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Dallas County, other offices are right to defy proposed new reporting requirements

Paxton At It Again

Dallas County, other offices are right to defy proposed new reporting requirements

Dallas County officials are rightly pushing back against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s proposal to saddle some district and county attorneys with onerous new reporting requirements.

Paxton in March proposed a new rule that would require prosecutors in large Texas counties to submit each quarter whole case files — including text messages and emails — in certain categories of crimes.

Violation of the requirements could result in his seeking the officials’ removal.

The Dallas County Commissioners Court recently fired off a terse letter to Paxton detailing its “substantial concerns” about the proposed rule.

Commissioners questioned his authority to implement it and wrote that the measure would cost at least $44.9 million over five years in staff and technology costs, and likely result in a property tax hike.

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot said in a separate letter that the rule would “create a bevy of legal, operational and other issues,” including possible violations of the Texas Constitution.

It also could be at odds with disclosure laws in rape and other sensitive cases.

We agree that Paxton’s proposal is a disturbing intrusion of the state into local governance.

County residents freely elect their district and county attorneys and can toss them out of office in the voting booth if they choose.

Also, state law already allows a Texas resident to petition a district court for removal of a district or county attorney in certain cases.

Paxton’s proposed rule is both unnecessary and a misuse of his office.

It’s also clearly meant to lean on Democratic district attorneys whom Paxton has criticized for their blanket statements around abortion, transgender care, elections and other political issues.

We’ve also bristled at some of these policies.

District attorneys should not be in the business of picking and choosing which regulations they like and selectively follow the law.

But Paxton’s proposed rule goes too far.

It would require counties with populations of 250,000 or more to submit, among other things, the case files of any indicted peace officer, poll watcher or defendant claiming self defense.

Prosecutors also must turn over all correspondence regarding anyone arrested but not indicted for a violent crime, with “violent” defined to include burglary and theft.

They also must deliver all correspondence with any federal agency regarding a decision whether to indict any person.

That last provision strikes us as particularly egregious, given that Paxton has been under investigation by the FBI.

Paxton’s office did not respond to our request for comment, so we don’t know if it will schedule a public hearing, as Dallas County has requested.

Other prosecutors have protested, too, and the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, in a posting on its webpage, called the proposal “yet another shot across the bow by those in state government who want to pre-empt, direct, or take over local prosecution of criminal cases.”

Paxton’s intrusive plan seems designed to help him and his political ambitions, not the Texans he is supposed to serve.

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The day is named after a Christian priest, Valentinus, who lived in the late third century AD and was beheaded on the orders of the pagan Roman emperor Claudius II on Feb. 14.

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yes, absolutely. There should have been unified command here, which experts said would typically entail an overall incident commander, often standing physically next to heads over fire/ems and police, coordinating the entirety of the response from the outside, whilst a tactical commander was coordinating the breaking law enforcement response inside the school and an on-sight medical ic their side of the response. but that didn't happen. There was no overall coordination or incident command - officers assumed that was Arredondo, but he issued few orders and was mostly inside the school on his phone or trying to find keys. the state House report also noted no one set up a command post outside, which the lawmakers found should have been done. this is what we wrote in the story: "More than two decades after the Columbine school shooting shocked the nation, key failures continue to repeat themselves. After that shooting, officers across the country received training on what they should do first when a mass shooting is reported: Subdue the shooter and stop the killing. Next, trainers tell first responders, they must “stop the dying.” Over time, that insistence on prompt, effective medical care became an established mantra, as did the idea that all first responders — police, fire and EMS — should work under a joint command overseeing and coordinating the response. An overall incident commander is supposed to coordinate with the head paramedic or lead fire department supervisor to organize the medical response, experts said. “If you don’t have a system, the whole response goes awry,” said Bob Harrison, a former police chief and a homeland security researcher at the Rand Corp., a think tank based in California."

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"Hollywood's actors and writers have not been on strike simultaneously since 1960, when John F. Kennedy was running for president, "Gunsmoke" was the top-rated series on U.S. television, and stars like Elizabeth Taylor lit up cinema marquees." — Daniel Arkin,  July 13, 2023, yahoo.news.

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And then,” Lady Bird remembered, “with something — if... With a person that gentle. That dignified, you can say had an element of fierceness, she said, ‘I want them to see what they have done to Jack.’

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WOWZA-YIKES

Vox welcomed Twitter’s erstwhile Yoel Roth to sort out blame for intentionally allowing child sexual-abuse to proliferate. [At 13:01.]

