After her first legislative session, Gov. Ann Richards was on top of the political world, Jan Reid writes in Let the People In: The Life and Times of Ann Richards. This excerpt looks at her political aides measuring her strength and preparing for her next moves.

Gov. Ann Richards surrendered much of her freedom after taking office, Jan Reid writes in Let the People In: The Life and Times of Ann Richards. This excerpt looks at her busy schedule and her difficult working relationship with Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock.

U.S. Rep. Mike McCaul's decision not to run for the U.S. Senate means he won't be testing one of the truisms of Texas politics: A seat in the Texas congressional delegation is a lousy launching pad for statewide office.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America President Cecile Richards, a native Texan and daughter of former Gov. Ann Richards, visited the Capitol on Wednesday to defend funding for womens' health services. 

Are families out of bounds in politics? A newspaper columnist's recent unflattering piece on Anita Perry has what passes for a Royal Court at the Capitol debating that question.

Most people know that Gov. Rick Perry, inaugurated to a third term Tuesday, has served longer than any other chief executive in Texas history. What's remarkable, though, is just how much longer than the state's previous governors — even those who've served during the modern era.

There are lily pads and launch pads in Texas government, and the Railroad Commission is a launch pad. Being a railroad commissioner is less an end than a means — a way to propel yourself into a better, higher-profile and more powerful job. Which is why a serious reform effort is afoot.

It's an impulse most of us learn to suppress in the seventh grade — the need give your enemies wedgies, to tape "kick me" signs to their backs, to put lizards in their lunchboxes. Political people don't suppress it — they channel it into goofy stunts to attract attention, ridicule opponents and blow off steam.

"You have to do a few things when you run for office in Texas," says one of Rick Perry's allies. "You have to debate. You have to release your tax returns. And you have to say you won't raise taxes." Bill White will surely debate the governor before November's general election, but at the moment he hasn't done the other two. The former probably won't sink him, but the latter could — by declining to drink the no-new-taxes potion, he's handing his opponent a weapon to use against him. Unless, of course, he's successful at changing the way the argument goes.

Farouk Mohammed Shami, who's running for governor as a Democrat, has a strong Middle Eastern accent and a strange name. Some of his fellow Democrats are loathe to talk about it. He's not worried. "If a president can be named Barack Hussein Obama, a governor can be named Farouk Shami," he said. "If a president can be black, a governor can be brown."

Let's say, thanks to Debra Medina, neither Rick Perry nor Kay Bailey Hutchison cracks 50 percent in the Republican gubernatorial primary. What exactly happens next? When? And which of the two top finishers will have the edge?

Ask a Republican who’s not on Gov. Rick Perry or Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s payroll about the 2010 governor’s primary, and you’ll get a response about a well-timed trip to Palm Springs in early March, when the two candidates square off. Party faithful want to stay above the fray: Primary challenges to longstanding incumbents tend to get rough quick.