Voting, campaign cash and hospitals join the border battle: This Week in Texas Politics

AUSTIN, Texas - Early voting is coming to a close with Election Day right around the corner, so let's break down This Week in Texas Politics.

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

RUDY KOSKI: Halloween is over, and This Week in Texas Politics, we certainly saw a lot of tricks and treating. Let's get our headlines from our panel. And we'll start first with Philip Jankowski with The Dallas Morning News. Phil, what's your headline for the week? 

PHILIP JANKOWSKI: Final stretch, Senate candidates take to the airwaves. 

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

BRAD JOHNSON: Democrats lacking enthusiasm in Early Voting. 

RUDY KOSKI: And political analyst Mark Wiggins. What's your headline for the week? 

MARK WIGGINS: Will the Bee Hive lead the K hive to the White House?

RUDY KOSKI: As early voting is wrapping up, campaign fundraising still going on. We got our new reports in. And Brad, you wrote a little bit about this. What struck you the most by who's getting the money? 

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BRAD JOHNSON: Well, first of all, Republicans are raking it in. I saw a Transparency USA graphic today that had total funds raised; Republicans 222 million in Texas, two Democrats, 54 million. Not sure how long back that extends, but that's a massive difference. Just massive. And if you look down further into all these races, you see Republicans getting pretty nervous about a few suburban districts, specifically in Harris County, Bexar County and Williamson County. 

MARK WIGGINS: You know, Rudy, you can't really talk about money without talking about the voucher issue. But that's why in this election, I think at the big level, more than any other, it's important for voters to do some research to find out who is funding the candidate that you're voting for or thinking you're voting for. 

RUDY KOSKI: Mark brings up a great point because there's been so much focus on the top of the ballot. But really the big fight here in Texas is all these House races. 

PHILIP JANKOWSKI: The real sort of theme that we're seeing on all of these is these are very like suburban districts, here. Those that are on the fringes of or the outskirts of the major urban cities. And so like, yeah, that's where, you know, that's where either party might be able to pick up or lose a seat. And that's why you're seeing Governor Abbott go out and campaign for some of these folks. 

RUDY KOSKI: One state lawmaker in the House who's on the hot seat is State Representative Jeff Leach. He got caught sending a text message to a court of criminal appeals judge in regards to the Robert Roberson case. That death row inmate, his case is so controversial. Now, AG Paxton is calling for his resignation, Leach's resignation. Brad did this, this was a curveball. 

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BRAD JOHNSON: Yeah. The fact that he did that in the first place is certainly surprising. I mean, Representative Leach is an attorney and he knows this stuff like the back of his hand. 

PHILIP JANKOWSKI: This is because of Leach's involvement. This becomes like a personal fight for Paxton, for him to call, for him to call for Leach's resignation, I think all stems back to the impeachment. And one of the most fascinating and intriguing things is that these guys used to be very close friends. 

MARK WIGGINS: I think the question that's really interesting to contemplate is what might the House do to reassert itself once the Session begins and it's in a position to exact some retribution. 

RUDY KOSKI: Another hot button issue in federal court is pro-Palestinian protesters filing a lawsuit against an order by the governor that cracked down on the protest on college campuses that happened a few months ago. A federal judge here in Austin gave the protesters a green light to move forward with their lawsuit. Brad, is this a big loss for the governor or is this just continue swinging this one out? 

BRAD JOHNSON: I don't think it's that big of a loss yet. I mean, it could turn into that, right, depending on what the court does. But, you know, the governor is clear, has been clear on this. He's going to push the issue, the envelope on this. He and all state Republicans and frankly, you know, the heads of U.T. have taken a pretty strong stance against letting the situation on the University of Texas campus or any of the any other one in the state become like that of the the Ivy Leagues that we saw. 

RUDY KOSKI: Another immigration issue starts today, November 1st. The Executive Order by the Governor, Greg Abbott, telling hospitals you have to start tracking all undocumented immigrants that come into your hospital for care. 

PHILIP JANKOWSKI: You know, it could be a prerequisite for some sort of legislative act. What that would be, we don't know. This is still in the infancy. We still haven't seen any. They're just now literally today being required to collect that data. So we don't know what we're going to see down, down the road. 

BRAD JOHNSON: We know hospitals, especially rural hospitals, are struggling with the costs incurred by illegal immigrants getting care. 

MARK WIGGINS: I think what it's clear it will do is is result in fewer people seeking care until they're probably at death's door or worse. 

RUDY KOSKI: Okay, Let's wrap up this week with just one word and we'll start with Philip. What's your word for the week, Philip? 

PHILIP JANKOWSKI: Vote, which I think I used as the last time. 

BRAD JOHNSON: I'll go with four words. Are we there yet?  

MARK WIGGINS: End game. 

RUDY KOSKI: And with that, we wrap up another week at Texas politics.