March 1, 2016 5:22 PM

SB: The cake is baked

Dunn’s push to wrest control of the Texas House has been especially vicious this cycle but changing the math of the governing coalition is out of reach

A significant number of veteran Texas political observers have said the Republican primary this cycle has been the most brutal they have ever seen at the state level. They may be right. When archconservative lawmakers like Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, and Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van, are being called the “liberal establishment” by anyone it is fair to say there are forces working to turn things upside down.

Those forces will undoubtedly have some success tonight.

Midland oilman Tim Dunn has taken his feud with Texas House leadership to a new level. His group Empower Texans, helped by new money from the Wilks Brothers of Cisco, has tarred and feathered House State Affairs Committee Chairman Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, for the last nine months. There is no doubt Cook has been their top target.

Cook, who carried legislation aimed at transparency in elections last session, has been made a poster boy for what will happen to a Texas Republican lawmaker who insists groups working to influence elections should be required to disclose the donors funding their activities. That’s what the onslaught is about. Full stop.

His challenger, Thomas McNutt, is an affable and smart young man who could make a fine legislator but only after he were to get through one session in which he will be a protester, voting against the House leadership out of the gate and hobbling his ability to represent his community in an effective way.

By Scott Braddock