For some candidates, the 2012 elections will be decided in court.

In papers filed in federal court today, officials who administer the state's elections said the April 3 primaries — agreed to by the Democratic and Republican parties and ordered by a panel of federal judges — create an impossible situation.

The election experts in the room were a beehive of nonverbal communication. Their reaction was on their faces: “Is this a drill? They’re kidding, right?”

Texas Democrats and Republicans agreed to hold unified primary elections on April 3, avoiding the costs and confusion brought on by litigation over new political maps for congressional and legislative districts.

When is a filing deadline not a filing deadline? When you don't have maps.

If you can't hold congressional and legislative primaries on March 6 — because you don't have maps in time — what happens next?

When will the elections be held? Sometime next year. The dates for the congressional and legislative elections won't be certain until maps have been approved. But candidates are filing, and endorsements haven't stopped.

The warning from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was polite but firm: The U.S. Department of Justice will not stand idly by if it feels Texas intends to halt or reverse gains for minority voting rights.

After 20 years, Scott Hochberg is bailing out of the Texas Legislature. He’ll get back his nights and weekends. But he also won't be at the Capitol to help sort out education policy and financing.

Forget everything. The candidate announcements, the relocations, the decisions not to run again, the who vs. who and the campaign finance. With a Friday night order, the U.S. Supreme Court turned Texas election season into chaos. 

State Rep. Geanie Morrison, R-Victoria, won't seek re-election. The seven-term legislator told her hometown paper, the Victoria Advocate, that the court-drawn redistricting maps made another run difficult.

Redistricting is right where we left it last week — in the U.S. Supreme Court.

In this episode of Weekend Insider, Tribune reporter Julian Aguilar discusses immigration and politics, and executive editor Ross Ramsey discusses talks about candidates looking to voters for a second chance.

Aaronson maps the growth of poverty in Texas, Aguilar on the suicide of an illegal immigrant, Galbraith on the prospect of more rolling blackouts, Grissom on a prosecutor's memory lapse, Hamilton on the prospect of public universities undergoing a sunset review, Murphy's latest awesome redistricting interactive, Ramsey on a stumbling start to the 2012 election season, Root on Rick Perry's latest populist tirade, M. Smith on the boom in for-profit teacher certification programs and Tan on the fight against cervical cancer in ... Africa: The best of our best content from November 28 to December 2, 2011.

The Texas primaries will be held on March 6 next year, with runoffs more than two months later, on May 22. Maybe. If the federal courts decide redistricting maps should be redrawn before the voting starts, some of those primary contests could be moved to May.

Redistricting is, for the moment, in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court, but the election season is underway.

Add the Democratic House member from McAllen to the list of legislators who won't be seeking re-election next year.

Election season in Texas may have officially begun Monday, but with maps in flux, the state appears ready to tap the brakes.