republican – Carol A. Spencer

J6 Choir: Let’s be Very Clear

Let’s be VERY clear about the J6 Choir controversy the Democrats used to delay the vote for Kash Patel as FBI director. Let’s be VERY clear.

The J6 Choir video that the Judiciary Committee Democrats are SO opposed to is one of incarcerated J6ers singing the National Anthem while President Trump cites the Pledge of Allegiance. The Democrats have now clearly shown their true colors. Shameful.

Watch the video that they object to, the patriotic video that they want to use to deny Kash Patel, a highly qualified individual, the Directorship of the FBI. Shameful.

These Democrats want to deny Kash Patel the Directorship of the FBI, but they were fine with these people serving in the Biden administration. Democrat Party Judiciary members have gone nuts and clearly shown themselves for the kooks they are.

The Clock is Ticking

Did you know that the Texas Legislature meets for only 140 days every 2 years? Some of us think that’s good as it limits the damage they can do. Others think it’s not enough time. One would think that with only 140 days, they’d work every single day for the State of Texas and its citizens.

At least in the Texas House, they don’t.

A quick look around the website Capitol.Texas.Gov shows the work done so far by the House and Senate. The Texas Legislature (House and Senate) gaveled in on January 14, 2025.

The Texas House

The full House has met 8 of the 18 days since then. They won’t gavel in again until February 4.
The House elected a Speaker and adopted rules, without debate or amendments being allowed. (more on that in another post)
Speaker Dustin Burrows has not yet assigned committees. Thus, House committees have not met.

The Texas Senate

The full Senate has met 6 of the 18 days. They gavel in again on February 3.
Senate committees have met 9 times: Sunset Advisory Commission, Finance Committee, Education K-16 Committee, Administration Committee.
Senate Bill 1 (SB1) Appropriations, was sent to the Finance Committee on January 22.

More than 10% of this session is over and the Texas House doesn’t even have committees assigned. They were to be assigned today, but Speaker Burrows announced on Tuesday that wouldn’t happen.

The Governor gives his State of the State address on Sunday, February 2. He will announce his priorities. Once done, those priorities can be addressed immediately, yet the House won’t even have committees to do so.

So much to look forward to in the coming days. Will Democrats be appointed as chairs of the new category of “Permanent Standing Subcommittees”? What will Governor Abbott specify as his legislative priorities? Will we get our overpayment of taxes (surplus) back or will the legislature spend it? Will loyal Burrows renegade House members be rewarded with committee chairmanships? Will we finally find out how much the House spent last session to impeach Ken Paxton? Will we find out how much Democrat vice-chairs can spend on committee work? Will legislators get raises or will we never see a 2025 Housekeeping resolution? The clock is ticking….

No Dem Chairs Vote Rings Hollow

Bastrop County Republicans overwhelmingly voted for Republicans in November. We swept all contested races. Why, then, would our Republican Texas House representative vote for Democrat chairs? He claims he didn’t. But, he did.

Perhaps he didn’t read the rules before he voted on them. After all, they were sent to House members at 4AM, all 232 pages of them. Perhaps he didn’t understand what he was reading. Perhaps he didn’t realize they were written by Democrat Hugh Brady, former Obama General Counsel and Democrat Parliamentarian whose decisions killed conservative legislation during the last session. Perhaps he thought WE wouldn’t understand what we were reading. Perhaps he thought we’d be fooled by the splitting of hairs: banning Dem Chairs for committees but allowing them for extremely powerful subcommittees.

Rep Gerdes’ Facebook post says “I proudly voted to implement a new House rule that BANS the appointment of minority party chairs to lead committees in the Texas House.”

Not true.

“Oh! What a Tangled Web We Weave/When First We Practice to Deceive!” – Sir Walter Scott

Permanent Standing Subcommittees

The Rules Gerdes so “proudly” voted for created 12 new Permanent Standing Subcommittees. Permanent Standing Subcommittees is an entirely new class of committee this session, clearly created to allow members to claim they voted against Dem Chairs, all while allowing Dem Chairs and influence over legislation.

These 12 new Permanent Standing Subcommittees have assignments of “all matters related to” specific areas. The extensive matters falling under the jurisdiction of each Permanent Standing Subcommittee are listed in Rule 3. STANDING COMMITTEES. Pages and pages of them.

The 12 Permanent Standing Subcommittees are:

Juvenile Justice
Defense and Veterans’ Affairs
County and Regional Government
State-Federal Relations
Family and Fiduciary Relationships
Academic and Career-Oriented Education
Disease Prevention and Women’s and Children’s Health
Telecommunications and Broadband
Workforce
International Relations
Transportation Funding
Property Tax Appraisals

The Rules Gerdes so “proudly” voted for allow the Speaker to assign bills to these Permanent Standing Subcommittees. (In reading legislation, underlined words are new. Strikeout words are ~~removed~~. The word shall means must. The word may means optional.]

