The Texas House leadership race took another bizarre turn on Wednesday when the GOP Caucus executive committee took action to censure a quartet of far-right representatives for the premeditated offense of campaigning against Republican colleagues in the primary and runoff elections this year.
The five-member panel determined that discipline was unavoidable in the cases of GOP State Reps. Brian Harrison of Midlothian, Nate Schatzline of Fort Worth, Tony Tinderholt of Arlington and Steve Toth of The Woodlands amid the assertion that they "knowingly and unapologetically" violated caucus bylaws with efforts aimed at ousting fellow House Republicans.
"You may wish to disregard," the caucus rules, the committee members said in a letter informing individual members of the decision, "but it is our responsibility as officers to carry them out to the best of our abilities and enforce them when necessary."
But the panel included a pair of Republicans who are challenging Speaker Dade Phelan in 2025 in State Reps. Tom Oliverson of Cypress and Shelby Slawson of Stephenville. The executive committee members who penned their names on the censure letters also included two Phelan allies who expect to return next year - State Reps. Lacey Hull of Houston and Jared Patterson of Frisco - and another speaker supporter who was unseated in the March 5 primary election in State Rep. Jacey Jetton of Richmond.
Oliverson and Hull are the caucus chairman and co-chair respectively. Slawson serves as the group's treasurer while Jetton is the secretary and Patterson handles the duties of policy chair. Oliverson spurned calls to resign the partisan leadership post after announcing a bid for speaker before the first election.
Harrison ripped the ruling as "hilariously absurd" in a post on X. The four lawmakers who were targeted taunted colleagues with a joint statement - saying they would have been happy to have been expelled from a caucus they accused of conspiring with Democrats.
"At a time when Republicans should be unifying against Democrats, the Caucus is divisively punishing conservatives," the four declared in a note of potential sarcasm.
Censuring the conservatives was “nearly as stupid as trying to overturn an election via impeachment of your Attorney General,”
Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a ride to the defense of the censured four.
The truth - for the record - is that there's no comparison between the House's failed bid to impeach Paxton and the wrist tap that Tinderholt, Schatzline, Toth and Harrison received for their open defiance on the incumbent protection rules that the caucus has approved.
The executive committee's members were all but apologetic for taking any action at all - saying they believed the four colleagues deserved more severe sanctions but would get a pass instead so the caucus could "come together and move past your efforts to divide us."
Paxton duly noted that the House members had been punished on paper for opposing incumbents who Governor Greg Abbott and other major GOP statewide officials targeted in the primary and overtime elections. Paxton and the four representatives targeted in the caucus probe appeared to be aiming their fire at the Phelan team without acknowledging that the criticism reflects equally on two colleagues who've turned against the speaker and given them a possible alternative to rally behind in the next speaker's election in 2025.
more to come ...
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