Texas Bullpen Podcast
Listen to the weekly Texas Bullpen podcast to stay up to date on all things Texas politics with hosts Brad Johnson, Jonathan Richie, and Cassi Schredder, along with special guests.
Texas Bullpen Podcast
Filibuster Fight, Rodeo Rope-a-dope, and Data Center Clash - Episode 20
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
The fellas discuss the moves and countermoves of the U.S. Senate's fight over the filibuster, Lina Hidalgo getting booted from the Houston rodeo, and two looming lobby-turned-political fights ahead of the 90th Legislative Session.
Well slowed down's relative term, right?
SPEAKER_02So just because if you're going 200 miles an hour and doesn't mean it's slow you break check to 150, you're still going pretty fast. Have you ever done that? You break check to what to 150?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, stop.
SPEAKER_02I've never broken any laws in my life, Brad. Sure. In my life.
SPEAKER_01Good morning, everybody. Brad Johnson, Jonathan Richie here for another episode of the Texas Bullpen Podcast. Woohoo!
SPEAKER_02Richie's over there hanging on by a thread. We are we are living. We are living in the flesh. It's a beautiful day. It is a beautiful day. It is a beautiful day. It's almost a shame we're not out there doing it. Um we got South by in Austin this week, so downtown is just a mess. A mess. So we're going to a crawfish boil here after the this? I know, so it just keeps getting better and better. Um there's a whole bunch of dirt on the streets for like what's that? The rivy and yeah, the off-road stuff. Um it's very, it's very my walks my walks home are are always so interesting now. There's all these odd characters about even more so thanks. Yeah, even more so than than normal, you know. So but uh yeah, yeah, another lovely little week. I think things have kind of I don't know if slowed down is the right word to use, but uh, you know, after the action-packed week following the election, you know, I think people are settling back into a certain little rhythm. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well slowed down's relative term, right?
SPEAKER_02So just because if you're going 200 miles an hour and doesn't mean it's slow you break check to 150, you're still going pretty fast. Have you ever done that? You break check to one to one fifty?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, stop.
SPEAKER_02I've never broken any laws in my life, Brad. Sure. In my life.
SPEAKER_01Interesting. Ever. I don't know if I believe that. Um update. We are making progress on the Waffle House Challenge. Yes. Rest assured it will happen.
SPEAKER_02Oh, we have been conversations this week. Top level meetings. Uh, and we are planning at some of the most devious, wonderful, spectacular show on earth, really. Um so I'm very excited. Brad, how are you feeling?
SPEAKER_01I am waiting with bated breath to stuff my face with waffles.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Have you started practicing yet? Like, do you have a training regimen? What, like expanding my stomach? Yeah. Well, I mean uh like uh those professional eaters and things like that, like there's all these little tricks that they have to help them. There was this one uh who would eat like massive amounts of like spinach and things like that beforehand, like huge amounts. I'm not talking about like Popeye the Sailor or anything. Uh it's because it would expand their stomach, but you know, it would digest, you know, easily and and you'd have all that room, but you'd have an expanded stomach. And then you could come in with the heavy stuff and handle it better and get get more of it down.
SPEAKER_01So I don't think I'm gonna take it that seriously. Um and but hey, maybe that means I have to sit in a waffle house longer than I otherwise would.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's true. Um and you might have to anyways, because so many people want to come and and talk to you while you're there.
SPEAKER_01So uh if if you are someone uh who wants to come spend an spend a short amount of time with me at the waffle house eating a waffle, we are gonna do interviews, uh make a big thing out of this. So it'll be fun. I'm excited for it. Yeah, well thank you. I'm that makes one of us.
SPEAKER_02I'll I'll sympathetically eat some waffles with you.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Maybe we'll just do a live recording of the podcast while in the waffle house.
SPEAKER_02I kind of I yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I think we should do that, yeah.
SPEAKER_02I think so.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's with that aside, let's get to some topics that uh uh have happened in this slower week, but luckily not slow enough that we have nothing to talk about. Yeah, it certainly hasn't been boring. Aaron Powell I think the biggest thing has been the filibuster, the uh the U.S. Senate race, the implications there. Um walk us through this whole debate and fight over this long-held Senate rule.
SPEAKER_02Aaron Powell Yeah. Well, uh really it circles around trying to circles around. Yeah. Is that a that a term? Yeah, it circles around. Okay. All right, sorry. I mean that's uh out of all the things that I miss say, I feel like that's one mission. Miss day is also a word, Brad. This is too early for me to be this asset. You know, I just got out of that for this. For this, Brad, for you. Anyway, you were Anyways. It all deals with this proxy fight over the Save America Act, which the president uh has made a top priority. Trevor Burrus, Jr. And what is that? So the Save America Act is a it does a lot of different things, but primarily it is a voter integrity uh bill that would require proof of citizenship when you register to vote. Um and so you know, proponents say it's necessary to ensure that illegal uh aliens aren't voting in elections or people who are otherwise uh not qualified to vote in our elections, you know, detractors, opponents have it say that the rules are set up that it would cast millions of eligible voters off the rolls, things of that nature, and make it prohibitively difficult for people to cast their ballots and suppress the vote. You know, so there's all of those, you know, usual things about it, but it's become kind of the focal point uh in proxy fight over the Texas Senate race and specifically Donald Trump's endorsement in that. Because I think we discussed last week after uh Cornyn's uh overperformance in the primary, it really looked like Trump was going to imminently endorse Cornyn and ask Attorney General Paxton to drop out.
