Well, that was a crazy week, wasn’t it? The 2020 script writers keep one-upping themselves with each new episode. Can’t wait for the season finale!

Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes

OK, enough of that coronavirus update stuff. We did more than 30 of them—way more than we envisioned when we started that project back in March—but now it’s time to turn our primary focus to what the Lege is (or isn’t) going to be doing come Monday when legislators can start filing bills for January’s session.

This doesn’t mean that we’ll stop passing long helpful information about coronavirus-related news in these updates. All our COVID-19 resources—including sample motions and orders, helpful information, and past coronavirus updates—will remain available HERE, and we will continue to include coronavirus-related news in this space. But going forward, these interim updates will be posted on the Legislative page of our website instead of the COVID-19 page linked above. To flip a common phrase: The virus may not be done with us, but we are darned sure done with that virus. (Bye Felicia!)

Prosecutor election results

If you missed our recounting of local prosecutor election results, check them out HERE. If we missed any relevant results, please email them to Rob. Thanks!

Election post-mortem

Now that we’ve had some sleep and a chance to sift through the rubble of Tuesday’s election, we thought we’d add a few comments to our final autopsy of this election cycle.

In a word, the Democrats’ legislative performance was abysmal. As shockingly well as they did in the 2018 mid-terms (picking up 12 seats), they did equally poorly this session by not adding a single seat to their tally. It may sound harsh to say that about an effort that did not lose any ground, but this election was all about expectations. Pundits, pollsters, and experts on both sides expected a much different outcome after the unprecedented fundraising, polling, and messaging to flip the House before a crucial redistricting session. We even had four House Democrats declaring their candidacy for Speaker before the votes were counted, no doubt in anticipation of a sweeping victory. But in the end, it was all for naught. File that away as yet another reminder that strategies created to better fight the last war are often no help in winning the next one.

But enough rubbernecking as we drive past that wreck—it’s time to focus our eyes on the road ahead. Looking forward, we will see a repeat of the power division from last session, with Republican control of all three branches of state government continuing. That will be most important during this weird, pandemic-impacted session, especially when it comes to the only two things the Lege absolutely must do: pass a budget and re-draw districts for themselves and Congress. That said, the fate of many of the issues that matter most for your job remain up in the air until the House selects a speaker and that speaker hands out new committee chairmanships and assignments.

Habemus Speaker?

Last Friday we told you “No one has a bead on who the likely front-runner is at this point, so don’t bother asking us; however, that could change by this time next week. Stay tuned!” And sure enough, there is white smoke arising from the stove pipe at the top of the capitol dome right now.

State Rep. Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont), current chairman of the House State Affairs Committee, has claimed enough bi-partisan support to win the job in January to succeed outgoing Speaker Dennis Bonnen (R-Angleton). While lightning-quick, his victory was not accomplished without some ruffled feathers. Several Republicans House members would have preferred their caucus decide the issue as a group, as provided for by previous rules to which they had agreed, but this is the second consecutive speaker race in which the presumptive Republican winner has wired around that little detail. That also caused some consternation with the state GOP party leadership and related Republican grassroots groups who openly expressed concerns about what the new front-runner may have allegedly promised to his Democratic supporters, specifically in the way of “criminal justice reform” or other hot-button social issues. Whether true or not, it’s an indication that the high profile those issues gained over the summer and throughout the recent election campaigns are likely to continue into the session.

Despite these various roadblocks, Rep. Phelan is proceeding with his planned transition into the Speaker’s Apartment while other claimants to the dais step aside. For many issues we followed for you last session, the legislators voting for and against them have remained the same; thus, the deciding factor in 2021 could be the role and priorities of the new House leadership—not just the speaker, but who he chooses to chair and serve on various committees. That could very well depend on how the speaker’s race played out behind closed doors. If giving priority to criminal justice and policing reform had a role in the Speaker’s race, it could give those issues an even higher priority than they would have already had next session. What that ultimately means in terms of output at the end of the session remains to be seen, however.

More interim FRIs

The House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Committee issues a formal request for information (FRI) earlier today relating to its interim charges. That notice, and those topics, can be viewed at this link. Instructions for submitting comments are also found in that notice, as is their deadline of Monday, November 30, 2020.

In addition, the House County Affairs Committee has not formally posted a FRI but it has emailed one to us—and therefore by extension, you. If you’d like to weigh in on any of that committee’s charges or related issues they wish to explore, you can view that notice HERE. Any input or recommendations are due by Friday, November 13, 2020.

If you have questions about any of this, please direct them to Shannon by email.

CPS judge survey

The Texas Office of Court Administration (OCA) is conducting an annual evaluation of the judges of the Child Protection Courts and is seeking input from attorneys who present cases before those judges. This survey allows attorneys who represent DFPS to provide feedback on all judges employed by OCA who serve on the Child Protection Courts which oversee CPS cases. (This means you will need to take the survey separately for each Child Protection Court judge you appear before.) To the extent permitted, your responses will be maintained in confidence and OCA does not provide any responses to the judges which might identify who responded to the survey.

To complete the survey, use THIS LINK. Please complete all submissions by Monday, November 16, 2020.

The horses are in the starting gate

As we mentioned above, legislative bill filing begins on Monday. (Yes, THIS upcoming Monday.) The first week of bill filing usually sees several hundred bills filed, and we will start reviewing and tracking them for you as always. To follow along with what is being filed, use our bill tracking buttons on the Legislative page of our website and contact Shannon with any questions. But remember—no matter how good or bad a pre-filed bill looks, nothing can happen to it for another 60–90 days, so keep your powder dry! We don’t even know who will be in what positions next session, so until that political game of musical chairs ends, keep your cards close to your vest.

Legislative rotation sign-up now open

As you know, TDCAA can serve as your eyes and ears at the capitol, but the voice legislators need to hear is yours. To help you do that, we organize a rotating schedule of volunteer slots for prosecutors who wish to come to Austin to be a part of the legislative process. If you would like to plan ahead and schedule a time to spend a few days watching (or helping) the sausage being made, contact Shannon for more details—he can tell you when to come, what to bring, and what to expect. (Although on that last point, we have absolutely no idea what next session will actually look like in operation, so we will proceed under the assumption that they will conduct business in person as usual until we learn differently.)

Quotes of the Week

“It’s a massive disappointment. You cannot classify it as anything other than a total failure.”
            —Colin Strother, Democratic campaign consultant, on that party’s disappointing results in Congressional and legislative races throughout Texas.

“[Mid-term results in] 2018 allowed all of the Republican candidates to really have a wake-up call in Texas.”
            —Matthew Langston, Republican consultant, quoted in that same linked article.

“That’s something a lot of members and others have been talking about for a while now. I don’t know how palatable that’s going to be to a lot of members, to be told that they’re going to have to limit what they’re doing.”
            —State Rep. Donna Howard (D-Austin), on whether legislative leaders might try to impose limits on how many bills each legislator can file during the upcoming session.

“Literally the two things Nevada is known for is COUNTING THINGS and STAYING UP ALL NIGHT!!!! <over a .gif of Joe Biden saying, “C’mon man!”>”
            —A viral tweet by Diya Mishra, in response to the news that Nevada officials were temporarily stopping their vote counting on Wednesday night.

“Y’all think your election night was exciting … we had a bat chasing us around in the courthouse. Quite a site [sic]. The red dot in the picture is the tip of a dart, my county judge killed it with a blow gun. Election 2020!!!”
            —Bena Hester, Briscoe County clerk [Sorry we don’t have the photo to go with it, we were only texted this part—but it made us proud to be a Texan!]

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