Two-Year Term
From the Trib today:
After redistricting, the state constitution requires senators to draw lots to determine which half of the chamber will have four-year terms and which will have two-year terms. This keeps Senate district elections staggered every two years for the rest of the decade.
It was the luck of the draw for Texas senators on Wednesday as they drew lots to decide which half of them would get two-year terms and which would get four-year terms.
The practice is outlined in Article 3, Section 3, of the Texas Constitution, which calls for “Senators elected after each apportionment [redistricting]” to be divided into two classes: one that will serve a four-year term and the other to serve a two-year term. That keeps Senate district elections staggered every two years. After that, senators serve four-year terms for the rest of the decade.
On Wednesday, each of the chamber’s 31 lawmakers walked to the front of the chamber and drew lots by picking an envelope that held a pill-shaped capsule. Inside the capsules were numbers: Even numbers meant two-year terms, and odd were for four-year terms.
The results of the drawing:
Two-year terms: Carol Alvarado, Paul Bettencourt, César Blanco, Donna Campbell, Sarah Eckhardt, Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, Joan Huffman, Nathan Johnson, Phil King, Morgan LaMantia, Tan Parker, Angela Paxton, Drew Springer, Royce West, and John Whitmire.
Four-year terms: Brian Birdwell, Brandon Creighton, Pete Flores, Roland Gutierrez, Bob Hall, Kelly Hancock, Bryan Hughes, Lois Kolkhorst, José Menéndez, Mayes Middleton, Borris L. Miles, Robert Nichols, Charles Perry, Charles Schwertner, Kevin Sparks, and Judith Zaffirini.
Sen. Alvarado is cool with running in two years. She is not afraid of campaigning.
The upside for a Democratic state senator pulling a two-year term is that they run in 2024 like Alvarado, Blanco, Eckhardt and Johnson, and when 2026 comes around, they can consider running for a statewide office without giving up their senate seat. Got it?
Off the Kuff today comes at this from a different angle here:
After the 2012 election, the main question was whether then-Sen. Wendy Davis, who won a tough race in a district carried by Mitt Romney, would have to run again in 2014. She drew a short straw, and I think that contributed to her decision to run for Governor. Of course, we were in a time and of a political makeup in which Dems were getting creamed in non-Presidential years. That changed quite dramatically in 2018, when Dems won back Davis’ old seat and picked up another Senate seat as well. Sen. LaMantia had a tough race in 2022, and at this time I have no idea if it’s better for her to run in 2024 or not. We’ll just have to see.
As for Whitmire, what this means is that if he’s elected Mayor this year, things will be messy in SD15 the next year. There would be both a primary and a special election to replace and succeed him, much as there was in HD147 this past year. You could have the primary winner, who would get to serve a four-year term after winning in November of 2024, and the special election winner, who would serve out the remainder of 2024, be two different people. One person could face five elections total in 2024, if the primary and the special both go to runoffs; this would happen for someone who wins the primary in a runoff and makes it to the runoff (win or lose) in the special. Did I mention that the primary runoff and the special election would take both place in May, but on different dates, again as it was in HD147? Speaking as a resident of SD15, I’m already exhausted by this possibility, which may not even happen. May God have mercy on our souls.
Anyway. The Houston-area Senators who will be on the ballot in 2024 are Carol Alvarado (SD06), Paul Bettencourt (SD07), John Whitmire (SD15), and Joan Huffman (SD17). The ones who get to wait until 2026 are Brandon Creighton (SD04), Mayes Middleton (SD11), Borris Miles (SD13), and Lois Kolkhorst (SD18).
Here is all of Off the Kuff: The Lege does its housekeeping – Off the Kuff.
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Yesterday was National Human Trafficking Awareness Day and National Milk Day.
Today is National Pharmacist Day.
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Nothing from The Yard today.