The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - December 29, 2023

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free Gonzales Flag t-shirt with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion. Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast. This week, the team discusses our top 10 stories from the Texas political scene this year — marked by the impeachment of a statewide official, an expulsion of a legislator, raging policy fights, and feuding state leaders.Thanks for listening, and Happy New Year!

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLullo here and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. This week, the team discusses our top 10 stories from the Texas political scene this year, marked by the impeachment of a statewide official, an expulsion of a legislator, raging policy fights, and feuding state leaders. Thanks for listening. Happy New Year and enjoy this episode. Howdy, folks. It's Mackenzie here with Brad, Hayden, and Cameron on our final episode of 2023. Whoop whoop. Whoop whoop. Yay.

Woo. It is impossible for Brad to conjure enthusiasm. I know. Unless, I guess we could start talking about unfunded pension liabilities. Then he might get excited. Oh, wait, Hayden, you should talk about that. Explain what you're talking about. So 99% of the time, Brad's responses are pretty straight-laced. But last Friday, I was working on the most benign issue in an article.

And I messaged Brad an article. And I said, is this your most recent article about the Dallas pension system and he texts me back in all caps you're writing about unfunded pension liabilities I'm so excited five exclamation points it was awesome what what drew you to respond that way um your sheer love of of covering the issue important issue and no one really gives a crap about it so that is true um hearing that someone else was writing about it was exciting obviously yeah all caps brad i know that's unless you're unless you're yelling at me that's unusual for you that's the only other time I use all caps. We were laughing yesterday talking about it because Hayden was sharing that story. And I said, honestly, if you wouldn't have known what the topic was, you would have thought or who was writing it, it would have been like, is this a Mac message? Right. I did a double take at the message because for a split second, I thought it was you. But then I remembered it was about unfunded pension liabilities. To be fair, I was being a bit overzealous on purpose, but I was intrigued that you were asking me about something nobody's ever asked me about.

Yeah, that's very true. But it was exciting nonetheless, and I liked hearing that you had gotten excited enough to respond in all caps. In a work slack, nonetheless. Case in point, we're all a bunch of nerds here a bunch of nerds cameron i want to shout you out you've been feeling so poorly all week and now you're recording from your apartment surrounded by coats and shirts and clothes and trying to get the best sound possible for us at your apartment just say he's in the closet shout out cameron i was about to you took my punchline sorry mylanta yeah well i am surrounded by my wardrobe here what you don't see is the giant wall of shoes as well so um and they're and they're my running shoes so these

aren't the most pleasant smelling things. I'm powering through for you guys. He's powering through. Because this is the most important pod of the year. The wrap up. The wrap up. The wrap up, the rundown, etc. Well, on that note, let's go ahead and jump into it. Today, we're running through our top 10 stories of 2023.

There's a corresponding article up at thetexan.news. Make sure to go read it, check it out. But Hayden, we're going to start with you. And these are in no particular order. We're just going to run through these stories. It's very difficult to choose 10. We had like 14 at one point, had to whittle it down, but I think we landed on a pretty solid top 10 here. So this is no particular order. Once we get to the end of the pod, we will all go through and kind of rank our top three. That's how we're doing this. So in no particular order, although I think this one is actually chosen for first place, Hayden, let's talk about the Paxton impeachment of Texas's attorney general. Why was this impeachment such a big deal? When I first heard the news that Ken Paxton could possibly be impeached by the House of Representatives, I remember reflecting on how historically significant

that would be. The charges against Paxton represented some of the most serious corruption allegations in Texas history, and the proceedings themselves reanimated portions of the most serious corruption allegations in Texas history. And the proceedings themselves reanimated portions of the Texas Constitution that have not been used in the past century at this level on a statewide elected official. So it was extremely interesting and it felt very heavy to witness these lawmakers use this process to confront a statewide elected official. But I think this is such a huge story for this year because of how unique it was. There's nothing quite like this has happened in Texas history. And because of the political implications of this decision by the House

to impeach Paxton and then the rebuffing of that by the Senate and its acquittal of Paxton. What can we say about some of the political fallout? We talk a lot about how this is not, this is a political trial at the end of the day. It's not a judge and jury in any sort of actual courthouse or judicial proceeding. So let's talk specifically about what the political fallout looked like. If y'all haven't heard our podcast series that we produced during the Paxton impeachment, I would encourage everyone to go back and listen to that because it's hard for me to capture everything that happened during that trial and everything that happened leading

up to it. But as Mac just pointed out, this was an extremely politicized process. It wasn't a traditional judge and jury, and the political implications of this will likely last for years. This is an issue in the 2024 primary cycle, and it will likely be one of the defining issues of voters who go to the polls. And as they remember how their lawmaker voted on impeaching Paxton, it is, I can't think of anything else aside from perhaps, you know, Obamacare way back in the day, that was a huge issue. How, how much Republicans are pushing back on something like Obamacare. And then where people stood on Trump, that was a huge thing in 2016 and 2018.

