October 21, 2019      5:19 PM
SB: Bonnen survival gambit puts Republican members in the firing line with primary voters, exactly what they hoped to avoid in choosing him
After a caucus showdown, Bonnen lived to fight another day but in doing so placed the members in the same box many faced toward the end of Straus’ tenure with grassroots activists demanding to know if they’ll continue to support the speaker
BARTON CREEK RESORT –
“There will be a speaker’s race,” said a senior Republican amid a
two-day caucus retreat that saw Speaker Dennis Bonnen live to fight
another day while grassroots activists and a growing number of members called
on him to relinquish the gavel. Even some who are not part of “The X Men”
have started to come out against him. Those announcements will no doubt continue
to trickle in.
Despite the standing
ovation for Bonnen at the gala dinner headlined by Karl Rove, genuine
anger was roiling under the surface and the Bonnen camp seemed more concerned
about the potential of criminal charges than they’d admit publicly, per several
Republican members. Among other reasons, some theorized that perhaps a scandal involving
such hostility toward cities and counties won’t be overlooked by a District
Attorney whose husband is the city manager in Lake Jackson.
“I think they’re pretty
pro-local government in that household,” said one longtime observer of Brazoria
County politics.
By Scott Braddock
|