The Tea Party is a conservative movement made up of loosely affiliated groups unified around the central principles of limited government and fiscal responsibility. While most of the various groups that compose the movement agree on the Tea Party principles — limited government, fiscal responsibility, personal responsibility, the rule of law and national sovereignty — they often disagree on individual tenets ...
When the Legislature decamped from Austin in July, there was a sense of order in Texas politics. And yet, as Rick Perry returns a mere seven months later, conditions on the ground in Texas border on the chaotic.
Full StoryThe underlying fundamentals that buttressed Gov. Rick Perry's political power in the state are not much changed, and they suggest that the governor will reassert his powerful presence in Texas politics now that he is back.
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It’s been a long 12 months for Rick Perry. The governor started 2011 in triumph, at the peak of his political power, with a high gloss on his boots and a national audience of conservatives eager for just the tale he was telling. He ends it treading water.
Full StoryTexans who gave big money to Kay Bailey Hutchison to try to unseat Rick Perry for governor in 2010 haven’t gelled around a single candidate in the presidential race. In fact, the majority of them seem to still be sitting on the sidelines.
Full StoryFor this week's version of our nonscientific survey of political and government insiders in Texas, we asked about Rick Perry's chances — before and after "Oops."
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Rick Perry's "oops" moment was costly in our survey of political and government insiders, and we also took soundings on third-party candidates, court-drawn political maps, and the strength of the Tea Party.
It’s not enough to say Washington has gone too far with job-killing regulations and reckless spending. Rick Perry now wants to destroy the nation’s capital as we know it.
Full StoryMembers of the Tea Party Caucus of Texas said at a press conference today that they are "fed up" with Gov. Rick Perry for not taking action to ban sanctuary cities, a measure he declared an emergency item during the legislative session this year.
Members of the Tea Party Caucus of Texas said at a press conference today that they are "fed up" with Gov. Rick Perry for not taking action to ban sanctuary cities, a measure he declared an emergency item during the legislative session this year.
Full StoryNobody is required to pay attention to you just because you’re running for office. Not the news media, not the money people and not the voters. But where is the line on who’s in and who’s out?
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The Justice Department didn't find fault (put an asterisk here) with the Senate and State Board of Education redistricting maps from Texas, but told a federal court in Washington, DC, that it thinks the maps for the congressional delegation and for the Texas House go backwards in minority representation.
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Tea Party activists staged a news conference Monday urging Gov. Rick Perry to take more stringent action against illegal immigration. They want the governor to enact a ban on so-called “sanctuary cities.”
Full StoryIt hurts to be the front-runner in the GOP presidential race. Just ask Gov. Rick Perry. Watch highlights from the CNN/Tea Party Express debate Monday night in Tampa, Fla.
Full StoryThe freshman Republican state representative on what he liked about the legislative session, what's wrong with the process, the press, politics and why he'd be coming back for more if a local job hadn't opened up.
Full StoryGov. Rick Perry on Monday found himself under attack from an unfamiliar place — the right — in the latest GOP debate as his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination attacked him for being insufficiently conservative on key issues.
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Speaking at the 112th Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in San Antonio, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney took aim at "career politicians" for putting the country in bad shape. It was a thinly veiled swipe at Gov. Rick Perry.
Speaking at the 112th Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in San Antonio, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney took aim at "career politicians" for putting the country in bad shape. It was a thinly veiled swipe at Gov. Rick Perry.
Full StoryGov. Rick Perry has at times been inconsistent in applying his states' rights beliefs, raising questions even among Republicans about whether his stance is as much campaign positioning as a philosophical commitment.
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News analysts described Gov. Rick Perry as the Tea Party darling when he announced his bid for the presidency. But at a recent Tea Party gathering in Waco, that status seemed tenuous.
Full StoryThe state senator from McAllen sat down with the Tribune to talk border security, how Democrats move forward after voter ID and what he thinks the upper chamber will look like in 2013.
Full StoryFive of the declared Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison met in Waco on Saturday night for a wide-ranging forum notable for the absence of the frontrunner, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.
Full StoryThe state comptroller talks about the flip in her position on abortion, the data breach at her agency this spring, what office she might seek next and how all of the politics of those subjects mix.
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Two new political outfits, based in Austin and started by a former legislator who served with and worked for Gov. Rick Perry, will try to rally veterans to the governor's presidential race in Iowa and South Carolina.
Full StoryIt's not that Tea Party self-identifiers have different positions on immigration than regular old Republicans. They just feel more strongly about it.
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Gov. Rick Perry, taking flak from social conservatives, took a step back from his laissez-faire approach to New York’s gay marriage law on Thursday. Now he says it threatens the definition of marriage everywhere, including Texas.
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Gov. Rick Perry’s name won’t appear on the key Iowa Straw Poll ballot, but he’ll face a test of his strength among Western conservatives this weekend in Denver in a straw poll of declared and undeclared Republican candidates.
Full StoryThe U.S. representative on his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, candidates who have adopted some of his ideas and a potential candidate he's never met.
Full StoryThe contentious sanctuary cities legislation debate left a bitter aftertaste for some Texas Latinos, but will it translate into change at the ballot box next year?
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For the latest installment of our unscientific survey of political and policy insiders, we asked what state issues will get national play if Gov. Rick Perry runs for president, how his record will be used for and against him and whether all the attention might affect races here.
Full StoryRon Paul has been a national figure for so long that it’s easy to forget he’s one of ours. You know. Texan.
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