Last September, the Texas Transportation Commission voted to make Phil Wilson the new executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation.

The pick signaled the commissioners' desire to see a shift in the agency’s direction, as past executive directors had often been engineers promoted from within the agency. A 2010 audit from an independent consultant had argued that TxDOT lacked focus and needed to become more nimble to address the state's complicated transportation needs.

Wilson, a former Texas secretary of state, had spent much of his career in politics, working for years as an aide for Republican U ...

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