AUSTIN (June 2, 2009)--The Associated Press lists Waco Democrat Jim Dunnam as one of the lawmakers who helped shape the Texas Legislature, saying “love him or hate him, Dunnam was an undeniable force in the House” during a legislative session that began with partisan strife and ended Monday in bipartisan chaos.

A battle between Republicans and Democrats over a voter identification bill had state senators debating late into the night early in the 140-day session.

The House hit the snooze button and left the same measure alone until the final weeks, when division caused delays and logjams that left lawmakers scrambling to save hundreds of bills.

In the months in between, both chambers skirted votes on major partisan policy issues including embryonic stem cell research and widely passed a $182 billion state budget for 2010-2011.

Legislative Movers And Shakers
(Source: Associated Press)

SEN. TOMMY WILLIAMS
On opening day, the Republican from the Woodlands set a session-long fuse that exploded late and derailed a number of bills.
Though it normally takes a supermajority - 21 of 31 total senators - to allow any bill to make it to the floor, Williams proposed an exception be made for a controversial voter identification measure voter ID bill. The measure would otherwise have failed early, and the move created a partisan split that would eventually thread its way to the House.
The voter ID bill sparked a five-day stalemate in the House that put hundreds of bills in jeopardy with deadlines approaching. Some were salvaged and tacked on to other bills, but key pieces of legislation, such as an expansion of the Children's Health Insurance Program, died.

SPEAKER JOE STRAUS
The relatively unknown San Antonio Republican's rise to power was swift and stealth as members of both parties met early in the year to find a consensus candidate to replace then-Speaker Tom Craddick.
After six years of Craddick's dictatorial rule, Straus was picked in part because of his hands-off approach and determination to follow the rules and let the House decide its own fate. But when the voter ID standoff between Democrats and Republicans began to threaten other legislation, Straus was criticized for not taking a stronger hand. In the end, Straus sided with his party on voter ID and called Democrats obstructionists.
Until then, a chamber known for volatility was almost dull with compromise. A $182 billion budget was widely approved. Embryonic stem cell research, anti-abortion legislation and illegal immigration stayed on the fringes of House debate.

REP. JIM DUNNAM
Love him or hate him, Dunnam was an undeniable force in the House.
Instrumental in helping oust Craddick and elevating Straus to Speaker, the Waco Democrat and minority party caucus leader also led the Memorial Weekend Chub, when Democrats delayed the voter ID bill until a House deadline killed it. Democrats succeeded by a process called "chubbing," or talking up uncontested bills in order to slow business to a halt.

REP. LARRY TAYLOR
When the House was set to debate the $182 billion state budget, many expected typical partisan debate on hot-button issues including stem cell research, abortion and illegal immigration.
The debate was merely long but not the emotional free-for-all it could have been. Taylor, the House Republican leader from Friendswood, met with Dunnam and stripped out many amendments that would be killed anyway, saving lawmakers from a divisive showdown that could have stirred up bad blood.
A month later Taylor took the lead as the voice of House Republicans united in the voter ID stalemate against House Democrats.

SEN. STEVE OGDEN
The chair of the Senate Finance committee was the driving force in passing the state budget through the Senate, but his name was also tied to a host of high-profile issues.
The Bryan Republican added one-time $800 bonuses for more than 100,000 state employees to the supplemental budget.
He attempted to block state spending on embryonic stem cell research, an effort that later failed. He bore the weight of unsuccessful Senate efforts to reconfirm a much-debated creationist as head of the State Board of Education.
Late in the session Ogden refused to pass a bill out the Senate Finance Committee expanding the Children's Health Insurance Program, saying his committee had already passed a similar bill that was never brought up in the House. That decision spurred proponents of the CHIP expansion to blame him for its eventual failure.
And when efforts to address the sunset of the Texas Department of Transportation failed on the final night of the session, an irate Ogden was quick to call for a special session.

SEN. JANE NELSON
Committee chairs are coveted seats because of the power they have to control which bills move forward and which ones die. Nelson's Health and Human Services Committee passed judgment on many of the session's hot-button issues from state school reforms to stem cell research and a potential smoking ban.
Nelson carried a host of health care legislation including a bill aimed at retaining nurses and one of Gov. Rick Perry's emergency items - reforms for the state's 13 large institutions for the developmentally disabled, which were facing allegations of widespread abuse and neglect.
The Flower Mound Republican was accused by some of delaying a vote on a proposed statewide ban on smoking in public places after voicing her support early in the session. The measure was later passed by the committee, but failed to get the votes to pass the Senate.

SEN. JOHN CARONA
Things began and ended with a bang for the Dallas Republican who got himself tied to the two biggest legislative bombs lobbed this year.
In January, Carona was the sole Republican to oppose bringing up the voter ID bill in the Senate. He said skirting the two-thirds rule to bring the issue up before anything else went against the message voters sent in the 2008 elections that drastically narrowed Republican control of both chambers: "stop the partisan gamesmanship, deal with the issues of substance and importance."
In the last 48 hours of the session, Carona threatened a filibuster over a bill to reauthorize and reform the Texas Department of Transportation. He accused Senate negotiators of misleading him on the final version of the TxDOT bill, which did not include a local-option gas tax for road building. The filibuster threat rolled in with wider controversy over the department and how or if it should be continued. The bill didn't pass and TxDOT's fate was temporarily uncertain.
Carona filled the middle months of the session attempting to pass pro-gambling legislation and a bill allowing police to conduct sobriety checkpoints. Neither succeeded.