From Paxton impeachment to Operation Lone Star, here's what happened This Week in Texas Politics

AUSTIN, Texas - A large document dump Thursday night, involving the impeachment trial of Ken Paxton, is providing more details into the accusations against the impeached Attorney General. The case dominated the news, This Week in Texas Politics, but it wasn't the only big story.

FOX 7's chief political reporter Rudy Koski and our panel of analysts look at some of the hot topics.

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RUDY KOSKI: Texas politics this week went from one extreme to the other. Let's find out how far with our headlines from our panel. And we'll start first with Connie Swinney, from the Highlander County. What's your headline?  

CONNIE SWINNEY: ERCOT power struggles entangle Texans.  

RUDY KOSKI: Patrick Svitek with the Texas Tribune. Patrick, what's your headline?  

PATRICK SVITEK: House Impeachment managers show their evidence.  

RUDY KOSKI: And Brian Smith with St. Edwards University. Brian, whats your headline?  

BRIAN SMITH: Governor Abbott says Dak Prescott can't win a big game. Will he call a special session to fix this?  

RUDY KOSKI: All right. The stories that I noticed this week include; burner phone accusations burn Ken Paxton in his impeachment fight, Harris County's team up with a Travis County judge regarding elections there is fast track to the state Supreme Court. Another Travis County judge weighing in on the state law that prohibits gender reassignment procedures on children. A hard right organization debuts a movie accusing high profile Texas House Republicans of being in league with Democrats. In the latest border battle; the DOJ says Governor Abbott can't call migrant surges and invasion, and ERCOT is back in the hot seat. But Patrick, you know, the hot potato doesn't seem to be ERCOT. It seems to be Ken Paxton, right?  

PATRICK SVITEK: Yeah, we're continuing to see drama ramp up ahead of his impeachment trial in the state Senate. I think the big headline that came out of that was the responses that the House impeachment managers filed in response to Paxton's efforts to dismiss this pretrial. And in their responses, they revealed some new allegations about just how far Paxton allegedly went to conceal his relationship with Nate Paul that that Austin real estate developer and Paxton campaign donor who is at the core of so many of these allegations.

RUDY KOSKI: Andrew Mur (House Impeachment Manager) is from the Hill Country, does this insulate him now?  

CONNIE SWINNEY: It doesn't look to folks here like it's a political enemies fight because we're talking about a super conservative State House representative who's going after a super conservative Attorney General.  

RUDY KOSKI: These documents that got dropped that are so damning. Does this provide political cover for the Republicans to vote to impeach?  

BRIAN SMITH: To a certain extent, yes. They really want to have a lot of evidence to make sure that when you do vote for impeachment, that it's not done just because you don't like somebody.  

RUDY KOSKI: ERCOT is certainly in hot water because of the heat and asking people now to conserve. Connie, this is really bad timing because utility rates are going up, too, over there in the Hill Country.  

CONNIE SWINNEY: The city of Burnet is also in the hot seat because just this week the city council passed a power rate hike. They want to raise as much as $150,000 in the year to help pad their budget. But those kind of things, with both ERCOT leaning against the residents as well as the cities now trying to consider rate hikes. It's got residents wondering whether or not ERCOT needs to do something more than just these conservation platitudes to deal with some of the heat that is on the power grid.  

TEXAS POLITICAL NEWS

• Ken Paxton impeachment: Attempts to dismiss foiled in wake of new documents
• Texas: The Issue Is - Leaders, lawmakers celebrate property tax relief measure
• Texas congressman says border buoy barrier includes 'chainsaw-type devices'
• Gov. Abbott holds ceremonial signing for 'Save Women's Sports Act' in Denton

RUDY KOSKI: Brian, the Department of Justice in a federal court filing this week, says that Governor Abbott can't call the migrant surge an invasion. Despite all the rhetoric, Operation Lone Star is still in place. So where does this all lead? Where are we heading with this?  

BRIAN SMITH: Right, you can't use the word invasion unless it's a real invasion. That's what the courts have ruled. And our problems at the border don't rise to this. For the Republicans, though, invasion is now part of their vernacular. And it's going to be used by everybody who's not living at the governor's mansion. So they're going to be used and it'll all end. It will end someday when either the border is secure to Abbott's liking or a Republican is elected in 2024.  

RUDY KOSKI: Michael Quinn Sullivan, who is the head of a group called Texas Scorecard, debuted a documentary this week claiming that several top Republicans are really in league with Democrats, including the Speaker of the House. Patrick. That seems to be a really hard sell.  

PATRICK SVITEK: Of course, you watch this documentary and there are some pretty hyperbolic claims being made about just how influential Democrats are in the House. I'm sure some of these claims would shock Democrats to hear how allegedly influential they are. But there is no doubt that there's a strong bipartisan tradition in the Texas House. It may upset some conservative activists who see Texas as a solidly red state and believe that the Texas House should be less, you know, less willing to share power with Democrats. And so this is really the root of the Republican Civil War, at least on the state legislative side that's been going on for over a decade in Texas. And so this documentary is, you know, obviously the latest attempt to put that front and center. And I assume that the issues in this documentary are going to be pretty well litigated in the state House primaries that we'll see heating up later this year.  

RUDY KOSKI: All right. Now let's wrap up this week with our final word for the week. And we'll start first with Brian. Brian, what's your word for the week.  

BRIAN SMITH: Dave P. (The fake Uber Name allegedly made for Ken Paxton)  

RUDY KOSKI: Patrick, what is your word for the week?  

PATRICK SVITEK: Similarly, my word would be evidence based on what we're starting to see in these filings in the Paxton trial.  

RUDY KOSKI: And Connie, what is your word for the weak?  

CONNIE SWINNEY: Power grab?  

RUDY KOSKI: And that sums up another Week in Texas Politics.