Action! Excitement! Waiting!
January 9th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
A team of Observer editors and reporters is at the capitol for the first day of the session. They’ll be updating as soon as something eventful goes down, so check back later for their insights and observations.
For now, though, judging from the blogs that are providing near minute-by-minute coverage of the House, not a lot is happening. The galleries are jammed and the online video feeds are all slammed, so the only way to watch it live is if your area public access channel carries the proceedings.
The important developments of the past few hours:
— Condolences go out to Rep. Fred Brown, R-College Station, who is likely to miss the vote today because of his mother’s death. The absence of Brown, who was reportedly a Craddick backer, leaves 148 members to choose the speaker (one seat is vacant). Tie votes would require a revote. We could be here a while.
— Rep. Will Hartnett, R-Dallas, who is Craddick’s point man on the voting rules, filed a resolution last night calling for a paper ballot. Apparently the roll call voice vote they had favored is out. As of about 1:15, 1:30, the reps were still arguing (privately) over whether ballots will be read before or after committee appointments, or never at all.
— Pitts had a latte this morning. (Uh, thanks, Statesman.)
More coming.