But this is so much more intimate for Texas voters because it's Ken Paxton. It's really intimate for North Texas voters because that's his stomping grounds. And it's just up close and personal. And Ken Paxton is viewed by many grassroots conservatives as their guy, their advocate. So this is so personal for so many people that the House would impeach Paxton. And it became personal between Lieutenant Governor Patrick and Speaker Phelan. So the political ramifications of this in Texas are immense. And that to me is, aside from the corruption allegations themselves, that to me is really what set this impeachment apart. Yeah, no kidding. So let's talk about the actual day. What are some of your memories of the day that the decisions were read? I will never forget how quiet the House chamber was when the vote to impeach Paxton took place. I don't know that I have ever been in a room with that many people that got that quiet. I've never been in the House chamber where there were so many reporters there at the same time. Everyone was staring at the voting boards to see where everyone came down on that vote. And ultimately,

it was the decision that would change everything from that point forward. And I said this right after the acquittal, and I'll say it again. I don't think Texas history will ever be quite the same as it would have been had this impeachment not taken place. But the absolute silence in that room as everyone waited to find out if this was going to be the political reality in Texas going forward is something I will not forget. And I remember in the Senate chamber when the decision was read of his acquittal, this wasn't, like you said, it wasn't a traditional judge and jury. So it wasn't just waiting for a court clerk to say guilty or not guilty. The Secretary Patsy Spah in the Senate had to read the vote for each article and they voted right then. It wasn't like they made

their decision back in a room and then they came out and announced their decision. It was happening in real time in front of us. And ironically, a storm rolled into Austin as they were reading the vote. And it just added to the drama of that moment as it became clear. And, and there, there was no gambler's fallacy to be committed there. We, everybody knew that it only took one conviction or it only took those senators sustaining one of those articles to, to take the kill shot to Paxton's political career.

So there was taking, there was no taking anything for granted, but is certainly as, as each decision was read, and as one article after the other was defeated, it certainly seemed in that moment that things were going to turn out okay for Paxton. And after all of that, it's still not over. He still has the criminal cases. He still has the allegations of his former employees. So even after everything that has happened in the accusations against Paxton, he still has a long road ahead and his accusers still have a long road ahead

in getting what they believe to be a just outcome in this case, in these cases. Yeah, absolutely. And we're heading into a primary season where this is going to be one of the top big topics that we're going to be talking about for a long time. So it's a litmus test for endorsement from the attorney general. So fascinating, historic, unbelievable. And Hayden, you were there for it all. And yes, folks, if you want more details on that, we recorded a pod every single day during the trial. So we have all sorts of resources in our podcast feed, so check that out. Cameron, we're coming to you.

Another of our top 10, school choice. It's one of those issues that could not find any resolution, however, this year. So give us insight into what happened. Yeah, that's right. It seemed like Abbott was incredibly adamant about trying to pass school choice this year. All the way back in January 2022, he was touting school choice as one of his major initiatives. And he continued to double and triple down on that. And he was meeting with the American Federation for Children, especially individual like Corey DeAngelis was very outspoken here in Texas. And, you know, we talked with Corey during the session and it was all about school choice for Abbott coming in to the 88th legislative session.

And it seemed like he had a lot of backing as well. During our kickoff event, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, he reiterated his support for school choice. So it seemed like the governor was all in, the lieutenant governor was all in. But when you turned to the House, you could see there was some skepticism, especially from Dade Phelan, who said there might not be the votes there. And we started to see that happen as the session went along, even though Senator Brandon Creighton, he really took the lead on school choice. He introduced a bill that included education savings accounts, and the Senate was able to pass that fairly quickly during the regular session. But the first sign of trouble we saw in the House was the Herrera Amendment that would have prohibited school choice funding in the state

budget. And that really just spelled disaster for the rest of the year, because that was our first hit. And there was lots of attempts during the regular session, even up until the last day. It seemed like they were trying to introduce school choice in some sort of legislation and last minute called committee hearings, introduce language that related to school choice. So they were really trying during the regular choice, but you started to see the feuding between the chambers start to heat up a lot. And we even saw at the federal level, Ted Cruz jumped into the mix and was saying Texas needs to pass school choice. All these other states are passing school choice. Why can't Texas get it done? And then we got around to the fourth special session,

and it was explicit, pass school choice. Abbott was very explicit about if an education bill got to his desk that didn't have school choice, he would veto it. So there was lots of focus on that. But you could see there was the House Democrats, they were not going to pass school choice. They were holding multiple public press conferences. They called it a voucher scam. And at one point, they said, Republicans should stop focusing on, quote, wacko libertarian ideals.

So they were coming very hard with the rhetoric. And we saw there was lots of focus on that floor debate. The floor was packed with reporters and cameras and people in the gallery for HB1, which at first we thought, okay, Abbott has said he was some disagreement about what was included in it. Then they reintroduced it for the fourth special session. Once it got to the floor, immediately, we saw the dreaded John Rainey amendment, which removed education savings accounts. And there was lots of debate about that, lots of back and forth, people on the back mic voicing their opinion about school choice. And eventually it was voted on and it passed, the amendment passed, and it killed all hopes of school choice this year. But we started to see

a bit of the fallout from that. Abbott has already endorsed 58 incumbents who have voted against the stripping of ESAs. And he continues to throw his support against behind pro school choice candidates. And I think school choice, again, is going to be one of the big issues in the next legislative session. And I think it'll play a big role in how people vote, because it seems as though all as polling has indicated, there's lots of support from Republicans. Republican voters for school choice. And so if the during the elections, if that's something that candidates are focused on in trying to convince people that they will vote for school choice or they have in the past, I think that could swing some elections. So something to keep your eye on for our listeners and something to look forward to as well. This debate is not over.

No kidding. Cameron, what a great rundown. And I think it's hard to overstate how consequential that HB1 vote was because up until then, no school choice bill had made it to the House floor all year. And for many years prior to that, we had not seen a school choice bill explicitly make it to the floor with any sort of provision. The only time we'd had these, you know, a chance for members to put their name on the issue on a vote was the Herrero Amendment, right? So something that was just added to the budget. We had no, and we had a couple of test votes this year, but those are really the only time. So on the eve of HB1, I mean, the tension was high. We started seeing interviews come out from folks saying, you know, some more rural Republicans being very skeptical.

