Good morning,

This isn’t a fun email, but it is necessary. This isn’t about about legislation that’s passing or stalled; it’s not about wins.

Today is a review of the toxic culture that’s been pervading the Texas Legislature for a long time. Are we ready to change it?

– Michael Quinn Sullivan

Monday, May 3, 2021

Modify your email preferences [[link removed]].

This isn’t even close to an exhaustive survey of Capitol culture scandals… just a few that spring readily to mind. Last week citizens saw the seediness of the culture around the Texas Capitol on full display.

First, State Rep. Dan Huberty (R-Humble) was allegedly drunk while driving [[link removed]] his car when he rammed into an SUV. He allegedly tried to wiggle out of being detained and arrested by saying he was on legislative business.

Then, we were told a lobbyist had slipped a date-rape drug into the drink of a legislative staffer. It turns out the lobbyist is innocent [[link removed]]… and possibly framed [[link removed]] to settle a score between the lobbyist’s boss and the allies of disgraced former House Speaker Dennis Bonnen.

Lastly, we reported on allegations that State Rep. Valoree Swanson (R-Spring) pressured the husband [[link removed]] of State Rep. Lacy Hull (R-Houston), when Hull was a candidate. Swanson reportedly wanted Mr. Hull to stay quiet about his wife’s extramarital affairs with campaign consultant Jordan Berry, and State Rep. Cole Hefner (R-Mount Pleasant). This sleaziness is far from new.

The Daily Beast reported several years ago about a list circulating around the Texas Capitol – warning young women which lawmakers to avoid. The story didn’t last long… because the media realized almost everyone on the list was a Democrat.

Anonymous sources came forward in 2017 [[link removed]] to level allegations against State Sen. Carlos Uresti (D-San Antonio) and State Sen. Borris Miles (D-Houston) of grossly inappropriate behavior towards women working in the Capitol. (Two years earlier, Uresti had been caught on tape [[link removed]] taking a female legislative staffer into a hotel’s bathroom.)

Borris Miles is still in the Senate; Carlos Uresti resigned from the Senate in 2018 after being found guilty of defrauding investors in a ponzi scheme. Democrat Miles might be in a league of his own when it comes to scandals without accountability.

Back in 2007, Miles shot a man who was allegedly stealing copper wire from a home construction site — making the Democrat one of the first Texans to utilize the “castle” law he had so loudly voted against. (That law affirmed Texans right to protect their homes.)

In 2008, the Democrat was indicted for “deadly conduct” after waving his gun around at a party and forcible kissing another man’s wife. He was acquitted.

Several years ago, it was Sen. Miles who used his position to interrupt and cancel a speech Republican State Rep. Briscoe Cain had just begun to deliver at Texas Southern University.

Did I mention Miles is still in the Texas Senate? Back to Dan Huberty... He is well-known publicly to be an angry drunk. In 2015 he was caught on video [[link removed]] coming off the House floor, intoxicated, and threatening a conservative journalist. Huberty had to be restrained by legislative staffers and DPS officers.

The bipartisan response of his fellow House members? To pass legislation making it illegal to film lawmakers in the Capitol without their permission. (The measure died in the Senate.) Who can forget the case of State Rep. Poncho Nevarez (D-Eagle Pass). Two years ago he was found to have flown packets of cocaine [[link removed]] in an envelope bearing the seal of his state office.

The crony crowd did their best to keep it silent… for two months! Nevarez was, after all, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety. The information only came public thanks to the work of a watchdog group – Direct Action Texas – following up on confidential tips.

Without a peep of criticism from anyone in the Republican leadership, Nevarez eventually opted to step away from public life. (In a bit of positive news, last fall he posted [[link removed]] to social media a reflection reflecting on his sobriety and noting how the Texas Capitol culture rewards bad behavior.) Speaking of bad behavior… State Rep. Ron Reynolds (D–Missouri City) was sentenced to a year in jail while serving in the Texas House [[link removed]]. He was found guilty in 2018 of five misdemeanor counts of barratry [[link removed]] stemming from an ambulance chasing scheme.

Of course, Democrat voters re-elected him that year.

He was released after serving just a couple months… and just in time for the start of the 2019 legislative session. And, yes, Ron Reynolds is still in the Texas House. And then there is incumbent State Rep. Victoria Neave (D-Dallas), who not only had a drunk driving incident [[link removed]] of her own several years ago, but was sued for owing more than $50,000 in back property taxes [[link removed]] to Dallas County and Richardson ISD.

Consequence? Ha!

Rep. Neave was one of the featured speakers at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. It just goes on and on…

There is Democrat State Rep. Hubert Vo, who the Houston Chronicle (correctly) called out as a slum lord [[link removed]]. Yes, Vo is still in the Legislature.

Campaign staff for State Rep. Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth) called Child Protective Services [[link removed]] to instigate a false complaint against his 2018 primary opponent. Yes, Geren is still in the Legislature.

Incumbent State Sen. Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown) was accused (which he denied) of having “sexted” with a UT grad student. Yes, Schwertner is still in the Legislature. Readers of the Texas Minute don’t need much introduction to the disgraced former House Speaker [[link removed]]. Back in 2019, Dennis Bonnen asked me to a meeting in which he proceeded to offer my staff access to the Texas House floor in exchange for attacking his political opponents.

Fortunately, I was recording [[link removed]] the meeting – a fact he didn’t know when he told the world I was lying. A fact his colleagues ignored when they lined up to defend and protect him… right up until the pressure from their constituents forced them to abandon him. He resigned from public life. The Bonnen incident is a reminder that the legislators will not police themselves in any meaningful way. They only do so when they feel heat from their constituents.

The toxic culture in and around the Texas Capitol won’t improve until Texans demand it. Quote-Unquote

“When I feel the heat, I see the light.”

– Everett Dirksen​​

“As I made my way through my first session, I became aware that a lot of what makes a high-functioning legislator is a talent for coloring outside the lines. I had that in spades. Guys like me tend to float through a lot of things because people perceive a potential in us, and they make allowances. Bodies like the legislature reward that, especially during the session.” – Poncho Nevarez

Number of the Day

181

Total membership of the Texas Legislature; 150 in the House and 31 in the Senate.

[Source: Texas Constitution]

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PO Box 248, Leander, TX 78646 Produced by Michael Quinn Sullivan and Brandon Waltens, the Texas Minute is a quick look at the news and info of the day we find interesting, and hope you do as well. It is delivered weekday mornings (though we'll take the occasional break for holidays and whatnot).

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