This week, Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst stated that had he been governor in 2001, he would not have signed into law Texas House Bill 1403. HB 1403 allows undocumented immigrants who meet a set of requirements to pay in-state tuition at Texas public colleges and universities.
It is helpful to recall that that the version of HB 1403, which Governor Rick Perry signed into law in 2001, was backed by 76 Republican senators and representatives and opposed by only 5 Republican legislators. That is, it received the near-universal support of the Republican delegation in the Texas legislature.
By stating he would not have signed the bill, Lt. Gov. Dewhurst is claiming that he would not only have adopted a position on this issue that was distinct (more conservative) from virtually all of his fellow Republicans, but also that he would not have signed a bill that enjoyed the near-unanimous support of his Republican colleagues in the legislature (as well as the support of every Democratic legislator).
While it takes no great leap of faith to believe the lieutenant governor’s position that in 2011 he would not sign HB 1403, it is much more difficult to accept that, had he been governor in 2001, he would not have signed HB 1403; just as Governor Rick Perry did 10 years ago.
Mark P. Jones is the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy’s Fellow in Political Science as well as the Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Rice University.