by Lisa Sandberg
AUSTIN — Call it the Texas governor's biennial dilemma: to sign
bills, veto them or sit back, do nothing and blame lawmakers for whatever misfortunes later befall the state.
As a veto deadline approaches, Gov. Rick Perry's dilemma extends to criminals
and how to deal with them. Among the scores of bills passed by a solidly Republican Legislature are three that have been construed
by some as soft on crime, which in Texas politics is akin to being radioactive.
There's little chance the issues will be resolved quietly. In recent
weeks, Texas law enforcement officials have embarked on a public campaign to pressure the conservative Republican to veto
the bills.
John Bradley, the district attorney for Williamson County, recently sent
Perry a letter urging him to veto the so-called probation bill, which in most cases calls for a five-year cap on the length
of time a nonviolent convict is supervised. The letter was signed by 32 fellow district attorneys from around the state.
Last week, San Antonio Police Chief Albert Ortiz was one of several Texas
police chiefs to send Perry a personal letter urging him to veto a bill that would require law enforcement officers to obtain
written as opposed to just verbal consent before searching vehicles during a traffic stop. Ortiz called it "an unreasonable
burden."
Another bill awaiting action would bar prosecutors from offering plea
deals to defendants without the defendant's lawyer present.
All this has put Perry, who is up for re-election next year, "in the
middle of a quagmire," said L. Tucker Gibson, chairman of the political science department at Trinity University.
"You're vulnerable from every side" when you're a Texas governor
nearing an election season and the issue is crime, Gibson added.
Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University,
predicted Perry would stand by his very conservative base, given the tough GOP primary he's likely to face next year, when
support from such activists will be critical for him.
"My guess is he's fixated on his base," Jillson said. "If he does strike
down (the bills), it will be to say, 'Remember, I am the conservative here.'"
Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt would not say how he was leaning on the
criminal justice and law enforcement bills, and downplayed any political calculations in the decisions her boss reaches, saying
they would be based on good public policy.
"The governor always believes that good public policy means good politics,"
Walt said.
Years after Texas adopted some of the toughest criminal laws in the
nation, the pendulum appeared to swing in the other direction in the Legislature's recently ended regular session.
The probation bill, sponsored in the Senate by John Whitmire, D-Houston,
would cap probation at five years in situations that now allow up to 10 years. The provision only applies to nonviolent offenders and judges can extend supervision on a case-by-case basis.
Bradley, the Williamson County district attorney, said the bill was nothing
short of "early release" and was akin to declaring high school juniors were high school graduates.
"They'd be fewer students to teach but it wouldn't make the dropout rate
any lower or the kids any smarter. It'd be a very foolish approach to a long-term problem," he said.
Whitmire rejected arguments Tuesday that his bill was soft on criminals.
If anything, he said, the proposal would strengthen the probation system by redirecting scarce resources to more dangerous
offenders. He listed the financial burdens of current policy: $40 per day to keep an offender in prison compared to $2 per
day for probation.
He said state prisons are so full that in the next month the state will
have to lease 575 county jail beds.
"We've got the toughest laws in the nation. We just don't need to get
any tougher," he said.
Perry has until Sunday to decide whether to veto bills, sign them into
law or take no action, in which case they would automatically take effect without his signature.
