It’s embodied in the Tea Party movement, in this week’s runoff election results from Lubbock and Plano, in last month’s primaries, in Gov. Rick Perry’s embrace of states’ rights and the 10th Amendment, even in Barack Obama’s campaign against the status quo in 2008. Voters are furious, and politicians are listening.
Dan Patrick
TribBlog: New GOP Group “a Little Undemocratic”?
Karen Hughes, a communications advisor to Speaker Joe Straus, told our TribLive audience this morning that it was “a little undemocratic” of the newly formed Independent Conservative Republicans of Texas not to invite every Republican in the House and Senate to join.
TribBlog: Patrick Heralds New Conservative Group
State Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, is promoting a new group — the Independent Conservative Republicans of Texas — on conservative talk radio this morning.
Rick Perry vs. the DPS
While the director of the Department of Public Safety and some state senators argue that X-ray machines and metal detectors are critical in the wake of a shooting at the Capitol, the Governor and others in the Legislature worry that a gamut of security hurdles would make the place unwelcoming to the public.
Primary Color: Supreme Court Place 9
Rose Vela is no stranger to challenging establishment-backed judicial candidates — and unlike most who run upstart campaigns, she wins. But this year she’s taking on Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman, the appointee of a governor with the most formidable political machine in recent Texas history.
The Brief: February 22, 2010
Today marks the start of the last full week before the March 2 primaries. Accordingly, the papers are spilling some serious ink on down-ballot races.
2010: Rick and Sarah
It’s not every campaign rally where volunteers checking your bag at the door ask if you’re carrying a concealed weapon. Then again, not every rally features Rick Perry, Sarah Palin, Ted Nugent, Dan Patrick, and hordes of tearful, exuberant realtors, homeschoolers, farmers, and like-minded Washington, D.C. haters.
The Brief: February 5, 2010
Cowboys fans now have a new option for what to do on Super-Bowl Sunday: hear Ted Nugent croon and Sarah Palin rally. Tony Romo won’t be there.
Social Studies
Thanks to sites like Facebook and Twitter, we know the elected officials who represent us better than ever — sometimes in weirdly intimate ways. You can find out that Dan Patrick had to put his dog down, that Wayne Christian is a fan of real estate wunderkind and reality TV star Chad Rogers, and that Bill White just finished listening to a book on tape. But woe to the pol who hasn’t updated her status in a year.
2010: Rallying Cry
More than a week after they surfaced in the Republican gubernatorial primary debate, the politics of abortion are again heating up.


