Rep. Kirk England of Grand Prairie is switching parties, saying he’ll seek reelection as a Democrat. There hasn’t been a party switch in the Texas Legislature in a decade, and it’s been a long, long time since a legislator left the Republicans for the Democrats and survived the switch.
England’s New Flag
Posted inState Government
A Herd of Headless Chickens
Maybe nobody will remember this in six months, but the people who want Texans to approve $3 billion in cancer bonds are having a hard time keeping their act together.
Posted inState Government
Sweet Sixteen
The political air is different in sixteen legislative districts: Republicans win statewide races, but Democrats dominate in legislative contests.
Posted inState Government
Campaign Maps, By the Numbers
Redistricting, with just a few exceptions, still has a strong hold on the makeup of the state Senate and the Texas congressional delegation. But several House members continue to confound the mapmakers, winning in districts where, on paper, they shouldn’t.
Posted inState Government
Green Pastures
We pulled the numbers from campaign reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission and the Federal Election Commission and ranked officeholders and candidates by how much they had in their accounts at mid-year.
Posted inState Government
An Expensive Favor
Nathan Hecht’s battle over Harriet Miers’ appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court is lasting longer than hers did.
Posted in
Health care
The Speaker Thing
Start with a follow-up to last week’s story about the powers of the House Speaker, and the attempts to get Attorney General Greg Abbott to referee. The issue is now in the hands of the lawyers, mostly, and that means there is a large stack of briefs to go through.
Posted inState Government
While We Were Out
Legal arguments about how the Texas House should run have picked up, but it’s still too early to tell whether Attorney General Greg Abbott will weigh in and whether, if he does, it’ll make any difference in the final outcome.
Posted inState Government
Who’s Subsidizing Whom?
The state’s biggest phone companies and their competitors are fighting over a fund that subsidizes companies that provide phone service where it would otherwise be unaffordable. AT&T;, the biggest, says the Universal Service Fund doesn’t cover its costs. Competitors say the company gets at least twice what it should.
Posted inState Government
Suiting Up Early
Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn won’t get a cakewalk in 2008, but neither will the Democrat who faces him a year from November.
