Lobbying is the practice of direct communication with legislative or executive branch officials to influence their decisions about public policy. In Texas, where lawmakers work part time, lobbyists play a significant role in influencing legislation and shaping administrative action.
Many businesses and other groups pay lobbyists to represent their interests before the Texas Legislature and state agencies. A lobbyist generally ...
Now what? This week, we asked the insiders what Gov. Rick Perry's reentry into state politics will be like (and, it should be noted, collected these answers before the governor dropped out of the presidential race on Thursday morning).
Full StoryBehind every politician there are men and women working in the wings, who can make calls, fix problems, raise money, punish enemies. In Rick Perry’s world, one man stands above them all: Mike Toomey.
Full StoryRoot profiles conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan, Aaronson on the Senate's flare-up over an airport groping ban, Grissom on some twisted logic in the state's same-sex marriage laws, Murphy and Macrander expand and refresh our public employee salary database, yours truly with the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll results on politics, issues, the state's finances, and race, Ramshaw's report on how some of the governor's former aides now represent clients who want more money in the state budget, M. Smith on last-minute efforts to save education legislation that didn't make it through the process, Tan reports on efforts to finish the state budget before the session ends on Monday, and Dehn with the video week in review: The best of our best from May 9 to 13, 2011.
Full StoryGrissom on threats to re-entry programs for criminals, Hamilton on the tempest over the direction of UT, E. Smith's interview with Joe Straus, Stiles and Chang's new lobbying app, M. Smith and Weber on where state officeholders send their children to school, Aaronson on allowing new nuclear power plants, Aguilar on how Hispanic Republicans are handling immigration issues, Ramshaw talks abortion with Planned Parennthood's Cecile Richards, Tan and Dehn on tapping the Rainy Day Fund and Galbraith on San Antonio and its water: The best of our best content from March 14 to 18, 2011.
Full StoryLobbyists spent more than $1.2 million in the first two months of 2011 trying to influence lawmakers and state officials, according to the latest ethics filings, which are now accessible in our new lobbying data application.
Full StoryBrewpubs want to be able to sell their distinctive beers in stores, restaurants and other bars and are fighting for the right to expand. The major beer distributors like things the way they are.
Full StoryLobbyists are required by law to notify their clients if they represent two or more groups with clashing agendas. They are also required to notify the Texas Ethics Commission. Scores of lobbyists have done so in recent legislative sessions. What is not required is for the public or elected representatives to be informed.
Full StoryThe founder and chairman of Public Strategies Inc. — set to be honored today an Austin luncheon — on why the Republicans beat the Democrats so badly on Election Day, whether Texas is philosophically the same state it was 30 years ago, how things have changed for business interests dealing with the government and whether the "little guy" has a voice in our political system.
Full StoryAustin-based Public Strategies is merging with Hill & Knowlton, a venerable New York-based public relations firm. Jack Martin, PSI's founder and chairman, will be the global executive chairman of the new firm.
Full StoryOver the last five years, cities and counties in Texas have shelled out $17 million more to hire lobbyists in Washington, D.C., according to disclosure forms analyzed by the Tribune. “Just like anyone else in the nation, we pay federal taxes, and we expect a return on those dollars,” says Larry Gilley, the city manager of Abilene, which paid $320,000 to lobbyists between January 2006 and October 2010.
Full StoryA brief meeting in a judge’s chambers Wednesday cut short a brewing turf war between HillCo Partners and two former lobbyists it had sued after they quit and took a stable of clients with them.
Full StoryHillCo Partners dropped its lawsuit against Brandon Aghamalian and Snapper Carr this afternoon — the surprise result of a hearing scheduled today to address HillCo's request for a temporary restraining order.
Full StoryThe defendants in the HillCo lawsuit filed their answer in court today, denying all charges against them and calling them "meritless."
HillCo's lawsuit against two of its departing partners is threatening business as usual in the insular world of the Texas lobby, raising the specter of open combat in an industry that prefers to settle its fights behind closed doors. But as its allegations make plain, HillCo believes that two rogue employees are the ones who crossed the line, turning competition for clients into espionage and biting down hard on the hand that fed them.
Full StoryRamshaw and the Houston Chronicle's Terri Langford on incidents of abuse and mistreatment at residential treatment centers, M. Smith on the state Republican Party platform and 10th Amendment embracers, Galbraith on a pipeline project raising crude concerns and the most important word in water law, Ramsey on former officeholders who are now lobbyists and the possibility of a speaker's race, Grissom on a fight over solar power in Marfa, Hamilton and Aguilar on the TxDOT audit, Philpott on budget cuts affecting school districts and my conversation with Dallas County D.A. Craig Watkins: The best of our best from June 7-11, 2010.
Full StoryHow many former state officeholders are registered to lobby in Austin? The answer: 65, or a little less than 5 percent of the 1,475 lobbyists on the rolls at the Texas Ethics Commission, according to a Texas Tribune analysis.
Full StoryOn May 8, voters in Senate District 22 will choose one of these candidates as Kip Averitt's successor: a veteran lawmaker-turned-lobbyist in a bad year for that kind of hyphenate, a 9/11 Pentagon survivor with residency questions dangling over his campaign, a Tea-steeped nullification fan and ... a Democrat.
Full StoryLobbyists and lawmakers are fighting to preserve the terms of the contracts signed by parents who enrolled in the Texas Tomorrow Fund prepaid college tuition plan.
Full StoryMembers of the UT-Austin University Democrats said goodbye to a Spring Break filled with fun in the sun... and hello to the vacant stares of congressional staffers today.
Full StoryA lawmaker who has fought to regulate "stun guns" last year got a TASER from the company's lobbyist.
Full StoryKay Bailey Hutchison says Texas government should be more transparent. Rick Perry says it already is. Let the sniping begin.
Full StoryIn politics, friendship apparently lasts through only one political cycle. Just ask Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Many organizations that previously supported both her and Gov. Rick Perry have put their weight behind Perry's re-election bid instead of her challenge. The Texas Farm Bureau sits as the sole trade group cheerleading for the Hutchison campaign — while Perry counts 50 organizations and associations supporting him.
Full StoryA rundown of the data we've published so far — and a look ahead.
Full StoryFour Texas teachers groups offer similar benefits and want the same basic things. So what’s the fuss about?
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Since 2005, Texas lobbyists have spent more than $500,000 on transportation and lodging for state officials, including members of the Lege.
Full StorySearch the privately funded trips taken by Texas congressmen and their staffs during the last two years.
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