In Texas, legislators turned toward middle

Tuesday's bill signing for House Bill 3 was a thoroughly bipartisan affair.

And why not? The final version of the school finance legislation that was the centerpiece of the 2019 session passed the Texas House 139-0 and the Texas Senate 30-0.

For Gov. Greg Abbott it was proof that Texas Republicans are, as he told the American-Statesman in an interview Friday, "the party of results"

But Manny Garcia, executive director of the Texas Democratic Party, was equally prepared to claim credit for its enactment.

"House Bill 3 has become law because Democrats won in 2018 and we have Republicans looking over their shoulders," Garcia said in a statement.  “If Democrats continue to win elections and flip the state House, bills like school finance reform will become the new normal, instead of the exception."

Amid a year of exceptional partisan acrimony and polarization at state Capitols across America in 2019, Texas has proved a very notable exception.

While Texas state government — the Senate, the House and the governor's office — all remain in Republican hands, both parties, thanks to voters in 2018, had strong self-interest in proving ahead of the 2020 elections that they were capable of governing. Republican leaders especially wanted to demonstrate that they could avoid being unduly sidetracked on volatile issues like gender identity, abortion and sanctuary cities.

"The 2018 election results helped pull the Republican Party back toward the center by signaling to even conservative firebrands like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick that if they didn't tone their rhetoric down and provide some tangible benefits for average voters, they run the risk of Republicans losing in the state of Texas," Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said.

Close elections

In 2018, Abbott won re-election by 13.3 percentage points, but he was the outlier. Patrick won by less than 5 points, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won by less than 4 points, and, in a nationally watched race, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, survived a challenge from Beto O'Rourke, previously a little-known congressman from El Paso, by just 2.6 points. Democrats also picked up two congressional seats, two state Senate seats and a dozen state House seats. Flip nine more seats in 2020, and Democrats could seize control of the Texas House ahead of a crucial session charged with the decennial congressional and legislative redistricting.

"The 2015 and especially the 2017 session were hyperpolarized sessions where partisanship was paramount over pragmatism," Jones said. "Especially coming from the Texas Senate, and also the governor's office, and even in the House, there was this uncomfortable balancing act between (House) Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) and the majority of the GOP delegation."

But, Jones said, "The 2018 results paved the way for Dennis Bonnen's unanimous election as speaker as well as the ... authority he enjoyed as speaker to pursue bread and butter issues of concern to a majority of Texans, like education and property taxes."

"The 2018 election I think changed a lot of attitudes," state Rep. James Talarico, a freshman Democrat from Round Rock, told the Statesman late in the session. "When you have a purple state, a competitive state, a swing state, that puts everybody on notice and people tend to gravitate to the middle."

“You look at Washington, and then you look at Texas, and in Texas, we solve problems," Bonnen told the Statesman in an expansive interview a few days before the session ended. "You show civility and respect, something that’s sadly missing in Washington. And so you present yourself as who you are, which is a Texas legislator, who is different than the broken system we live through in Washington, and you show the difference by your civility, but more importantly, by your accomplishments.”

'A winning team'

Texas lawmakers, unlike in most other states, work part-time. The Legislature meets in regular session only every other year for 140 days. Legislators earn $600 a month.

Bonnen, first elected at age 24, joined the House in 1997. He is especially devoted to its bipartisan and nonpartisan traditions. He considers its unwritten rule that incumbents never campaign against other incumbents, regardless of party, to be sacrosanct. He took seriously the tradition of naming members of the other party to chair committees.

On the last day of the 2017 session, state Reps. Poncho Nevárez, D-Eagle Pass, and Matt Rinaldi, a tea party favorite from Irving, exchanged threats on the House floor. This session Rinaldi, who lost his bid for reelection by more than 13 points, was gone, and Nevárez, who represents a border district, was named by Bonnen to chair the Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee.

Bonnen named state Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, who heads the Democratic Caucus, to lead the Higher Education Committee.

And Bonnen named state Rep. Joe Moody, an El Paso Democrat, as speaker pro tempore. In the Statesman interview, Bonnen said that while he hopes Republicans maintain control of the House and he remains speaker, “I think Texas would be very blessed if there was a Democrat majority, and Joe Moody wanted to lead the House.”

When Abbott was interviewed last week by KETK-TV in Tyler, the news anchor told the governor that Bonnen's comment had left some conservatives there "livid" and asked what he thought.

"Texas was blessed to have Dennis Bonnen as speaker this session," Abbott replied. "When you see a winning team on the field, you should stick with that winning team."