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PRETTY POPOVERS Helen Corbitt, who was the food director at Neiman Marcus in the 1950s and '60s, put Dallas and the department store on the culinary map. Corbitt, who died in 1978, was recognized for four decades as an eminent figure in the food world. She wrote many cookbooks that turned her simple yet perfect recipes into legends. Her famous warm popovers, still served at the Zodiac Room downtown, use only six ingredients, not counting the very-necessary strawberry butter on the side. A little batter goes into the oven, and out comes a virtual bread balloon, inflated not by yeast or chemicals but by steam. Most people simply pop them open and spread them with butter and jam; the popover's hollow core also is good for holding creamed chicken or other foods. Its eggy texture and taste are similar to that of Yorkshire pudding. POPOVERS WITH STRAWBERRY BUTTER 3 1 ⁄2 cups whole milk 4 cups all-purpose flour 1 1 ⁄2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon baking powder 6 large eggs, at room temperature Nonstick cooking spray Place the milk in a bowl (or 4-cup measuring cup) and microwave on high for 2 minutes or until warm to the touch. Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together into a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs into a stand mixer fitted with a whisk and beat on medium speed for about 3 minutes, until foamy and pale in color. Turn down the mixer to low and add the warm milk. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes. Turn the machine off and let the batter rest for 1 hour at room temperature. While the batter is resting, heat the oven to 425 F. Place two popover pans on a baking sheet and spray the pans with nonstick spray. Fill the popover pans with the batter 3 ⁄4 full. Transfer to the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Turn down the oven temperature to 375 F and bake for 30 minutes, or until the popovers are a deep golden brown on the outside and airy on the inside. Makes 12 popovers. Strawberry Butter: While baking the popovers, make strawberry butter. Place ½ cup unsalted room-temperature butter in the stand mixer and beat on high until light and fluffy. Add 1 ⁄4 cup strawberry preserves and beat until well combined. Chill slightly. To save the strawberry butter, keep it in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. SOURCE: The Dallas Morning News,1992

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Iconic ‘Austintatious’ mural became work of a lifetime

Kerry Awn knows they’ve said it before: “This will be the last time.”

But really, this time it has to be true.

He’s 74.

So is Tom Bauman, better known as tommy b. Rick Turner is 75.

The trio who created the “Austintatious” mural in 1973 as University of Texas art students in their early 20s, rendering weird hippie Austin in bright colors on the north outer wall of the University Co-op, never expected they would continue repairing this community treasure well into their 70s.

“We didn’t always realize it was a lifetime job,” Awn told me, breaking into a hearty laugh.

The artists are back this week – Awn from Alpine, Bauman from Driftwood and Turner from New York City – to repaint the central stretch of the iconic, fisheye-lens mural after a tagger scrawled 5-foot-tall letters across it last month.

The three artists had already made plans to be here in April to repair their other mural at the 23rd Street pedestrian mall, “Tejas,” which was vandalized in January. (April seemed a nicer month to be outside painting.)

Both murals were covered in an anti-graffiti coating called Vandl-Guard.

If someone spraypaints on top of that, a companion product called VandlClean can be applied to break down any paints sitting on top of the VandlGuard coating.

At least, that’s the theory.

Turner said the product worked pretty well in protecting the “Tejas” mural, though some touchups are needed.

But the damage to the “Austintatious” mural, which is decades older and painted on a fussier stucco wall, was extensive, requiring repainting of large areas from its depictions of the Texas Capitol to the former Gethsemane Lutheran Church (home to the Texas Historical Commission).

Much of the surreal, cloud-filled body of Stephen F. Austin must also be redone.

The artists, who last saw each other exactly a year ago for a party and official city proclamation celebrating the “Austintatious” mural’s 50th anniversary, picked up the conversation and their paintbrushes as if no time had passed.

I nodded toward a freshly painted green spot where a small figure had been.

“Who was that?” I asked. Awn shrugged. “Some street guy from 30 years ago.”

No one with the staying power to be included in the restoration.

Bauman, who earlier showed me his prized 2002 addition to the mural, an image of his son, Erick, as a 12-year-old Boy Scout on the Capitol steps, interjected: “We reserve the right to subtract as well.”

The mural started as a mirror of 1970s Austin counterculture, featuring figures such as musician Johnny Winter, comic book character Oat Willie and Roland DeNoie, the Salvation Sandwiches vendor who famously sparred with UT and city officials.

The mural reflected a time when that stretch of the Drag “was the center of the universe,” Awn said, alongside a thriving artists’ market and the church basement where the People’s Community Clinic (previously the People’s Free Clinic) got its start.

