Politics, like football, is a full-contact sport — and the 2010 election was filled with the kind of brawling you would expect. It also had plenty of bizarre moments of the sort that make the rest of the nation believe Texas really is a different country.
Elise Hu
Elise Hu was a political reporter at the Tribune, focusing on multimedia projects, from 2009 to 2011. She previously worked as the state political reporter for Austin's ABC affiliate, KVUE-TV, from 2006 to 2009. She was recognized by the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters three years in a row for her beat reporting on state politics and was named Best TV Reporter Who Can Write by The Austin Chronicle. Before arriving in Austin, she held reporting positions at television stations in Waco; Greenville, S.C.; and Columbia, Mo. She's an evangelist for social media and multimedia journalism — her Political Junkie blog was listed as one of WashingtonPost.com's top Texas political blogs. A native of Plano, she has a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri.
Posted inState Government
The Weekly TribCast: 2010 in Review
Merry TribCasts! We revisit some of our favorite funny moments and post-election skirmishes in our audio look back at the year that was.
Posted inState Government
Interactive: Committee Chairs
All the schmoozing and strategizing involved in seeking the job of House Speaker is worth it come February, when the leader of the lower chamber gets to choose the chairmen of committees, who have the power to stop, slow or speed legislation through the process. Click the tabs on this interactive table to see what the chairmanships looked like in 2009 and who’s coming back to the House in 2011.
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Demographics
The Weekly TribCast: Episode 60
For our final TribCast taping of 2010, we offer Texas political predictions for 2011.
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Congress
HuTube: Gohmert on “Overt Homosexuality”
U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, speaks out against “don’t ask, don’t tell” with a story about his time in the military — when an “overt homosexual” soldier misread a signal, apparently, and went to the wrong “straight” soldier’s bunk.
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Higher Education
Him Again
State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, wasn’t expected back at the Capitol this session after seeking two high-profile higher education jobs over the summer. But both opportunities fizzled, and now the 70-year-old says he’s “gunned up and ready to go” for his seventh term in the Senate — even if he’ll return with clout resembling that of a freshman. He’s without the aides who knew him best and stripped of the Jurisprudence Committee he used to chair. Still, his insistence on putting his own political views ahead of his party’s could make him a key player at a time when Senate Republicans are a few votes short of a two-thirds majority.
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State Government
HuTube: Olbermann on the Supermajority
The new GOP supermajority in the Texas House made MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight. The host joked that Democrats “are now as relevant as the mythical chupacabra.”
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State Government
The Weekly Tribcast: Episode 59
In this week’s skirmish, Evan, Ross, Elise and Ben talk party switching, what’s left of the speaker’s race and the return of state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio.
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Politics
The Defectors
After announcing they were defecting from the Democratic Party, state Rep. Allan Ritter, R-Nederland, and state Rep. Aaron Peña, R-Edinburg, were welcomed by Texas Republican leaders at a Tuesday afternoon press conference.
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State Government
TWIA Chief: I Cannot Defy Court Order
An ongoing proxy war between tort reformists and trial lawyers spilled into a joint House-Senate hearing Monday, as Texas Windstorm Insurance Association General Manager Jim Oliver told lawmakers he still cannot disclose sought-after attorneys fees details in a multimillion-dollar settlement with Hurricane Ike homeowners.
