Part one: Caucus leaders face off

AUSTIN (KXAN) - House Republican caucus chair Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood and House Democratic caucus leader Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco gave their accounts of the accomplishments this session.

Over the voter ID battle, Dunnam said the Democratic chubbing did not kill hundreds of bills and without it, voter ID would have been able to come up for a vote. Taylor said it was a bad move on the Democrats part and it wasted time that could have been spent on other legislation.

Dunnam also blamed Republicans for chubbing in the last twenty minutes before the deadline in an effort to kill the bill that would have allowed the state to accept the stimulus money for unemployment insurance. Taylor fired back that there would have been plenty of time for a vote had the Democrats not spent 10 minutes debating every local bill.

As far as the repercussions for future elections, Taylor said it is likely Democrats would lose seats over the filibuster and said they gave opponents plenty of fodder for criticism. Dunnam argued that there have been several times Democrats have made major moves to block legislation and they continue to pick up seats every cycle.