And we really didn't know how it was going to go down. So a fascinating time and certainly something that will continue to bleed over into the next legislative session. And, you know, like you were saying, the governor has been very stalwart in his support of the issue. So we'll continue to watch that for sure. Brad, let's move to something that, gosh, this feels like so long ago. And if you would have asked us like, you know, nine months ago, what the biggest story of 2023 would be, this might have been our choice. But really, so much has happened since then. It's been a crazy year in Texas politics. the edge of our seat watching some huge scandals go down in the House and trying to figure out what the General Investigating Committee was with a lot of different investigations. Turns out later that would be the Paxton impeachment. I mean, so much was happening behind the scenes that we did not know about. What's the timeline for this particular scandal?

So things really started circulating on budget night, i believe was april 6th might have been april 7th um but the the reason for questions and and um the rumors circulating was slayton representative brian slayton was absent on budget day and the reason that's surprising is because he, there's so many amendments that are filed during budget day, trying to add stuff, uh, remove stuff from the budget. That's like, that's what he lives for, uh, or lived for. Um, when he was in the, in the chamber, filing amendments, trying to kill to kill stuff um he did that constantly a lot more than you know bringing bills to the floor that that was kind of his role right yeah and um you know professionally that meant that he rubbed a lot of people the wrong way and people

didn't didn't like that uh personally you know I've heard from a lot of people that, you know, he wasn't the most beloved member of the chamber, but he wasn't the most hated either, purely personally. So his absence on budget and I was very surprising. And without them there, I mean, frankly, it kind of went fairly quickly. Part of that was the maneuver that it did. More rumors had circulated, questions about why he wasn't there. He hired a criminal defense attorney, and things really started to heat up from there. Weeks go by as the General Investigating Committee opens up Matter B, which we all ostensibly knew at the time was looking into Slayton, an allegation against him. Screenshots eventually were put out, were leaked, that screenshots of an email complaint to the General Investigating Committee that alleged he had an inappropriate sexual relationship

with a 19-year-old intern in his office. And that was the centerpiece of the investigation. That interaction, the committee later reported, occurred on March 31st. And during that, he, there's a whole report. If you want to read the entire thing, you can. I won't go into all the details. But during that interaction, during the incident, he gave, he provided alcohol to the intern who was below 21. That's an actual crime legally. And so they recommended his expulsion on May 6.

And then a few days later, the House voted unanimously to expel Slayton. That was a very solemn day. Um, you know, even given his, uh, antagonism towards leadership, uh, which he, that was his brand, right. Um, it was clear there wasn't a lot of pleasure taken from the situation, at least on the whole. It was a very serious situation and it was it's not something that's been done much at all. So obviously something that's very, very serious required a serious response. He tried to get around the expulsion vote by resigning the day before, a resignation letter that was not accepted, and the House ultimately voted to expel him. Let's talk about the historical significance of this.

When's the last time this has happened? What's the context? It was the first expulsion of a House member since 1927, about a century. When F.A. Dale and H.H. Moore were accused of bribery, they were summarily expelled from the body and it hadn't happened since then. So I think there was one in the 1880s that was expelled as well. But this is rarely used and is reserved for the most serious of incidents. And this certainly meant that. Absolutely.

So where do things go from here for his district? We're currently in the middle of an HG2 special election. The top two finishers are now in a runoff. That's Brent Money, who finished first, and Jill Dutton, who finished second. That race is just a massive proxy war for the broader divide in the GOP. The warring factions of the party are pouring money and resources in trying to flip the seat their way.

It's a red seat. This is going to be about Republicans choosing a Republican. There was a Democrat in the race and there will be in the primary or in the general election next year, but the seat is just so red that whoever wins this GOP primary

is going to be the representative. January 30th is the date of the special election runoff. Whoever wins that gets the right to finish out the term. And then the same two candidates are on the ballot a month later for the primary. So it would be interesting if one wins to finish out the seat and the other wins the primary. Probably not going to happen. Those things are just kind of rare, but it is possible. And that would be an interesting situation. But

they're basically not going to leave the campaign trail. They're going to go right from the special runoff to the primary. And from there, it's only two, I think. I believe so. So there will be no runoff. It'll be for all the marbles on March 5th. We're going to stick with you, Brad, and talk about another issue here that seems like it was so long ago. It was a long process, but eventually the legislature settled on property tax reform in what form it would take. Give us the details. So the deal that was settled on is ultimately $13 billion in new relief. Everyone likes to say the $18 billion number in terms of new relief, it's $13 billion. That is on top of the roughly $5.3 billion that was put in the budget.

So regardless of what happened with this property tax fight, that $5.3 billion would have still been dispersed in tax rate compression. So there's that. The final plan has a $60,000 increase in the standard homestead exemption. That's something the Senate fought a lot for and really dug their heels in on, and they got. The other $7 billion in the plan is to reduce ISD tax rates further than the compression that I just mentioned that's in the budget. It also has a 20% appraisal cap on non-homestead properties valued at or under $5 million. Now that's a three-year trial run. It could get extended by the legislature in a few years. Maybe it doesn't, we'll see. But that's something the house wanted, although they got

less than what they originally asked for. And finally, there were a few others. There's a franchise tax exception. They raised the bar for that. So the number of businesses that will have to file a franchise tax filing are fewer because the bar got raised. And then there are now three elected positions to appraisal review boards, something also the house really wanted. Uh, and they got that. Those positions will be elected at the local election, I believe in May next year. So that's generally where it is. And now that the constitutional amendment passed, there's no more roadblocks.

