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  • The Great White Hope

    By Ross Ramsey

    Bill White, the Democratic nominee for governor, was a popular mayor of Houston who was twice returned to office by wide margins. So having him at the top of the ballot this November should help Houston-area Democrats win their races, right? "I can't think that it would do anything but help," says Democratic state Rep. Kristi Thibaut, who's in a tough contest for re-election against former Republican lawmaker Jim Murphy. But Harris County GOP Judge Ed Emmett insists White will have little impact on his own bid for re-election — and won't matter in legislative races either. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman/Bob Daemmrich

  • The Hunted

    By Reeve Hamilton

    Republicans looking to grow their majority in the Texas House have set their sights on rural districts held by "WD-40s" — white Democrats over the age of 40, who hope their personal reputations will trump political considerations in what's shaping up to be a GOP year. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Driving While Impaired?

    By Matt Largey, KUT News

    Some law enforcement officials — including Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo — are pushing to criminalize driving with a blood alcohol level lower than 0.08. Matt Largey of KUT News reports that state lawmakers could consider making "Driving While Ability Impaired" a crime to help local police departments get a handle on drunk driving in Texas. Full Story 

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  • 2010: Perry Provided "Political Schedule" By Mistake

    By Elise Hu

    Texans weren't supposed to see Gov. Rick Perry's Sept. 15 schedule after all. The governor's office says it mistakenly released the governor's "political schedule" — as opposed to his schedule of official state business — to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White's campaign. Full Story 

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    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • On the Records: What's In the Words

    By Becca Aaronson

    Since you probably don’t have time to look through 70-some campaign ad transcripts, we converted them into word clouds to help visualize the rhetoric of each political party. The word clouds compare the 100 most-used words by Republicans to the 100 most-used words by Democrats. The font size of each word is relative to its frequency of use. Full Story 

    Word cloud of Republican ads from Ads Infinitum blog.
    Credit: Wordle.net

  • Not-So-Spare Schedule

    By Elise Hu

    Gov. Rick Perry apparently keeps a more detailed schedule than what his office has previously released to the public. In what might have been a mistake, a more detailed version came out in response to an open records request from Democrat Bill White’s campaign. Full Story 

  • Interactive: Ads Infinitum

    By Becca Aaronson and Matt Stiles

    Since The Texas Tribune launched in November 2009, the Ads Infinitum blog has collected and posted political advertisements — more than 70 in all — from candidates in both parties running for various offices during the primary and general election campaigns. We recently went back and collected data on all the ads we've posted and created a treemap data visualization so readers could sort them across categories. Transcripts of the ads and the videos themselves are also available via an interactive table. View the treemap and a video tutorial on how to use it. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Show Us the Money

    By Ross Ramsey and Matt Stiles

    With a month to go before Election Day, challengers in fifteen House races outraised incumbents during the most recent reporting period, according to the most recent filings with the Texas Ethics Commission. In eight of those races, the challengers led in combined spending and saving, a rough measure of each campaign's financial strength. Full Story 

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    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • Clay Boatright: The TT Interview

    By Emily Ramshaw

    The new president of the Arc of Texas on why the disability community’s rallying cry to close state-supported living centers has become trite and ineffective, why the movement's messaging should be upgraded (employing everything from the iPad to the Bible) and why businesses and faith-based groups should be mobilized to fill the gaping holes in government services. Full Story 

    Clay Boatright, the new president of the Arc of Texas
    Credit: Emily Ramshaw

  • The Weekly TribCast: Episode 49

    By Elise Hu

    In this week's skirmish, topics include campaign cash, the latest polls in the governor's race, the hotbed of Texas House activity in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and the consequences of the budget crisis. Full Story 

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