Texas Republicans may oust Ken Paxton, one of their own
Editor’s note (September 16th): The Texas Senate chose not to oust Ken Paxton after all. He was acquitted and keeps his state office.
As everyone in the capitol chambers bowed their heads in prayer before opening statements, Ken Paxton looked straight ahead. It is a rare court that Texas’s attorney-general seeks justice before. After being impeached by the state’s House of Representatives in May for bribery, lying and dereliction of duty, Mr Paxton is now on trial before its Senate, with the lieutenant governor presiding as judge and the lawmakers as jurors. His wife, a senator who in 2016 dubbed herself “a pistol-packin’ mama” whose “husband sues Obama”, is barred from voting, but sits among her peers who will determine his fate.
On September 5th the senators rejected all 16 motions filed by Mr Paxton’s lawyers to dismiss the trial. If that is any indication of how they plan to vote on impeachment, Republicans in the country’s biggest conservative state seem poised to oust one of their own. An elected official has not been ejected in Texas in nearly 50 years (when a judge stole funds earmarked for groceries for the poor), and certainly not since the state’s legislature and governorship came under Republican control in 2003. “If you’re a one-party state,” says Jason Sabo, an Austin lobbyist, “eventually the arc of the firing squad comes full circle.”
2023-09-14 06:55:18
Original from www.economist.com
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