It's all happening. The average homeowner in Texas will see about a $1,200 reduction in their tax bill compared to what it would have been without it. That's not a reduction in the previous year's tax bill. So regardless, that's a huge chunk of money and legislators are rightfully touting that. The problem is now that money has to be appropriated in perpetuity going forward unless they, or if they don't, property tax bills will then rise. So as always with property taxes, it's a weedy, complicated issue. And it was just a massive fight to get there. No kidding. So let's talk about that process of getting to the final version of the bill. So initially, there were two plans, both had compression. Senate wanted an appraisal or a

homestead exemption increase. I think it was originally to $70,000. So what they originally asked for, they ended up getting more, about $30,000 more. And the original plan also had about $30,000 in an even higher homestead exemption for elderly and disabled homeowners. That was contrasted with the house's plan that had also compression, but wanted a 5% appraisal cap on all property. The Senate said, no, that is not happening. And they did kill that. The House eventually gave in on it. Throughout this debate, it got quite personal, especially between the lieutenant governor and speaker.

There were memes thrown at each other. There was a point where they were only communicating in warring tweets, tweets, tweets, memes on Twitter. And eventually there were there was a rush at the last minute to get something across the line the house sent a deal over that um had i think most of if not all of the homestead exemption increase that the senate wanted but also had an appraisal cap senate balked at it did not want it so that means we go to an immediate special session two hours, maybe not even that long after Siney die. The governor calls a special session immediately to address property taxes. Chiefly also had some border stuff, but the house the next day passed in all compression plan they changed plans uh siding with the governor um governor's proposal to just put everything towards compression and then they adjourned sine die that commenced a

30-day standoff between the two chambers senate still in session calling for the house to come back and pass a bill with a homestead exemption increase that eventually the time the clock ran out on that special so we had a second special during which uh governor abbott um actually this might have been during the first special abbott vetoed uh a ton of bills he set a new record many of which specifically cited the property tax standoff. He did that as retribution, initially trying to get some action, but the standoff continued. And then eventually during the second special, they settled on the deal that I just mentioned, described. And now we're looking ahead to 2025. Maybe

this issue, this issue will not go away. Um, maybe they decide to not do anything big on it because they just did something on it. But in 2019, the biggest story of the session was property taxes along with school funding. Well, 2023, it was property taxes. Are we going to be in the same spot in 2027? If the pattern holds, we shall see. Absolutely. Cameron, we're going to come to you next. Talking about a big social issue here.

The end of child gender modification in Texas caught national attention. Obviously, a very divisive issue, but also there was protests, there were disruptions to the process. Tell us about the final version of this bill. Yeah, it really seemed like this was one of the more hotly contested pieces of legislation that was being brought up during the 88 legislative session. And that's for the exact reason you mentioned. There were protests. There were gallery outbursts. There was an arrest.

And that was all happening on the House floor. And that doesn't even mention leading up to the vote. So there were two bills that were filed, one in the House, one in the Senate. Donna Campbell in the Senate took the lead there. Rep. Tom Olverson took the lead in the House. And the committee hearings were hours upon hours long. I was sitting watching these hearings. I was visiting them and they were going well past midnight. Hundreds of people were signed up. And that's because in Texas, it's still a very big issue. There are debates on both sides of this issue on how to handle children that are experiencing gender dysphoria. And with one

side saying there needs to be what is called gender affirming care. And then the other side that says, no, there needs to be counseling therapy and at least waiting until the children are 18 years old so they can then make a decision. There's no reason to intervene when they're this young. And so these debates were lasting hours. Once the bills got to the House floor, like I was saying earlier, there was outbursts, people waving flags and signs. And at one point, Dade Phelan shut everything down and cleared the gallery. And that was very surprising, but it seemed like it was warranted because of just how loud things were getting on the house floor. And

at one point someone got arrested for resisting being removed from the gallery. So there was lots of moments that were eye-opening for just the casual observer, not just to mention all the reporters that were watching this. But during the House floor debate, there was a very notable moment. You might expect this would be a partisan vote, But at one point, a Democrat representative, Sean Theory, she stood up and gave a very impassioned speech in support of the legislation. And that caught a lot of people by surprise. And it moved a lot of Republicans to voice support for her. And it was very interesting to see, because I was down there on the House floor watching this, and she was very emotional during this vote. But it's important to mention as well that polling has shown that majority of Texas

voters do not support the gender modification intervention. So a passage of a piece of legislation like this is in alignment with the majority of Texans that have been polled, lots of polls that I have seen over the past year. But after SB 14 was passed immediately, tied up in litigation, Travis then filed an opinion on a separate emergency motion for temporary relief and denied a plaintiff's appeal, which then thus allows the bill to go into effect. So long journey, lots of ups and downs, lots of interesting moments. But this is an issue that continues to be on the forefront of the minds of many Texans. I'm sure our listeners have seen many stories published from other outlets and artists as well that the issue of how to handle children with gender dysphoria is still on the forefront of many minds here in Texas. Cameron, is there anything down the road that you envision the legislature needing or wanting to address on this issue again, or is this kind of the be all end all? Well, there's always possibilities for edge cases to appear. Like there's nothing I can envision in terms of legislation that could be proposed.

