webodec3ARCHIVEPreview
Open in TheBrain

Straus, J

===

wikipedia

Joseph R. "Joe" Straus III (born September 1, 1959) is the current Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. He represents District 121, which comprises northeastern Bexar County, including part of San Antonio, Texas, and several surrounding communities. Straus joined the House after defeating fellow Republican Glenn Scott Starnes, later the city manager in Eagle Pass, Texas, in a special election held in February 2005. Straus was first elected Speaker on January 13, 2009. He was reelected to a second two-year term as Speaker on January 11, 2011.

In January 2013, the moderate Republican Straus faced intraparty conservative opposition for a third term as Speaker from Representative David Simpson of Longview. Simpson entered the race for Speaker in December 2012, after Straus's previous opponent, conservative Bryan Hughes of Mineola, withdrew from the contest after nearly six months of seeking commitments from colleagues.[1] However, Simpson withdrew before the balloting for Speaker began, and Straus was reelected without opposition on January 8, 2013.[2]

Contents

  [hide] 

Business and community experience

A lifelong San Antonian, Straus currently serves on the Board of Governors of the Cancer Therapy and Research Center as well as on the Texas Cord Blood Bank. Previously, he served on the board of directors of the San Antonio Zoological Society, the Texas Nature Conservancy, the Southwest School of Art and Craft, and the Winston School.[3]

Political experience

Representative Straus has previously served on the Management Committee of the Bexar County Republican Party, as a precinct chairman, and on numerous campaign committees for federal, state, and local candidates. He served in the administration of U.S. President George H. W. Bush from 1989 through 1991 as Deputy Director of Business Liaison at the U.S. Department of Commerce and also under Ronald W. Reagan as Executive Assistant to the Commissioner of Customs. In 1986, he was U.S. Representative Lamar Smith's campaign manager in Smith's first race for Congress.[3]

Challenge against Tom Craddick

After witnessing his fellow Republicans lose three House seats in the November 2008 elections, Straus decided to run against then Speaker Tom Craddick of Midland, the senior Republican in the Texas House. Dissent against Craddick had been brewing in the Texas House. The latest round of disappointing election results hurt Craddick's standing with his Republican colleagues. Shortly after New Year's Day, eleven House Republican members, including the late Edmund Kuempel of Seguin, Burt Solomons ofNorth Carrollton, Jim Keffer of Eastland, and Jim Pitts of Waxahachie[4] met in the Austin home of Representative Byron Cook of Corsicana (ten in person and one via webcam). Each wanted an alternative to Craddick. After four rounds of secret balloting, with state and local media hanging around outside in the neighbors' lawns, Straus emerged as their challenger to unseat the Speaker. Over the next several days, the group, dubbed by the media as the "Gang of 11", set out to garner the required minimum of 76 votes (of the 150 total members) to achieve their mission. After several days of phone calls, e-mails, pledge cards and signature gathering, Joe Straus announced on Sunday, January 4, 2009, that he had enough votes to win the job. By the following evening remaining opposition to Straus conceded. After securing his position as House Speaker, Straus proceeded to appoint Democrats to sixteen of the House's thirty-four chairmanship positions.

San Antonio Democrat Mike Villarreal said that Straus brought "the right temperament [to the Speakership]. After three sessions of Tom Craddick, the House was ready for a change."[5]Frank Corte, Jr., a San Antonio Republican who had been committed to retaining Craddick as Speaker, said that Straus "has a different leadership style, there's no doubt about it. He has an indirect way of handling things. He doesn't weigh in heavily at first."[5] Straus' rabbi, Barry H. Block, said "If people underestimated Joe, they'll stop now."[5]

An aide said that Straus "doesn't like to label himself on social issues. . . . He considers himself pro-life, just not a proselytizing one. . . . He sees the big picture -- jobs, economy, education."[5] Another Republican, the departing Leo Berman from Tyler, had indicated an intention to run for Speaker but withdrew and endorsed Warren Chisum, a Republican from Pampa, who unsuccessfully challenged Straus for the Speaker's gavel. McKinney Republican Ken Paxton also sought the position.