But the mural was no time capsule.

New figures were added with each restoration, including former Gov. Ann Richards and former U.S. Rep. Barbara Jordan (peering out windows in the Capitol), actor Matthew McConaughey (naked with a bongo drum), cartoon character Hank Hill (on his riding mower), and the late American-Statesman humor columnist John Kelso (in his typical tropical print shirt).

The mural changes, Bauman said, “because Austin changes.”

At the outset, none of the artists expected the mural to last this long.

They have lives and commitments elsewhere.

They’re proud of this mural, but they can’t tend to it each time a vandal strikes.

If this is a cherished Austin landmark – and there’s no doubt it is – then it needs greater community ownership.

Kelli Hanks, director of operations for the University Co-Op (which owns the wall and provides the paint for restorations), told me she’s brainstorming possible partnerships for UT art students or someone else to make any future repairs when needed.

Meanwhile, documentary filmmaker Mike Woolf launched a stunning interactive website last year (23rdstreetmural. com) to preserve some of the stories of characters in the mural. But there are more stories to tell, and sponsors are needed to underwrite that work. “These three guys are part of the reason (Austin) was cool in the first place,” Woolf told me Monday afternoon, as we watched Awn, Bauman and Turner bring the mural back to life, one brushstroke at a time. Though Turner lives the farthest away, he returns to Austin about once a year. He can tell the speed of change is accelerating. But when he visits, he stays on his sister’s 2.5-acre tract near Mueller in an Airstream trailer among a few older cottages that can accommodate all kinds of guests. Turner smiled. “It’s very much like old hippie Austin,” he said.

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MLK — contempt

1963 

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested and jailed in Birmingham, Ala., charged with contempt of court and parading without a permit.

(During his time behind bars, King wrote his “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”)

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cc-13-02101-a

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urban land bank plan

DALLAS

Program to spur developments

City approves urban land bank plan to drive affordable housing

Dallas City Council last week adopted the annual plan for the city’s land bank program, a framework that allows for the sale of vacant, foreclosed properties to be used for affordable housing or commercial development.

The city’s annual plan, a requirement of the Urban Land Bank Demonstration Program, includes hundreds of tax-delinquent parcels across the city that are eligible for sale to the land bank.

The plan also lists organizations that are likely eligible to participate, including community development corporations that aim to spur development in areas marked by disinvestment.

Here’s what you need to know about Dallas’ land bank program.

What is a land bank?

Land banks like the one in Dallas are public authorities or nonprofit organizations designed to acquire, hold, manage and redevelop property for community goals like increasing affordable housing.

Depending on a community’s goals, land banks can also serve as a solution for cities to use unproductive, tax-delinquent land for the public good.

Cities that “bank” land for affordable housing development can help limit a developer’s holding costs until construction begins.

Properties can also be donated to land banks from private owners or through transfers from other municipal governments.

In exchange for lower-cost sales of tax-delinquent properties, developers must abide by deed restrictions that require a portion of units built on the parcels to be affordable for lower-income households.

In Dallas’ program, 25% of single-family homes must be affordable to households earning 60% or less of the area median income, and 30% must be affordable to those earning 80% or less of the area median income.

All rental units must be affordable to households earning 60% or less of the area median income.

Properties must be occupied by low-income households for at least five years, according to the city’s plan.

How do land banks impact a community?

Land banks can be vital tools that communities can deploy to stabilize property values, increase city revenue, add to neighborhood’s quality of life and increase racial equity, according to the Center for Community Progress, a national nonprofit focused on investment in vacant land.

Properties left vacant can lower property values nearby, ultimately hurting homeowners’ equity and wealth.

Land banks are also useful interventions in breaking a cycle of foreclosure so properties can be re-added to tax rolls, according to the Center for Community Progress.

Repurposing vacant land can also increase a neighborhood’s pride about where they live, leading to increased civic engagement in the area’s success, land bank experts say.

Why does Dallas use a land bank?

The Urban Land Bank Demonstration Program is one Dallas’ efforts to spur citywide housing production by reducing barriers to development, particularly for nonprofit developers, according to Darwin Wade, Dallas’ assistant director of Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization.

The city’s land bank — called the Dallas Housing and Acquisition Development Corporation — is a nonprofit given special authority under the Texas Nonprofit Corporation Act to create an inventory of properties for affordable housing for low and moderate-income residents, as well as a growing workforce.

