House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, and Patrick Marsteller, a Dallas travel company owner, have settled the lawsuit and countersuits they filed against each other.

Marsteller first sued the speaker and lobbyist Bill Messer last May, accusing Craddick of abusing his power in demanding a refund for a five thousand dollar fishing trip that didn't happen.

Craddick sued back for his refund. The deposition got a little tense, the video is here.

Last week, the parties settled quietly. Craddick and Messer agreed to transfer the trips they purchased to other people. And both parties released each other from other claims.

Here is the full agreement between Craddick, Messer and Marsteller.

Categories: 2009 Speaker Race | Litigation |
Posted by Elise Hu at 8:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Did House Speaker Tom Craddick pull a "Jennifer Kim"? The former Austin City Councilmember ruffled some feathers when she tried to use her position to get through security without going through screening. This morning, one of our KVUE photographers, who is on personal business, caught Craddick and his wife Nadine cut in front of 50-60 people in a line of hundreds at Austin-Bergstrom.

House Speaker Tom Craddick in his leisure wear at the Austin airport.

Turns out lines were long due to a "technical malfunction" at security checkpoint 3, the west checkpoint. Our photographer waited 35 minutes to get through, but says the Craddick's barely waited at all, after finding a way to cut in front of about 50-60 travelers.

Oh! There he goes! In front of the folks who have been waiting.

Our photog overheard other people in line call their friends, telling them they couldn't believe Craddick did that. But unlike Jennifer Kim, Craddick doesn't depend on the voting masses to stay in office. House speakers are elected by only 150 people in the Texas House, and the people who don't support him already cite "abuse of power" as the reason. So his line cutting likely has little bearing on his political prospects.

I asked the speaker's press secretary, Alexis DeLee, why the Craddick's needed to cut in line.

"I'm sure there was a good reason for it, they're likely getting on a plane right now so I can't find out right now," she said.

UPDATE 4:24pm: The Speaker's press secretary, Alexis Delee, says she spoke with the speaker and that he says he never cut in line.

"They split up and Nadine waited in line while the Speaker checked their bags. Then the he joined Nadine in line. They were in line for more than an hour."

So then I checked back with our photographer, who said he saw something entirely different.

"They walked up together, saw the end of the line, went to check in, then cut.

She couldn't have been in line [already], because I was at the end... and the end was outside! He definitely had a look of surprise when he was told that [outside] was the end of the line. [Nadine] was about 10-15 feet away from me, and he then walked over and told her. Then suddenly they were inside and in line 15 minutes later. Everyone around me recognized them and thought they cut."

Categories: 2009 Speaker Race | People and Places | Texas House |
Posted by Elise Hu at 8:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

The "ghost worker" scandal at the Capitol keeps on giving. (The scandal's name refers to the practice of listing state workers as full-time employees even though they might work just a few hours and make a few hundred bucks a month, so that those people can receive full state benefits.)

Civil Practices Commitee Chair Byron Cook this morning appointed a special subcommittee to explore employment law as it relates to the house and house rules.

State Rep Mark Strama, D-Austin, was appointed to chair the special subcommittee. State Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Richardson, asked to be removed from the committee on the grounds that he's not a lawyer. State Rep. Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, and State Rep Phil King, R-Weatherford are taking Madden's place on the subcommittee. State Rep. Robert "Point-of-Order" Talton, R-Pasadena, was also appointed.

This issue is a flareup of the ongoing fight over House Speaker Tom Craddick, as Craddick opponents accuse him of leaking the story to publicly punish his political enemies. But even Craddick allies got hit by the birdshot -- as State Rep. Tony Goolsby, R-Dallas, was discovered having a ghost worker on staff.

Here's a link to the Civil Practices committee hearing going on live right now, but it's not archived yet so we can't go back and watch the minor fireworks from the beginning.

Categories: 2009 Speaker Race | Texas House |
Posted by Elise Hu at 11:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you live in Austin and enjoy hearing people riff on Texas politics, there's a new show for you. Deece Eckstein is launching "Texas Politics Today", a new weekly radio show on KOOP 91.7, Austin's community radio station. It will air Wednesdays from 2:30 to 3:00pm.

If you don't live in ATX, that sucks for you. Just kidding. The show will stream on www.koop.org.

The show kicks off with a one-hour special next Monday, May 5, from noon to 1pm. You will get to hear Texas Monthly's Paul Burka and Burnt Orange Report's Matt Glazer blather on and on about analyze where the speaker's race stands.

Categories: 2009 Speaker Race | Media |
Posted by Elise Hu at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Our intrepid web team at KVUE has posted raw video of parts of Craddick's deposition (see post below), but if you want to see the condensed version we put on TV, here's the 6pm video story. In this version you can watch the travel company owner, Phillip Marsteller, talk about the so-called "threatening" letter he received from Craddick and lobbyist Bill Messer.

Since we didn't post all eighty minutes, I took a snapshot for you of an interesting moment we didn't post online. This is Craddick talking with his attorney, in the middle of the deposition. Instead of taking a break to meet privately, the attorney put his hand over Craddick's face. Not sure why Craddick didn't put his own hand over his mouth.

"I've never seen anything like that before in a deposition," plaintiff's attorney Kevin Buchanan said. "I made clear that they could take a break."

Categories: 2009 Speaker Race | Litigation | People and Places |
Posted by Elise Hu at 8:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The deposition of Tom Craddick lasts about eighty minutes, and all of it is riveting when you consider Craddick almost never sits down for extended "interviews" like that. Click on the picture to see raw video of the end of the deposition, where Craddick walks out before questioning is finished.

This second clip is from earlier in the deposition, in which he claims he never read a letter in which a threat of "embarrassment to the reputation" of the travel company owner is made. Craddick signed the letter, but says he didn't read it.
Watch the second clip here.

Categories: 2009 Speaker Race | Litigation | People and Places |
Posted by Elise Hu at 6:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)