McCall backs Pitts in campaign to unseat current speaker
Ed Sterling

A USTIN - As stated in this column a week

ago, when the

T e x a s Legislature convenes Jan. 9, the 150 members of the Texas House of Representatives will choose who among them will preside as speaker.

Last week, it seemed state Rep. Brian McCall, R-Plano, was going to give incumbent Speaker Tom Craddick, RMidland, a run for his money. But Rep. Jim Pitts, RWaxahachie, said he would challenge Craddick for the post. And then McCall, who claimed support from Republicans and Democrats, said he would support Pitts.

In effect, Pitts said he would preside over the House in a kinder, gentler fashion than Craddick, whose strongarm tactics have been described in many journals.

Pitts also told reporters he guaranteed he would win, but he declined when asked to produce a list of members who pledged to support him. But it is votes on the House floor, not pledge cards, that matter.

Whoever wins will need 76 votes - 50 percent of 150 seats in the House, plus one.

Craddick, 63, was elected speaker in January 2003 after serving 34 years as a House member. He was re-elected speaker in 2005.

Pitts, an attorney by trade, turned 60 years old on Jan. 1. He has been a House member for the last seven sessions, having been elected in 1992. Budget Board meeting is moved

Meanwhile, on a less political front, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Speaker Craddick on Jan. 3 jointly announced the postponing and rescheduling of a meeting of the L e g i s l a t i v e Budget Board.

They said: "We are firmly committed to delivering the nearly $14 billion in local school property tax relief approved by the legislature last May and promised to the people of Texas for the next biennium.

"It is clear, however, that we need more time to discuss the options for setting a new spending limit to allow for this tax relief with members returning to Austin next week."

Dewhurst and Craddick rescheduled the meeting to Jan. 11. At that meeting, they said, they plan to adopt the lowest spending limit recommended by the full LBB (Legislative Budget Board).

The 10-member board may meet during the legislative session to set a new spending limit as long as no budget action has been taken.

Dewhurst, Craddick and Pitts, who serves as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, are members of the LBB.

Other members include Sen. Steve Ogden, R-College Station, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee; Rep. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, chairman of the House Committee on Ways & Means; in addition to appointed members, Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston; Sen. Judith Zaffirini, DLaredo; Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock; and Rep. Sylvester Turner, DHouston; and Rep. Fred Hill, R-Richardson. Former House speaker dies

Billy Clayton, 78, died in a Lubbock hospital Jan. 6.

Clayton, who served in the Texas Legislature for 20 years, was speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from 1975 to 1983.

He had been working as a state capital lobbyist for many years before his death. Texas mourns President Ford

On Dec. 27, Gov. Rick Perry ordered all flags to be flown at half-staff in memory of former President Gerald R. Ford, who died Dec. 26.

State and national flags are to be flown at half-staff for 30 days.

Perry declared Jan. 2 an official day of mourning, excusing most state offices from work that day. Future library points toward SMU

The site selection committee for the George W. Bush presidential library is narrowing its focus to Southern Methodist University.

SMU seems to be in preparation. It is tearing down a condominium built on land recently acquired that could serve as a site for the library.

The full report is available online at window.state.tx.us. Ed Sterling is director of member services for the Texas Press Association in Austin.