Stickland Delays Shenanigans

"Though his hatred is covered by deceit,
His wickedness will be revealed before the assembly."
Proverbs 26:26

We discussed the local and consent calendar on Tuesday; looks like Stickland has taken the lesson to heart:

A state lawmaker who’s been a tea party idol appeared to fire a warning shot across the bow of the Texas House leadership team on Thursday when he single-handedly sandbagged a couple of bills that had appeared to have no opposition.

State Rep. Jonathan Stickland – a Bedford Republican who’s been one of Speaker Joe Straus’ most outspoken critics during the past two years – knocked the measures in question off the Local, Consent and Resolutions Calendar with a procedural tactic that’s been used at times for a variety of reasons.

Stickland’s maneuvering prevented proposals that Republican State Rep. Travis Clardy of Nacogdoches and Democratic State Rep. Roland Gutierrez of San Antonio are sponsoring from sailing through the lower chamber in expedited fashion in a package that included more than two dozen other bills that hadn’t encountered any apparent obstacles up to now.

The Gutierrez proposal that Stickland temporarily derailed would ban so-called e-cigarettes from public school property. Clardy’s measure that the second-term suburban lawmaker picked off would give Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar’s office the exclusive authority to approve or to reject energy conservation contracts that state colleges and universities here have negotiated.

....

Stickland threw up the tactical roadblock when he spoke in opposition to the electronic smoking and energy saving contract proposals for almost 10 minutes on each of the two bills. Stickland, a hard-line conservative with libertarian leanings, based his objections to the measures on the grounds that they would intrude on personal freedom and free market protections.

....

While none of Stickland’s colleagues questioned the sincerity of the concerns that he raised about the proposals, the procedural power play sparked speculation on whether he was more interested in sending a message to the Straus and the lieutenants on his leadership team than actually trying to kill the measures.

....

Stickland was one of 19 House Republicans who attempted to overthrow Straus at the start of the regular session in January when they pitched their support to GOP State Rep. Scott Turner of Frisco in the speaker’s election instead. Stickland had contended that the legislation he’s been pushing at the Capitol this year has been bottled up in committees without hearings or votes as retribution from the Straus team for his positions in the leadership contest and battles on policy issues.

Read the whole thing here.