Special Session: Perry Calls the Shots, But He’s Also a Target

So far, the only certainty about the special legislative session Gov. Rick Perry has said he’ll call is where it’ll be. When it'll happen, how long it might last, and exactly what legislation he’ll bring back to the table is anybody's guess.

Perry’s not usually shy about special sessions. This will be his eighth since becoming governor in 2000; he’s allowed many of them to last their full 30 days and sometimes piled multiple special sessions into a year to ensure a law’s passage. After the meltdown at the end of the regular session in late May, the need for such a session is obvious. Lawmakers still have to pass bills that renew at least five major state agencies—among them, the departments of transportation and insurance—or they’ll start shutting down in September and be completely closed for business by Sept. 1, 2010.  

But with primary contender U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson indicating that she’s ready to pounce on Perry for any misstep, there’s reason to think he’ll tread cautiously this time around. “The only losers in special sessions are governors,” says Harvey Kronberg of The Quorum Report.

Perry can lay low during regular sessions and leave the mistakes to lawmakers, but during a special session he’s calling the shots, making him an easy target for advocacy groups and political opponents. The wisest course of action, Kronberg says, would be to get in and get out quickly—“put the special session in the rearview…and let those 181 loose cannons stay home."

It wouldn’t be so hard to do: call a quick, two-to-four day session sometime in July, stick strictly to 'emergency legislation' [renewing those agencies] and hope all those finicky lawmakers calling for Perry to add more bills to the agenda quiet down soon.

Ahh, but then there’s voter ID, the conflict-ridden partisan monster that stalled the House for a week and took out some 400 bills with it when it finally died. Though reviving such a contentious bill would undoubtedly draw criticism, Perry’s conservative base is counting on him to add voter ID to the agenda—and Perry’s counting on them to win him the primary against Hutchinson.

Will he risk introducing a legislative wild card for some primary votes? There’s no guarantee Perry will play safe this session, Kronberg says, based on his past performance: “The governor on more than one occasion has demonstrated a willingness to take risks and to throw Hail Mary passes.”

Meanwhile, Hutchinson has been prowling around the rink waiting for Perry to take off his statesman’s hat and put on his boxing gloves. She hasn’t officially announced her bid for governor, but she’s issued a slew of press releases critiquing Perry’s leadership during the regular session and it’s clear that she’s going to take full advantage of any special session screw-ups. She's done as much with the regular session, according to The Dallas Morning News:

Hutchison told The Dallas Morning News in Washington that if she, rather than Perry, had been governor, there would be no need now to call lawmakers back.

"I would hope not," she said. "Because I would be hands-on, working hard through the session and I would be working with the Legislature, which is what I think the governor should do."

Sounds like the primaries will be more fun to watch, regardless of what Perry cooks up for the special session. "Let’s get the statesmanship out of the way," Kronberg says, "and move on to the smackdown.”