It was pretty, they fought it out pretty well during the regular sessions. But I can anticipate edge cases in terms of how to treat different conditions when it comes to children and possibility of different interventions with these different kinds of drugs that are used. So I think there's going to be more of legal edge cases that come up rather than that are handled in the courts rather than in legislation. There you go. Well, Cameron, thank you so much. And obviously, one of the biggest issues socially, I think this is our really only our big social issue we have on the pod today. So a huge one. And it's just a real day on the Texas House floor. But we had many of those this year. Brad, we're going to come back to you. Property of Texas was really the first big issue

that divided, at least publicly, Patrick and Phelan. Well, this year. This year, yes, this year. But we've seen that that has really devolved into absolute chaos between the two leaders of the chambers and the legislature. Give us a rundown of how we got here. So I think we talked a bit about this feud on a podcast a month or two ago. First time I really saw these two come at odds so publicly and fiercely was over the electricity repricing dispute in 2021 following the blackouts. That followed with the constitutional carry fight. You know, the Senate threw over the

repricing bill that the House didn't want to pass. So the House threw over constitutional carry that the Senate was less than enthusiastic about passing. And from there, it's just kind of tit for tat, you know. But yeah, really, really sped up with the property tax fight, seemingly over a really, I won't call it mundane because I enjoy this policy issue. But it was a hard issue politically to wage for voters like they're trying to win voters over here in public opinion and it's a hard issue to do that with because it's so technical when you're when you're debating the virtues of a homestead exemption increase versus an appraisal cap you know i am i was loving the policy dispute over that but uh the average

person doesn't give a rip um so I will say also at the end Brad you are so done with it that's true I was you were very done with it I was yeah I mean how many times can I write the same article over and over again here's what an appraisal cap is here's what a homestead exemption is so that just made the rift really, really large. I would say, um, the, then we got to impeachment and the, the house impeached attorney general Ken Paxton that sparked a Senate trial that the Lieutenant governor had to oversee. Um, the Lieutenant governor said at one point that in the closing days of the regular session,

Speaker Phelan was in there in his office to discuss a compromise on property taxes, and Patrick asked Phelan as he's walking out the door, are you guys really about to impeach Paxton and he goes

well that's I don't know anything about that that's up to the general investigating committee so that is something that Patrick was irritated enough about to continue mentioning over and over again then of course at the conclusion of the trial we saw him

just berate the house and feeling he stayed quiet the entire trial yeah and just let it rip and then yep and so that was you know quite obviously um the the speaker did not appreciate that. And so he responded in kind with his own statement saying, you know, it's clear that the the whole thing was was orchestrated. Yes, I believe. And I think he also said, citing Patrick getting a $3 million combined donation and loan from Defend Texas Liberty, which backed Paxton heavily during the trial, was running ads, putting up billboards in districts, things like that. And he feel and accused him of basically taking a bribe, essentially. It's devolved so much that now Patrick has called for Phelan to resign multiple times. And basically, he hasn't gone so far as to back Phelan's primary challenger. But at the same time, he said, I'm not getting involved in House races.

He also said voters should be should ask their their representatives if they support feel and speakership. And if they do, you should vote against them. It's kind of having a foot in both lanes there. But it just shows how bad the relationship is between these two. And frankly, there's no sign of it getting better. What does that mean going forward for, you know, for sessions in the future? It's not good. You know, if you can't get property taxes somewhat easily across the line, you know, notwithstanding some policy disputes, something that all Republicans agree on, then the relationship is clearly just tarnished. And Patrick has an easier vantage point because he's elected popularly every four years.

Phelan's majority is constantly in flux. He has to preserve a 76 member majority. And so Patrick has, you know, more, more cushion, I would say. And he's got the upper hand because of that, but nothing's really going to change unless one or either of the, those two offices changes the person that's holding them. So I guess we'll see. But gosh, it's been venomous between the two. No kidding. Absolutely. So let's move on to our next section here. Brad, this is you again. Four special sessions this year is how many we've had. How's this year rank historically on how many special sessions the legislature has been reconvened for? So the Texas legislature was in session longer this year than any other year in the state's

history. Across the 140-day regular session and four specials, legislators spent 246 days in session. That's over two-thirds of the year. It's the largest number of special sessions held in one calendar year in Texas history as well. There have been biennium, biennia, bienniums? I don't know. Biennias. You're doing a great job. Something that had more specials, but none had more in one calendar year.

And we almost, there was a lot of talk about having a fifth immediately that would be going on right now as we sit here. But that's obviously not going to happen. All eyes seem to be on the primary especially governor abbott's so um that's kind of where it's going to end i think but it leaves legislators just at odds with one another irritated with one another when you spend that much time in a building with take your siblings you know uh my siblings and i fought all the time and a large part of the reason was because we were

in the same house for every day my sister and i almost killed each other over a game of elf monopoly the other day so um you know that's just if you you're in one spot with so many people. And if you're not conditioned to it. Right. The legislature is the Texas legislature is used to being together for six months every other year and not being together as much as other legislatures in other states. So this is not their their their conditioning is not up to par for this kind of thing. And the fact that this is not a full time job. Yeah.

And they're not getting paid like a full-time job. They can't move on with their lives until that stuff gets wrapped up. Right. You don't even know where you live. Do I live in Austin? Do I live in my district? There's just, there are too many unknown variables for them to play in anything. Yeah.

And you know, the other kind of argument is, well, you guys signed up for this. Yeah, they signed up for it. And that's fair, but also know they have families they have jobs businesses to run this i don't think did much at all to help um especially the governor get the policies he wanted across the line but there was also probably no getting school choice across the line at the moment as the governor wanted it that's why he's turning the primaries and hoping to flip some seats and i'm sorry i i've just I've never heard any on the House floor. Sometimes when people get bored, they'll start shouting, vote, vote, call the question.