DHADC also focuses on projects that spur economic development and stimulate business and commercial activity by developing new, mixed-income, single-family housing.

The city’s latest strategy for acquiring land will focus on residential properties that are close to one another to reduce development costs and strengthen investments in affordable housing projects.

The land bank program will also focus on acquiring properties located within the targeted reinvestment strategy areas, as outlined in the Dallas Housing Policy 2033 the City Council adopted in April 2023.

Homes in the target areas have lower median sales prices, less stability and more vacancies than the city of Dallas as a whole, and the population in those areas has higher social and economic vulnerabilities, according to data compiled by TDA Consulting, which were hired by the city to help implement the housing policy.

The city will also prioritize acquiring parcels zoned commercial or residential that are near mixed-income housing developments, city-owned land or city-supported economic development projects.

Where are the Dallas properties in the land bank?

The Urban Land Bank Demonstration Program plan includes a list of several hundred properties across the city that are eligible for sale for affordable housing development.

The city expects to refer up to 25 properties for tax foreclosure to be deposited to its land bank program each month, according to the plan. Funding restraints will likely limit the city to refer up to 150 parcels a year.

Once a tax foreclosure judgment is obtained, the properties are sold to the land bank and become part of the inventory, a process that takes approximately 18 months.

Wade briefed the city’s Housing and Homelessness Solutions committee in January about the latest plan.

Dallas City Council member Cara Mendelsohn questioned whether the city could use properties it already owns for the land bank program instead of just tax-delinquent properties.

Wade said the city doesn’t have a specific strategy about using property currently owned by the city for the land bank, but nothing prohibits exploring that as an option.

Cynthia Rogers-Ellickson, interim director of Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization, said the city is often not a good steward of managing its own properties for affordable housing purposes, which is why Dallas often partners with its housing finance corporation and private developers.

“We don’t manage that well so we like to have partners to do that work,” Rogers-Ellickson said.

Who can participate in the land bank program?

The city limits who can participate in the program to only “qualified participating developers” who are in good standing with the state and city, have built at least one housing unit in the past three years and have complied with all city programs.

Community housing development organizations may also acquire lots through a “right of first refusal” option if the property offered for sale is within the group’s geographic boundaries of operation.

The organization must also have built within a mile of the parcel at least three single-family homes, duplexes or one multifamily development with four or more units within the past two years, according to the land bank plan.

Three organizations have been identified by the city as eligible for buying land bank properties: Notre Dame Place, Builders of Hope and Brompton Community Development Corporation.

234 S CORINTH ST

816 STELLA AVE

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Abbott + Trump

GOVERNOR

Image bigger than Texas? Abbott’s priorities, such as border security, have vaulted him onto the national stage

Whether it’s busing thousands of migrants to Democratic-run cities or ordering 100 miles of razor wire strung along the Rio Grande, an aggressive focus on immigration has thrust Texas Gov. Greg Abbott onto the national political stage.

Donald Trump, highlighting immigration in his bid for a second White House term, has declared Abbott to be on his short list for vice president.

Others see Abbott in line for a Trump Cabinet position, such as attorney general.

Last week, Time magazine named the governor to its 2024 list of the 100 most influential people in the world, calling Abbott “one of his party’s most persuasive pitchmen” who “pushes the boundaries” on state enforcement of immigration laws.

The Republican Party of New York, counting on Abbott’s rising popularity, recently booked the governor for a keynote speech at its April 4 annual fundraiser in Manhattan.

Abbott’s national impact pales in comparison to what he’s done to improve his already stout standing in Texas, where he’s influencing elections in hopes of setting himself up for future legislative victories.

“He’s been wildly successful,” said Plano-based political consultant Vinny Minchillo, who worked on the presidential campaigns of U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah. “Right now if you ask people to name two governors of states, it would be Gavin Newsom [of California] and Greg Abbott.”

Abbott succeeds in politics because he understands what his core supporters want, analysts said.

“He’s embraced the issues that hit a chord with conservative voters,” Republican political consultant Matthew Langston said. “That’s why his political capital has grown enormously over the last two to three years.”

Abbott’s rising stature gives him opportunities that were not previously available, Langston said.

“He could go to D.C. He could remain in Texas,” Langston said. “He’s given himself options.”

Democrats describe Abbott as selfish and diabolical, saying he uses people and resources to push his views on border security.

They also point to missteps, like the state’s unreadiness for the deadly 2021 winter storms and Abbott’s initial praise for the law enforcement response to the 2022 killings at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

Though Texas is an economic powerhouse, Abbott’s opponents point out the state leads the nation in the percentage of its population that lacks health insurance.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 16.6% of Texans don’t have health insurance.

