OPINION: The Texas Constitution gets picked on every other year

Name five of the 11 amendments to the Texas Constitution up for a vote on Nov. 3. (Early voting has started already.)

Three? Two? One?

You do know that Texas has a constitution, don't you?

Sounds like Jay Leno's interviews with clueless people on the streets of Los Angeles. It would not be a surprise to hear one of those bubbleheads say that Bill Clinton wrote the Declaration of Independence.

Texas voters aren't clueless, but neither do they usually turn out in large numbers to vote in constitutional-amendment elections. Only a little more than 1 million voters, out of more than 12.5 million registered in the state, cast ballots in the November 2007 election.

Of course, the reason that these elections don't really grab a huge following is that amendments to the Texas Constitution are about as commonplace as cold weather in November. Except more people talk about the weather.

The state's foundational document has been amended 456 times since it was adopted in 1876. Other amendments have been proposed but rejected by voters. Hundreds more have been proposed in the Legislature but never made it to a ballot.

The U.S. Constitution, drafted in fewer than 100 working days in 1787 and ratified in 1788, has been amended only 27 times.

Amendments to the U.S. Constitution are a really big deal. CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and the other TV networks would be all over the story for months, even years. Amendments to the Texas Constitution -- not so big.

For that, blame the Texas Legislature. Many of its members can't live within the confines of the state constitution.

Every other year, they come up with things they want to do that are, under the current state document, unconstitutional. Rather than reconsider, they ask voters to change the rules.

There have been suggestions, some of them quite serious and some that even gathered steam, to call a constitutional convention and just rewrite it all from scratch.

Not a good idea, say the sharpies in Austin.

There's no telling where such an effort would end up, and that scares people who now have power. They like the way state government works now, under the rules they've crafted over the years.

After a constitutional convention, we could end up with regulatory bodies that are more accountable to the people they are supposed to serve and aren't controlled by the industries they are supposed to regulate -- an insurance commission that's not steered by insurance companies, or a transportation commission not guided by road builders, or an alcoholic-beverage commission that's not run by beer and liquor distributors. Car dealers could lose their clout; teachers might be stripped of their power to force pay raises.

The governor might end up with less power and the Legislature more -- or the other way around.

We could have a House that's not chained to the speaker's priorities or where members of a minority party have some real role in determining which bills get passed.

There could be provisions that humble even senators.

A new constitution might allocate more power to cities, where there are far more people, than to rural areas where there aren't.

It could change the way the state gains money and how it spends it to meet Texans' needs.

It could constrain lawmakers and power brokers in Austin in ways they simply don't want to be constrained.

Don't worry. It won't happen. We'll keep doing it their way, and many Texans won't pay much attention.

They're counting on it.

To read the Star-Telegram'seditorials on the constitutional-amendment proposals, go to star-telegram.com and click on "opinions," then on "Nov. 3 vote recommendations."

Mike Norman is editorial director of the Star-Telegram/ Arlington and Northeast Tarrant County. 817-390-7830