The Three-Party System
The House debate on the budget flushed out a new coalition in a Legislature split between traditional and populist Republicans, and Democrats. The losers? The populist Republicans, many of them freshmen. Full Story
Ross Ramsey co-founded The Texas Tribune in 2009 and served as its executive editor until his retirement in 2022. He wrote regular columns on politics, government and public policy. Before joining the Tribune, he was editor and co-owner of Texas Weekly. He did a 28-month stint in government with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Before that, he reported for the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Times Herald, as a Dallas-based freelancer for regional and national magazines and newspapers, and for radio stations in Denton and Dallas.
The House debate on the budget flushed out a new coalition in a Legislature split between traditional and populist Republicans, and Democrats. The losers? The populist Republicans, many of them freshmen. Full Story
For this week's nonscientific survey of insiders in government and politics, we asked about standardized tests in schools, about graduation requirements and about whether the tests should be given in private schools that get state money. Full Story
Voters want better roads. Lawmakers want happy voters. Roads require taxes, tolls, debt or some combination of the three, which is why conservative officeholders are using those three dirty words. Full Story
Batheja on a House budget without vouchers or Medicaid expansion, Aguilar on obstacles to a new power plant in El Paso, Permenter on deer breeder regulations, E. Smith’s interview with San Antonio’s Castro twins, Galbraith on proposals for new underground water reservoirs, Root finds holes in a UT regent's appointment files, M. Smith on a planned school rating system that defied recommendations, Murphy maps oil and gas disposal wells in Texas, Dehn on objections to a bigger Medicaid program and Hamilton on efforts to lure gun makers to Texas: The best of our best for the week of April 1-5, 2013. Full Story
In 2011, state lawmakers fresh from a Tea Party election surge were hypersensitive to the opinions of and instructions from conservative activists. But as Thursday's House budget debate showed, this session isn't quite the same. Full Story
If the state government's resistance to expanding Medicaid sounds familiar, it's because something like this happened when George W. Bush was governor, and conservatives were wary of the Children's Health Insurance Program. Full Story
For this week's nonscientific survey of insiders in politics and government, we asked about the public fussing between the University of Texas System regents, the governor and the administration at UT-Austin. Full Story
With eight weeks to go in the legislative session, lawmakers got a running start at their big issues: water, education and the budget. Full Story
The undercurrents of the bickering between Gov. Rick Perry's administration and UT-Austin President Bill Powers offer a gold mine for the conspiratorial set, with fuel for every obsession: politics, deep school rivalries, policy and governance. Full Story
Gov. Rick Perry torments Democrats and disparages trial lawyers, but he likes Aggies. Even if they're Democratic trial lawyers. Full Story