He’s going to take his sweet time, that much is for sure.
Gov. Greg Abbott is facing intense political pressure over a bill that would ban products containing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, as hemp industry leaders mount a full-court press urging the governor to veto the measure while Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and his allies urge Abbott to sign it into law.
The issue has sparked backlash from both sides of the aisle, including from conservatives ordinarily supportive of Patrick’s hardline agenda. An April statewide survey by the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin found that 55% of Republicans believe Texas’ marijuana and cannabis laws should be less strict or left as they are now, compared to 40% who said they should be stricter.
Less than one-third of voters of all political persuasions said the state should stiffen its THC laws. Yet, should he break out the veto pen, Abbott would likely incur the wrath of Patrick, the powerful Senate leader who made the ban one of his top priorities, calling THC-infused products — such as gummies, beverages and vapes — a “poison in our public.”
In a sign of the intense fallout since lawmakers approved the ban, Patrick called a news conference last week to renew his criticism of the hemp industry and the products they are pushing, which he said are designed to appeal to children.
[…]
Asked if he was calling the news conference over concerns about an Abbott veto, Patrick said he was “not worried about the governor.”
“I’m worried about the pressure on the media and the general public to try to keep this going in some way and bring it back,” Patrick said, adding, “I’m not going to speak for the governor. He will do what he is going to do. I have total confidence in the governor.”
Meanwhile, as the Legislature prepared to gavel out for the session on Monday, hemp industry leaders held their own news conference to call for Abbott to veto the bill — underscoring the competing pressures now facing the governor.
See here for some background. I’ll say again, Greg Abbott will do whatever Greg Abbott thinks is best for Greg Abbott. I lean towards him signing the bill (or at least, not vetoing it; he could just let it become law without his signature) because I don’t think he wants to get into a pissing contest with Patrick. I see that oft-quoted poli sci prof Cal Jillson agrees with me on that, so make of it what you will. I also don’t think Abbott fears Republican voter backlash – I think he thinks that he dictates to them, not the other way around. I say, let’s find out. The Barbed Wire has more.