Home > Postcards > Archives > Inaugural category
Inaugural
January 16, 2007
They're h-e-e-e-e-e-e-r-e
At today’s inaugural festivities, the corner debate was on whether a quorum will be present tomorrow when the Senate and House convene to do business, with all that ice and snow and nasty weather swirling around outside.
The consensus?
With at least half of the Legislature in town today for the inaugural, perhaps more, Wednesday’s scheduled sessions of the Senate and House should come off as planned.
Reason?
Lawmakers are not going home. They’re staying put in Austin, now that they’re here.
“I’m here for the week,” said state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, echoing the sentiments of several colleagues. “I’m not going anywhere.”
They come, they go
Two hours after this morning’s inaugural ceremonies at the State Capitol were over, the domed statehouse was deserted once again.
With the hallways bustling just before the the 10 a.m. swearing-in ceremony in the House Chamber, DPS troopers remarked that it looked like a regular business day, except for that winter storm outside.
When the ceremony ended, everyone quickly hit the doors. For the barbeque lunch on Colorado Street just west of the Capitol. Or to head home, before the weather got worse.
By 1 p.m., the hallways echoed with stillness, broken only by the occasional patrol of a trooper or a staff aide heading out.
And the few tourists who braved the weather for a tour were once again standing in the center of the Rotunda, practicing their echo to the top of the dome.
“We’re from Wisconsin. So this isn’t really that much of a problem,” explained Paul Johansen, who said he lives outside Milwaukee. “We were in town and just thought this would be a good time to look around.”
Did they come for the inaugural?
“Was there was an inaugural?”
Q&A again
Questions from a reader named Melinda:
How many people attended today’s swearing-in ceremony? And what is the record for an inaugural?
According to event organizers, approximately 1,100 folks attended this morning’s event, including 850 or so in the House Chamber.
The record was set on Jan. 15, 1939, when W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel was inaugurated in what was then Texas Memorial Stadium before a crowd of 45,000.
The first one
Okay, okay. All right, already.
Blitzed by readers about who was the first Texas governor to be sworn into office in the current State Capitol, we offer the following from the history books:
Not Ma Ferguson, as some suggested. She didn’t become the state’s CEO for the first time until 1925, years after the capitol was built.
Not Sam Houston, who last took the oath in 1859, decades before the building existed.
Not even Sul Ross, who was governor when the domed wonder was built.
The correct answer: James Stephen Hogg, who was sworn in on Jan. 20, 1891.
In the House Chamber, we are told.
And the January date for inaugurals?
The First Guv to take the oath during the First Month was Richard Coke, on Jan. 15, 1874. Edmund Davis became provisional governor on Jan. 8, 1870, and became full-rank governor three months later.
Davis left office on Jan. 15, 1874, after a weeks-long armed standoff with his successor, Coke, over who had actually been elected. He left the Capitol office where he had barricaded himself during, you guessed it, a freezing winter day.
Before January was picked, Texas governors generally took the oath in December.
Next question?
Heated tents and carryout
If winter’s icy blast forced this morning’s inaugural ceremonies indoors, it didn’t deter the traditional midday barbeque feast from proceeding outside the statehouse.
Heated tents, and lots of steaming hot chicken and ribs and beef warmed a large crowd that organizers estimated at more than 2,000.
Everyone seemed full and happy. And the place had heat.
So what’s with the folks who were spotted walking away with carryout boxes, just after the feast got rolling?
“We’ve got to get home before the weather gets worse,” explained Betty Henderson of San Antonio. “We didn’t want to miss the barbeque, because we’ve been at every one since Bill Clements. This year, we just have to grab and run.”
Nonetheless, most other lunchers were unfazed by the weather.
“Good groceries,” boomed Rick Harris, a Dallas resident and, like Gov. Rick Perry, a Texas A&M grad. “We wouldn’t miss this for anything. Neither rain nor sleet nor snow could stop us.”
Satellite swearings-in
As thousands watched in the House Chamber today as Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst were sworn in for another term, a smaller contingent of well-wishers watched the ceremonies from elsewhere in the Capitol.
Roughly two-dozen attendees watched from a big projection screen in the Senate Chamber, and others watched from an auditorium in the Capitol Extension.
Those satellite locations were part of a Plan B that inaugural organizers put into operation early this morning, when icy weather forced them to abandon plans to do the swearing-in ceremony on a grandstand erected on the south steps of the Capitol.
The House Chamber’s gallery was standing room only as Perry and Dewhurst recited their I-dos, but there was a smattering of empty seats on the House floor, most of them lawmakers who could not get to Austin today because of the icy weather.
So how did it look on a Big Screen?
“It was actually very nice, very special, like watching it home on TV,” said Shelley Kingston, an Austin resident who said she looked on in the Senate Chamber. “I guess I could have stayed home.”
“But there’s something about being at the Capitol.”
“With a big screen.”
