Speaker Joe Straus made committee assignments today and there aren’t tons of surprises with this one. The men who met at Byron Cook’s house and chose him as their Speaker nominee got the plum assignments…with several influential Democrats in the mix as well.

Two of our central Texas locals got chairs: Rep. Mark Strama and Rep. Patrick Rose. Dawnna Dukes didn’t get a chair but said she ended up where she wanted to be: on Appropriations where the money is decided. Subcommittee chairs will be named in the next few weeks and Dukes hopes for another influential post there.