Marcus Tullius Cicero once said, “Politicians are not born, they are excreted.”  This may sound harsh, but the failure of the Texas House to choose a speaker with integrity proves that Cicero had a point.

Per Brandon Waltens, “Just hours after the new legislative session kicked off in Austin, State Rep. Dustin Burrows was elected to serve as speaker of the House ... despite significant opposition from within his own party, ultimately relying on Democrat support to clinch the position.”  Although Republicans control 88 of the Texas House’s 150 seats, state rep. David Cook — the actual nominee of the Republican caucus for House speaker — lost to Democrat-backed Burrows when 36 Republicans voted with 49 Democrats to hand Burrows the speaker’s gavel.

The defection of 36 lawmakers from the Republican-backed Cook to the Democrat-backed Burrows has been dubbed the “Goodfellas” Controversy by Texas Scorecard, in line with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s criticism on X that lawmakers have created a political system of cronyism that rewards House members who play ball with them and punishes those who refuse.  Lt. Gov. Patrick wrote the following:

Five business partners control the operations of the Texas House: Dennis Bonnen, Greg Bonnen, Dustin Burrows, Cody Harris, and Dade Phelan.  They are also business partners together in a bank [known as Third Coast Bank]. ... There is nothing illegal about it. [snip]

But collectively, these 5 have held the 3 most important positions in the Texas House for most of a decade: Texas House Speaker, House Appropriations Chair, and House Calendars Chair.  These 3 positions control the Texas House. ... [T]he Texas House has become an oligarchy. ... Together they decide what legislation lives and dies. ... It’s a closed shop.  There’s no power sharing in the Texas House unless you are with them. ...

These 5 are a non-criminal version of the “Goodfellas.”  If you don’t support them, you are locked out and sometimes punished for not supporting them.

In an official statement, issued on January 14, 2025, Patrick has also said this:

One cannot imagine if the Democrats had 88 members of the Texas House that they would allow Republicans to elect the speaker.  I am proud of the Republicans who stood together and voted for Rep. Cook, the House Republican Caucus nominee.  Republican voters expected the new speaker to be elected by Republicans, not by Democrats.

Recent polling indicates that “56% to 81% of GOP primary voters oppose the idea of Democratic chairs.”  This makes sense, because the elected delegates of Texas Republican voters chose eight legislative priorities, at the state convention, for the 89th session of the Texas Legislature, the fourth one on that list being as follows: “No Democrat Chairs: The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature shall end the practice of awarding committee chairmanships to Democrats and require all committees to be majority Republican.”  This rule was created because Dade Phelan, who was speaker for the last two terms, continually refused to stop naming Democrats to chair legislative committees of the Texas House.

Texas voters are wide awake and will be following Dustin Burrows’s doings with heightened interest this legislative season.  If things do not go well, and the eight Republican priorities are not enacted, Burrows and his 36 Goodfellas may find themselves at risk of being primaried come 2026.

The names of the 36 Republicans who voted to empower the Democrats can be found on a list provided by Texas Scorecard.  In the meantime, the Republican Party of Texas is saying it will “seek to censure and potentially remove from the primary ballot any Republican lawmaker who did not support the Republican candidate for speaker.”

Paul Dowling’s book on the Constitution is Keeping a Free Republic — downloadable for $1.99.  Additionally, Paul has contributed to Independent Sentinel and Free Thought Matters.

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