And one protester
As Gov. Rick Perry finished his inaugural speech today, a protester stood and began shouting from the south gallery.
Austin resident Daniel Brown, 36, was quickly grabbed by a sergeant-at-arms and pulled into the aisle. He briefly appeared to grab the gallery’s brass railing, as if to resist, but then surrendered.
Brown was escorted from the chamber by DPS officers without incident.
Outside, he said his protest — a muffled outburst that was audible to few — was intended to draw attention to citizen’s rights in a democracy.
“I said, ‘Give us the power to vote. People should have that power, not elected nobles,’ ” Brown explained. “I was trying to get (Perry’s) attention. He smiled and looked up at me.”
As for his protest, Brown said he wanted to draw attention to his belief that democracy is being subverted by a ruling class. “It’s like an elected dictatorship,” he said.
He complained that DPS officers had confiscated his wallet, jacket and umbrella. DPS officers said he was to be released without charges, and that his personal belongings were to be returned once the ceremony was over.
Five governors, four by name
Not just one governor was present at today’s inauguration in the House Chamber.
There were five.
In addition to Rick Perry, four Mexican governors were present. Perry introduced Govs. Gonzales of Nuevo Leon, Herrera of Vera Cruz and Garcia of Zacatecas, but did not read aloud the name of Gov. Hernandez of Tamaulipas (though it was listed in a copy of his speech distributed to reporters).
“He forgot about me,” Hernandez said afterward. “No problem.”
The governors, seated with other guests on the north wall of the chamber, applauded several parts of Perry’s speech, including Perry’s recognition of Wallace Jefferson, a descendant of a slave who is now the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court.
Eyes of Texas
In his inaugural speech this morning, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst cited the Capitol furnishings to underscore his vision of Texas Proud.
Noting that the majestic chandeliers in the House and Senate chambers are decorated with lights that spell out T-e-x-a-s, Dewhurst said the fixtures are “a vivid reminder of the solemn duty bestowed upon our elected leaders — to put Texas above all.
“I have always thought of this light as one that illuminates the accountability to which we must always be held. Or put in simpler terms: “The Eyes of Texas are upon you.
“With those eyes on us, I make this pledge: We will not be held back by partisanship. We will move forward in partnership.
“We will not confuse motion with progress. We will forge real solutions.
“We will not allow events to shape our future. We will shape our future, guided by justice, common sense, and by the will of the people.”
Gallegos misses
Senate Pro Tempore Mario Gallegos Jr. missed this morning’s inaugural ceremonies because he is awaiting a liver transplant in Houston, and cannot travel.
Gallegos had been scheduled to gavel the State Senate into session, before the swearing-in ceremony in the House Chamber.
State Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, the dean of the Upper Chamber, filled in for Gallegos.
A one and a two
Two little hitches in today’s inaugural ceremonies lightened the mood of the day.
When an audio recording of the “Star Spangled Banner” was supposed to start, it didn’t. After three minutes of silence in the House Chamber, the crowd sang the anthem.
On key.
Applause followed.
And when state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, the dean of the Senate, gaveled the Senate into session, the gavel handle came off.
He laughed. So did the audience.
Guests: Mark Lunsford, Matt Nader
Among the honored guests at this morning inaugural ceremony in the House Chamber were two unexpected faces: Mark Lunsford and Matt Nader.
Both were invited to attend by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who cited them in his prepared speech.
Lunsford is the Florida father whose daughter Jessica was killed by a registered sex offender. Jessica’s Law was the a result of that tragedy, now enacted in 26 states.
Dewhurst has cited Lunsford in his campaign to pass into law his “Texas Children First” initiative, which would give the death penalty to repeat sex offenders who commit crimes against children.
Nader is the Westlake High School football player whose life was saved by a defibrillator. Dewhurst is campaigning to provide every Texas school with a defibrillator.
That House tradition
The winter storm that drove the Inaugural Ceremonies into the House Chamber this morning returned the oath of office to its historic home.
The oaths of office were administered in the House from 1891 to 1939, when W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel was sworn in at the University of Texas’ stadium, where he threw a Texas-sized barbeque open to the public.
In 1941, he took the oath on the south steps of the Capitol, the first governor to do so, according to Greg Davidson, a Perry aide who researched the history of the event.
In 1943, though, Coke Stevenson took the oath in the House Chamber. There, the event remained until Allen Shivers was sworn in 1951 on the south steps.
On Jan. 15, 1957, with Austin shivering in bitter cold, Price Daniel was sworn in in the House Chamber — the last time a governor has taken the oath there, almost 50 years to the day that Perry will do so. Daniel’s gun salute, parade and other festivities went on outside, uninterrupted.
Since then, inclement weather has been a rarity. In 1979, Bill Clements took the oath of office on the south steps in rain.
Another historical note: Perry aides said that today’s inaugural will be the first to have no parade in decades.
