Hurricane Beryl is gone, but political storms remain: This Week in Texas Politics

AUSTIN, Texas - A lot of political headlines this week in Texas were overshadowed by Hurricane Beryl and the power crisis in Houston the storm left behind. But that’s not to say some political storms didn't spin up. 

FOX 7 Austin’s Chief Political Reporter Rudy Koski and our panel of analyst take a look at This Week in Texas Politics.

RUDY KOSKI: This week in Texas politics, we saw a hurricane get political, and a state House committee chairman accused the Attorney General of blowing hot air. Let's get the headlines from our panel, and we'll start first with Brian Smith from Saint Edward's University. Brian, what's your headline for the week. 

BRIAN SMITH: After serving as acting governor? Does Dan Patrick want the job full time? 

RUDY KOSKI: Brad Johnson with the Texan News. What's your headline for the week? 

BRAD JOHNSON: Literal and political hurricanes hit Texas. 

RUDY KOSKI: And political analyst Mark Wiggins. Your headline? 

MARK WIGGINS: Is the dam breaking on Biden's candidacy? 

RUDY KOSKI: Attorney General Ken Paxton this week claimed that his enemies at the state House are planning an impeachment redo. But the chairman of the House General Investigation Committee, Andrew Murr, called Paxton's claim a "farfetched fantasy," and the hearing next week is on an unrelated matter. Brad, you were monitoring this situation. What's your take? 

BRAD JOHNSON: It's a lot of smoke and mirrors. There's absolutely nothing of the belief that it's about Paxton. The committee announced it was going to meet earlier this month. Set for next week. There are a few, standing tasks in front of the committee, and it's going to be one of those things that they address. But this is a political move by Paxton. You know, it comes alongside the federal probe, going on with the grand jury right now. But it's a good move. Political move on his part. You know, either he gets to say we caught you guys, and you, you called an audible, or we caught you guys, and you still went forward with it. 

RUDY KOSKI: There was a lot of huffing and puffing over a bill that was filed by Texas Congressman Chip Roy that says non-citizens cannot vote in federal elections. Now, that already is the law. But it gets a little fuzzy when it comes down to registering to vote. The bill is targeted for a presidential veto, but there's a lot of Democrats now on the record against this idea. So, Brian, did the GOP just score win regardless of what happens to that bill? 

BRIAN SMITH: Well, we know Immigration's going to be a huge issue. The Democrats now, 198 Democrats, I think, are on the record saying they voted against it. But legitimately, we're right back where we started. 

RUDY KOSKI: Dallas congress woman Jasmine Crockett joined the effort by squad leader AOC to impeach conservative Supreme Court Judges Thomas and Alito. You know, a snowball forming in Houston right now seems to have a better chance than that effort. So what's the benefit, Mark by, you know, being the first Texas Democrat to join on this effort? 

MARK WIGGINS: Yeah. You're right. I mean, it is going nowhere. But they're wanting to highlight the very real and very gross ethical compromises that have plagued the court. I mean, Justices receiving millions of dollars and gifts, yachts from people with business before the court. And to this day, the court has done nothing to police itself. 

RUDY KOSKI: A new political poll has come out by the University of Houston. The Trump campaign still has a nine point lead on Team Biden. There's no bump by the trials. There's no bump from the big debate that took place. And no bump for RFK Jr, who was hoping to get at least a blip out of this. So, Brad, are you surprised by that? Or are you more surprised that, you know, Collin Allred has kind of has closed the gap on Ted Cruz? 

BRAD JOHNSON: But I think the biggest takeaway here is already undecided. Numbers are pretty high and remain pretty high. So that's ground to gain for him, but also ground to lose. 

BRIAN SMITH: From this poll his best takeaway is this, he has the highest favorables of any candidate. Meaning when you look at the difference between people who hate you, people who love you, he's actually at a positive. We're most of our candidates here in Texas are negative. 

MARK WIGGINS: You know, I think what we're looking at is most Texans still don't know who Colin Allred is. I'd suggest that the poll results here are more reflective of where Texans are on Ted Cruz. 

RUDY KOSKI: Hurricane Beryl got political earlier in the week. President Biden claimed that, federal aid was slow to get to Texas because he wasn't able to reach Governor Greg Abbott or other state leaders. After the storm hit. Abbott and Lieutenant Governor and Chief Nim Kidd storming back, calling the president a liar. Brian, you know, there's a lot of pushback into all this, and it all comes at a time in regards to the president's mental capacity. So does it all play into that. 

BRIAN SMITH: Right now, for Biden, the bar is so high. Any semblance of what I'm doing right now, any small mistake flub, miscue is going to raise questions about his capability for office. 

MARK WIGGINS: But we've seen it in past disasters. Politicians aren't afraid to make federal aid political when the White House and the governor are from different parties. And, you know, I just think that's an unfortunate commentary on the state of our politics. 

BRAD JOHNSON: And one thing, it was kind of an on goal because it took a little bit of heat off Abbott for not being here in the States when this disaster struck. 

RUDY KOSKI: All right. Let's wrap it up with one word, and we'll start off with Mark. Mark, what's your word for the week? 

MARK WIGGINS: Decision. 

BRAD JOHNSON: Outages. 

BRIAN SMITH: CenterPoint. 

RUDY KOSKI: And that is This Week in Texas Politics. 

Texas PoliticsHurricanesGreg AbbottJoe Biden