Rep. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, will run for Steve Ogden’s Senate seat. Ogden isn’t running, and Williamson County has become the 300-pound gorilla of that district in terms of population. Rep. Larry Gonzales, R-Round Rock, won’t run.
Texas House of Representatives
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Politics
The Texas Weekly Index: March Fights, November Peace
General elections in Texas will be less competitive than ever under the redistricting maps approved by the Legislature earlier this year. The political threats to incumbents, if any, will come in primaries and not in general elections.
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Politics
Feds: Proposed Texas Maps Undermine Minority Voting Rights
The U.S. Justice Department said Monday that new political maps for the Texas House and the state’s congressional delegation don’t protect the electoral power of the state’s minority populations as required by the federal Voting Right Act.
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Politics
The Texas Weekly Index
Lots of things affect election outcomes. Candidates. Money. Issues. Surprises. But some of the results are wired into district maps, through redistricting. Here’s our charting of the political atmosphere — Republican or Democratic — in each of the House, Senate and congressional districts drawn by the Legislature this year.
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Politics
Jose Aliseda: The TT Interview
The freshman Republican state representative on what he liked about the legislative session, what’s wrong with the process, the press, politics and why he’d be coming back for more if a local job hadn’t opened up.
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Guides
Texplainer: Can Texas Use the Rainy Day Fund to Fight Wildfires?
Gov. Rick Perry has said the Rainy Day Fund should be preserved as an insurance policy against natural disasters, but Texas can’t actually dip into it until the next legislative session — in 2013.
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State Government
Lyne Won’t Seek Re-election to House
Another House freshman won’t be back: Lanham Lyne, R-Wichita Falls, says he won’t seek re-election to the Texas House in 2012.
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Politics
Challenge to Texas Redistricting Opens in Federal Court
The state’s new political maps are now in the hands of the federal government. An army of lawyers lined up before the start of federal hearings on Tuesday, lugging boxes of papers and briefcases bulging with the scribbled notes and other arguments they’ll present over the next two weeks.
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State Government
Van Arsdale Seeks Return to House
Former state Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale, defeated in Tomball in the 2008 Republican primary, will run for an open seat in Cedar Park in 2012.
Posted inCongress
Interactive: The Texas Tribune Redistricting Viewer
Building on the success of our previous redistricting interactive, the Tribune has prepared a new version that includes the redistricting maps for the state House, Senate and State Board of Education.