SPEAKER_01And the reporting was that he was about to do that. It was imminent uh until it wasn't. Until it wasn't.
SPEAKER_02Um Paxton first went on on interviews and said, look, even if the president endorses Cornyn, I'm not gonna drop out. Then he offered a trade. If the Senate nuked the filibuster and passed the SAVE Act, he would consider dropping out. And of course, this puts Consider. Emphasis on But uh this obviously gave Trump a leverage tool to use in the Senate because Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been very vocally advocating and lobbying for Trump to endorse Cornyn for a long time, very openly. Uh and obviously the SAVE Act has not advanced through the Senate, largely because uh of the 60 vote requirement to get something to the floor. Um and that's you know known as the filibuster. Uh and in the past, you know, you had what's called the talking filibuster, which where, you know, you we all remember like Mr. Smith goes to Washington and things like that where you actually had to talk. Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz. Well, didn't he read Green Eggs and Ham on the floor? Yeah. Um but now they can just have this 60 vote threshold uh so they don't have to like talk all the time. Which I mean I guess is uh you know, good for them. But uh so there's been a lot of discussion and hand-wringing and deb the sorry, debate. You alright? Yeah, I know. Haven't been coughing, and as soon as we start talking, I'm like, have a little, have a little let me just scarf down some coffee here.
SPEAKER_01So the the purpose of the filibuster is a it's a supermajoritarian rule where you have um a minority able to block certain legislation for as long as they can keep up talking. That's the talking filibuster. The purpose of that, of course, is a check on on a simple majority. If you don't have enough support to get some to get something to 60 votes, then you aren't able to bring it to the floor. Um that is a fashion of the Senate and has been for a long time. Um the uh the argument behind it, of course, is that it it is a check on both the House and the majority in the in the Senate. So it's been a long-held thing. Democrats have used or have um tried to get rid of it a couple years ago. That was when the whole brouhaha with Joe Manchin and Kristen Cinema happened.
SPEAKER_02Um I think it was Manchin who is now figuring it a little bit in this as well, as we'll get to.
SPEAKER_01And I I um I I believe when they tried to do it last time, it was also an election-related bill, correct? When the Democrats tried to do this, try to get rid of it? I think it was, yeah. So some symmetry there. Um but uh it of course rankles the party and the majority if they can't get that line when they want to pass something um that they deem important, and that's where Republicans are right now. Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_02And it's definitely, you know, there are people in the Senate in both parties who are could be called like institutionalists, people who want to preserve the rules, the traditions, the functions there, and I think there's a lot of pushback on it. And and Cornyn, going back to how this implicates Texas, has for a long time been more of that on that institutionalist side of things. Um and so when Paxson offers this trade, it's very much a like, you know, it's a pretty good bet that Cornyn wasn't immediately going to be like, well, of course, because his track record has been typically very hesitant to make, you know, those types of rule changes.
SPEAKER_01I think it's fair to say the only reason he's come out as strongly as he has since then is because he's facing a really difficult primary.
SPEAKER_02And even as strongly as he has is a little bit uh so what happened this week, we'll get to it. Yeah. We've laid out the filibuster. Gordon comes out with an op-ed saying not explicitly that he would nuke the filibuster, but that saving, I mean passing the Save Act is more important than the filibuster, and that you know he'd be open to reforming some of the rules in order to get that over the line because it's such an important piece of legislation. And then as he is uh walking through you know the halls of the Capitol, reporters start asking him about it, and it's very clear he does not want to talk about this op-ed that he just published. Uh, you know, they start asking him about his change on it and if he changed his stance on it in order to get the president's endorsement, and he throws up his hand in the camera and says, you know, go away. We're done here. Um and then later he's talking and he then to a different reporter, and he then, and this is like maybe later in the afternoon, uh, is much more clear on like, yes, we should get rid of the filibuster to pass the Save Act stuff. So there was a lot of seemingly, I don't know if maybe back and forth would be the right thing to say, but a lot of teetering on where exactly is his thinking on this. And of course, does it actually matter where Cornyn falls on it? Because uh he's just one vote in the Senate, and Thune still uh doesn't think that the Save Act has the votes to pass. Now they're to get past the filibuster. To get past the filibuster.
SPEAKER_01Um and really in they're the votes aren't there to get rid of the filibuster. Yeah. Um the you know the the Save Act probably has the votes to pass. Potentially. But it's a slim majority for Republicans.
SPEAKER_02And what it sounds like is that they're going to bring it to the floor, uh, which means they'll get a vote on I guess to uh I you know, we're not parliamentarians of the U.S. Senate. DC is far away. It's uh so but I think the form that they're gonna do is basically what's called like a messaging vote. So they're gonna bring it up, even though Thune knows that they're not gonna have the votes to get to 60 on it, but at least it'll have everybody on the record, and that helps his caucus to be like, look, we voted for this, and then it also allows them to go back and attack Democrats on and on. Like, why didn't you vote against X, Y, Z thing, even though they know it's not going to have enough support to get over whichever threshold they have to overcome. Um and and then it'll allow Cornyn to go to the president and be like, look, I I voted for it, I did what I could. Um but uh it's definitely been you know a week of intrigue with you know all the different camps pulling their strings, trying to uh get one, the president's attention, and then two, the president's good attention. Um and uh you know, there's a lot of irons in the fire for these candidates.
