February 10, 2020      3:02 PM

Bruce: A peek inside the Texas House Republican Caucus divide

Veteran observer of the Texas Capitol Bonnie Bruce digs into the various efforts aimed at holding a GOP majority in the House and notes that one member recently told her "The Caucus was Yugoslovia and there will be no reunification anytime soon.”

The Speaker typically sits on a huge campaign PAC that he uses to protect his parties’ incumbents and, depending on the Speaker, put money into challengers of incumbents from the opposing party.

Speaker Bonnen had amassed $3million in his Texas Leads PAC before he was forced to step down in the wake of the disclosure of a recording between himself and Michael Quinn Sullivan.

In the recording, Bonnen suggested ten Republican incumbents who Sullivan may want to find “better Republicans” to run against them in the primaries (The ten include Reps. Steve Allison (San Antonio), Trent Ashby (Lufkin), Earnest Bailes (Sheperd), Keith Bell (Forney), Travis Clardy (Nacogdoches), Drew Darby (San Angelo), Kyle Kacal (College Station), Stan Lambert (Abilene), John Raney (College Station), and Phil Stephenson (Wharton). In response, five prominent Chairmen [Reps. Darby, Huberty (Houston), Larson (San Antonio), Paddie (Marshall), and Price (Amarillo)] publicly asked for his resignation which ultimately led to Bonnen announcing he would not seek reelection.

With Speaker Bonnen as a lame duck, a vacuum occurred in leadership and money to support incumbent Republican Representatives – all while the Democrats were gearing up to flip the Texas House majority.

By Bonnie Bruce

Copyright February 10, 2020, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved