outreach.
RUDY KOSKI: Well, the political dust certainly is starting to settle, but it looks like the Democrats are having a hard time, struggling to try to figure out if they do really need to do a reboot. The state chairman with the Democratic Party issuing an apology Thursday for suggesting that they went too far on issues like gender identity and then resigning Friday morning after getting a lot of pressure about what he said. Annie what does the business community want to see in a reboot with the Democrats?
ANNIE SPILMAN: It's like they say, it's the kitchen table issues. It's the economy, it's workforce development.
BRIAN SMITH: They lack a real national standard bearer who can really win elections. They haven't found the right messengers, even if they've had good messages.
PHILIP JANKOWSKI: Well, for the Democrats, it is going to be a complete rebuild. You know, and rightly so.
RUDY KOSKI: The guest list at the Trump watch party in Florida included Texas AG Commissioner Sid Miller and Attorney General Ken Paxton. So the big question is who has the best chance of going to Washington? What do you think, Brian?
BRIAN SMITH: I'll say its Sid Miller over Ken Paxton because if Trump tries to appoint Ken Paxton to a high level position, that means a Senate vote, and Republican senators will be on the record supporting a candidate, as we know with a super colorful background.
RUDY KOSKI: There were a lot of propositions on the ballot, including votes to decriminalize marijuana in Dallas, Lockhart, Bastrop, those all passing filled up. I doubt that Texas is going to become Colorado, but there's been a big push for some change in the marijuana laws. So what do you what are you anticipating in January?
PHILIP JANKOWSKI: Oh Nothing. You know, these propositions passing in those cities are not that surprising. But you've got Dan Patrick in the Senate. He's not going to let any sort of marijuana D, marijuana legalization thing happen.
RUDY KOSKI: Governor Greg Abbott says that he now has the votes to pass some type of school choice plan, but public school advocates like James Talarico say not so fast. Annie rural communities, you know, they're certainly going to need a big carrot to go along with this. They could still put up a fight.
ANNIE SPILMAN: Yeah. Listen, I think with any issue like this, you're going to see even rural Republicans question what they what they need to do. Abbott says he has the votes. He had victories in the primaries and in the general. There's still 181 egos in the House and in the Senate. It's 140 day session and anything can happen.
RUDY KOSKI: Looking ahead to the coming legislative session, a Senate committee this week held a hearing on housing affordability. And if it's possible to pass more property tax cuts. A lot of those who made public comments, though, call for bold changes. No more chipping away. But, Brian, I don't see the state moving to a sales tax only type of system.
BRIAN SMITH: No, the sales tax is, you know, good, but you need more revenue. If you get rid of something, you have to replace it and we have nothing to replace it with because sales tax is so based on how strong your economy is.
PHILIP JANKOWSKI: I do agree that the sales tax thing is a nonstarter. That's like self-imposed inflation.
ANNIE SPILMAN: This is going to be a heavy topic going into session. And the fact of the matter is we have to get the cities, the counties and the legislators to sit down in a room and try to come to an agreement. And at that point, at this point, that's not happening.
RUDY KOSKI: All right. Let's wrap things up with one word. And Philip, we'll start with you. What's your word for the week?
PHILIP JANKOWSKI: Collapse
BRIAN SMITH: Vouchers.
ANNIE SPILMAN: Resilience.
RUDY KOSKI: And that is This Week in Texas Politics.