Mr. South Texas

In 2011, Straus was named "Mr. South Texas" during the Washington's Birthday Celebration in Laredo in south Texas. The Laredo Morning Times referred to Straus as "a relative newcomer to state elected office, [who] quickly took on a highly respected leadership role with his cool, unflappable style and insistence on civility in an often rowdy House." Straus was presented a gold medallion and large framed proclamation installing him in "Los Caballeros de la Republica del Rio Grande," or "Gentleman of theRepublic of the Rio Grande."[6]

Election of 2012

Straus was handily renominated to the Texas House in the Republican primary held on May 29, 2012. With 10,362 votes (62.9 percent), he defeated opponent Matt Beebe, who polled 6,108 ballots (37.1 percent).[7] In the November 6 general election, Straus faced no Democrat opponent and handily defeated the Libertarian nominee, Arthur M. Thomas, IV, 50,530 (80.2 percent) to 12,444 (19.8 percent).[8]

References

  1. :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Tim Eaton, "Simpson announces run for speaker of Texas House", December 10, 2012". Austin American Statesman. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
  2. :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Legislature opens; Straus re-elected", Laredo Morning Times, January 9, 2013, p. 10A
  3. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Straus#cite_ref-Official_Bio_3-1) "Representative Joe Straus". Texas House of Representatives. 13 January 2009. Archived from the original on 22 August 2008. Retrieved 15 January 2009.
  4. :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Robert T. Garrett, Solomons says he won’t seek re-election to Texas House, November 28, 2011". Dallas Morning News. Retrieved September 23, 2013.
  5. ^ :{Jump up to::(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Straus#cite_ref-sam_5-1) c(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Straus#cite_ref-sam_5-2) d(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Straus#cite_ref-sam_5-3) Lisa Sandberg, "The Most Popular Guy at the Capitol", San Antonio Magazine, June 2009, p. 54
  6. :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ Straus becomes newest caballero, Laredo Morning Times, February 19, 2011, p. 3A
  7. :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "Republican primary election returns, May 29, 2012". enr.sos.state.tx.us. Retrieved May 30, 2012.
  8. :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^ "General election returns, November 6, 2012". elections.sos.state.tx.us. Retrieved December 30, 2012.

External links

Texas portal
Biography portal

===

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The deaths this year of three major Texas Republican donors, including a billionaire who died over the weekend, could signal a generational change for party kingmakers in the nation's largest GOP stronghold.

Harold Simmons, whose business interests ranged from energy to nuclear waste dumps, helped transform Texas from a Democrat-controlled state in the 1970s to a Republican stronghold by the turn of the century. Simmons' death Saturday came after Republicans lost home builder Bob Perry in April and businessman Leo Linbeck Jr. in June. For decades, all three helped bankroll political campaigns both in Texas and nationwide.

All three men were considered conservative renegades when they got involved in politics. However, as the state grew more conservative, they became part of the GOP mainstream.

The loss comes as Texas Republicans already were facing a turning point. Gov. Rick Perry, one of the donors' biggest recipients, isn't seeking re-election next year, and a new breed of GOP candidates such as tea party-backed U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has emerged in the state.

"It leaves a huge question mark for Republican candidates and political organizations that have relied on major contributions from those two or three individuals for the last decade," said Matt Mackowiak, a prominent Republican political consultant. "Their generosity made a huge difference in a lot of races over a long period of time, but it was their potential to always contribute more that probably prevented a lot of races from ever taking place at all by scaring off potential competitors.

The three men contributed to Republican candidates and organizations across the country, but their influence was greatest in Texas, which has no limit on personal campaign contributions.

Simmons, who had an estimated net worth of $10 billion, gave at least $12.6 million to candidates in Texas races since 2000, according to the Texas Ethics Commission. The Center for Public Integrity named him the second-largest donor to national political action committees for 2011-2012, giving away $31 million to conservative groups.

Houston tycoon Bob Perry, no relation to the Texas governor, made his fortune building tract homes across the state and made at least $75 million in political contributions in his lifetime, not counting confidential gifts to super PACs, which can campaign independently for candidates. He gave $4.4 million to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign, which sought to discredit Democrat John Kerry's war record when he challenged President George W. Bush in 2004. Simmons also gave the group $3 million.

Linbeck, whose family also made its fortune in construction, helped create two of the state's most influential conservative organizations, Texans for Lawsuit Reform and Americans for Fair Taxation. TLR spent millions on candidates who supported limits on lawsuits against businesses and AFT campaigns to replace the national income tax with a national sales tax.

