Another TX House resignation - Pete Laney decides not to run

[sonias]

What is going on at the Texas Legislature? Laney is one of ours by the way. Former Speaker of the Texas House. Heartbreaking.

I wish Mr. Laney well in his retirement. Hope we can keep the seat. HD85.

News via The Quorum Report
http://www.quorumreport.com

Sonia

[PDittie]

1. He says he's "not leaving town"

which I hope means he's running for higher office, and not cashing in as a lobbyist:

http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/metro/stories/12/3laney.html

Laney for Lt. Governor? Let's start a rumor...;)

[meg]

2. laney for governor according to South Texas Chisme

Former Tx House Speaker Pete Laney announced today that he will not seek re-election to the Texas House of Representatives.
This sparks renewed talk about his possible run for Texas Gov.

link

[sonias]

3. Thanks for the blog tip meg

I'm originally from South Texas so I like to keep up with politics in the South. Love that blog name "South Texas Chisme". Chisme by the way means gossip.

Somewhere buried in our DU archives was a thread that Crispini started with all the blogs for Texas. We need to add this one.

Sonia

[meg]

4. Thanks - there's more today on Vilma Luna and Terry Shamsie

also, a look at what the Caller Times thinks is important

[Czolgosz]

5. That's spot-on about Vilma.

[Zen Democrat]

6. A friend voted for GWB in 2000, because Pete Laney recommended him.

Told my friend that Dubya was a "good guy" that would work with both sides to "bring us together." I'm not so hot on Pete. Let him go.

[sonias]

8. There's a whole discussion on Burnt Orange about Pete Laney

I'm not saying he's a yellow dog Democrat and that he's never sinned. You have to remember his district. In any case I'm going to quote Andrew Dobbs from Burnt Orange on Laney's role when he was speaker of the House.

CHIP would not exist at all in Texas without Pete Laney and Glen Maxey, among others. CHIP is a state/federal partnership--if a state chooses not to fund the program it doesn't exist there. Bush was running for president when CHIP was created and didn't want to deal with the flack he would in the GOP primaries for funding a big new social welfare program. His plan was to quietly not create the program.

Pete Laney refused to go along and Glen Maxey took the lead in getting the bill passed and funded. Thanks to their leadership the pressure was too great on the Senate and Bush to let the bill fail. Pete Laney did the right thing.

Laney is "conservative" because he had to be to represent his district, but he made sure to put solid liberals in positions of influence to keep bad bills off the books. He put Steve Wolens as chairman of the Calendars Committee to block some of the most right wing legislation, for example. He also kept the GOP out of the majority in the House for 6 or 8 years through his Texas Partnership.

We can't write everyone off in our party that sins. I bet if you asked Laney now, about bu$h he would admit his mistake. But you got your wish anyway. He's going. And with that district it's certainly going to be hard to get a Democrat elected.

Sonia

[StellaBlue]

7. he's running for governor

so my reliable sources say

he is seriously considering it



personally, i doubt he will have the machine... or the will for the machine

[Czolgosz]

11. Is Bob Gammage gonna run for gov, too, or not?

[StellaBlue]

12. I haven't heard any rumors on him at all

Strangely enough... I daresay he is not really a statewide known 'name'.

But I will be sure and ask my source next time I talk to him!

[NoPasaran]

13. Gammage was a leader in the Clark movement in Texas

I imagine he would find a lot of support from those circles and understand how to mobilize the grassroots. I expect we will be hearing an announcement from him one way or the other soon.

Hey, filing deadline day is January 2. The lay of the land will be known for sure then.

[PDittie]

14. There was a large viral marketing effort for him last week

But he's got some questions beyond "where have you been for the last ten years" to answer.

The Houston Chronic, from last Friday:

But if (Gammage) enters the race, he also may have to answer campaign questions about his own unwitting role in a major Democratic scandal -- former Attorney General Dan Morales' attempt to obtain millions of dollars in fraudulent legal fees for a friend in Texas' anti-tobacco lawsuit.

Morales is about halfway through a four-year federal prison sentence stemming from the case, and his friend, Marc Murr, was sentenced to six months in federal prison. Both pleaded guilty in 2003 to federal mail fraud charges.

Gammage was one of three state arbitrators who recommended in 1998 that Murr, then an attorney, be paid $260 million for purported work that other lawyers in the tobacco suit said he never performed.

The arbitrators were selected by Morales and Murr after Morales had obtained a $17.3 billion settlement of a suit against tobacco companies over health care costs associated with smoking.

A national arbitration panel overturned most of the state award and gave Murr $1 million, which he later relinquished after Morales' successor, Attorney General John Cornyn, challenged the award in court.

Five other law firms hired by Morales to try the case shared in $3.3 billion in legal fees awarded by the federal arbitrators. The fees are being paid in installments by cigarette makers.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/3497596.html

Gammage resigned his Supreme Court seat in 1995, a year and a half before it would have expired. At the time he said he was going to work on John Hill's judicial reform commission, but instead of doing that, he went to work in Garry Mauro's office.

Three questions:

-- why did he resign so early? This gave then-Gov. * the opportunity to appoint a Republican to the seat, and aided the GOP.

-- doesn't a retiring Supreme Court Justice have better job prospects than a spot in the Land Commissioner's office? What's that all about (and I hope it's not a state pension)?

-- and yes, what's he been up to for the past ten years besides making money and campaigning for Wesley Clark?

[friedcatfish]

9. So what are the pro and cons

of Pete Laney running for governor? Few in the Texas Democratic Party has his amount of "gravitas". The man knows a few things about campaigns, and he certainly is competent. He can call in a lot of favors, and has the ability to bring in a healthy amount of rural votes. Maybe, just maybe, he can get many of those old-school dems who have decided to sit on the porch watching the sun set get involved once again. Then again, maybe he is spent and really wants to get out of game.

[PDittie]

10. He'd be better off running for Lt. Guv

He knows the Lege, he knows the process, he has respect among Repukes...

He'd be perfect to run against Dewhurst.

It occurs to me that we have have too many rumors of candidates for Governor and not enough candidates for down-ballot offices.

(God, I sure hope Texas Dems don't fuck up the opportunity to eject these whacko Republicans in 2006...)

[Melissa G]

15. Plus Lite Guv is the harder job. Better to have the talent there

rather than in the showcase position...