When Andrew Cuomo took office as governor of New York earlier this month, he ordered the removal of the security barricades limiting access to his state’s Capitol. “This Capitol has become a physical metaphor for the isolation and alienation of our people,” he said in his inauguration speech. He could easily have been talking about Texas.
David Dewhurst
Posted in
State Government
Dewhurst: I’ve Got My Plate Full
Minutes after learning of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s decision not to seek re-election, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst demurred when asked whether he would run for her seat.
Posted in
State Government
TribBlog: Party Boys
Surrounded by statewide elected officials and a pack of fellow lawmakers, Democrats Aaron Peña of Edinburg and Allan Ritter of Nederland defected to the Republican Party this afternoon.
Posted inState Government
Cellar Dwellers
Texas Democrats have become a political version of the Baltimore Orioles. If Ann Richards were alive, she and Earl Weaver would be comparing notes — in salty language — on what went wrong with their old teams.
Posted in
Economy
TribBlog: The 2.5 Percent Solution [Updated]
As expected, state leaders are asking state agencies to cut their current budgets even more. This time, by 2.5 percent.
Posted in
State Government
Debbie Irvine: The TT Interview
The newly christened executive director of the Texas Legislative Council on how the upcoming session is going to be “really, really difficult,” how technology has changed her job, whether redistricting maps can get drawn and agreed upon by June and how she keeps politics from impacting her work.
Posted in
Economy
There Will Be Blood
Ask House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, and he’ll tell you: The budget he and his fellow finance types will put forward in a few weeks confirms fears that carnage is looming. “We’re making huge cuts,” he told a Tea Party group last week.
Posted inState Government
A TribLive Thanksgiving
From day one, the Tribune has put a premium on events as a very vibrant, dynamically interactive form of journalism: always before an audience, always open to the public, always on the record, usually free and whenever possible resulting in recorded content that could be posted on our web site for everyone to see, not just those lucky ducks who happened to be in the room. Usually these so-called TribLive events have been conversations with high elected officials or other newsmakers, and, indeed, they’ve occasionally made news. But more often than not they’ve simply been a way to engage with people in power, to hold them accountable, to ask them questions, to get to know them better. Today we present videos of 21 of those conversations — our way of saying thanks to the men and women who’ve done their time in the hot seat.
Posted inState Government
Tonight’s the Night
Over the past year, we’ve seen nearly $100 million worth of gubernatorial politics in Texas and millions more spent maneuvering for advantage in Congress, in the Legislature and in other statewide and local offices. Tonight, we’ll finally know what’s what.
Posted in
Demographics
Beyond Election Day
Yes, yes, the governor’s race: It’s tended to suck all the air out of the room this election cycle, hasn’t it? But there’s an undercard as well, and even if it’s received scant attention by comparison, don’t think it doesn’t matter. To the contrary, the outcome of races other than the one at the top of the ballot has serious implications for a great many matters of politics and policy that will affect and should interest every single Texan in the near term.
