Joe Straus

State Rep. Joe Straus may be next Republican to enter the speaker's race. Although the San Antonio Republican has not officially declared his candidacy, he indicated that the House Republicans are looking for new leadership - not just a replacement for House Speaker Tom Craddick (R-Midland).

In an interview with Capitol Inside, Straus expressed his Republican colleagues' frustration with the "chamber's leadership."  He stopped short of saying he was campaigning for the chamber's top job.

In the aftermath of staggering deficits among straight-ticket voters in Texas’ largest metropolitan areas, several state Republicans have endorsed ending the practice, claiming it unfairly influences the outcome of elections.

To that end, state Rep. Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) filed a bill for the 2009 legislative session that would end straight-ticket voting.

“There are people on both tickets who you know don’t belong in public office,” Straus told The Dallas Morning News. “That should offend open-minded people from both parties. I can’t imagine an argument against this.”

Republicans were overwhelmed in November by straight-ticket voters in Texas’ big cities. In Harris County (Houston), where Democrats completed a near-sweep of judicial races (22 of 26 Republican incumbents lost), Democrats had an advantage of nearly 50,000 among straight-ticket voters, or 53 percent overall.

In Dallas County, where Democrats did complete a judicial sweep in 2006, Democrats enjoyed an advantage of more than 100,000, or 60 percent overall, among such voters – an even larger amount than in the 2006 sweep. In Travis County (Austin) and Bexar County (San Antonio), 64 and 56 percent of straight-ticket voters supported Democrats, respectively.