This Week in Texas Politics: Border crisis, Paxton deposition and the 2024 primaries

AUSTIN, Texas - Politics didn't take a holiday break. This week was another busy one with a lot of maneuvering and rhetoric. 

FOX 7 Austin’s chief political reporter Rudy Koski and a panel of analysts discussed the big headlines for "This Week in Texas Politics."

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RUDY KOSKI: Christmas is next week. And the new year, well, it's just around the corner. But the week in Texas politics, well, that's been anything but cheerful and bright. Let's see how bright with our headlines from our panel. And we'll start first with business analyst Annie Spilman. Annie, what's your headline for the week? 

ANNIE SPILMAN: It's a Christmas miracle, Austin. Peter Pan Mini Golf gets a six-month lease extension on Barton Springs Road.

RUDY KOSKI: Brian Smith with Saint Edward's University. What's your headline, Brian?  

BRIAN SMITH: Colorado gives Donald Trump a lump of political coal for Christmas.  

RUDY KOSKI: Mark Jones with Rice University. Mark, what's your headline?  

MARK JONES: Abbott doubles down on immigration and his relationship with Chicago.  

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

BRAD JOHNSON: Lawsuits, Lawsuits galore.

Abbott and the border crisis

RUDY KOSKI: Now the crisis on the border certainly intensified this week. Gov. Abbott has moved from buses to putting migrants on jet planes. And immigration advocates, well, they filed a federal lawsuit to take on the Texas law allowing local authorities to arrest illegal immigrants. Brian, both will carry over into 2024, certainly. But I think the migrant trips that may provide the more immediate impact. Do you think so too?  

BRIAN SMITH: Yeah. I mean, knew that the law would be immediately challenged by civil rights groups. So he says, if I win, I win. But if not, I can go back to blaming the Biden administration. So that's a push where the real impact is, is the switching from buses to planes, because that's giving us all the visuals that Abbott wants.  

ANNIE SPILMAN: Gov. Abbott and southern border states are still going to push and use their leverage like planes, trains and automobiles to move migrants out of the state. Regardless of criticism about using taxpayer dollars, some would say it's worth it.  

RUDY KOSKI: Mark, a new poll came out this week that said only a slight majority of people in that poll supported arresting undocumented migrants down on the Texas border. You know, that really shows how divided the state is on this on this issue, right?  

MARK JONES: Well, it's divided, but if you parse out the "don't knows" it's about 60/40, that is 3/5, favor the Abbott policy. 2/5 oppose it. And among Republicans, which is where Greg Abbott is focused right now, it's virtually unanimous. So for Abbott, this continues to be a winning policy.  

RUDY KOSKI: Brad, Mark brings up a good point. You know, this may be a win-win because even if he loses in court on this lawsuit, this really works well with the political base. What are you hearing? 

BRAD JOHNSON: You know, we'll have to see if on this bill, specifically, if the juice is worth the squeeze, what problems arise from it. But looking at the busing program, you know, that was that's turned into a win. And maybe this does, too.  

Ken Paxton deposition

RUDY KOSKI: Now, a Travis County judge has ordered Attorney General Ken Paxton to go through a deposition in a lawsuit by several of his former employees. They blew the whistle on Paxton's extramarital affair and his efforts to help a political donor fight off a bank fraud investigation. Now, he will have to testify under oath, something that he avoided during his impeachment trial. Brad, the depositions may happen in late January, just in time for the primary season. So is this a big loss for Paxton? Does this take the wind out of his sails?  

BRAD JOHNSON: I don't think it changes anything in terms of his revenge tour against House Republicans. Now, regardless of how this case winds up, there's going to be a huge group of people with egg on their face, whether it's the whistleblowers, Speaker Phelan, and those behind him, you know, if nothing really changes from the impeachment trial. And then on the other side, if something crazy comes out and the whistleblowers are vindicated, you know, Paxton and his allies are going to have egg on their face.  

ANNIE SPILMAN: I think what's going to happen here is that those Republicans that are being primaried and where the Paxton effect might take place, those Republicans are really going to need to focus on what they did do, during session, the pro workforce bills that they passed, the pro-business bills that they did, and not let it be cloaked by, you know, the trial and some of these other things and, you know, really let the politics take over there.

2024 presidential primaries

RUDY KOSKI: The Texas GOP has decided to hand count some ballots in the March primary, all the Republican votes and Gillespie County. And in Travis County, the local GOP has the option to hand count, mail-in and early voting ballots. While there was some pushback by Democrats this could help put to rest some doubts about the electronic voting machines, I think. Annie, the leaders from both parties reached an agreement on this in Travis County. That's a good thing. Compromise can happen, right?

ANNIE SPILMAN: I do think it's very interesting that in Travis County, that they went to a watered down version of the hand counting, even though they were proponents of doing it altogether in the first place.  

MARK JONES: It highlights one of the most pernicious aspects of Donald Trump is that Trump and Republicans who have followed him have undermined confidence in, trust in, our electoral system and election administration without any real evidence. That is, there is no election fraud. There are no problems with our voting machines. At the end of the day, even if there are some minor problems, which occasionally there are in large jurisdictions, a hand counting is not the way to go.  

BRIAN SMITH: Yeah, there's not a lot to be gained here and a lot to be lost. I just think back to like Florida in 2000 and I thought we all learned our lesson about how ineffective hand counting was then. And we have to remember that was just one election. You're going to have to do this for every single race on the ballot. And once you bring humans into the equation, the possibility for human error and then cost increases. And I just don't see this being an effective way to count votes.

RUDY KOSKI: Yeah, thank God we don't have the dangling chad situation anymore. It's just going to be that, you know what marker was used, right? 

Final words

RUDY KOSKI: Let's wrap up this week with our final word for the week. Brad, we'll start with you. What's your word for the week?  

BRAD JOHNSON: Eggnog, preferably spiked.  

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

ANNIE SPILMAN: Well, I sort of use that one, anticipation.  

RUDY KOSKI: Brian, your word summed up.  

BRIAN SMITH: Iowa. The first caucus is less than a month away.  

RUDY KOSKI: Mark, closed out this week with one word.  

MARK JONES: Amen.  

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