Speaker's Race - The Pulse of The House

Where are things in the speaker's race? Well, it depends who you ask, quite frankly.

Everyone has a point of view and that view can be as contrary to the next guy. My observation on this day is that there are two primary factors for the confusion surrounding the direction of Texas House in the selection of the speaker. One is the attempt to control and spin the perception of who is winning in the competition for votes. The other is the number of members who are telling the various candidates that they have their support. For whatever reason, one interesting human dynamic is that a number of representatives are unwilling to make a final unambiguous commitment until they note the direction of the speaker's race.

As I observed yesterday, fence sitters or double (or even triple) pledgers are slowly having their positions "clarified." On this day, it became more apparent to the members that at least one of the candidates was not in a competitive position. Another of the three candidates picked up a handful of the members who "clarified" their positions. If this trend continues, I am suspecting that the probable winner will be increasingly apparent to the larger membership by the middle of next week.

Although I expect the spin to continue, members are increasingly able to see past media reports to the realities on the ground. If you want my opinion this race will be won or lost in the next few days.

More on today's occurrences.