“All proposed legislation shall be referred by the speaker to an appropriate standing committee, permanent standing subcommittee, or select committee with jurisdiction, subject to correction by a majority vote of the house.”

The Rules he so “proudly” voted for require the Speaker to appoint Permanent Standing Subcommittee chairs and vice chairs. The Rules he so “proudly” voted for require the Speaker to appoint Permanent Standing Subcommittee members.

“The speaker shall appoint the chair and vice-chair of
each standing procedural committee and permanent standing
subcommittee and the remaining membership of each such [~~the~~]
committee and subcommittee.”

And, there is no provision in the rules prohibiting the Speaker from appointing Dem Chairs to these 12 Permanent Standing Subcommittees. The additional words “permanent standing subcommittee” were not added in the Rules section below as they were in many other Rules sections.

If, at the time the speaker announces the membership of standing committees, the members of the house of one political party constitute a majority of the membership of the house, the speaker shall designate a member of that party to serve as chair of each standing committee. The speaker shall not designate a member of that party to serve as vice-chair of a standing committee.

I verified with three House members that these Rules allow the Speaker to appoint Democrats as chairs of any of these “Permanent Standing Subcommittees”, that the Speaker could assign bills directly to them, and that committee and subcommittee chairs would have the same powers to hold hearings on bills, refer them out unchanged or with substitutions, offer amendments, or just ignore them.

We’ll see when Speaker Dustin Burrows announces committee and subcommittee appointments. They were due this Friday, January 31, but Burrows announced yesterday that those appointments would be delayed.

If even one Democrat is appointed as a chair of any Permanent Standing Subcommittee, Gerdes’ words “I proudly voted to implement a new House rule that BANS the appointment of minority party chairs to lead committees in the Texas House” will ring hollow and untrue.

So Goes Texas. So Goes the Nation

I’m off to the Texas Capitol tomorrow (Tuesday) for the very important vote for TX Speaker of the House. Will Democrats with a few Republican votes pick our Speaker when EVERY statewide position is in Republican hands, the TX Senate has a Republican majority, and oh yeah, the TX House has a Republican majority (88 / 62)?

Yes they will because of a few power-grabbing Republicans who won’t follow the rules (my Rep included), who would rather throw their lot in with Democrats than to support the GOP Caucus choice, who would rather slap those Republicans who supported them with time and money, who would rather get in bed with lobbyists than support their Republican voters.

I hate getting up early but will do so tomorrow at 5:45 AM in order to get the bus at 8AM. This is very, very important to the Great State of Texas, and to the United States as a whole. So goes Texas, so goes the Nation.

Thin Skinned

Politics is not for the faint-of-heart. Anyone who has run for office, or served in office, knows that. We’re all very opinionated and most of us, passionately so. Those who don’t agree with their representatives often come out with guns blazing (not literally, just verbally). It’s just the way it is. The elected official can engage in the gun-fire with nasty retorts, or step back and invite discussion. What the elected official cannot be is thin-skinned and defensive.

Sadly, our current House member, Stan Gerdes, has demonstrated that he is both thin-skinned and defensive. In 2022, he was asked at multiple GOP meetings whether he supported Dems as committee chairs in the Texas House. Notwithstanding Republicans being strongly in the majority, he supported Dem chairs (video at 6:13). Those of us who worked hard to get Republicans elected felt betrayed. And, we told him so.

In 2024, we’ve again said “No Dem Chairs” and once again, he is supporting a House Speaker who lost the Republican Caucus vote and who will appoint Dem chairs.

Republican committee chairs are critical to passing TexasGOP legislative priority bills. This is important enough that the TexasGOP sent a mailer to Bastrop County Republicans asking them to call Gerdes’ office and “tell him to oppose Dustin Burrows and support the Texas House GOP Caucus Nominee David Cook!”

Then, the Bastrop County GOP passed a resolution calling “on Representative Stan Gerdes to publicly commit to supporting the Texas House Republican Caucus nominee in accordance with the Caucus vote and with the Republican Party of Texas Platform”. Seems reasonable.

That resolution also explained that:

“A vote against the Texas House Republican Caucus nominee shall be considered a censurable act”; and
“subversive tactics such as denying a quorum or participating (sic) in absenteeism that causes a quorum to come into question […] shall be considered a censurable act”; and
“a vote for a House Speaker secret floor ballot vote, will be interpreted as an attempt to hide a vote with Democrats who want Democrat Chairs […] and shall be considered a censurable act”; and
“a vote […] for any other candidate who has not pledged publicly, prior to the floor vote, to comply with the Legislative Priorities of “No Democrat Chairs” shall constitute a censurable act.”

Stan Gerdes was not censured. The elected Republican precinct chairs simply expressed their opinions and what they expected from their Republican House member.