I've never heard that shouted out so many times than when they were talking about school choice. Yeah. Because they all already knew how they felt about it. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I heard at the closing end of the regular session um just constantly so it's yeah it maybe a year apart from each other will temper um you know some some passions absence makes the heart grow fonder right right good

luck with that with primaries and abbott and Paxton and school choice and impeachment all being at the heart of it. But who knows? Brad, thanks for doing it. What a year. Yeah, seriously, what a year. Let's continue on this. This is something that largely was dealt with outside of the legislature almost entirely, the trial of Daniel Perry. Hayden, you were there at the courthouse for so much of this from start to finish.

What was the historical significance of the prosecution of Daniel Perry? We talked about the Ken Paxton impeachment earlier, and that was certainly historically significant. However, in this case, a human life was lost, and you can't say that about the Ken Paxton impeachment. So I think this story competes for, it probably is the most consequential story that I covered in terms of the human impact of it and the result of a man losing his liberty rightfully or wrongfully. The historical significance of this is the clash between an avowed progressive district attorney's 2020. Perry contended that he acted in self-defense. I had an extended conversation with Perry's attorney, Doug O'Connell, earlier this year. We have that interview on our website. If anyone is interested in this case, I recommend

y'all go and watch that interview because I unpack many of the arguments that were made at trial. And we have plenty of articles on our website about the trial with summarizing some of the testimony that was presented. But this case goes to what happened in downtown Austin during those riots and demonstrations, and it implicated self-defense issues, whether one believes that Perry did act in self-defense or not. The argument of self-defense and whether this was an application of a legitimate self-defense claim was on full display. And for in a place like Austin, where everything was so politically charged, it made it even more significant, especially because Governor Abbott, as soon as Perry was convicted, came forward and said, I will pardon this man. If the pardon board recommends a pardon, he can't do that unilaterally. And that decision

still has not been made by the board of pardons and paroles. But I can't think of another case, and I don't know if there has been, where the governor has immediately come forward, come out after someone was convicted of murder and said, I will pardon that person. Because Abbott said that the jury was engaging in jury nullification of Texas self-defense laws. There's plenty more I could say about it, but suffice to say that there was so much politics wrapped up in this prosecution that it made it one of the most significant stories in Texas history this year. Absolutely. So what are some of your memories from the trial? Obviously, a murder trial is extremely emotional. I did have the opportunity to speak with many of the people involved, and there's just so much emotion on both sides. Obviously, you have a family who has lost their son, their brother, and you have another family who was facing and the amount of weapons and the amount of

violence that happened in that moment. But I remember being taken aback by the DA recommending a 25-year prison sentence. And as much as the DA's office and the victim family members accused this Perry of murder. I think the DA's office recommending what is arguably a low prison sentence for a murder conviction captures that even the prosecutors understood that this was a complicated case. And the jury, the courtroom is very heavy during closing arguments, but the jury determined that this was a murder and that Perry should be punished as a murderer. Could Perry's convictions have implications for the future? I've thought about that question a lot about this trial. My mind does wander back to it sometimes. And if that conviction had any broader implications, because I think while

I was covering the trial, I assumed that it did. And I know one thing that I talked about with Perry's attorney, of course, he is coming at it from the perspective of having represented his client. But Mr. O'Connell told me in that interview that how important it is to make sure that you have legal representation if you find yourself in a situation where you're being accused of a crime. But personally, I would be careful making any generalizations about it because as significant as it was, and I believe it was historically significant legally and politically, I don't know that we're ever going to have a case quite like this one. And where we have a, you know, are we, we're ever going to have a case quite like this one. Is Austin ever going to be engulfed in protests and riots? Are some point, but it's going to have an entirely different fact pattern that may implicate different issues. And I don't know if it will end up being a proxy war between a conservative governor and a progressive district attorney the same way this this has. So I think this case might have been a fingerprint.

I don't know that there will be something quite like it again. Yeah, absolutely. And definitely worth folks for more information going and checking Hayden's reporting from this and reviewing the interview he had with Doug O'Connell. It's fascinating and important stuff. So definitely go check that out at thetexan.news. Hayden, we're sticking with you here. Let's talk about border bills. This is a huge point of contention. What do going to be the confrontation with the federal government this year over border security. Governor Abbott has obviously done many of his own actions, and I won't regale everybody with all the border things that have happened this year. I know that any frequent listener of our podcast has heard me talk about border issues, but I just remember the tension in that moment as Republicans were, including Representative Matt Schaefer, were at the dais arguing to save this bill that would have declared an invasion by illegal immigrants and purported to

give state law enforcement the authority to virtually deport illegal immigrants by escorting them back across the border. This would have been a dramatic escalation. It undoubtedly would have resulted in lawsuits and all kinds of litigation coming down from the feds. But because of this parliamentary maneuver that Representative Rafael Anchia was able to take the bill was lost and so was a major priority for speaker phelan and i think that was the irony of this whole thing is that this was speaker phelan's project carried by representative schaefer and that's not to take, you know, that's not to say that Schaefer wasn't the author of it, but this was Phelan's blessed policy proposal. And Phelan was the one who struck it down. Because remember, the parliamentarians advise the speaker.

The speaker is the one who makes the decision. So Speaker Phelan is the one who struck this down, whether that's a good or a bad thing. And I think that was the irony of this whole thing and what I will remember most about that. Certainly. Was border security then a total loss for Republicans this year? Um, governor Abbott got a fentanyl bill on his desk. He got a human smuggling bill to crack down on human smuggling. Uh, but it certainly was not the, the year that, that Republicans wanted legislatively and Abbott has taken so many executive actions on border security. And again, we've, we've covered those extensively, but he has continued to institute Operation Lone Star. He started the Bowie barrier system. He has continued to order concertina wire and other measures. The legislature did appropriate billions of dollars more for Operation Lone Star.

