Tarrant Rep. shocks Tea Party by telling them there is no race for Speaker

This story was originally posted on the Quorum Report:

Some Tea Party supporters in Tarrant County got a wakeup call overnight as one of the lawmakers they have supported over establishment Republican figures told them late Monday that there is no race for Speaker of the Texas House.

In a town hall style meeting, Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, answered questions about his newfound support for Speaker Joe Straus in a matter-of-fact way. "The reality is there is no race for Scott Turner versus Joe Straus," Capriglione said, referring of course to the lawmaker from Frisco who has announced his challenge to Speaker Straus.

That was met with surprise, to say the least.

In a video of the event posted on social media overnight, one woman in the crowd is heard saying "woah" when Capriglione said what he had to say. Others were more dramatic.

"This is killing me," said one Tea Party supporter in the crowd, who also said that when Capriglione originally ran against former Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, "you ran against Joe Straus. I remember it specifically."

"To vote for Joe Straus is to vote against everything we hold dear," the man said.

But, Capriglione held his ground. "Over eighty percent of Republicans don't support Scott Turner," Capriglione said. He called Turner a good man and a brother who he's "broken bread with.” But Turner is in no way qualified to be the Speaker of the Texas House, he said.

Turner originally ran "on a very moderate platform" on issues like illegal immigration and "I just noticed that he doesn't have the depth when it comes to policy,” Capriglione said. When he tried to point out that a host of important issues like transportation, health care, and education will up for debate at The Legislature after a possible vote for Speaker, at least one Tea Party supporter on the video can be heard saying “it doesn’t matter.”

Copyright November 11, 2014, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved. Reprinted with permission.