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• Keep Your Peepers on that Back Burner

  By Ross Ramsey Nov. 3, 2003

  The prospect of a special legislative session in an election year is making some Texas lawmakers nervous, especially because the subject — school finance — is a hazardous political substance. On the surface, special committees and other experts are studying complete revisions of the state's current school finance mechanism, involving everything from studies on how much it takes to educate an average student to a particular level, to a diagnosis of what's wrong with the current tax system, to whatever else can be attached to the school finance question. A full remodeling would require some new state taxes to replace the local property taxes causing much of the outcry. And a growing number of school districts are signing onto the latest legal challenge to the Texas school system, which could go to court next summer if lawmakers haven't applied enough patches by then. Full Story 

• Two Parties in One

  By Ross Ramsey Oct. 27, 2003

  The political trunk sale that follows every round of redistricting is underway in earnest, with candidates checking out the new goods and signing up for the stuff they want. Full Story 

• Outside Help

  By Ross Ramsey Oct. 13, 2003

  With Gov. Rick Perry out of the state and U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on the scene to bridge the gap between lawmakers on either end of the Texas Capitol, Republicans finally ended their 10-month quest for a congressional redistricting map that's kinder to their candidates. Full Story 

• Time for a Good Smack

  By Ross Ramsey Oct. 6, 2003

  Legislative negotiations are usually scripted like madcap romance movies: Boy meets Girl, Girl ditches Boy, Boy and Girl smooch and ride off into the future. Before the closing lip-lock, there's always a big fight that looks like viewers will go home unhappy with popcorn stuck in their molars. If it's from Hollywood, though, you always get your kiss. Full Story 

• Acme, Inc.

  By Ross Ramsey Sept. 29, 2003

  News accounts a couple of years ago detailed the death of a man who hooked a rocket engine to a motorbike in an attempt to jump it over a canyon. The takeoff went as planned, but the rocket-powered bike aimed too low and smashed in to the opposite wall of the canyon. If he'd made it across the canyon, he'd have been a star. Instead, the rider got a posthumous "Darwin Award," given to people involved in accidents that defy common sense. Full Story 

• Elephants in the Room

  By Ross Ramsey Sept. 22, 2003

  Before the inevitable court battles over redistricting, the Republicans in the Legislature have to draw maps, get them passed and get the governor's signature. And the game for the next week is relatively simple to explain. The House passed the same plan it passed in the first and second special sessions. It creates a new seat dominated by Midland County, home of House Speaker Tom Craddick, and pairs (among others) U.S. Reps. Charles Stenholm, D-Abilene, and Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock. Some of the political folk in Lubbock don't like that plan, because it would cost them either a Republican congressman or the ranking Democrat on the U.S. House's agriculture panel. Both are important. Full Story 

• Not a Fat Soprano in Sight

  By Ross Ramsey Sept. 15, 2003

  The third special session this year — in fact, the third special session in more than a decade — starts at midmonth, and nobody has a clear idea what will happen. The Democrats are back in Texas, but say they have new tricks in their bag. The Republicans have the legislative quorum they seek, but have no agreement on a congressional redistricting plan. And the courts aren't done with the wreckage of what was, just a year ago, still a bipartisan government. Full Story 

• Boogie Boogies

  By Ross Ramsey Sept. 8, 2003

  Sen. John Whitmire, who's been in the Senate longer than anyone else and in the Legislature longer than all but four others, returned to Houston after 37 days in the Land of Enchantment, providing relief to Republicans and anguish to Democrats. Full Story 

• Numbers and Letters, Sticks and Stones

  By Ross Ramsey Sept. 1, 2003

  Statewide offices are full of ambitious people, and governors of Texas have been historically besieged by people who want their jobs, or their power. Bob Bullock, first as comptroller and then as lieutenant governor, was a special pain in the necks of Gov. Mark White and then Gov. Ann Richards. For Gov. Bill Clements, the bad news regularly arrived from the offices of then-Attorney General Jim Mattox. And for Rick Perry, it would appear that the thorn bush is rooted at the Lyndon B. Johnson State Office Building, headquarters of Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Carole Keeton Strayhorn. Full Story 

• Sine Die, and Then What?

  By Ross Ramsey Aug. 25, 2003

  This special session of the Legislature never officially convened on the East end of the Capitol, and if the Democrats came back this minute, there wouldn't be time to pass a congressional redistricting plan. The Senate never got a quorum, and could never send bills to committee, much less hear them, amend them, pass them, and all that jazz. Full Story