So the border security efforts have continued, but they weren't nearly the extent that I think Republicans would have desired this year. Where do you think border security stands among other issues that lawmakers considered this year? I think one of the reasons that Republicans hammer this issue so much is because it's something that a majority of Texans, all the polling that I've seen on this issue is most Texans are concerned about this. Most people are worried about border security. And it's a winning issue for the GOP because people are worried about it. Texans are worried about it. And it's a major point of contention between Austin and Washington, D.C. However, despite how big of an issue it was, I still think it was overshadowed by the school choice debate and Ken Paxton's impeachment because Ken Paxton's impeachment and school choice are issues that divided Republicans. Border security doesn't really divide Republicans. Most Republicans agree that they want a secure border.

And I know there are people who have theories about why Speaker Phelan struck down his own bill. It was Phelan's idea, though. And everyone was behind this notion of declaring an invasion. Abbott's behind it. Phelan was behind it. Patrick certainly is a staunch advocate of border security. Republicans are generally pretty aligned on this. It's mostly a matter of strategy. Even the heated disagreements that Patrick and Phelan had on border security were about how do we do the same thing that we're trying to do, which is stop illegal immigration. And as irritated as Patrick and Phelan got with one another on that issue, they were both still trying to do the same thing.

So Republicans are very much unified on this issue. But school choice and Ken Paxton's impeachment divided Republicans. And I think that's why those two issues overshadowed border security, because Governor Abbott has still been able to get many victories this year on that issue. And it's something that Republicans can agree that Biden is not doing well. So they are not in disagreement with one another on that. But it's going to be school choice and Ken Paxton's impeachments that carry the day and primary season. And specifically, this instance of the Border Protection Unit made the top 10 because of the procedural impacts, like you said, Phelan sustaining a point of order on a bill that he had deemed very important to his

success this session. So there were a lot of implications there. And we saw a lot of disagreement among leadership about procedure, particularly in the House this session. So it just kind of all culminated in this very big moment when a very big bill was killed. And the person sustaining that killing was the person who was trying to usher it through the process. So a fascinating, fascinating story. Hayden, thank you so much for covering that. Brad, we're coming to you. This is kind of a bill that if you weren't paying attention, you may not have known about it, but has huge implications for the state. This is one of the biggest policy fights this year. It's the state's preemption bill, kind of known as the Death Star Bill. How did it get across the line?

So the final bill that passed prohibits, it lays out nine sections of code, and it prohibits local governments from issuing regulations that exceed what those sections of state code allow in law. And the method is termed field preemption. Traditionally, the way the state has preempted local regulations is conflict preemption. The difference between them basically is conflict preemptions, like a rifle, a single shot at a single target. Shotgun is a more spread spray, and the field preemption certainly applies there. So under that law, individuals in counties that a regulation has been issued and deemed to violate a certain section of code, they can file a lawsuit against the locality that issued the

regulation. They have to give three months warning. And then ultimately, if a court sides with them, then the regulation, the locality must rescind that regulation. It's called the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act. The argument behind it was that the state is supreme. The state created both the federal government, states created the federal government, and the state created the local governments. And therefore, what the state has doled out in authority through

local control, it can take away. And the author, Chairman Dustin Burroughs, he cited specifically, you know, that this is just reinforcing what's already in the Constitution, mundane proposal. It was actually filed alongside this other proposal that would eliminate the legislative intent that we hear a lot on the House floor. That didn't go anywhere. This did, though, and it got the governor's blessing. And from there, it really rocketed through the process, although there was a lot of opposition. Basically, especially every big blue locality under the sun came out against it. A lot of smaller localities as well. And boroughs spent a lot of time trying to assuage concerns from especially the more local or the smaller localities that aren't necessarily as progressive politically. Places like Houston and Austin oppose this, especially out of ideology. They have these regulations that the state,

that Republicans of the state deem to overstep their bounds. Businesses don't like them. They create a lot of hoops to jump through. And the state is trying to reassert its authority in this. So eventually there are certain exceptions approved, something on payday loan, payday lending, I believe, various other things. And it got across the line in the House with bipartisan support. I think eight Democrats in the House voted for it.

In the Senate, it didn't get any bipartisan support, but it did get through the process. It's customary in the Senate pretty quickly. Senator Brandon Creighton carried that. And the governor very quickly signed it. And from there, lawsuits were filed. A couple of them got combined into one, the city of Houston. And then I think Austin was the other party to this, maybe San Antonio. But they got a kind of a nominal win in a Travis County district court where the judge declared the law unconstitutional, though she did not issue a, an injunction. So the law remained in effect. Now the state has appealed to the third court of appeals and we'll see where it goes from there. But this law, um, is, is the most transformative, I would say, whether you love it or hate it, of anything past this year.

And it is going to have a massive ripple effect down the road. The Republicans at the state level say that's a good thing. The especially Democrats at local level say it's a good thing the especially democrats at local level say it's a bad thing so this uh this new way of addressing state authority versus local sovereignty and um and the issue of uh regulations that that are deemed to overstep their bounds this is probably something that's going to be implemented in other states. And Texas kind of set the table for them on it. It took a lot, but it got across the line. And all that's left to see is eventually probably the Texas Supreme Court ruling on it.