SPEAKER_01And you know, I guess last thing I'll say on the filibuster is that this is always the case. The majority hates the filibuster, the minority loves the filibuster. And that oscillates between who's in power, who's holding the Senate, who controls things, and it's it's a tool um used by the minority to great effect sometimes. Um but we've also seen in the past these things come back to bite the majority that um that makes the rule change. For example, when Harry Reid uh dropped the I think I think this was a rules change, but he dropped the the number of Senate votes required to confirm lower court judges from I believe it was 60 down to a simple majority, 51. Mitch McConnell told him, You're gonna regret this one day. And then Mitch McConnell turns around and um uses it, blows up, uses the nuclear option, as they called it back then, to allow a simple majority of Republicans in the Senate to confirm Supreme Court justices. So, you know, the institutionalists are warning about setting certain precedent. The people that don't care about that as much believe that this bill is a must-pass and is more important, as as Cornyn has since stated, say th that it's more important than the the rule itself. And so you have these two competing mindsets that are never gonna overlap. Uh it's just a question of which one wins out numbers wise, and so far the uh however many of the institutional institutionalists there are, they're winning this. And there's no sign of getting rid of the filibuster at the moment.
SPEAKER_02Which probably bodes poorly for Corny's chances of securing the Trump endorsement. Um, if it isn't contingent. And you know, Trump has not openly said anything to be like, I will you know absolutely not give my endorsement unless it's passes, but he's said things that kind of suggest that that's where his thinking is right now, and there's been reporting out of out of DC that suggests that he is tying it to the Save Act.
SPEAKER_01Um but that could change as soon as it becomes clear that the Save Act is not passing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and it could change for any number of reasons too, right? The the calculus is a daily thing. Um and we have no idea what will happen next. Nobody does. Um and we don't know what new uh battlefront, so to say, is gonna open up tomorrow on on trying to earn this endorsement. And uh but it has to happen s quickly if s if the other person would drop out, um, because you know uh the the clock is ticking on when a candidate can withdraw from a uh a runoff.
SPEAKER_01Um but it would be interesting, just to from a pure curiosity perspective, to see this play out. Paxton drops from the ballot or drops out of the race, but doesn't drop from the ballot because he's past the the deadline. And then to see how many votes he gets anyway, in e even though he's not officially running. Um that would be I that would be really fascinating to see the yeah, the hard floor that he has electorally. That's not gonna happen, highly at least I highly doubt it, but that pops in my mind as something to be interesting.
SPEAKER_02I think there are a lot of counterfactuals that I think will be fun to consider as as the as the clock keeps ticking on this.
SPEAKER_01But let's move on to another topic. Um Lena Hidalgo, Harris County judge, had a bit of a rough week. I think that's a bit of an understatement, but uh she was kicked out of the Houston rodeo. Massive event every year. Um I have not yet to go. I need to someday.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Have you ever been to a rodeo?
SPEAKER_01Uh no, actually.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Oh my gosh. I feel like every week you find some new creative way to make me absolutely hate you. You've never been to a rodeo? Are you kidding me? I don't think so, no. Oh my gosh. All right. Uh we're gonna find something to gamble on uh legally. Um and the next bet will be going to Fort Worth to go to the Fort Worth rodeo, the only weekly indoor professional rodeo every Friday, Saturday night. Bronck busting, tie-down, bull riding, barrel racing, the whole shebang. It's phenomenal. Um and we're gonna go, we're gonna document your first rodeo. Oh my gosh. Uh, we're gonna get you some boots because you don't have any cowboy boots. Right? Not at the moment. And uh we're gonna get you a little cowboy hat. We're gonna get you a little one. Yeah, just a little one. Well, you're a little guy, Brad. You're a little guy. Uh and we're going to we're going to fully, I guess, initiate you into this Texas thing. I mean, good God, man. You run a company called Texas Bullpen, and you've never been to a rodeo? This is one thing. This is unbelievable. No, I'm just shocked. I'm just shocked. I'm appalled. I'm a little scared. At this point, I should have just lied and said. Yeah, you should have. You should have. This is going to be my uh I'm gonna start that attack pack and run ads against you. Fake Brad Johnson. You do it in that voice too. Yeah, whatever the voice is. I don't know. Do the voice of God from that from the Cornyn ad.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if y'all saw this, but this was just so hilariously zany of an ad. It's um uh Cornan releases his first ad attacking Ken Paxton of the runoff. It is up on TV right now, so you'll probably see it. And it runs through, you know, the long-held allegations of impropriety against the attorney general. And in each one, it has the voice of God coming in and saying, like, like they talk about the affair, and uh they say, Thou shalt not commit adultery. They go through like three of them. I got more texts about that than uh even the Waffle House Challenge thing. Like people were just this thing struck a chord. I don't know if it's a good chord or not. We'll see how it how it uh uh affects voting, the voters, but uh it it struck a chord in the in this community in the city. People are definitely better.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it was it was something to behold. Uh yeah. Um that was that was hilarious. Uh so yeah, yeah, I am gonna take an ad just like that against you for for being a fake Texas person.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Fake Texan. Well uh I look forward to see how you raise the money for that attack pack. Good luck with that.
SPEAKER_02Howdy, everyone. We'd like to thank the sponsor of today's podcast, the Lowy Law Firm. For over twenty years, Adam Lowy has helped injured Texans recover and heal. From car accidents to dog bites, Adam Lowy is there to help and gets results. Go to Lowy Law Firm.com. com to find out more and get a free consultation. Adam, of course, is very well known on Twitter for his commentary and observations on Texas politics, so be sure to give him a follow as well. Thanks to our sponsor, the Louis Law Firm. Yeah. The fact that you kind of were snarky with me right there makes me want to actually do it.
