While Democrats meet behind closed doors to find a speaker candidate they can gather behind and Republicans refuse to spill the beans on whether they will support Craddick, another issue reminiscent of Session ‘07 is resurfacing: the Order of the Secret Ballot in the speaker’s race (I threw a little Harry Potter lingo in there).

In a San Antonio Express news article, Craddick’s spokesperson Alexis DeLee was quoted as saying there would likely not be a secret ballot for the speaker’s race due to the number of candidates and the state constitution. This is renegade house member, Jim Dunnam’s response to that:

“Colleagues,

“Alexis DeLee, Craddick’s press secretary, was quoted in today’s San Antonio Express-News as saying that a secret ballot for Speaker was unlikely to happen because “The Texas Constitution requires a record vote to be open if requested by three members on any question. The House could close the ballot, but it will have to be open if requested by three members.”

“Alexis is wrong – and she should know better.

“As we all know, at the beginning of last session Rep. Charlie Geren offered an amendment to conduct the Speaker’s election by secret ballot, with the results published in the House Journal after committee assignments were announced. Rep. Phil King raised a point of order against further consideration of the Geren amendment on the grounds that it violated the Constitutional rule requiring a record vote on the demand of any three members.