Texas border, Ken Paxton, voting anxiety: This Week in Texas Politics

AUSTIN, Texas - A challenge to an old West gun fight, anxiety over crossover voting, and Ken Paxton takes on a church charity. Those were some of the top stories in Texas this week.

FOX 7 Austin’s Chief Political Reporter Rudy Koski, and our panel of analysts, took a look at the top stories happening in Texas, and other hot topics, this week.

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RUDY KOSKI: Early voting kicked off this week, and the political rhetoric also ramped up. It got to one point where the AG commissioner was challenged to a duel by a House member. Strong words there. Now let's get the words and the headlines from our panel, and we'll start first with Bryant Smith from Saint Edward's University. Brian, what's your headline for the week? 

BRIAN SMITH: The ghosts of Hamilton and Burr top the GOP infighting. 

RUDY KOSKI: Political analyst Mark Wiggins, what's your headline for the week? 

MARK WIGGINS: Lies, damned lies and political mail. 

RUDY KOSKI: The day before early voting started, you dropped a new poll. No surprise, the border remains a top issue, but there was some mixed messaging about school choice scores as a top issue for those in the survey. Brian, did that surprise you?

BRIAN SMITH: It's being crowded out by those bigger issues. The border inflation, economy. These macro issues have taken the oxygen out of school choice. Also, school choice is the biggest proponent. Greg Abbott is not on the ballot. And when we see Abbott, he's always down at the border.

RUDY KOSKI: Mark. They initially were 12 votes shy and getting it, school choice/ESA, moved through the House. Has anything changed on that? 

MARK WIGGINS: It's crazy because, you know, these people are being targeted because of their votes on vouchers. But the mail, the campaign mail that's being targeted at them, doesn't even mention vouchers. You know, the attack ads, they always stretch the truth. But the attacks against these pro-public education Republicans are like nothing I've ever seen.

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RUDY KOSKI: You know, no doubt. Certainly there are a lot of hot races across the state and a lot of hard feelings. You know, for example, AG Commissioner Sid Miller claims that this week, West Texas House member Glenn Rogers challenged him to a duel. Miller is a Paxton supporter. Rogers voted for impeachment. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick also ramping up his attacks on House members. Brian, a lot of bridges are being burnt here. 

BRIAN SMITH: There are a lot of bridges and, like Mark said, it's not over bread and butter GOP issues on which they all seem to agree on. It's on the very, very extremes. And the problem for the Republicans, though, is they have to stop this bleeding now. Nobody's well served in that party if it's allowed to fester. Not the governor, not the legislature when they reconvene. And the national GOP has to be worried because they need a united Texas if they're going to keep the House and get Donald Trump back into the White House. 

RUDY KOSKI: Now, adding fuel to the fire. In a way, the turnout for early voting is tracking a little low right now. With Texas being an open primary state. Both Democrats and Republicans this week started complaining already about crossover voting. Mark on the top of the GOP ballot is Prop 9. That's a question about moving to a closed primary system for Republicans. That certainly could open up a brand new can't of worms, right? 

MARK WIGGINS: The reason why we're here, let's not forget, is because voting districts in Texas are so gerrymandered, 90% of them guarantee that one party or the other is going to win in November, mathematically. So if you want to change that, then maybe fix the gerrymandering.

RUDY KOSKI: But, couldn't that open up the door to maybe finally a third party emerging saying, hey, we're the party for the moderates right now. Since both sides are so extreme. 

BRIAN SMITH: I think of Teddy Roosevelt. But we like third parties in theory, but we get gun shy about voting for them on Election Day.

RUDY KOSKI: All right. Moving from the ballot box and to the border, the attorney general's office made headlines this week by filing a lawsuit against the operators of a Catholic nonprofit based in El Paso. The state wants access to records regarding who they are helping, and claims that this NGO, which stands for non-government organization, is involved in human smuggling. It's shaping up to be another example of how the state could lose the court fight, but still win the PR battle. What do you think, Mark? 

MARK WIGGINS: You know, it's interesting. This is one of the exact scenarios that was brought up by the opponents of SB 4 when it was on the floor. I think, you know, it's risky PR attacking a religious charity, but it'll be interesting to see if they did anything illegal. 

RUDY KOSKI: Changing the subject. Looking up, "Houston, Odysseus has found a new home." Those words were spoken Thursday when, for the first time in more than 50 years, Americans returned to the moon. Not real people, but a lunar lander that was made in Houston made a successful landing. And another lunar lander is being built right here in the Austin area in Cedar Park. It's heading up later this year. Brian, you know, this certainly isn't the Apollo political victory from that era, but this has got to be a good thing. Texas is back in the space race, right? 

BRIAN SMITH: Yeah. The United States needs to keep that competitive edge in space technology. And the growth of Texas as a spaceport has been very successful. 

RUDY KOSKI: And Mark, this is coming right when we heard about Russia and Star Wars 2.0 killer satellites up there. 

MARK WIGGINS: So I think this is further evidence Congress has to pass the Ukraine funding now, or we all better get ready to be with the "Wolverines." 

RUDY KOSKI: All right, let's wrap up the week with a word maybe other than Wolverines. And, Brian, we'll start with you. What's your word for the week? 

BRIAN SMITH: Turn out. 

MARK WIGGINS: Disinformation. 

RUDY KOSKI: And that is This Week in Texas Politics.