Absolutely. Okay, gentlemen, we're going to pivot quickly here to ranking our top three. Now, I'm looking at this list as we've all written down our top three on our little docket here. Paxton's number one for all of us. So we're just going to forego talking about our number one story of the year

and go to our other top two. Really? You don't want me to reiterate everything I already said? You know, Hayden, I think I'll spare... I would love to hear it personally, but I don't know

if our listeners would. I'm sure they don't. And I don't want to repeat everything and make everyone listen to it again either. So Paxton's number one across the board. I think that's kind of indisputable in terms of Texas political stories. It is the number one story of the year. Cameron, let's go to you. Tell us your other top two Texas political stories from our list of 10 that you would deem in your top three uh number two for me was school choice um just because of how much focus was on it not just during the regular session but in the special sessions and the after effects, the vote is

going to have, it could potentially swing a lot of elections, especially with the Abbott endorsements coming in and candidates jumping in just to run on a pro school choice platform. So that'll be something very interesting to follow. And then number three for me was the border because it's not an issue area I cover at all. I've written one or two stories about it when Hayden was overloaded with stuff and I just needed to pick up the slack. But I really think the border is an interesting issue because I think it really highlights the partisan divide in the country, whether it's federal versus state rights, whether it's national sovereignty versus a more global agenda. I think the border is a fascinating issue.

And with all the lawsuits that have been going on with the Bowie barrier system and then Abbott attempting to build the wall. And now we're seeing more people on the left and Democrats saying, oh, there needs to be increased border security and the economic impacts of illegal immigration coming into the country. It's endlessly fascinating, at least for me as an observer. It's not an issue I cover. Hayden has done a great job writing up all the different stories about the border.

So that was number three for me, though. I like it. I'll go next because I have one in common with you, school choice. I put school choice as my second. And I'd say that I was kind of worn with myself a little bit about whether I choose school choice or whether I choose Patrick V. Phelan. But I think I'm sticking with school choice because it does highlight a lot of the differences between the chambers and their leaders. And I think we saw that over and over again between the Senate. How many times has Dan Patrick come out and said, we've passed school choice three times this year, right? The Senate doing that entire song and dance in a day where the House is sitting over there dealing with an entirely different membership, trying to pass Governor Abbott's version of school choice that the

governor would bless and not veto, right? The dynamic there is so different. And not even because of Patrick and Phelan being at odds, but just the membership being so different in both chambers. I also think school choice is a big deal. And number two for me, because of the primary we're about to head into, Paxton being number one on all of our lists, school choice is number two for me in addition, because that's the other issue that endorsements, that's the single issue Abbott's endorsing on. I mean, we're seeing Abbott endorse people like Michael Cott, who gave to Abbott's primary challenger, who's running against somebody, Glenn Rogers, that Abbott endorsed last time

around, but who voted against school choice. So now Abbott's saying, I'll endorse Michael Cott. Like, it's a wild thing to watch. And it kind of puts so much of the political dynamic on display over this one issue. Yeah, Cameron. So this whole school choice debate seems to be just continued fallout from the COVID lockdowns, because at least it appeared to me, parents weren't as aware of what was going on in the K-12 education system until the lockdowns happened. And then parents were really exposed to some of the things that were being taught in these classrooms. And we saw this huge push for school choice after that.

And we're a few years later after the COVID lockdowns, and now we're going to be seeing different candidates running on a pro-school choice platform and being elected, that wouldn't have happened if we didn't have these COVID lockdowns. So just continued fallout from the 2020 shutdown. And it's very, it's very interesting. It's something that I was paying attention to a bit beforehand. and it was something that really brought me into politics as well. I was interested in politics before that, but as I was studying education, going through my graduate degree, the school choice issue was something that really caused me to become more involved. So it's been interesting to follow. Absolutely. Brian, what about you?

Top two in addition to the Paxton impeachment. Well, I think the Death Star bill, because of everything I said with it, but it is just, whether you love it or hate it, very transformative. Then I will have to say the Patrick Phelan thing, because it dovetails into so many policy fights. School choice is one of them.

Property tax is another. All this stuff. So just how bad their relationship is, I think that definitely has to be one of them. Absolutely. Hayden? I think the border bills and Slayton getting expelled are my two and three issues because they implicated legislative power and the application of legislative power. It's also a wild day when a House member, when legislators discipline one of their own. Yeah, I'm realizing I didn't say my number three three but my number three was slayton as well yeah like that was a historic absolutely wild and again if this had not been

such a wild political year that would have been the story and there was no opposition to slayton getting expelled because everyone agreed that his behavior was unacceptable yeah and ousted he was yeah pretty wild real fast we going to not expound. We're just going to say the story we think globally or nationally was also really big this year. You can name a couple, but don't expound. We are so over time right now and our listeners, maybe they stuck with us, maybe they didn't, but we're going to hope they did.

And if they're here listening, folks, these are what we think are our biggest outside of Texas stories. People are sitting in their garages going, they're usually wrapped up by now. I'm ready to go inside. I usually listen to this on my computer. Yeah, exactly. Cameron, what you got? Geopolitically, Israel-Hamas conflict, number one for me. Yeah, absolutely. Hayden? Kevin McCarthy's ouster. I like how you cupped your hands around your mic to make sure people heard you. Yeah.

Bradley? I'm going to say what followed Kevin McCarthy's ouster in the crazy House speaker fight to elect eventually Mike Johnson, and then I'll go with also the Maui wildfires. Oh, that was huge yeah israel hamas for me as well well gentlemen what a year 2023 has been a wild ride we say it we've said it so often um just how crazy the legislature has been how much has gone on in this state this year and we have a lot to look forward to in 2024 but we are out of time so we'll talk about that another time.

Folks, thank you so much for sticking with us for so much of 2023. We appreciate you listening each and every week and we'll catch you in 2024. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

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