SPEAKER_01Do it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I I might. You know what?
SPEAKER_01Go create a tech pack right now at the Secretary of State after this podcast.
SPEAKER_02I'm going to walk you out mid-podcast and make it. You're going to walk out that door and there'll be digital up, there will be mailers. You're going down.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02No, but we will take you to a rodeo. That's that's actually uh that's actually so sad. It really is sad for you. And then right across the street from the the Fort Worth rodeo is a bar called Second Rodeo. Because at that point it's not your first rodeo. But this is your first rodeo. This is amazing. I'm I uh we will make this happen. Dear listeners. You're really promising a lot here. Well no I mean it is you you need to for your education it will be edifying for you. But hopefully you don't get kicked out of the rodeo like Lena Hidalgo did because uh and it's become just this absolute uh drama fest down there because she on the 10th I believe gets on social media and in some now deleted posts uh alleges that the Houston rodeo uh security quote manhandled her and uh capture from going to her seats with her guests which included some uh uh some of her I think French children um to go to like this Megan uh Maloney concert um and uh she accuses the rodeo of racism and sexism saying she's never felt so unempowered as a woman because she was uh denied access to like the dirt area seating or the shoes yeah like the really good seats uh and claim that you know her role as Harris County judge uh enables her to some of these privileges at the rodeo because she's you know was uh we'll get to that too was technically like one of the uh uh honorary directors of the rodeo because of her elected position and noted that in the past she's been allowed into these areas and stuff uh and then she shares you know audio recordings of the encounter where the you know the security is very much like ma'am sorry you can't come in here it's time for you to go and you know also she had a I believe she had a box with her guests right so we'll get to this. Okay. So anyway she goes off on the rodeo she sends a letter re uh hashing these things to the chairwoman of the uh board of directors and the CEO of the rodeo and uh just absolutely has this blow up on them. And then the rodeo sends back a pretty lengthy letter laying out that over the course of Lena Hidago's time in office they have computer over$9,000 worth of tickets over the years for her and her guests to go and sit at these sections known as like the chute uh tickets which are over like where the shoots where the animals come out and stuff or dirt floor tickets and stuff like that which I think this round go for like$425 or whatever. But they also explained that Hidago had reached out the day of to get access and get comp to these tickets um but the show was already sold out. So what they did in this and they communicated this they say to her staff and to her is like set her up in a in a suite ticket which is you know not bad at all. So they're trying to be accommodating allegedly and uh but despite that she still tried to go into these other areas where you know paying customers had already bought out everything. And uh you know they definitely did not hold back in their response to Hidago and uh then they uh stripped her of her honorary director title um and uh you know released all of this and then Hidago went back to the rodeo to review security footage of it. I believe with a camera crew. With a camera crew allegedly and uh you know she came out and gave a very disjointed and interesting uh kind of news conference afterwards where she's reading off of her phone and didn't look very good. Did not look very good. It was not a good look for and she's you know not running for re-election. She uh uh is finishing out her second term as Harris County judge and it has been really a source of drama down there for a long time. There's just been a lot of personal I think uh uh disagreements even within her own party uh especially on the commissioner's court I mean it's every couple of of of months you hear some kind of story of her storming out of a meeting or things like that. So she's been a interesting figure to watch uh because when she got in she was like 27 I think when she was elected to Harris County judge you know the largest county in Texas. I mean really powerful position in the county in 2017.
SPEAKER_01In twenty eighteen on the on the beta wave she was one of the people that that flipped a seat especially in Harris County.
SPEAKER_02Because that was a Republican held one and the county judges are uh you know the kind of top chief executive of the counties. It's an administrative role they have a very important thing and obviously during COVID when there's an emergency situation the county judges have even more authority so she was not just a county judge but county judge for the largest county in the state. Yeah exactly so um it it's not a nothing position uh and she was very much touted both in Texas circles and in national circles as like a rising star of the Democrat Party.
SPEAKER_01Vogue did a glowing profile of her as the next great hope for Democrats in flipping Texas.
SPEAKER_02And then it just crashed and burned pretty dramatically and so this is another little I guess uh uh episode here on it. Um and we'll see I mean there's I'm sure this is not the end of of what's going to be said about about that.
SPEAKER_01Well she's got about a year left in her term a little less than a year at this point. So there's plenty of time for her to cause more drama. And I'm like you said I'm sure it's gonna happen again.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um but it definitely seems like the rodeo came out on top this time. Um I think they're just sick of her yeah and something else that the rodeo highlighted was that this season no other Harris County or Houston officials uh asked for tickets or anything. So it's it's kind of something that's unique to Hildago uh of asking for these tickets and and indeed even demanding them, the rodeo said. Um so they definitely like kind of called her out pretty pretty blatantly for and they didn't say like oh you were abusing your office and stuff but they were like come on now. Yeah come on.
SPEAKER_01Well and it you know it's not it's not new or unheard of for elected officials to get perks like this.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02But it's pretty telling if she was the only one to request this kind of thing you know the the county has a big role in making the rodeo a success, the licensing, the leases on these things, security, stuff like that. So you know it's not like oh just this random elected official is demanding to go. Like there is a lot of uh work that has to happen uh in order to make these massive events uh uh smooth and stuff like that. A lot of cost. And a lot of cost and and things like that. And it's a huge driver for you know like taxes for the local entities and and stuff like that. So uh but it it it is it's been a very funny little uh incident yeah yeah you like that word brew ha ha I feel like I feel like I had never heard anybody say that you like things of that nature quite a bit. Things of that nature yeah yeah you said it twice on the podcast already I believe your second brew haha yeah where did you know that where did that come from the word yeah it's a long I mean I know words have been around for a long time but like when did you encounter the word?
