The State Keynote track at the 2015 Texas Tribune Festival included interviews with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, as well as a pair of panel discussions focused on the Texas Legislature.
Joe Straus
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Criminal Justice
Video: Joe Straus at The 2015 Texas Tribune Festival
Here’s full video of our conversation with Texas House Speaker Joe Straus on Oct. 17 at the 2015 Texas Tribune Festival.
Posted inState Government
Video: How Conservative Was the 84th Session?
Here’s video of our “Really, How Conservative Was the 84th Session?” panel from Oct. 17 at The 2015 Texas Tribune Festival. Panelists included State Sens. Paul Bettencourt and Konni Burton and state Reps. Stephanie Klick, Matt Rinaldi and Jonathan Stickland.
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Economy
Texans to Decide on Transportation Funding with Prop 7
As Texas’ transportation needs multiply, voters in the rapidly growing state will be asked Nov. 3 to consider a way to pay for those needs.
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Politics
Straus Defends Conservative Record of House
Critics of his leadership should look at the conservative record of the Texas House under three terms of his speakership, Joe Straus told an audience at the Texas Tribune Festival Saturday.
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Politics
Analysis: Patrick Makes An Old Bill Come Due
Legislation that would have blocked public employees from paying union or association dues with paycheck deductions failed last session. But the Senate is reopening the issue, and it could play against a powerful House chairman up for reelection next year.
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Politics
Analysis: A Defense, but Where’s the Threat?
State leaders are sending a signal that lawmakers are going to continue walking the margins between church and state, and religion and politics, through another election and legislative cycle.
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Politics
Analysis: Winning by Packing the Ballot
It should come as no surprise when political plotters and schemers try to pack a primary election to force an incumbent into a runoff. Their hope is that the runoff’s greater concentration of partisan voters will be harder on the incumbents.
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State Government
Analysis: The Hard Way to Win a Speaker’s Race
Anti-establishment Republicans have tried three times to knock House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, out of the top job. Now they’re entering an election season nearly five dozen votes short of what they need.
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Politics
Analysis: Reasserting Power, by Working to Concentrate It
An open-seat endorsement from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick could strengthen a conservative core in the Texas Senate, and with it Patrick’s position in the Legislature and the Legislature’s position in state government.