AUSTIN -- Presumptive House Speaker Joe Straus' family has been steeped in horse breeding for eight decades, and in Republican politics almost as long. Let's just say he thinks he's a pretty shrewd judge of how to cross a finish line.

His speaker's race, which lasted 48 hours from beginning to end, is a pretty good testament to that.

And now Straus said he intends to run the House by sharing power among Republicans and Democrats, identifying the best jockeys and helping them run the track on issues including health care, education, transportation and water.

"The reality is, if not for 19 votes in Irving, we might not have a Republican speaker," he told The Dallas Morning News, referring to the sliver of Rep. Linda Harper-Brown's victory that gave the GOP a 76-74 edge in the House. "I'm Republican to the core. But I believe in fair play."

In one of his first interviews since becoming the last of 14 speaker candidates standing, Straus said that instead of the partisanship, rancor and paralysis of the previous session, he sees a calmer, more congenial House with better legislation emerging.

If elected overwhelmingly as expected on Tuesday at the start of the 140-day session, he said he intends to appoint leaders with a partisan balance. And he said that he would not campaign against any incumbent in the House -- a departure from the philosophy of outgoing Speaker Tom Craddick.

Craddick, a 40-year veteran and three-term speaker, is a street-fighter for partisan causes, and his push for conservative bills and willingness to punish those who didn't get on board caused rebellions and divisions in the House.

"I made the determination along with 10 other Republican colleagues that it was time to change, to move forward and to try something different," said Straus, 49.

"I've never singled out Tom Craddick for criticism. The fact is that the paralysis and the problems that we experienced in the last session took more than Tom Craddick to create," he said.

He said he does not have a specific role for Craddick in the upcoming session. "Tom Craddick doesn't need any help from me -- probably the other way around," Straus said, adding that the two shared a "very positive, very friendly" phone call Tuesday.

At 49 and with only two terms' experience, Straus said he will rely on senior House members and the staff he is scrambling to pull together in one week.

For those who feel that he is too green, and that lobbyists or other leaders will push him around, he said that there are some advantages to having less experience -- he hasn't been involved in bloody battles. "I don't have any scores to settle," he said.

And he said with a smile, "I don't mind being underestimated."

Straus has been in the House three years. He's been in the speaker's office a few times, but only had a glimpse of the apartment behind the chamber that he is about to inherit. The Craddicks raised $1 million in 2006 to renovate the apartment.

For himself, with two teenage daughters, Straus said he imagines commuting home to San Antonio much of the time.

He said he understands the factions that want him to push a Republican advantage, to stay true to GOP principles and abandon his appeasement strategy with Democrats. But that is politics speaking, he said.

"As every day passes, things are getting calmer," Straus said. "We know we're going to be -- in six days -- in work mode, not campaign mode."

For those who fear his horse-track pedigree will embolden the gambling interests, he said it should be the opposite. His elevation, he said, "probably sets back the efforts of the gaming industry," because he will not advocate for them as speaker.

The other key family interest, politics, will also likely have to be waylaid, at least in one key race.

His parents -- Joe Jr. and Joci Straus -- have been strong supporters of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison as well as Gov. Rick Perry. He's trusting that with his new position, his family will rein in their involvement with the potential Republican primary for governor next year.

Relying on his horse sense, he said, "They will, I'm certain, just stay out of those things."