SPEAKER_01I don't know is it just do you know like the etymology of the word I don't I just know a know it's a word. That's good and it has a definition. It's many such cases it fits in a lot of uh especially in the stuff we cover it fits. Yeah people are always brewhaing yeah that speaking of another brewing brew ha I don't know if I like the word that's my I'm I'm not sure if I'm I'm big on brew haha stock okay well Bruhaha futures somebody's gotta be somebody's got to yeah I'll buy low at this point and sell high that's the dream yeah that's the dream who else is trying to buy low and sell high? Hmm sports better. Sports better that's good yeah that's good. Um by the way did you read did you finish reading that McKay Coppins piece on um I never even started.
SPEAKER_02Oh but it looked so I didn't do it because I was afraid that it would inspire me to bad actions. Yeah it is well I find that a lot of things that that try to teach me a lesson I I take I walk away with the wrong I'm shocked I'm shocked to hear that.
SPEAKER_01I know you especially tell us about it. McKay Coppins is a writer for The Atlantic um they he released a piece this week I think it was uh it's called My Year as a degenerate sports gambler. Phenomenal the premise was You have my attention the Atlantic gave him ten thousand dollars to bet on sports and um the premise was to to experience what it's like to know why um people get so wrapped up in this and there's so much concern uh in in like because like sports betting is uh technically illegal in Texas.
SPEAKER_02It is yeah uh and which you know none of us have ever bet on sports um at all and does fantasy football count on that that's not a sport okay um so sorry to have so much disdain in my voice on that also important to this story is that Coppins is a Mormon and so it is yes this is very you would have learned that if you I'm sorry man had read the piece that I sent you I have a lot of things to read.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah okay um but it goes through it's it's he goes through week by week his experience and there's some pretty wild stories and basically talks about how he got hooked on this stuff and he's not a very he he's a Mormon. He doesn't have any vices other than uh I've I don't know non-caffeine not uncaffeinated coffee. I don't know what he doesn't have he's his persona well known for not being people addicted to things. Yes. And there's one scene where he goes and asks his I don't know if they call it a deacon or what, but um if this is uh running afoul of God to do this experiment and um the uh Latter day Saints priest or whatever warns him you know says probably not since you're using someone else's money but be careful because this stuff is addictive and it sure enough is and I recommend if you're interested in this go read the piece.
SPEAKER_02That leads us into this great idea I just had for a story we should you should the company should give me just a little pennance to go down to the only casino in Texas and just see what it's like you know. Have you ever been in a casino? I have been in a casino. Because I'm not I am not a big gambler or better. Uh and but yeah I know I've been to I've been to Vegas. I don't either because I know it's too it's addictive. Yeah. My problem is I struggle with numbers uh and very uh simple addition is at times difficult for me and it it all moves so quick I can't I can't add up what like cards I have.
SPEAKER_01Yeah well with this what Cobbins was doing was the online apps, the um like DraftKings and placing moneyline bets on an unfolding game. Yeah. We see something like that in Texas right now, Calchi, which is kind of this um we might have talked about this on one issue because you're not actually voting on it you're voting on like predictions of it or futures or whatever. It's like trading stocks. You're trading futures. And the futures are on outcomes. For example uh do the New England Patriots get their uh butts beat in the Super Bowl you know you can trade a or does Steve Toth beat uh Dan Crenshaw I know some people that made some good money on that uh that wager so it it's kind of an end around because it's associated with the falls under the purview of the SEC not the Southeastern Conference the Securities and Exchange Commission and that's how it gets around the state's anti-gambling law um but that brings us to the s sports betting industry generally they hi they have lobbyists DraftKings well there's a whole sports betting alliance and it's just basically all of them bet MGM, DraftKings, FanDuel, a few others and they've been trying along with the casino guys to legalize sports betting and the um I think that was w the one the constitutional amendment that actually passed in the House in twenty three went to the Senate just went nowhere died um since then the sports betting guys have been fairly quiet if we're gonna compare them to the casino ones. Las Vegas Sands we talked about this has a massive political operation they've spent millions of dollars trying to uh elect friendly particularly Republicans and it's not been successful so far. You know they they've they've of course got their allies in the legislature and um and they've won some races but a lot of the big ones for example SD9 they lost John Huffman lost out that race um well so did Lee Wamsgons. We'll see how that goes in November. But that was a big gambling proxy fight. But what I discovered over the weekend last weekend was that these was all you discovered this was good old fashioned investigative Brad and you would have seen that read this in Daily Bowl if you were subscribed.
