The race to replace outgoing U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison may only be days old, but at least one candidate in the crowded field is already pulling out the big guns.
Texas congressional delegation
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 inState Government
Hammer, Nailed
In what may be a hollow victory for his opponents still grappling with his skillful 2003 redrawing of the state’s political maps, former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, was sentenced Monday to three years in prison.
Posted inState Government
TribBlog: Three Years For DeLay
A judge has sentenced former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, to three years in prison.
Posted in
Demographics
Silvestre Reyes: The TT Interview
The Democratic congressman from El Paso on what life will be like with the Republicans in control of the U.S. House, why the information released by WikiLeaks shouldn’t be public, whether we should be sending troops to Mexico and why Gov. Rick Perry talks so much about spillover violence.
Posted in
Congress
Lamar Smith on the New Congress
The 112th Congress will convene Wednesday with new faces at the helm of a number House committees. Jennifer Stayton of KUT News talked with U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, who will take over as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, about the issues on which he expects to find bipartisan support, the assertion that Americans won’t work certain jobs and why he supports a repeal of the new health care law.
Posted in
Economy
National Treasure
Texas lawmakers have vowed to cut their way to a balanced budget, in the face of a shortfall that could be as high as $25 billion. But their task pales compared to the federal government, which ran a deficit of almost $ 1.3 trillion last fiscal year. As KUT’s Matt Largey reports, a lot’s at stake for Austin when the next Congress gets down to business on the next federal budget.
Posted in
Demographics
Congressional Clout
For the seventh consecutive decade, Texas will gain seats in the U.S. House of Representatives after the decennial apportionment process, which means extra clout after the 2012 elections. With Republicans in control of redrawing the state’s congressional districts — and adding the four new seats — they stand to benefit the most.
Posted in
Politics
Equal, But Not the Same
Lawmakers will spend the next six months drawing political maps for Texas, doing their decennial readjustment to make sure each district has the same number of people. But when they’re done, some parts of the state will still get more political attention than others, and the voters have only themselves to blame.
Posted in
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.
