Josh Goodman is a former staff writer for GOVERNING..
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A Loud Speaker's Race
You can make a case that the most interesting election in recent memory in Texas was one with only 150 voters. That would be the January 2007 vote for speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, when rebellious Republicans nearly cost longtime speaker Tom Craddick his job, until equally rebellious Democrats came to his rescue.
It's that history -- and the expectation that there will be another fight in January 2009 -- that made me notice this judicial ruling, as reported by the Associated Press:
AUSTIN - A federal judge tossed out a state law that bans advocacy groups from spending money to campaign and lobby for selection of the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives.
U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks sided with the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Texas, the Free Market Foundation and the Texas Eagle Forum political action committee - an unlikely alliance of groups that came together as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
How much money is it possible to spend trying to sway the votes of only 150 state legislators? I suspect we're going to find out.
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