SPEAKER_02So if you haven't subscribed you need to because otherwise you're missing good ball knowing happening.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Um so I found a paper trail of money leading back to sports gambling uh specifically here DraftKings the there was this group called the Texas Conservative fund that sent mailers and I believe text messages into a bunch of different house races most of which were incumbents but not all of them and if you follow the paper trail which I call it the Russian nesting doll of of this operation because it was like you know there's the Texas Conservative fund which was ceded money by some other uh nebulously named group which was ceded money by some other nebulously named group and eventually it leads to DK Crown holdings so what this means is um DraftKings and probably others as well and I I was told that this is not just a Texas operation um there there are similar um mechanisms and machines starting up in other states for this stuff. But they're starting to get involved the way Sands has and spending money on behalf of candidates to get more allies in the legislature. Pretty typical a lot of things a lot of um uh lobby interests do this how the game is played yes uh I think the money the amount of money that was spent in this primary it was all Republicans if I recall correctly uh it was like 2.6 million um I actually had a member tell me complain to me about it I asked him did you see any of this come into your your district and he's like yeah I wish they look their their mailers weren't very good so I wish they would not have done this. That was just their opinion but um uh it it it is interesting to me that they are realizing you know we kind of need to gain some ground politically not just legislatively um in in the form of lobbying they're they're starting up their own operation. So um that leads us to you know what happens next session. A lot's gonna depend on the election. You know if Democrats really gain a a lot of ground in the state those are generally more favorable members to expanded gambling. And so maybe it has new life both casino and uh sports betting uh going into next year. But I can also tell you there's going to be an effort to further curtail this um the gambling issue in the form of setting restrictions on Calchi and that kind of uh betting apparatus that has found an end around the state's prohibition. So there's a big tug of war going on.
SPEAKER_02And even potentially because it's it's still an open legal question whether or not that that prediction market stuff is legal or or it might be illegal. It just hasn't been tested yet. And you know there's there's definitely been a lot of lobbying and efforts to have certain you know legal opinions written either endorsing it or coming against it and stuff like that. But there just hasn't been a official position taken uh on whether that is so it's still kind of a gray area just like you know card houses in Texas are a gray area and you know there was one uh rated earlier this week up in uh Round Rock and and there are card houses across Texas because Texas law you know prohibits uh gambling and poker games unless it's you know in a private place and there isn't like a house getting money. So like you and I we could have a a friendly poker game or whatever. But if we made a company for it blah blah blah like that would be illegal but these card houses get around it by making themselves like private clubs um and then making their money off the the memberships not the winnings and not the winnings. They don't take any percentage from the winnings allegedly but uh the TABC rated this uh card house earlier earlier this week as a part of an investigation in the potential money laundering and illegal gambling and stuff like that. So um and all that's still plenty no charges have been filed or anything. But there's just this general kind of uncertainty about the legal status of some of these fringe gambling operations and things like that. And there are, you know, like some of the the Indian tribes have like massive bingo operations out in East Texas. There is a casino down outside of Eagle Pass on a reservation and stuff like that. So there it but it's all this kind of interesting fringe legal area that people are are dancing in, but the tune's pretty uncertain at times. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And with the legislature only meeting you know usually five months every not even usually anymore uh regularly meeting five months every two years this is one of those issues that has boiled up as a the legislature might need to do something about this that because they hadn't thought about it before. Not really not to the extent they are now and um it's gonna be fascinating to watch how the lobby the the uh the lobby arms of these these competing factions, the casinos the sports betting and this prediction market stuff how do they approach this do the casino guys and the sports betting alliance do they support the the teaming effort to go after uh Calchi um or do they all link arms together and say we're all on this gambling boat? You know, there's some uh real irritation that for all the money that Las Vegas Sands has spent or any of these pro gambling operations that they don't get to operate in this state, but Calchi does. Yeah. And it's still betting on it's not game of chance, but it's still chance because you're betting on these outcomes that you don't know which way it's going to go.
SPEAKER_02So it's almost a gamble.
SPEAKER_01It's almost a gamble. Um so I would be irritated too if I if I were in industry looking to get expand in this state or or be legalized in this state and be like what the hell?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Well it's also interesting because you have neighboring states lobbying against the legalization of it because you know the casinos up in Oklahoma and out in Louisiana don't want Texas to get it because you know uh it kills their business. You know, people I I remember you know growing up people would run out and over the Sabine River and you know bet and gamble and stuff like that. And it was the thing to do. But if you live out like in West Texas, like there's not one to go to, you know whatever.
SPEAKER_01Um well no not just out of state but also the Indian tribes because they are allowed to they have these exceptions like the Kickapoos um they have the the casino in the city out out um by Eagle Pass. But there's that aspect of this as well where we should go. We should go do a Hunter Thompson esque report on how much money we lose.
SPEAKER_02We should we should do that.
SPEAKER_01It'd be funny Okay I like that idea. We might we might find some room in the budget for that. Yeah. Do a McKay Coppins type we're not doing$10,000.
SPEAKER_02Maybe maybe for we'll we'll set a number we'll we'll take a like a line bet on how many waffles you end up eating and we'll just keep snowballing these kind of like quirked up things we do until one day we're going to like I don't know across the world to some Texas themed whatever. I don't know. We'll find some crazy there's a Texas themed bar in Japan. I know I know uh there was very when I was in Ireland there was this restaurant uh called Paris Texas like named after the town but kind of inspired by the Paris Texas movie uh the the you know very kind of artsy famous one uh and it was so funny you know being the Texan there like I you know they obviously realized I wasn't Irish um and asked me where I was from my I'm from Texas and stuff. It was horrible. It was terrible. It was like this is what you guys think we eat.
