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Sunday, March 14, 2010

Matt Stiles Reporter

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Matt Stiles writes about government and politics with a focus on computer-assisted reporting. Previously, he was a government reporter at the Houston Chronicle. While there, he won the newspaper's Jesse Award for service journalism and beat reporting and was its reporter of the year in 2007. Before joining the Chronicle's staff, Stiles worked as a reporter for nearly four years at The Dallas Morning News. A native of Tallahassee, Florida, he has a degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Arlington.

mstiles@texastribune.org
512-436-0312

Recent Contributions

Data App: Homeland $ecurity

by Matt Stiles  |  3/9/2010

Loving County, in far West Texas, spent about $1,100 per resident in U.S. Department of Homeland Security grant funds from 2003 to 2008. Compare that with Harris County, which spent less than $6 per resident. Contemplate the disparity — and search for individual purchases with DHS grant money — using our latest data application.

Data App: How Much Votes Cost

by Matt Stiles  |  3/5/2010

Was Farouk Shami, in fact, "on fire"? The Democratic gubernatorial candidate burned through campaign cash, spending $135 for every vote he received in Tuesday's primary on the way to getting trounced by Bill White — more than any other candidate on the ballot, and by far the most of any losing candidate. By contrast, Democratic land commissioner hopeful Bill Burton spent only 2 cents per vote in a narrow loss to Hector Uribe, who spent only 7 cents per vote himself. All told, candidates spent, on average, about $14 per vote. Explore each campaign's bang for the buck in our latest data application.

Rick Perry Victory Speech

by Matt Stiles  |  3/2/2010

Gov. Rick Perry told supporters that "conservatism has never been stronger than it is today, and we're taking our country back."

KBH Concession Speech

by Matt Stiles  |  3/2/2010

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison told supporters "we have fought valiantly for our principles, but we did not win."

Bill White Victory Speech

by Matt Stiles  |  3/2/2010

Former Houston Mayor Bill White speaking to supporters after his primary election victory.

Congratulations!

by Abby Rapoport and Matt Stiles  |  3/2/2010

Even though most of the focus for the last couple of months has been on the outcome of contested primaries, nearly half of the next Legislature has already been chosen.

Judgment Day

by Ross Ramsey, Matt Stiles and Ben Philpott  |  3/2/2010  |  2

Will gubernatorial contests that have already cost more than $51 million last another six weeks? Will there be runoffs in judicial, legislative, or other down-ballot races? Will Texas voters go for the smart ones, the rich ones, the kooks, the old pros, the kids, or the insurgents? We'll soon know the answers to these and other pressing primary questions.

In Closing: Bill White

by Matt Stiles  |  3/1/2010

"My job is to communicate to as many people as I can about where I'd like to go in the future of this state," he said in Austin last week, "and to hope that people want a better future for this state and are willing to support somebody who will work for the people."

In Closing: The Big Five

by Brandi Grissom, Reeve Hamilton, Emily Ramshaw, Abby Rapoport and Matt Stiles  |  3/1/2010

Whether or not the outcome of tomorrow's gubernatorial primary is conclusive — whether or not we have a runoff six weeks hence — we can say this with certainty: One of the five main candidates on the ballot will be the next governor of Texas. And this: 40 hours from now, we'll know much more about the state's coming political landscape than we do today. While we bide our time and wait for results, we present these final snapshots of the campaigns as they wound down.

Data App: Day Care Danger

by Matt Stiles  |  2/19/2010

More than 120 federally subsidized day care centers had their licenses denied or revoked by the state for violations of regulations and minimum standards in the last two years. Map their locations and drill down into the records by the provider name or action taken by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

A Better App: Public Employee Pay

by Matt Stiles and Niran Babalola  |  2/15/2010

Find the salaries of more than 340,000 public employees with our enhanced data application, including those working at the largest state agencies as well as individual public schools, cities and mass-transit operators. And universities: Did you know, for instance, that of the 10 highest-paid professors at the state's two largest universities, nine are Aggies?

The Capital Gang

by Ross Ramsey and Matt Stiles  |  2/5/2010

The six Texas congressional candidates who ended the year with $1 million or more on hand are incumbents. Only two of the candidates with the 20 biggest bank accounts are not.

Twenty Who Gave Plenty

by Matt Stiles  |  1/26/2010  |  1

Houston homebuilder Bob Perry tops the list of the biggest donors to Texas candidates in the last half of 2009. McAllen developer Alonzo Cantu and Dallas businessman Ross Perot Sr. also gave large sums.

Mapping the Money Race

by Matt Stiles  |  1/20/2010  |  2

To better understand the geography of the money race, we mapped the candidates' contributions by city, using graduated symbols to highlight their most lucrative areas. The bubbles in the maps get larger based on the percentage of a candidates' total take. 

Who's Funding the Governor's Race?

by Matt Stiles  |  1/19/2010

To find the most-common occupations among the thousands of people who've donated to the major candidates in the last year, we created word clouds, a visualization technique that boosts the size of words depending on their frequency.