From Reps. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown, and John Smithee, R-Amarillo:
It has become apparent in the last 12 hours that Rep. Straus carries enough votes to become the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, and that any effort to challenge him is not in the best interest of the Texas House. As a result we are both withdrawing our candidacies for speaker. Our priority is to take the focus off speaker politics and concentrate on how we can best serve the people of Texas in the 81st Legislature.
and Straus as gracious as ever (also from the Austin Chronicle):
"John Smithee is my friend and a highly respected leader in the House. I appreciated his courteous phone call moments ago and notification of his withdrawal. John's difficult decision and gracious gesture is another step towards unity in the House."
Update: Elise Hu did a great job covering this story beginning to end. The KVUE reporter has John Smithee on camera talking about his decision to withdraw his candidacy from the shrinking pool of Speaker candidates.
