Merritt Calls for Speaker Summit

Merritt: "Partisan differences must be replaced with a system that respects the will of the House and the vote of every individual member."

So, before the House can work out who is going to challenge Speaker Tom Craddick next session, the big question is how to mount that challenge. The front runners don't want their attack on the big boss upset by some weird ruling from the parliamentarian (not like that would ever happen, right?) But how to ensure that? Rep. Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, thinks he has a plan.

Merritt has already filed his paperwork to run for speaker and is one of the regularly mentioned names that seems to stand a snowball in Hades chance. What he proposes is a speaker summit where the ground rules for campaigning and for actually holding the speaker election can be established by the contenders. That could be the most important step, considering that it was the lack of a secret ballot that derailed Rep. Jim Pitt's speaker challenge last session. "The reality is this is basically a split House," he noted, adding that this could be a great step towards genuine bipartisanship.

The real question is: Will this be perceived as him being the kind of above-the-fray leader that Craddick isn't, and can his attempt to level the playing field become a game-changing advantage? See below the fold for the full press release.

MERRITT CALLS FOR "SPEAKER’S SUMMIT"

(AUSTIN) – Speaker candidate Rep. Tommy Merritt (R-Longview) today called on the nine announced candidates for the top post in the Texas House of Representatives to join him at a Speaker’s Summit to discuss the contentious race for the top position in the body.

"It is time for us all to come together and move this process forward," Merritt said. "We can continue talking about bipartisanship and change and accomplish little, or we can show the people of Texas we are serious about leading this state in a new direction by actually doing something. That something is a Speaker’s Summit."

"I don’t expect the Summit to result in a unified choice for Speaker," he said. "But I do hope we can at least agree to a set of ground rules that each candidate will adhere too, a fair process for voting, and an agreement between the candidates that whoever wins, that person will put Texas above politics and will not punish those who entered the contest.

Merritt, who has spent each day since November 2 calling members, said he feels confident he can win the Speaker’s race by bringing Republicans and Democrats together and adopting a power-sharing philosophy during the next session.

"The reality is this is basically a split House," he said. "That means power must be split. And it means partisan differences must be replaced with a system that respects the will of the House and the vote of every individual member."

Merritt will be contacting candidates this week establishing an acceptable meeting time and date.