House Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) released his committee assignments Feb. 12.

Said Straus in a written statement: “When I became Speaker, I vowed to help the members build a house that would operate fairly and help them bring their best talent forward to address the state’s most difficult challenges. The committee assignments I am making today will draw upon the House’s wisdom and experience and provide an opportunity for new leadership and ideas. We are fortunate to have a House where members want do what is best and right for Texas and I am confident that they will succeed.”

Here are a few notes we had on the committee assignments.

Some Craddick chairmen kept their committee chairmanships. Straus retained six of Speaker Tom Craddick’s chairmen – Frank Corte (R-San Antonio) at Defense and Veterans Affairs, John Smithee (R-Amarillo) at Insurance, Patrick Rose (D-Dripping Springs) at Human Services, Rob Eissler (R-The Woodlands) at Public Education, Ruth Jones McClendon (D-San Antonio) at Rules and Resolutions, and Vicki Truitt (R-Keller) at Pensions, Investments, and Financial Services.

 This list doesn’t include Jim Pitts (R-Waxahachie) at Appropriations, who had a chairmanship in 2005, then lost it in 2007 when he ran against Craddick.

The committee ratios are fairly similar to last session. By rule, every House member can get on only two policy committees. That means to some extent, speaker committee assignments are a zero sum game. Stack one committee with R’s and – in an evenly divided House – another one has to get stacked with D’s. Eyeballing the committee ratios, it appears the ratios are somewhat similar to those last session, to the extent they can be compared.

One notable exception is that Democrats have seven (out of 15) members on State Affairs, which deals with utilities and many of the social issues. State Affairs is also a good fundraising base, because of its jurisdiction over utilities.

The Republicans who were part of last session’s insurgency did quite well. Help the Speaker get elected and get key committee posts. Surprise, surprise.

As is typical in a Texas Speaker’s race, the Republicans who left Craddick early got rewarded with plum committee assignments by the winning speaker. Pitts at Appropriations, Brian McCall (R-Plano) at Calendars, Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth) at Administration, Byron Cook (R-Corsicana) at environmental regulation, Delwin Jones (R-Lubbock) at Redistricting, Tommy Merritt (R-Longview) at Public Safety, Ed Kuempel (R-Seguin) at Licensing and Administrative Procedures, Dan Branch (R-Dallas) at Higher Education, and Burt Solomons (R-Carrollton) at State Affairs. Most of these appointments were expected.

The Democratic leadership fared a bit better than last session but did not get as many concessions as some Republicans feared. Many conservatives are understandably disappointed with these committee assignments. From a conservative perspective, it could have been worse.

The best committee assignment given to a Democrat went to Rep. Rene Oliveira (D-Brownsville), who regained the Ways and Means Committee chairmanship he held during the 1999 and 2001 sessions. That said, Straus stacked the committee with eight (out of 11) Republicans, many of whom are tax hawks.

The other key committee chairmanship that went to a Democrat was that of Rep. Joe Pickett (D-El Paso) at Transportation. Pickett has worked on Transportation issues for his entire time in the House and is generally respected on both sides of the aisle. He was one of the early critics of the Texas Department of Transportation in 2003 and thereafter, which earned him credibility with a lot of the membership.

But Straus kept Republicans in charge of two key committees that Republicans really care about. The first was Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence. Rep. Todd Hunter (R-Corpus Christi) carried tort reform bills when he was last in the Legislature and was backed by Texans for Lawsuit Reform in his 2008 campaign. The committee has 8 (out of 11) Republicans.

Also, the elections committee is majority Republican, and Rep. Todd Smith (R-Euless) will serve as chairman. This committee likely has jurisdiction over the voter identification bill, and Republicans were worried that Straus might give this committee to the Democrats.

One surprise was the appointment of Democrat Rep. Diana Maldonado (D-Round Rock) to the Committee on State Affairs. Maldonado is a Democrat in a marginal district, so this assignment will likely help her re-election fundraising. Most of the other freshmen Democrats got the usual freshman committee assignments.

Like Craddick, Straus has a set of Democrats close to him who received key committee posts. For the most part, they are different Democrats from the ones close to Craddick. As most of the House conservatives were Craddick supporters, it’s not surprising that they did not get the key committee posts. Nonetheless, Republicans and conservatives did retain some key committee posts and will still retain some influence over the course of legislation.

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