The full extent of their donations may never be known, since many were made privately.

James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, said there is a generational change taking place in the Republican Party that coincides with the growing fight between grass-roots tea party conservatives like Cruz, and the more pragmatic business wing of the party, represented by Texas House Speaker Joe Straus.

"We associate these guys with an era of Republican politics in this state that is in transition and possibly becoming something different," he said. "These were the guys who were the bedrock donors for the business wing of the Republican Party, and as politics has gotten more polarized, the party has a more ideological bent to it. These were guys in big business who were motivated by classical business interests."

An example of this pragmatism came in 2011, when Texas legislators debated a law that would have required local police to question the immigration status of the people they encounter. Bob Perry, whose industry relies on immigrants, opposed the measure, and Republican leaders made sure it expired without a vote.

So-called establishment candidates will suffer the most from losing these critical donors, said Rice University political scientist Mark Jones, an expert on Texas campaign finance. He said Perry and Simmons dwarfed all other Republican donors in Texas.

"The absence of someone like Perry or Simmons hamstrings (establishment candidates) in many respects, and their ability to use their financial advantage against tea party and movement conservatives," he said. "There is no one left now that has the gravitas to single-handedly decide whether a candidate runs or not, or is viable or not."

But Corbin Casteel, another Republican campaign consultant, said a new generation will step in to make up for the lost donations.

"While there may be a giving gap now, or in the short run, there is more out there," he said. "In West Texas (oil fields) there are a lot of new, wealthy conservatives who are just beginning to get involved in the political movement, we're looking at a whole new generation of major Republican donors coming onto the scene.

Update at 1:03 p.m.: Spokeswoman Jackie Bodnar suggests FreedomWorks’ involvement in the speaker’s race ended with Hughes’ candidacy. “We had endorsed Hughes who recently dropped out and was replaced by David Simpson, who doesn’t support school choice vouchers,” she explained in an email.

Original item at 12:47 p.m.: A FreedomWorks official who last fall vowed the Washington-based tea party organization “would really ramp things up” to help topple Texas House Speaker Joe Straus has quit to join a conservative think tank in Austin. Meanwhile, it’s not clear whether FreedomWorks, consumed by internal strife, has lobbed anything more than a single email blast against Straus. In January 2011, the San Antonio Republican survived the group’s earlier bid to persuade fellow Republicans to oust him for supposedly not being a “true fiscal conservative” and working too closely with Democrats — charges Straus dismisses, pointing to state budgets that were cut to avoid raising taxes.

Brendan Steinhauser, until recently FreedomWorks’ director of state and federal campaigns, has resigned to join the Texas Public Policy Foundation as chief spokesman for its “Right on Crime” initiatives, Brooke Rollins, the foundation’s president and CEO, said Wednesday.

Steinhauser, a University of Texas graduate, has criticized Straus in recent years for, among other things, maintaining as speaker the Texas House tradition under which committee chairmanships are spread between the two parties. Just over two years ago, Steinhauser distributed this email by former FreedomWorks chairman Dick Armey that endorsed unsuccessful Straus foe Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, in the last speaker’s race.

Then last fall, Steinhauser roamed back into speaker politics, announcing FreedomWorks’ endorsement of Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola.

“Speaker Straus has stood in the way of limited government reforms and has not shown the leadership that a conservative Texas Legislature requires,” said a Hughes endorsement e-mail that was prepared to go to FreedomWorks’ 100,000 Texas members, according to this Sept. 24 story by San Antonio News-Express Austin Bureau Chief Peggy Fikac.

“We plan to really ramp things up in the weeks to come,” she quoted Steinhauser as saying of the group’s plans, which included telephone calls to House members, an online campaign and “targeted grassroots action in districts where Bryan needs our support.”

Last month, though, Hughes bowed out of the race and threw his support to newcomer Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview. The election is next Tuesday.

On Wednesday, FreedomWorks officials Adam Brandon and Jackie Bodnar did not immediately respond to emails inquiring whether the group has suspended efforts to target Straus.

It has had more pressing concerns. Armey, the former North Texas congressman, is being given an $8 million, multi-year severance payment. Earlier in September, he entered the group’s Washington offices with his wife and an armed companion, in what this recent Washington Post story has described as a failed “coup” attempt.