Watson relinquishes chairmanship

With only 11 Democrats and 20 Republicans in the Texas Senate, serving as chair of the Senate’s Democratic Caucus would not be seen as an easy job, regardless of other circumstances. Moreover, Austin Sen. Kirk Watson always has his hands full defending his city, so he probably didn’t really need this extra job of herding his sometimes fractious colleagues. But he didn’t say any of that when he gave notice on Thursday that he would be giving up his job as caucus chair. He wrote, “I’ve served as Democratic Caucus Chair for two sessions (plus a little time before the first one and now a little after the second one). I’m ready to pass the baton to the next Chair and want to do it so that the new Chair has plenty of time to prepare for the upcoming election year, convention, and then the next session. I deeply appreciate the honor my colleagues have given me letting me serve as caucus chairman.”