A purple peace: with partisanship at toxic levels, the Texas freshman caucus thought it was time to try something new to encourage more civil discourse.

• Author: Cullen, Morgan
• Position: LEGISLATURES

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Conservative red and liberal blue were overshadowed by bipartisan purple this year--at least in Texas, on Thursdays, during session.

After a contentious, partisan session two years ago, freshman lawmaker decided to bring in the color guard. He thought a visual, purple prompt would be a good reminder to legislators that, despite their political and philosophical differences, they were all working toward the same goal--to improve Texas.

What happened in 2011 to cause such a colorful response? At the beginning of the biennial session, Texas lawmakers were confronted with a deluge of controversial bills even though parliamentary rules in the state prohibit lawmakers from debating anything but emergency bills (as defined by the governor) during the first 60 days of session.

In 2011, Governor Rick Perry requested early action on setting voter ID requirements, banning sanctuary cities and requiring sonograms for women getting abortions--issues that immediately pitted Democrats and Republicans against one another, and created a bitter partisan tone that remained throughout the entire session.

The mudslinging between the two camps became so bad that several lawmakers decided to leave office or were voted out by a frustrated electorate. What resulted was one of the largest freshman delegations in the state's history--4l new House members out of a total of 150 (48 Democrats and 102 Republicans) with a shared priority--to restore civility between the two parties.

Determined to Be Different

Representative Jason Villalba (R) decided what was needed was a way to get to know each other as friends rather than combatants. So he created a freshman caucus that would meet once a week to get to know each other on a personal level. "We tried to schedule an event that provided some training to freshman members as well as an opportunity for them to interact outside of the formal milieu of the House chamber or our committee rooms," Villalba says.

At the group's first gathering, a bipartisan breakfast, Representative Ron Simmons (R) suggested the purple plan to show not only solidarity as a class, but also their commitment to maintaining civility. "I thought this would be a fun way to show our friendship as a freshman class," says Simmons. "But more important, to show that we can come from different backgrounds and different philosophies and still be united with one common goal in mind--to serve Texas."

The idea spread like wildfire. Nearly the...