Craddick says he may run for re-election
Speaker blames others for loss of his position.
By Laylan Copelin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, January 15, 2009
A relaxed, chipper Tom Craddick reflected Wednesday on a 40-year career in the Texas House and suggested that his love affair with the chamber might not be over.
The former speaker, one day removed from handing over the gavel after a tumultuous six years as House leader, said he might seek re-election to his Midland seat after this term.
 Harry Cabluck/ASSOCIATED PRESS Tom Craddick says he is not plotting to be speaker again. |
"Yeah, I well might," he said in an interview. "I love the House. It's fun."
Reporters lined up Wednesday outside Craddick's new office on the Capitol's first floor, a much more modest affair compared with the speaker's suite, to take turns asking the Midland Republican about the sudden end of his tenure as House leader.
The man who took Craddick's spot, San Antonio Republican Joe Straus, used a coalition of House Democrats and a handful of disenfranchised Republicans to steamroll the legislative veteran out of his leadership position. In a House with a slim 76-74 Republican majority, Craddick's iron-fisted rule was over.
On Craddick's office wall are three framed sketches that sum up his three terms as speaker. Each is an architectural rendering of the Capitol with the signatures of the 150 House members. They're identical except for a line summarizing each session. The first reads "First Republican Speaker in 130 years." The second: "At the end of the day, it's what's best for Texas." The last — the one from 2007 — simply says "Rule 5, Section 24."
That final reference is to a House rule Craddick used in the final days of the 2007 session when he refused to allow a vote on a motion to remove him, igniting the firestorm that finally consumed him.
Asked what led to his defeat this month, Craddick neither second-guessed himself nor blamed his actions. He cited a bad economy, an unpopular war and the Obama surge, as he called it, that whittled down his Republican majority in the Texas House.
Craddick acknowledged that the seeds of discontent were sown in 2003 during his first session as speaker.
"I came in, the first Republican in 130 years. People don't like change.
"Two, you have a budget deficit, right? You either raise taxes or make cuts. We made cuts. Then we went into redistricting."
Of those topics, redistricting was an unusual mid-decade redrawing of political districts to enlarge the Republican majority in Congress. It was not required; it was a choice that Craddick and other Republicans made because they felt the congressional map no longer represented what had become a Republican state.
After the 2003 session, Craddick noted that Democrats who supported him for speaker were targeted by their own party and frequently defeated.
"I appointed more minorities and Democrats to chairmanships than ever," Craddick said. "The Democratic Caucus went after them and beat them."
As for accomplishments, Craddick cited his years working to elect a GOP majority in the House, his wife's role in restoring the speaker's apartment to its historic status and his becoming the first Republican speaker in modern history.
On issues, he touted his conservative stewardship of state finances and making it tougher to sue doctors and companies.
"I truthfully believe that if we hadn't done the things we did, we wouldn't have a budget surplus today," he said. "We wouldn't be No. 1 in new businesses and new jobs."
First elected in 1969, Craddick said the House was a perfect fit for him. The part-time job allowed him to continue in business and be home with his children. Over the years, Craddick said he turned down offers for other political jobs (secretary of state from Gov. Bill Clements was among them) as he nursed his dream to become speaker.
As for this session, Craddick said he is drafting legislation and will use his seniority — the most in the House — to pick a committee assignment.
He disputed speculation that he's plotting a comeback: "I'm not running for speaker."
Told that a friend predicted that Craddick would go back to doing what he did before he was speaker — sitting at his desk on the House floor, on the phone, cutting business deals — Craddick laughed: "That's someone who knows me well."
lcopelin@statesman.com; 445-3617
