Day 29: Clowns In The Spotlight And Wolves In The Shadows

Brian Harrison grandstands while the real power brokers gut your rights.

Mendi Tackett, a Christian Nationalist watchdog and wife of Chris Tackett, recently said there was a lot of focus on Brian Harrison and Nate Schatzline acting like fools. However, don’t be distracted. It’s the normal-acting Republicans who file and pass bills that take our rights away. 

She’s 100% right on this, and as we’ve seen in some recent hearings in the Senate Committees on Education and Finance, the GOP members pushing vouchers and underfunding critical agencies seemingly “act normal.” In contrast, Harrison (R-HD10) and Shatzline (R-HD93) run to the mic at every opportunity to scream and perform theatrics.

The clowns keep you looking one way while the wolves circle behind you. Never forget that. But as long as you’re watching your back, watching the fools put on a show is okay. Watch them, then point and laugh.

The House met yesterday, and they had a resolution for another long weekend. Of course, Brian Harrison ran to the mic to speak against it.

My favorite part was when far-right Republican Carl Tepper (R-HD84) accused Harrison of grandstanding and giving self-serving speeches.

Yes, Brian Harrison is the Brainwork King. Case in point:

But, honestly, that Republican-on-Republican violence was a chef’s kiss. (Here’s that moment in a two-minute clip.) Point and laugh.:

We still have 111 days of the Legislature left. But Harrison has lost a lot of minions. His band of merry followers was at 56 at the David Cook vote. Now they are down to 22. From today’s long weekend vote.

It’s the same cast of characters. They’ll be the ones juggling in your face while Republicans like Tepper and Burrows are stabbing you in the back. (Fifteen out of the 22 are freshmen.)

Senator Joan Huffman is a wolf.

Huffman (R-SD17), who has been in the Senate since 2008, has perfected the art of politics. She was the one who architected the 2021 gerrymandered maps, one of the most racist pieces of legislation this decade. Although during the week-long debate over her maps, witnesses and her peers repeatedly referred to the maps as racist, she would smile and say, “I drew the maps blind to race.”

That’s her whole personality. She’ll push laws that harm marginalized communities with a smile on her face and a congenial personality. The bills discussed in the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice yesterday proved that.

• SJR1 (Joselyn’s Law) creates a separate bail system for non-citizens, plays into anti-immigration rhetoric by associating undocumented migrants with violent crime, and disproportionately targets immigrants without due process.

• SJR5 will lead to excessive pretrial detention, reinforces a punitive approach rather than addressing root causes of crime, and lacks safeguards against racial and economic disparities in bail denial.

• SB9 reduces judicial discretion, prioritizes punishment over rehabilitation, and will increase jail overcrowding.

• SB40 criminalizes efforts to combat wealth-based incarceration, ignores data showing that bail funds improve pretrial outcomes, and further marginalizes low-income defendants.

You can see the entire three-hour hearing here.

Texas Republicans are pushing to ban bail funds under the guise of public safety, but the reality is much darker. They don’t want poor people to have a fair chance at fighting their cases.

Cash bail has always been a tool to punish poverty, allowing the wealthy to walk free while low-income individuals remain stuck behind bars for months, sometimes years before ever being convicted of a crime. Nonprofit bail funds like The Bail Project help level the playing field, ensuring freedom isn’t just for those who can afford it. By banning these organizations, Texas lawmakers are making it clear that they prefer a system where the rich get justice, and the poor get jailed.

This isn’t about protecting communities. It’s about maintaining a two-tiered legal system where poverty is criminalized, and incarceration is the default punishment for those without means.

Throughout this hearing, Republican Senators and their law enforcement witnesses repeatedly attempt to connect “sanctuary cities” and undocumented immigrants to crime. It’s all about playing into a nativist narrative rather than addressing systematic issues. Allowing prosecutors to appeal bail decisions unilaterally means more power for the state and fewer rights for defendants, which contradicts due process protections.

These bills fit into the broader GOP trend of concentrating power in the hands of prosecutors and right-wing judges. The Republican Senators never offered concrete data showing that stricter bail laws improve public safety and seemingly were behind this legislation because of their “feelings.”

Listen to the ACLU and Texas Civil Rights Project both testify against some of this legislation:

Once again, the GOP is pushing to expand mass incarceration under the guise of public safety, with a heavy focus on anecdotal cases rather than systemic realities.

It should be noted that Senator Chuy Hinojosa (D-SD20) voted favorably on ALL of these bills at the end of the hearing. With Democrats like these…

Senate Finance Committee, Budget Hearings - Day Eleven.

We’re almost done with the state budget hearings in the Senate, although they still have to go through the House. The House will break each section up into various committees instead of one committee hearing all of it, like in the Senate. (The House got their committee assignments today, Day 30. I’ll have more information on that tomorrow.)

The Texas Lottery Commission testified and became the most contentious testimony throughout the budget hearings.

The committee grilled the Lottery Commission about a massive bulk purchase last year. A single group spent $25 million on lottery tickets and won $50 million. There were many accusations of “money laundering.”

Executive Director Ryan Mindell dodged questions as if his job depended on it (because it probably does). Commissioner Robert Rivera, however, slipped up and admitted that it “sounds like money laundering.” But instead of investigating, the Commission just… let it happen.

Senator Paul Bettencourt nearly lost it, demanding to know why the agency hadn’t acted against blatant financial fraud. His frustration boiled over to the point where he flat-out asked, “Should we just abolish the Lottery Commission?”