“He’s spent billions of dollars in order to engage in this border security effort that he pretends will make a difference, when it’s absolutely clear that what he’s doing does nothing to stem the tide of immigration coming into the country,” Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said. “It is really just for show and proves Greg Abbott only cares about one person. That’s Greg Abbott.”

Another Democrat said Abbott is popular with Republicans but risks hurting himself with other Texans who could be turned off by the hard-right conservatism.

“Abbott has raised his standing within the Republican Party because their party is totally ideological, doesn’t care about any policy, doesn’t care about jobs, economy or anything like that,” said Democratic strategist Matt Angle, director of the Lone Star Project research group.

“The real question is not, has he improved himself with Republicans? Yes, he has,” Angle said. “But has he really harmed himself by alienating all those people in the center, some fair-minded Republicans, some independents, and also even with some business-oriented Democrats?”

Abbott, first elected in 2014 and reelected in 2018 and 2022, is stronger than he was at the end of his previous term, many analysts say.

Emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2021 Texas winter storm, Abbott saw a slight dip in some polls and faced primary challenges from former state Sen. Don Huffines and former Texas Republican Party Chairman Allen West, though he easily won the 2022 race.

His rise coincided with continued criticism of the Biden administration’s border security efforts.

“His base is sending pretty clear messages on issues that he’s claimed and made his,” said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas. “He makes the most of his moments.”

Focus ‘on Texas’

Larry Sabato, founder and director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, cautions that being popular in activist circles doesn’t always translate into popularity with the majority of Americans.

“He’s not well known with the U.S. population, and that’s not a criticism of him. I don’t think anybody can name the governor of New York or California beyond the political community,” Sabato said.

Abbott’s top aides say he’s unconcerned about his rising national profile.

“His focus is on Texas and running for reelection in ’26,” said Dave Carney, Abbott’s chief political strategist. “He’s always flattered to have his name discussed, I’m sure.”

Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze said the governor will continue to focus on securing the southern border.

“This border crisis will continue until we have a President who prioritizes the rights and safety of American citizens and enforces federal immigration laws,” Eze said in a text message. “Instead of complaining about Texas’ historic efforts to respond to this ongoing border crisis and protect our country, Democrats should call on their party leader to do his job and secure the border — something the President continues refusing to do.”

Carney and a spokesperson for Abbott said the idea for his plan to bus migrants to cities outside of Texas arose during border town meetings with community leaders.

At a roundtable discussion two years ago in Uvalde, a man frustrated over the high flow of migrants at the southern border urged Abbott to transport migrants to Dallas.

Abbott replied that instead of sending migrants to other Texas cities, he would bus them to sanctuary cities controlled by Democrats, Carney said.

In 2022, Abbott began busing migrants to Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago and other cities. Officials in those places and migrant advocates accused Abbott of using migrants as political pawns.

He stayed the course, and soon elected leaders in New York and Chicago were complaining about the impact of the migrants in their cities, and in some cases urging the Biden administration to fix the problem at the border.

“He basically turned the national conversation on its head,” Carney said. “We were being called ignorant, racist and sexist. I don’t think the criticism from the left bothered him in the slightest, because they were basically ignorant about the situation.”

Angle, the Democratic strategist, said Abbott’s shuttling of migrants to cities outside of Texas is “all performative.”

“Not anything at the border is safer as a result of his actions,” Angle said. “It was all just Greg Abbott playing to the most mean-spirited, worst instincts in human nature.”

Border issues

Angle conceded Democrats have had trouble with the border security issue.

“The difficulty for Democrats is not to sound, when you criticize Abbott, as though you are not concerned about the circumstances and the border,” Angle said. “It’s not that there isn’t or hasn’t been a problem at the border, it’s that he’s exploited it to make it worse.”

Eze said that the state’s border security effort known as Operation Lone Star has resulted in the apprehension of “over 508,000 illegal immigrants,” the arrest of more than 41,900 criminals with more than 37,600 felony charges.

She said the state has transported more than 113,000 migrants to other cities.

“Since day one in office, President [Joe] Biden has done everything possible to eliminate every successful border security policy and replace them with his reckless open border policies — and Governor Abbott has stepped up in response to protect Texans and Americans,” Eze said.

Texas and the Biden administration are in legal fights over the state’s authority to place a line of migrant-deterring buoys in the Rio Grande, federal agents’ authority to cut or remove the state’s razor wire barriers, and a Texas law giving the state a role in arresting and deporting unauthorized migrants.

