Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

Texas oil tycoons Tim Dunn, left, and Farris Wilks, right, have financed conservative candidates for years.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, left, and Gov. Greg Abbott, right, talk during a swearing in ceremony on the first day of the 88th Texas Legislative Session in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023.

Texas House members with family and guests crowd the House Chamber at the Texas Capitol for the opening of the 88th Texas Legislative Session in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick presides in the Senate on the first day of the first special session at the Capitol in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, May 30, 2023.

The public gallery overlooking the Texas House of Representatives is nicknamed “the owners’ box,” because that’s where major campaign donors and their lobbyists sit when overseeing lawmakers doing their bidding.

Typically, at least once per legislative session, an impassioned author of an endangered bill will urge representatives not to look up at “the owners’ box” for cues on how to vote. Instead, they argue, elected officials “should vote their district.”

Independent thinking is getting harder in the Texas Legislature. Texas House members voted Tuesday on whether to take another step toward becoming a rubber stamp for priorities set by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and his billionaire donors.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Students of Texas government learn early that the lieutenant governor is the state’s most powerful........

© Houston Chronicle