Recorded Votes? Come On!
(Thanks to TCAN for letting me say what must be said!)
Next, the do-gooders will be asking our legislators to state positions on issues!
WHERE DOES THIS STOP?
Back in the good old days, a legislator could vote any way he liked then just tell you what you wanted to hear come election time. Everybody was happy then. (Well, maybe not everybody, but then you always have those grumps who think “their” rights are being trampled.)
Nowdays… well, don’t get me started.
Apparently, many of you don’t understand that accountability takes much of the fun out of legislating. If the fun goes, all you’ll have left are pointy-headed reps like Elliott Naishtat.
Get this - Mr. Naishtat thinks that voters should know how their reps voted every step along the way. It gets worse: he introduced HB 666 (yeah, THAT’S a coincidence…), which required recorded votes on amendments, in committees, and both 2nd and 3rd readings of bills. He thinks voters should know their legislators’ every vote!
Well, Mr. Naishtat, I have news for you. The only vote that really matters is the 3rd reading. Everything up to that point is really none of the voters’ business.
Fortunately, someone realized that and introduced a bill that allows legislators to fight a bill every step of the way (in the privacy of their unrecorded-vote-rules-home), then have a change of heart at the last minute and get on record as having voted a certain way. For obvious reasons, the House likes this one much better than 666, and passed it out of committee.
So a legislator voicing spirited opposition (in committee and on the floor) to, say, campaign finance reform, can then vote for it at the last minute and tell his constituents that of course he’s on board with campaign reform. And the legislator can be pleased with himself that he exhibited good manners and went along with everybody else after it was clear how the vote was going to go.
The Texas Senate has its own views on all this, and after yacking about it forever they’re trying to make it look more like Naishtat’s HB 666. Sigh. So it will now be negotiated in conference committee — that happy place where Reps and Senators put their heads together to make the best of what both chambers have to offer.
As you might guess, TCAN was all for HB 666, and wants the joint bill to look like that one. This notion is evidently based on the idea that you care about what goes in the capitol and want your legislators to vote a certain way. Quaint, isn’t it?
Anyway, y’all need to be good and try not to get in the way. Now don’t go looking up your Rep or Senator on TCAN’s new easy-to-find list of legislators.
And don’t go bugging legislators with your phone calls and emails just because TCAN made it easier to look them up. They have more important work to do than to listen to you.
No doubt, some of you will do just that despite what I’ve said. Well… if you do, then, it’s your fault that Ma and the entire Ferguson family are probably rolling over in their graves…
Sincerely,
Thisis S. Atire (TCAN guest blogger)
Posted: May 7th, 2007 under Open government.
