Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

AUSTIN - It's no secret that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst would like to be governor or a U.S. senator someday, and those aspirations can't be separated from his work as the Texas Senate's presiding officer.

However, Tom Craddick, his counterpart on the other side of the Capitol, envisions no statewide race. He seems content to remain speaker of the Texas House and, as one legislator put it, Midland's "emperor for life."

In the eyes of the public, both may share in the blame for the Legislature's failure to overhaul the school finance system and cut school property taxes. But they don't share the same potential political liability.

Intense search for deal

If there is any ultimate voter anger, Dewhurst, like Gov. Rick Perry, is potentially more vulnerable. That may be one reason Dewhurst, along with Perry, scrambled to find an 11th-hour deal on a school bill and why Dewhurst was quick to accuse Craddick of rejecting it.

Craddick and other House members denied there was an agreement. But no one was denying the intensity between the top two legislative leaders on that one issue during the final days of the session, which ended Monday.

Dewhurst said Tuesday that he recently told Craddick he wanted to kill him but quickly added: "I was kidding. We're making progress."

Craddick's second session as speaker was rougher than his first, partly because of the school finance failure and a divisive vote over private school vouchers, which he lost. But the only voters to whom Craddick will answer next year live in his conservative, Republican West Texas district, where he is considered untouchable.

In Austin, Craddick continues to be dogged by an ongoing criminal investigation into the use of corporate funds in Republican legislative races. But for now, he also seems in little danger of being dethroned by the other House members.

So though Dewhurst continues to press for a new school finance solution and a special session in which to enact it, Craddick doesn't have to be in a hurry. Politically, he can afford to wait for the Texas Supreme Court to intervene, which many observers think has been his preference all along.

A Democratic state district judge declared the current school finance system unconstitutional and inadequate, but the final say will come from the all-Republican high court, which will hear lawyers' arguments July 6. A final decision is months away.

"Success or failure of statewide legislation always affects the person who has the statewide constituency, particularly the one who harbors ambitions," said Bill Miller, an Austin political consultant with ties to Craddick.

"David (Dewhurst) is the only player in the legislative process who answers to the entire state. That's something he's mindful of."

On the other hand, Miller added, "Tom was always of the mind we're better off waiting for the Supreme Court to tell us what to do."

Pressure from constituents

Craddick said he wanted to resolve the school finance and tax overhaul during the regular session, which is why he saw to it that the House acted on its version of the legislation in early March.

But, he added, he also told House members that if House negotiators couldn't reach an acceptable compromise with the Senate, "I wouldn't pressure them to vote for it (a tax bill) again."

Some Republican legislators, he acknowledged, already had caught flak from constituents for voting for the House tax bill, which traded higher state taxes for property tax relief, and were gun-shy about casting a second tax vote.

Dewhurst was still urging Craddick and other House leaders Tuesday to resume negotiations in hopes of persuading Perry to call lawmakers back to try again.

Dewhurst will either seek re-election next year or may run for the U.S. Senate, if fellow Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison gives up her seat to challenge Perry.

Reaching out to voters

The school finance failure may have little, if any, effect on Dewhurst's next race because it was a "systemic failure," said Cal Jillson, a Southern Methodist University political science professor.

"Name recognition overwhelms disappointment with failing to solve the key issue of the session," he said.

But, Jillson added, Dewhurst, for the sake of the GOP's future in Texas, needs to appeal to a broader constituency than Craddick. Dewhurst must continue reaching out to the big-city and suburban voters for whom public education — and paying for it — is a critical issue.

"He's got to continue to rail against it (the legislative failure on schools). The majority of Texas voters are parents," Jillson said.

For now, Craddick's biggest political concern may be the investigation, more than 2 years old, by Travis County prosecutors into the role that corporate money played in the Republican takeover of the House in the 2002 elections and Craddick's subsequent election as speaker.

His most significant defeat during the session was his unsuccessful attempt to win House approval of a tax-paid voucher program to allow some public school students to transfer to private schools. Even some Republican lawmakers were unhappy over being forced to vote on such a contentious issue when they already knew vouchers were unlikely to pass the Senate.

They suspected Craddick was merely trying to please political contributors who were backing vouchers. But Craddick was unapologetic.

"I really believe in vouchers. I think we ought to try vouchers," he said. "What is the harm in trying it?"