SPEAKER_01We got one more one more topic to talk about but I just got a text from a staffer friend about uh getting her boss on the uh the Waffle House list I also just saw that uh one star liberty pack Paxton's super pack just made an ad by in West Palm Beach. So they're gonna air an ad for an audience of one yeah obviously the president we'll see if we find the ad. I'm sure it'll pop up on on ad impact here soon but um some strategy there. Some other strateger that's happening and that is also going to lead to a massive fight next session is on data centers. And you wrote a bit about this this week. I did as well. You wrote a bit about it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah um let's give us an overview of of what you're seeing on the ground right now then we'll talk about the political side so you know there is a very much hot war that's breaking out over data centers and data center development because they have very much you know Texas prides itself uh about being kind of open for business you know low regulation easy build easy develop the uh you know state level stuff Greg Abbott has made a big point of this um and it's you know brought in a lot of businesses that have been relocating to Texas from all sorts of industries but Texas also has been trying to maneuver and position themselves to be on the forefront of this AI boom. And a big part of that in the support infrastructure for AI are data centers because it takes a lot of processing power and things of that nature. And you know data mining and things of that nature for cryptocurrency also use these things. And really anything uses because it just stores all of these I don't know ones and zeros all the black magic that is technology. I don't know. But uh they take a enormous amount of energy and they take a lot of water and a lot of these developments uh co-develop with a power plant on there so that they can get plugged into the grid faster and stuff like that. But the water is a massive issue and these things have run into a lot of resistance and outrage in rural areas. The vast majority of data centers are in uh cities Dallas has a ton of them. You don't even really see them. You don't even really see them because it it it blocks you know just kind of blends in and they're very loud too but that stuff doesn't matter as much if it's already in a massive city. It's already loud. You already can't see the stars you know uh and you already have like a lot of of energy and infrastructure for delivering water and stuff like that. But if you're trying to build it out uh in West Texas or in a rural area where land is cheap and the development costs might be less uh it makes a it's way more noticeable and then it puts a a much bigger strain on that local infrastructure. And so a lot of local opposition has started to crop up but what's uh kind of the issue is that these county commissioner courts don't necessarily have an ability just to and this is what one of the fights is do they or do they not have an ability to put a moratorium or a pause on this type of development while they do studies on how do we how do we get this water? How do we provide this? How do we balance the kind of rights uh of the local citizenry and the emphasis and desire to develop and and and get that economic uh boost and stuff like that. So all across the state these counties are having meetings right now where I mean hundreds of citizens come up and speak against it. And then you know oftentimes the court just kind of has to throw their hands up because they don't want to be sued or investigated or things of that nature. And we have state level uh leaders or or or lawmakers Paul Betancourt and I think Jared Patterson sent a letter to Attorney General Paxton asking him to investigate any of these counties that tried to put a moratorium on data center development. That was Hood County because they had considered one and then they had voted it down but then they put it back on the agenda because VanZ County did actually pass a moratorium. And Hood County um voted it down again by a very close uh two three vote. Um but a lot of these county uh attorneys have started requesting legal opinions from the AG's office about whether or not there are uh ways to put a pause on this development. Out in Brisoria County earlier this week the county commissioners voted unanimously to reject an application for tax break for a data center development. Now that doesn't stop the development but it certainly uh doesn't incentivize it because typically when uh industries are are moving into these cities and counties uh oftentimes they will be able to get some certain tax breaks in order to jumpstart development because the idea is that it's better long term for the county to give a deal up front so that they establish here and bring jobs and and add to the tax base and stuff.
SPEAKER_01And I believe so the local uh ones are Chapter 312 I think that's that's either city or county that can issue those tax abatements to businesses like this looking to locate. I think if I recall correctly it's a percentage in 312. There was a huge legislative fight uh two sessions ago on chapter 313 which um I don't think we have saw this data center boom hit uh happen yet and so I don't know if there were any projects that were given chapter 313 abatements but under the revamp of that which is the Jedi Act I don't think data centers count. You can't give these school district abatements which were so prolific under 313 to data centers yet if I recall correctly. So um that's another thing to watch legislatively does that expand to enable these but anyway sorry continue.
SPEAKER_02So yeah it's just becoming a very hot topic and it's not breaking down over partisan lines. We have Republicans we have Democratic groups that oppose these um and we just really don't know how it's going to shake out yet uh but it's definitely a lot of rural concern over being forced to take certain types of development uh things and then obviously just the water issue overall is something that is hanging heavy over Texas right now. There's obviously the big uh Bruha I know um corpus christian gotcha gosh you're so mean today um yeah there's obviously the Corpus Christi uh situation um and it's just you know we see these aquifers and reservoirs across the state continue to go down as development continues to happen uh and all that takes water and as people move to Texas that takes water and as industry comes to water comes here it takes water too. And uh how how does Texas handle that is going to be a big question that comes up. I think there might even be some interim hearings on this as well down the line is what I've heard. And uh it is probably one of the biggest I think uh questions that we're gonna have to be looking at because it plays a factor in so many different things.
SPEAKER_01But so undoubtedly there will be hearings on this at some point in some fashion I think we already had uh we already had an initial hearing on water the water issue itself I'm sure the corpus situation will spark its own yeah um but there were there's been talk about a specific committee being established on data center growth and I guess I wouldn't be surprised if that does happen because this is such a big issue. But I've heard a lot of questioning whether that's actually a real development at this point, whether there is something in the mix to create a new committee I've heard it from both chambers members in both chambers that they're not they haven't heard anything about this not yet at least and so maybe that develops maybe it doesn't. For sure though, once we get to session this will be a topic that is addressed in some form or fashion.
SPEAKER_02Trevor Burrus And we're starting to see again the political apparatus uh of pro AI, pro data centers getting involved in Texas politics.
