Turnover and legal challenges complicate 2012 elections

As turbulent as the 2011 regular and special legislative sessions were, the upcoming election cycle promises to continue the chaos. In addition to the high-profile races of the state’s top leaders, the House and Senate chambers are expected to experience high turnover in the 2012 elections, and legal reviews are injecting additional uncertainty into the process.

Multiple vacancies don't often open up in the Texas Senate, where the average term of office is nearly 15 years (compared to around nine years in the Texas House). But four longtime senators have already announced their intent not to run for re-election, and changes in district boundaries may result in additional turnover.

The retiring senators, all powerful committee chairs, are Florence Shapiro (Education), Steve Ogden (Finance), Chris Harris (Jurisprudence) and Mike Jackson (Economic Development). This group represents nearly one-third of the Senate leadership team.

The departures of Shapiro and Ogden, in particular, could affect public education policy in the Senate. Shapiro has directed education policy in that chamber for several sessions; most recently she authored SB 8, the controversial “flexibility” legislation that passed in the special session, and she has been a strong advocate for increased accountability and teacher merit pay. Shapiro and Ogden together were largely responsible for holding the line on funding cuts in the 2011 session, resulting in a budget that, while still reducing per-pupil funding, was considerably less damaging than the version approved by the House.

Also of interest is a strong challenge to Sen. Wendy Davis, a Democratic freshman legislator on the Senate Education Committee who changed the course of the most recent legislative session by filibustering to force the special session, hoping to gain additional funds for education but providing the opportunity to resurrect the flexibility legislation. Davis' Senate seat was redrawn in a way that is expected to favor a Republican candidate (at least two current Republican House members have already announced their intent to run), and she has filed suit in federal court to challenge the boundaries.

Other positions are still in limbo; the Justice Department failed to clear the boundaries for both the Texas House and the U.S. House, noting in a court filing that the new maps do not meet federal anti-discrimination requirements. This poses a challenge for House candidates who can't be certain of the boundaries of the district in which they intend to run (or in some cases whether they will even be eligible to run in a certain district), and delays in finalizing the districts could result in a push back of the filing deadlines. (The current filing period is Nov. 12 to Dec. 12.)

More than 20 Texas House members have indicated that they are not running for re-election, and more are likely to announce in the coming weeks. Given the political turmoil at both the national and state levels, there could once again be a high level of turnover in the House. The influx of 35 freshman in the 2011 session was thought to have a strong impact on both politics and policy.

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If you're not happy with how public education was addressed in the last legislative session, make sure you're doing your own homework and vote for candidates who will support you in the Legislature. The primary election in March (early voting begins in February) will be the most important election in the majority of races, since most districts are drawn to favor the Republican or Democratic candidate. You can vote in either party’s primary (but not both!) as long as you are a registered voter.

Be sure to take part in determining who will represent you in 2013. TCTA will be providing customized candidate information to our members after the filing period has ended, including voting records for incumbent legislators and candidate survey responses.