TribBlog: Ready for His Closeup

Sure, the Grammy Awards are coming up, but does Joe Straus really need an introductory video for them?

No. But the newest video touting the speaker for reelection looks like the intro for one of those lifetime achievement statues they give away on the TV awards shows.

This particular YouTube posting in the Texas race for speaker is a Straus bio piece emphasizing his and his family's history in the GOP, promoting him as a conservative leader in his first term as speaker and making a pitch for what he would do with a second term in the House's top job.

It's the latest bit of evidence that the race for speaker — historically the most inside of inside political games — has become the subject of public campaigning. The Republicans trying to knock Straus out of office (it should be said here that Republicans on all sides of this thing consider themselves conservative) have mounted a small but noisy outside campaign, stoking their campaign engines with a steady stream of letters, emails, online videos and press releases in an effort to build momentum for a new speaker.

Two other candidates have declared: Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, who has not named any supporters, and Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, who has eight backers in addition to himself. Straus claims more than 120.

The video's author is anonymous, posting under the name "SpeakerJoeStraus10" on YouTube.

Here's the video: