This Week in Texas Politics: Election Day 2024 is less than a month away

AUSTIN, Texas - The race for the White House is certainly the big political story right now, but there were other hot topics This Week in Texas Politics.

FOX 7 Austin chief political reporter Rudy Koski and his panel of experts discuss what happened in This Week in Texas Politics.

RUDY KOSKI: Let's get the headlines from our panel, and we'll start with Phillip Jankowski with The Dallas Morning News. Phillip, what's your headline?

PHILLIP JANKOWSKI: 4 Weeks. Just four more weeks.

RUDY KOSKI: Brian Smith with St Edward's University. What's your headline for the week?

BRIAN SMITH: It feels like summer, but Election Day is less than a month away.

RUDY KOSKI: Annie Spilman with Main Street Relations? What's your headline for the week?

ANNIE SPILMAN: Texas adds Business Courts as Statewide Caseload Grows.

RUDY KOSKI: And Brad Johnson from the Texas News. What's your headline for the week?

BRAD JOHNSON: Campaigns settle on wedge issues in the homestretch.

RUDY KOSKI: State lawmakers did some damage control during a hearing on the Texas Energy Fund this week. It involved what looked like a team up of two energy companies that made a short list for a special loan program to build power plants. But the problem was the application was not properly vetted by a contractor hired by the state named Deloitte. After a tongue lashing during the hearing, the contractor agreed to a $7 million penalty. So, Phillip, this kind of cuts into confidence in the fund. And, you know, could there be a ripple effect downstream?

PHILLIP JANKOWSKI: There might be a ripple effect on choosing Deloitte again to be an accounting firm when your vetting process is easily exposed as not sufficient by a Google search.

RUDY KOSKI: We saw a bizarre display of more internal fighting within the Texas GOP. Audio was released of members of the Dallas GOP committee reportedly saying that it was okay with them if a Democrat beat a local Republican. If that local Republican refused to sign a loyalty pledge to not support the appointment of Democrats to leadership positions in the state House. Brad, what's going on here?

BRAD JOHNSON: But it is an activist discussion point and it could, if they are advising voters not to support these two, especially embattled Republicans in Dallas County, the only two in the Texas House left in Dallas County. Mind you, you know, that could have ramifications down ballot for these members.

ANNIE SPILMAN: To me, this is the epitome of hypocrisy. This is the true example of cutting your nose off despite your face.

PHILLIP JANKOWSKI: That could have real effects on major policy issues. I'm thinking about the school voucher plan.

RUDY KOSKI: Top Republicans like Chip Roy and Ken Paxton this week continue to push a review of voter rolls. It's because of fears that undocumented immigrants have gotten their names on the list to vote, Brian, a review has already been done. Is this just a last minute panic button?

BRIAN SMITH: This is still trying to maximize your vote at this point. You can't register any new voters. So you're trying to remove old voters. You can also add the Biden-Harris administration is being soft on voter fraud to motivate the base. Downside, of course, is it cast doubts about the legitimacy of the election.

PHILLIP JANKOWSKI: As Bill Shakespeare wrote, Sound and Fury. Yada, yada, yada. They can demand all that.

RUDY KOSKI: I don’t remember reading that in sound and fury, Yada, yada.

PHILLIP JANKOWSKI: Yeah, it's somewhere in Macbeth, I think. But as you know, it's too late to remove voters from the rolls at this point.

BRAD JOHNSON: You know, I think it's important to note that there are ineligible voters that are registered. You know, Governor Abbott announced earlier this year, early in the summer, 6,500 that were suspected non-citizens being registered, taken off the rolls.

RUDY KOSKI: So, about getting people to the polls, North Texas Democrats brought out and brought in the chairman of the DNC for a big rally Wednesday in the Metroplex. Republicans, you know, they're doing a big push focusing in on the opposite end of the state in south Texas. Some seats, though, could flip like pancakes. So here's the question, Annie, which pancakes are you watching?

ANNIE SPILMAN: Now you're making me hungry. You know, I'm really looking at there's a seat, a Corpus, south of Corpus that's been a Democrat seat for a while. That one certainly Flippable. It's a woman that's running against Sergio Munoz who has name recognition there because of his father. And he's previously served. The Uvalde seat, you know, just kind of outside here in San Antonio, that has been held by a Democrat since the 90s. But Abbott carried that seat in 2022 by six points. So that's certainly flippable.

BRAD JOHNSON: Another one I'm watching that caught my eye that I wasn't expecting was HD 74. That's along the border, one of the largest districts in the state. Eddie Morales is the incumbent.

PHILLIP JANKOWSKI: Also want to point out district in Collin County. Mihael Plesa, that's a Democrat seat. She's the only Democrat representing Collin County, I believe.

RUDY KOSKI: You can catch our full discussion on the FOX 7 YouTube page, but let's get our final word for this discussion and we'll begin first with Phillip. What's your one word.

RUDY KOSKI: Vote.

RUDY KOSKI: Annie your word for the week.

ANNIE SPILMAN: In honor of the big game? Hook Em.

RUDY KOSKI: Brian, your word for the week.

BRIAN SMITH: End game.

RUDY KOSKI: Brad, your word.

BRAD JOHNSON: Looking ahead to next week, we'll go with debate.

RUDY KOSKI: And with that, it's another week in Texas politics.