Those issues are likely destined for the Supreme Court.

In January, New York sued 17 bus companies hired to transport migrants from Texas to the city, arguing they were acting in bad faith by dropping off more than 33,000 people without paying for their continued care, as required by state law.

Abbott’s invitation to speak at the New York GOP’s fundraising gala followed, reigniting a feud with New York Mayor Eric Adams, who has described the Texas governor as a “madman” and “morally bankrupt.”

Washington, not New York, was the original destination for buses from Texas, Abbott said at the event this month.

“When we began the busing operation, it was going to one location. It was there on purpose because, remember, up to this time, neither Joe Biden nor the border czar had actually been to the border to see the chaos they had caused,” he said.

“We were sending them only to Washington, D.C., and then quite literally out of nowhere Mayor Adams starts criticizing me for sending them to New York City,” Abbott added. “So after a while, I figured, gosh, if I’m gonna get the criticism, I’m gonna get the credit.”

Adams lashed out at Abbott during his New York visit, suggesting he stay overnight in a city shelter that serves migrants “so he can see what he has created and understand we are treating people with dignity and respect that he should have shown.”

Republicans say Adams is losing his public feud with Abbott.

“Even Democrats are now crying out for help in a situation where they’ve been very complacent,” Langston said. “Abbott has forced debate on an issue that the Democratic Party is losing on.”

Domingo Garcia, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said Abbott’s national rise has come at the expense of migrants.

“It’s the politics of hate and scapegoating and using immigrants as political piñatas to put his name on the national political stage,” Garcia said.

Abbott has strengthened his position in Texas, where he’s as popular as ever with Republican voters who dominate statewide elections. Politics of clout

In the March 5 GOP primary, he endorsed 14 challengers against Texas House incumbents who last year opposed Abbott’s school choice proposal.

Seven of his candidates won, two lost and five forced incumbents into a May 28 runoff, Langston said Abbott’s success in challenging recalcitrant incumbents will give him more clout over the Legislature and improve the odds of passing a bill allowing parents to use public money for private school tuition — an Abbott priority that has been blocked for years in the House.

“It helps Abbott tremendously because it will be in the back of every legislator’s mind when they’re taking votes,” Langston said. “What does Greg Abbott think?”

As talk of Abbott’s national ambitions persists, Carney insists Abbott is focused on Texas and has several other legislative goals, including additional fixes to the electric grid.

Abbott’s other major goal is abolishing property taxes that fund public schools.

Carney said Abbott will push for that during the next session. Schools would still be funded, but not through property taxes, Carney said.

Abbott could make history by staying in the governor’s office. Winning another four-year term in 2026 would allow him to break Rick Perry’s record of 14 years as Texas governor.

“In Texas, we talk about the Big Three — governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the House.

Include the attorney general and you have the Big Four,” said Minchillo, the GOP consultant. “Abbott is not in that group anymore. He’s now a level above Patrick and the others. He’s in a whole different game.”

Influence

“You have to ask yourself, is there a better job than being the governor of the state of Texas?” Minchillo asked. “I don’t think so.” Henson said Abbott’s tenure has resulted in the governor being more influential because he has appointed numerous board members and commissioners who affect state policy, much like Perry did during his tenure.

Abbott has been successful in pushing his legislative agenda in an era where GOP politics have proved volatile.

“Whenever he decides to leave, he’s already strengthened that office in a way that is going to have a lot of institutional power,” Henson said.

Henson said rumors of Abbott running for president or vice president have been overblown.

Abbott was expected to explore a presidential run when the 2023 legislative session ended.

That timetable was impractical, given four special sessions that followed and the number of candidates — including Trump, whom Abbott has endorsed — already in the GOP contest, Henson said.

“He has used the talk of him being more of a national figure to his advantage, even though that’s always been something of a mirage,” Henson said, adding such discussions help with raising money and getting invited to well-publicized events outside of Texas.

Path to presidency

Texas Democrats say the national publicity has gone to Abbott’s head.

“He’s such an egomaniac that he really believes he can be president one day,” Hinojosa said.

The last two Texas governors — George W. Bush and Perry — have run for president, with Bush winning two terms in the White House.

Sabato, the University of Virginia political scientist, said Abbott may find himself in a position to follow those Texans because most high-profile Texas leaders at least consider running for president.

“He could win another term as governor and then start running for president immediately in 2026 for 2028,” Sabato said.

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