O’Day hustling to prepare for session
O’Day hustling to prepare for session
Published January 21, 2007
Most legislators have a two-month span from the night they are elected to the time they have to prepare for the opening of the Legislature.
All state Rep. Mike O’Day will get is maybe two weeks.
After winning 57 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s special election runoff against Randy Weber for the District 29 Texas House seat, O’Day spent two days in Austin meeting with fellow legislators and finding a place to live.
“We’re working every day,” O’Day said, “dealing with all the normal logistics of moving here.”
O’Day, R-Pearland, met with House Speaker Tom Craddick to talk about committee assignments as well as meeting with his colleagues. He also has been working on building his staff. He has not worked a lot on his legislative agenda but said he will as soon as his staff is set and he is ready.
“Until the staff gets a chance to get settled in, we’ll go from there,” he said.
O’Day, 56, cannot be sworn in until the votes are certified. Brazoria County Commissioners set up a special meeting to do just that at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
Once the votes are certified by state officials, O’Day can set up a swearing-in ceremony, said Ted Royer, a spokesman with the governor’s office.
“As soon as the vote is canvassed,” he said.
The soonest the vote can be canvassed is 15 days after the election, said the county’s elections director, Janice Evans.
Weber, a Pearland Republican, won 28 percent of the vote in the Dec. 19 special emergency election to force a face-off with O’Day. Now that the election is over, the businessman and former Pearland City Council member said he is going to take a break.
“I am glad it’s over,” he said. “Right now I am going to kind of take a deep breath and relax.”
O’Day and Weber announced plans to run for the District 29 seat in November, which was left vacant by the death of Glenda Dawson in September. Dawson’s name had to remain on the ballot for the general election because of state laws and received 60 percent of the vote against Democrat Anthony DiNovo.
DiNovo, O’Day, Weber and Pearland Republican John Gorman opted to run in the special emergency election to replace Dawson. After the special election was over, with O’Day and Weber set for a runoff, DiNovo donated $500 to Weber’s campaign.
O’Day spent triple the amount of money in the runoff compared to Weber. According to campaign finance reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission, between Dec. 10 and Jan. 6, O’Day spent $74,076 compared to Weber’s $18,791.