State Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, was kind enough to call while unloading bags from a baggage claim in an undisclosed location. The conversation that followed was a little vague and esoteric, as this whole speaker drama goes.

Eissler, the House Public Education Committee Chair, publicly broke from Speaker Tom Craddick last week. He became the eleventh returning Republican to split from Craddick. Combine that with four additional Republicans who say they're supporting speaker hopeful Dan Gattis and 64 Democrats pledged against Craddick, and you've got 79 members supporting someone-besides-the-Speaker. Only, as Peggy Fikac pointed out, "Anybody but Craddick" is an idea, not a candidate.

The group of Republicans of which Eissler is part is set to meet this Friday to choose a consensus candidate for Speaker. (Currently twelve members are challenging Craddick.)

Snippets from our talk... I'm in italics, Eissler's in regular font.

How confident are you that there will be a new speaker?
I said he didnt have the votes, I've said that all along. Isn't it becoming more and more apparent to you?

Let's say all of this falls apart and the ABC's are too fractured to come to consensus on a single candidate. Would you vote for Craddick again on the first day?
It could happen. At this point you can't rule out anything because nothing's decided.
It's our hope [to elect someone else] and that's what the majority feels.

The meeting on Friday. Will a single consensus candidate be settled on by Friday?
What if one comes out of that and then two other people file? I think people will focus on [settling on] one, but then Dan gattis has filed since. The safest thing to say about Friday is that there will be fewer candidates. One [candidate]? I don't know.

How strong is Craddick right now?
He'll always be strong because he's the incumbent, but lets just say the math is still compelling. It's a little early to make pronouncements. The discovery of where people are isnt over yet. There are Republicans that I know that aren't supporting him that aren't identifying themselves yet. And there are probably some D's that aren't opposed to him as advertised. Is that 64 good? Is that a solid number?

Which candidates do you support for Speaker?
There are some very good ones.

Will this attempt to oust Craddick even work?
It's possible it will work. In something like this things start out one way and then they build. With Dan [Gattis] and his three [supporters], that's four. That adds to the number.

64 Democrats helps, but also on the R side, if they see the math, then they've gotta start choosing. Even preliminary math for Craddick wasn't there.

When does this get sorted out?
The reason you don't see a whole lot of movement is that it's like a duck in the water.

You can't see the paddling.
There's a lot of paddling going on. These are interesting times.

2 Comments

Cornhusker said:

When given the choice between an R with R support (Craddick) or an R with D support (Kuemple,McCall or whoever), Eissler will come to his senses and vote for Craddick.

December 31, 2008 12:29 PM

hookem79 said:

Eissler is a CROOK! He should step down.

January 4, 2009 9:47 PM

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