Did Perry lobby behind the scenes for Joe Straus to continue to be the Speaker of the House? I'm serious -- I do not know if he did or not. The House members themselves vote on who is the Speaker. Perry can't veto their decision on Speaker.
Texas has a weak governor system instituted many, many years ago. From Link 1, paragraph breaks mine:
Due to perceived abuses during Reconstruction by Governor E.J. Davis, the Texas Constitution provides for a weak governor with little formal power. The governor had a two-year term until the constitution was amended in the 1970s, changing the term to four years. There is no limit on the number of terms a governor can serve.
The governor's appointive and executive powers are limited by the plural executive, which forces the governor to share the running of the executive branch with independently elected department and agency heads. Unlike the president and governors in some states, the Texas governor has very limited removal powers. The governor has very little budgetary power in the formation, development, and execution stages. However, the governor's item veto powers over the state budget can have an impact on the final budget signed into law.
It is in the legislative area that the Texas governor possesses the most significant powers. The governor's veto is rarely overridden due to the short biennial legislative session, and the governor does have the power to set the agenda for any special sessions. Both of these powers can be used as bargaining tools.
Because of a misuse of the pardon power by Governor Miriam Ferguson, the governor's judicial powers are limited today. Comparing the Texas governor to the other 49 on four indexes of power--tenure of office, appointive powers, budgetary powers, and veto powers, finds that Texas governor is comparatively weak in formal powers. Only in the areas of tenure and veto authority does the Texas governor rank strong.
As a result of the few formal powers, the informal powers determine how successful the Texas governor is. The governor's lack of formal power makes the job of governing Texas--a large, diverse, economically important state--extremely challenging. Although current and future problems seem to cry out for stronger and more effective leadership from the governor's mansion, the traditionalistic/individualistic political culture of the state makes it unlikely that the necessary changes will be made to significantly increase the powers of the Texas governor.
Let's look at some news items about Perry.
Here is an article (from the anti-Perry Houston Chronicle no less) where Perry makes statements against what Straus is endorsing re the state budget: Link 2. Perry is advocating for less use of the rainy day fund than what Straus did. The article basically says that Perry's statements left the House leadership "no cover" and earlier that he had lobbied against using so much of the rainy day fund to cover budget shortfalls as the legislature proposed.
Here is a 2011 Perry speech against sanctuary cities: Link 3.
My impression is that Perry talks conservative (necessary to be elected in Texas and maybe if he wanted to be considered for president on the Republican ticket) but doesn't always follow through. If he were elected president, I would expect more of the same behavior. However, I don't think Perry would be as bad as Bush in that regard. W disappointed me greatly by not vetoing McCain-Feingold, not vetoing budget busting spending, advocating tax cuts that greatly expanded the number of people who don't pay income tax (very dangerous to the future of the country).
Perry is a political opportunist, but in any event would be a great improvement over Obama. Who wouldn't be?
“Did Perry lobby behind the scenes for Joe Straus to continue to be the Speaker of the House? I’m serious — I do not know if he did or not. The House members themselves vote on who is the Speaker. Perry can’t veto their decision on Speaker.”
Fair question...we have no way to know. But we do know that after 2008 the Republicans had a very slim majority in the House. Strauss rounded up a couple of RINOs, and then teamed with all of the DEMOCRATS to be elected Speaker (replacing a solid conservative). That should exclude him from Republican leadership COMPLETELY, in the future.
So 2010 comes around and Strauss runs again for leader. The conservatives alone have a majority in the House, and can easily drive him out - but they don’t - and he proceeds to carry out a VERY LAME agenda. In fact, the only voice that I heard back then saying Strauss should go was State Senator Dan Patrick...not a peep from Perry. As to all of those conservatives voting for Strauss in 2010...it is VERY HARD to vote against your own governor’s wishes, because of the leverage he has...and they did not.
So we had a really crappy session and only got a few medium-good items passed (like Voter ID), rather than the important stuff that I mentioned earlier. Heck we couldn’t even put a block on Sanctuary Cities.
And I will ALWAYS place the blame on the sitting governor, when he has a 65% majority in the state legislature.