AUSTIN - Rep. Tommy Merritt is pressing ahead with plans to hold his Austin summit on Wednesday with fellow candidates for Texas House Speaker, but the Longview Republican had few committed takers on the eve of the summit.
As of mid-day Tuesday, Merritt and Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock, were the only two of the dozen announced speaker candidates with firm plans to attend the hour-long session in the speaker's committee room of the State Capitol, Merritt told PoliTex.
Incumbent Republican Speaker Tom Craddick is facing 11 challengers - six fellow Republicans and five Democrats - in his bid to win re-election by a vote of the House membership when the 2009 Legislature convenes on Jan. 13. Merritt said he and Jones were working the phones to drum up attendees "but we have no way of knowing until they show." Merritt proposed the summit several weeks ago to discuss core issues in the race and is inviting all the candidates, the speaker included.
-- Dave Montgomery
This is exciting. So are we going to have unity? Merritt endorsing Delwin, or Delwin endorsing Merritt? I'm trembling with anticipation.
Either way, the math works out the same:
Craddick: 70 or so
Democrats: 50 or so
Merritt/Jones: 2
Everybody else: 1
Posted by: T.J. | December 17, 2008 at 03:27 PM