Texas Monthly includes 3 San Antonio lawmakers on latest Best and Worst Legislators list

For the past 50 years, Texas Monthly magazine has published an annual wrap-up of the Texas legislative session in which it highlights which lawmakers who served as heroes and villains — often scrutinizing the latter's failures with merciless precision.

San Antonio legislators don't always make either list, although we occasionally have years where someone who hails from the Alamo City ends up on one or the other. This year, Texas Monthly singled out not one, not two, but three of our legislators — one for a special and positive distinction, one for being among the session's worst lawmakers and another for being one of the most useless.

First, the good news: Texas Monthly lauded Texas Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a San Antonio Democrat, as "Bull of the Brazos," a title it awards each session to a lawmaker who's "obstinate and willing to speak truth to power."

The magazine praised Gutierrez, whose district includes Uvalde, for his refusal to let the Republican-controlled Lege move on from the horrific mass shooting at Robb Elementary School like nothing fucking happened. Gutierrez filed 28 bills focused on common-sense gun control, only to have Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick ensure not a single one got a hearing.

"In a remarkable speech on the floor in May, Gutierrez challenged his colleagues to request the photo and video evidence collected at Uvalde so they could see it themselves," Texas Monthly wrote. “'I’ve been angry for a long time,' he said, his voice breaking. The pictures had changed him. 'You’ve never seen so much blood in your life.'"

After Abbott and Patrick refused to take Gutierrez's efforts seriously, he told the press the pair could “go to hell," the magazine added.

However, TM lavished no such praise on State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, the San Antonian elected late last year to lead the House Democratic Caucus. While Martinez Fischer has long been praised for his procedural expertise, the magazine said detractors found him ill-informed and unprepared to come up with strategies for handling major pieces of legislation.

Some Martinez Fischer defenders blamed the disunity on the party in general, pointing out that it hadn't controlled the House since 2001, according to Texas Monthly. However, the article's authors noted that the San Antonio rep now may be bringing them together since they're “reunited in their dissatisfaction" over his ability to lead.

Finally, there's State Rep. Philip Cortez, a San Antonio Democrat who ended up among the five lawmakers Texas Monthly dubbed The Furniture due to their failure to get jack shit done during the session.

Cortez, you may recall, stabbed his fellow Dems in the back by returning to Texas from Washington D.C. during the 2021 quorum break organized to protest the GOP's effort to make it harder for Texans to vote. Subsequently, Cortez managed to piss off the Republicans too, which left him "with few allies and little power," Texas Monthly noted.

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