Precinct chairs are elected to be the voice of the Republican Party. Gerdes was elected to represent House District 17. These are very different constituencies.

Gerdes can stick to his position supporting Democrat chairs and do what he believes is in the best interest of his constituents. But, as with every decision an elected official makes, there are consequences to those decisions. And, the Bastrop County Republican Party has made clear what those consequences will be. Seems reasonable.

Rather than throw verbal bombs on Facebook at Republican Party leadership, a mature, seasoned elected official would either invite precinct chairs to a meeting or personally call each one, building bridges. He would not whine because he wasn’t invited to the meeting where the resolution was passed. He would not call candidates who ran against him three years ago “vengeful”. He wouldn’t worry about a candidate that spent under $20,000 in a campaign cycle when he, himself, spent over half a million. He would not call the Republican Chair a liar. He would not send threatening texts. He would not make unfounded accusations and name-call publicly on social media.

I sure as heck hope this isn’t the way he treats his fellow legislators when they disagree with him. And, if, as I hear repeatedly, Stan Gerdes wants to run for Congress or some other higher office, he needs to get thicker skin. He needs to immediately start building bridges not burning them down.

Freedom Released

A lot more than re-electing Donald Trump happened as a result of Tuesday’s election. Freedom was released! You can feel it, hear it, see it in just two days.

I’ve been out and about in Bastrop, keeping my Trump “Fight. Fight. Fight.” hood cover on my car and still wearing my Trump gear. No one whispered their like of my shirt or car decoration. In fact, they were forthright, open, smiling, chatting, and acknowledging out loud their support of Trump. They openly acknowledged their feeling that we finally have our country back. They seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief that they can express opinions again with out fear of being cancelled, of being fired, of being denigrated… in just two days.

Donald J. Trump was right every time he said “They’re coming after you. I’m just standing in their way.” And, “They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you.” And, now, there he stands strongly and proudly with plans to prevent them from silencing us…. in just two days.

The proof will be “in the pudding”, as they say. Personnel matters. Who he chooses to make this happen at the Executive level of government matters. But surrounding himself with Elon Musk who proved his commitment to open discourse with his purchase and privatization of Twitter, with RFK Jr who proved his commitment to a healthy population, is a good start. Putting strong people in place who are committed to the job they’re about to do is critical to the success of this administration, and to our freedom, now released.

The Way it Should Be

Yesterday, November 2, 2024, just 3 days before Election Day, we held another one of our pop-up rallies. We had already done them in Smithville and Elgin, so it was Bastrop’s turn. Where else but the beautiful and iconic Bastrop Bridge? We met at 9 and started our flag waving.

Shortly thereafter, we were greeted by a Bastrop police officer who told us that (1) we needed a permit if more than 4 or 5 of us were going to stand in one place, and (2) we needed to stay on the protected side of the barrier. Not being our first pop-up on this very bridge, we knew we did not need a permit (it’s a public sidewalk) and we also knew we could not block that sidewalk and could not venture into the road. After some discussion, everything was settled and we resumed our flag waving to very receptive passers-by.

About an hour later, a huge number of Democrats arrived, probably 50 – 70. Most ventured down to the other end of the bridge. A few decided to surround us by staying where we were. The attempt to intimidate was, frankly, funny. There were only 8 of us.

Pretty much everyone was pleasant. We exchanged “good mornings” and our joy at the cloudy day versus the hot sun burning down on us. A few were obnoxious as they passed us by, made snide comments, but we just ignored them and kept waving our flags.

The vehicle response was tremendous. Just like at our other pop-ups, the ratio of thumbs up to thumbs down was probably 50 to 1.

Sign in the road Later in the morning, after taking a much needed break, we drove across the bridge. People in the road There was a huge campaign sign and multiple people in the breakdown lane and probably 15+ sitting on the barrier swinging their legs on the traffic side. Very, very dangerous. Had anyone slipped, they’d have fallen into traffic. Had those been our folks, I would have immediately told them they needed to be out of the road and behind the barrier. But they weren’t. So, yes, I admit it, I called the police to ensure everyone’s safety. The police arrived and politely asked everyone to be behind the barrier and safety returned.

Republicans and Democrats CAN get along! But, apparently, someone wants to stir the pot. Someone has started rumors that there was some altercation between the Dems and the Republicans. Fake news. Just not true.

For me personally, I have many friends and family members who are Democrats. In fact, this summer one of my favorite Dems attended the Trump rally in Wilkes-Barre PA with me. We had a blast.

Yesterday was one of the best examples of how people can support the candidate(s) of their choice and do it in one location. Again, my opinion, but I like seeing people out and active, not sitting at home and doing nothing but complain. Perhaps the photo at left will help everyone remember that we’re all Americans first and foremost. Thanks to everyone for a wonderful day!