After Houston mayor Bill White joined the race for governor late last week, one of his first stops was Austin, a Democratic stronghold that made for a nice, safe place to start his campaign.

It's time to harvest the political speculations of the last several months: Democrats and Republicans have until January 4 to put their names on the ballots, or not, in anticipation of the March 2 primaries.

Your afternoon reading.

The season for speculating is drawing to an end.  Politicians, it’s time to stake your claim.

Education has emerged as one of the more contentious fronts in the gubernatorial campaign, with Kay Bailey Hutchison this week releasing a barrage of school proposals and attacks on the status quo. But the differences between the candidates have more to do with execution than with design.

Democrats are still talking about who'll fill out their statewide ticket, and it doesn't look like they'll know by the end of the week. Republicans might not see everyone's filing this week, but expect all of their non-judicial statewide incumbents to file for reelection.

With the Thanksgiving behind us, it’s time to put noses back to the grindstone — unless you are state Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown.

The final amendment in the Bill of Rights provides state leaders their best avenue around federal policies they don't agree with. That is, if the Tenth Amendment actually means something.

This holiday weekend, Democrats up and down the ballot are giving thanks for the prospect of a Bill White gubernatorial candidacy.

Texas will not adopt national school curriculum standards, risking its ability to get a $700 million federal grant.

In which I forgive the mayor of Houston for B.S.ing me last Friday.

Tom Schieffer's out, and for the sake of this piece, let's say Bill White is running for the Democratic nomination for governor. How's that work out for everybody?

Houston Mayor Bill White hasn't even announced yet that he's running for governor. But state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, is endorsing him.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said she wanted to keep fighting the “government takeover of healthcare” — and now she’ll get her chance.

He can "can blow bubbles with beef jerky"?

Multi-part stories from Ramshaw and Grissom and Stiles on mental health services for detained immigrants and on payday lenders who provide exorbitantly priced credit to people with nowhere else to turn... Twitter, word clouds and the race for governor — a Stiles joint... Farouk Shami is in and Hu was there to watch... Philpott went to Bastrop for a gather of Republican governors... Rapoport finds a State Board of Education that's trying to control itself... and we have the skinny on legislative races that are likely to be competitive (only about 5 percent of the races on the ballot). It's the best of The Texas Tribune from November 14 to 20, 2009.

Ready to welcome U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Gov. Rick Perry into your living room?

Republicans Kay Bailey Hutchison and Rick Perry have started their air war, and Democrat Farouk Shami — new to the race — starts on TV at the same time.