If the bulk ticket scheme wasn’t sketchy enough, third-party lottery couriers are making it even easier for fraud and underage gambling to flourish. These couriers buy tickets from licensed retailers and resell them online, bypassing in-person purchasing laws and giving the Lottery Commission zero oversight over who receives the tickets.

Are minors getting their hands on lottery tickets through couriers? The Commission has no idea.

Are couriers operating out of state and selling Texas lottery tickets illegally? The Commission has no idea.

Are wealthy investors using couriers as part of large-scale gambling syndicates?
The Commission has no idea.

And despite this giant, flashing red sign of corruption, the agency still refuses to take meaningful action. Senators left the hearing threatening legislative action if the Commission doesn’t clean up its act.

If you thought the bulk ticket purchase scheme and the lottery couriers were terrible, buckle up. The Senate Finance Committee’s grilling of the Texas Lottery Commission took a sharp turn into full-blown criminal conspiracy territory, with accusations of money laundering, fraud, and high-level corruption that went ignored for years.

Attorney Manford Sternberg took the mic to drop a bombshell: his clients sent a 22-page letter, backed up by 80 exhibits, detailing a criminal conspiracy involving the Texas Lottery Commission, former Lottery Director Gary Grief, IGT (the company running the lottery), and a publicly traded NASDAQ company, lottery.com.

The letter, sent to Governor Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Comptroller, and a dozen legislators, detailed a long-running fraud scheme that began in 2017 when Grief personally lobbied lottery.com’s founders to relocate their business to Austin. From then on, the Lottery Commission and lottery.com allegedly operated as a single criminal entity.

Sternberg accused them of:

• Hacking into the multi-state Powerball system to print winning tickets after the drawing.

• Printing over $26 million worth of lottery tickets without payment.

• Allowing lottery.com to sell Texas tickets out-of-state hundreds of thousands of times illegally.

• Facilitating a fraudulent ticket-selling scheme that enriched insiders while fleecing the public.

And what did the state do with this information? Absolutely nothing.

TxDOT’s testimony highlighted massive budget, AI traffic control, and bridge safety concerns.

When the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) took the Senate Finance Committee’s hot seat, it came prepared with stats, slides, and self-praise for its infrastructure projects.

TxDOT boasted that Texas has the largest highway system in the country, with over 200,000 lane miles and 56,000 bridges, twice as many as any other state. He painted a rosy picture of bridge conditions, road expansions, and transportation investments.

I don’t see anything good about this. We need fewer roads, less concrete, and more high-speed trains and public transportation. Maybe one day.

TxDOT’s budget has ballooned, and the agency’s staffing has decreased by 7% since 2011. Thus, while TxDOT oversees record-high project deliveries, it does so with fewer full-time employees (FTEs).

TxDOT is already integrating AI into traffic management systems in cities like Austin, Houston, and Dallas-Fort Worth. The technology helps monitor congestion and traffic patterns in real-time, dynamically adjust traffic signals to improve flow, and quickly identify accidents and slowdowns.

A few other tidbits:

• There are roughly 1,100–1,700 bridges in need of repair in Texas.

• TxDot faces 400 million cybersecurity attacks per year.

The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) appeared before the Senate Finance Committee, outlining its $2.7 billion budget request for fiscal year 2026 and $2.8 billion for 2027.

Like most Texas agencies, TWC is facing staff shortages, which have led to service delays. Most caseworkers handle a double workload.

The Texas Veterans Leadership Program (TVLP), which helps 22,000 veterans transition into the workforce each year, faces funding challenges. Previously supported by federal grants, the program must seek $3.4 million in state funds to continue operations.

While Texas boasts a low unemployment rate, TWC continues to see a high demand for unemployment insurance (UI) services. The agency aims to process claims within two weeks, but long wait times at call centers remain a significant issue.

TWC operates four call centers with 600 customer service representatives, but in January alone, nearly 800,000 Texans attempted to contact the centers. The overwhelming volume has led to delays in processing claims, forcing many claimants to rely on the online application system instead.

Though TWC did not request additional childcare funding during this session, it acknowledged the ongoing challenges in expanding childcare services for low-income families and TANF recipients. TWC reported progress in reducing childcare waitlists, stating that the agency increased daily childcare assistance from 146,000 to nearly 150,000 children last year.

Other agencies that testified yesterday:

• Texas Department of Motor Vehicles

• Department of Housing and Community Affairs

Texas Republicans continue to underfund critical agencies while expanding policies that punish the poor and benefit the wealthy.

Whether it’s Joan Huffman pushing for mass incarceration under the guise of “public safety” or state agencies like the Workforce Commission struggling with staffing shortages and funding gaps, the priorities remain the same. Protect corporate interests, suppress marginalized communities, and funnel resources to the already powerful.

Meanwhile, the Texas Lottery Commission’s blatant oversight failures expose yet another scandal, adding to the long list of corruption that lawmakers conveniently ignore until it reaches a breaking point. The state’s refusal to address these systemic issues isn’t an accident. It’s a deliberate choice to maintain a rigged system.

We still have 111 days left in this legislative session, which means plenty of time for more backroom deals, bad bills, and performative outrage. Keep watching the clowns—they’ll keep you entertained. But don’t forget the wolves because they’re writing the laws that will shape Texas for years to come.

• March 14: The last day Legislators can file bills.

• June 2: The 89th Legislative Session ends.

• Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.

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