I think a lot of it is information overload coming from dark money keeping too much dumb shit flowing.
Take Texas right now, instead of worrying about the power grid, or expanding medicaid (which is a monetary win for all) sensible gun control, and education and infrastructure, we are worried about a) non existent voter fraud and b) immigration.
The fallout from 20+ years of republican governance is coming home to roost, and they trot out the same old trope that Trump did...and everybody gets up in arms. The media is all over these two topics, and the rest is floating away and won't be addressed meaningfully this session.
So yeah, when the media and all are busy chasing down these "big" stories that Cruz and Abbott, et al, keep tossing out, it's pretty easy for these lowlife grifters to get by with their plays, because no one is paying attention. It's not that they don't care, but they are all worried too much about fixing the horrible things the 'ebil libs' have screwed up, too busy keeping communism at bay to deal with little petty things like county officials running multiple scams and sex trafficking out of their offices.