State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy's re-nomination is expected to come up in the Texas Senate sometime this afternoon. Whether he can garner two-thirds approval from senators is an open question. Earlier in the session, many lawmakers believed his nomination wasn't even going to get out of committee.

Because McLeroy's been a stalwart social-conservative voice, the right-leaning Texans for Better Science Education is sending "URGENT" messages to its members, asking they call their senators to support McLeroy. The group's argument?

"...He is being attacked NOT for anything done wrong during his two years as chair of the SBOE but primarily because he is Christian!" (We just report, you decide.)

The three GOP members the group singles out are Sens. Seliger, Wentworth and Averitt. They are socially-moderate Republicans who have not publicly indicated which way they were voting. In an interview last week, Seliger did not commit either way.

"I have no feel for it, I think there's going to be a discussion and I'm looking forward to it," said Seliger. "It's going to be an interesting vote, don't you think?"

"I think his chances are good by nature of the fact he's a gubernatorial appointee and there's a great deal of respect for Rick Perry. We all got a bit of baggage," Seliger said.

1 Comments

Stevie F. said:

If McLeroy's leadership on the SBOE was successful, what would failure look like?

May 29, 2009 7:21 AM

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