SPEAKER_01We talked about you know the MetaPack I think we have and uh we saw um a lot of money from a couple different groups being put into congressional seats in the state Chris Gober, Jessica Steinman both got I think Mark uh uh Mark Teshera as well got support in their primaries uh from some pro AI packs so because that could be the in run about uh all of this local state stuff because Trump is very much pro-AI development pro-data centers and if you get it federal law through that you know uh suppliant state opposition to it you know that could be an in-run play there as well for them uh but we also saw the Meta PAC I think it's called Forge the Future project pack uh we also saw them play in some of these uh legislative races um a lot of house districts a lot of Senate yeah districts in in fourth reading I I listed it out a lot of them and I forget the exact amount of money that was put in I think it was over a million dollars spread out over you know let's say ten to twelve races. But something interesting I noticed in these races they got involved in a a large chunk of them are rural. Yeah. Either sp rural exclusive members like SD3 Trent Ashby that is a pretty much entirely rural district or m members whose districts are anchored in rural areas that might you know extend into uh the suburbs of a of a larger city the as you talked about the the groundswell of opposition to these things is largely happening in in rural areas because that's where a lot of these are looking to to locate Meta is dumping let's say in some races it was six figures other races it was just five figures dumping that money into these races a lot of these races were not competitive in the primary so it's kind of gratuitous money that is being spent um like Brett Ligone look um he or sorry lighan Brett Ligan he uh he didn't really he didn't have a competitive primary yet money was spent in this are these members just expected to pull the lever for Meta because or is is rather well I'll phrase it this way is Meta just expecting these members to pull the lever for them because they dumped in some money that wasn't asked for in these races? Like I'm politically speaking I'm not sure where they what the calculus is here other than just sending money into the district and and hoping it helps you down the road lobby wise. What's the incentive for these these members to do that?
SPEAKER_02That's not a bad introduction.
SPEAKER_01Sure there are worse introductions but it's not really a particularly compelling one especially if you're a member whose district is um facing a lot of opposition to data center projects that are coming in into play. I just I I don't see the logic in expecting this to be a successful maneuver. It might be the start of a broader maneuver but um if I'm a rural member and I have a bunch of uh constituents mad about a data center coming in I had no primary or very little primary and then Meta dumps mailers into the the district that I didn't ask for what is what's my incentive to do what they want? Yeah. I don't see it. I don't see it right now.
SPEAKER_02Well and we definitely see some lawmakers already being pretty aggressive in their opposition like at that Brianers meeting uh state rep Cody Vasut there and testified against it. Oh did he? Yeah he he was there and very much urged the the commissioners not to give the tax incentive to them. Now he said I don't know if there's anything this body can do to actually stop it outright but we can at least not give them taxpayer backed incentives. So you know people are definitely reaching they're in the process of reaching their uh opinions on this stuff.
SPEAKER_01Um and it you know along with water, along with sports betting, along with gambling, along with property tax, you know, are definitely going to be things that are are fought over pretty pretty aggressively I think this cycle last thing I want to add on this is that the state leaders have touted for a long time the growth that the state has experienced economically but also population and for good reason. Like it has brought a lot of wealth into the state, a lot of success, but it comes with trade-offs and negative externalities that have kind of been whispered about for years. You know the the state state leaders are shouting from the rooftops the benefits of this growth and then either they whisper or they outright ignore the the consequences of it. And now the rubber's starting to meet the road on this a lot of the resources are being stretched thin or at least the projections into the future are stretched thin. So now they're having to start start to address these after a couple decades of um just massive growth. And so um this was this was going to happen the time was going to come for this and now it's here and the data centers are one example uh but a really prolific example of this. And we you know listen the way we live our lives increasingly we have to have these things and they have to go somewhere it it smacks nobody wants it in their backyard. But nobody wants it in their backyard. It really reminds me a lot of the the um intermittent fights over the location of waste dumps whether it's the nuclear waste dumps or um uh just oil and gas waste dumps or just dumps um i there's a benefit to them and we get a lot of benefit from the products that create the waste but if you're gonna create waste you have to put it somewhere if we're gonna live our lives more and more on this thing we have to put the data center somewhere and I on the flip side though I don't blame anybody for not wanting it in their backyard because I would hate it too.
SPEAKER_02So they're also loud that's something all the cooling fans and stuff so it's uh it'll be something a situation we will monitor closely.
SPEAKER_01We're gonna be doing a lot of monitoring of that situation going forward and the legislature will have to have to figure out what the heck to do.
SPEAKER_02So glad it's not us making decisions.
SPEAKER_01I find myself saying that a lot um yes absolutely I we get to just sit here and talk about it. We don't have to get into the nitty gritty details of of policymaking but you know what that's that's what you get when you run for office. You have to make these decisions. So anything else you want to add before we go?
SPEAKER_02No Ready go eat some crawfish ready go eat some crawfish and enjoy a beautiful day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah well uh give us a a like and review if it's a good one.
SPEAKER_02If it's a good one if not on all the podcast ads walk away walk away slowly. Back away back away from the podcast. Be sure to go to TexasBullpin dot com subscribe so that you get our uh morning emails I mean really is your one stop shop for Texas politics everything you need to know 10 minutes or less uh and uh hope you enjoy the podcast join us next week and uh enjoy the weekend.
SPEAKER_01We'll keep you posted on the Waffle channel.
SPEAKER_02Yes exactly thanks y'all