State Rep. Randy Weber, R-Pearland, who today withdrew his pledge of support for House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, was the beneficiary of two fundraisers this month at which a featured guest was … House Speaker Joe Straus.
Texas House of Representatives
Posted inState Government
Interactive: Texas House Travel Expenses
Members of the Texas House on average spent about $11,000 on travel expenses in the last fiscal year, which ended August 31. This table details those records by member. Click the column headers to sort the table and compare their spending in the various categories
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State Government
Interactive: House Travel
Retiring state Rep. Joe Crabb, R-Atascocita, led all Texas House members in government-funded travel expenses in the last fiscal year, according to a Texas Tribune review of expense reports obtained from the state comptroller. Crabb spent $48,400, versus a per-member average of about $11,000. In all, 14 members spent more than $30,000. View a sortable table of travel totals by member.
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State Government
TribBlog: Ritter Confirms He’s Switching Parties
The Nederland Democrat will indeed become a Nederland Republican on Tuesday.
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State Government
TribBlog: Ritter to Switch?
State Rep. Allan Ritter, D-Nederland, is telling associates he will switch to the Republican Party next week.
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State Government
TribBlog: Aaron Peña, R-Edinburg?
Speculation is growing that state Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, will soon switch parties, giving the Republicans the supermajority they were barely denied on Election Night.
Posted in
Politics
The Way Forward
Six weeks after the drubbing their party took at the hands of voters, surviving Texas House Democrats find themselves at a crossroads — on style and substance, politics and policy. With massive budget cuts looming, will they effectively sit out the session and force Republicans in the majority to have all the blood on their hands? Will they participate just enough to soften the blow in the areas they care about the most: education and health care? Can they hold together a solid 51-vote bloc on key legislation? Where exactly should they go from here? And who will lead them?
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State Government
Who’s It Gonna Be?
John Frullo, Jim Landtroop, Charles Perry and Four Price each won election to the Texas House last month, representing districts in a part of the state where the population is dwindling. At least one of them should leave the car running at the curb.
Posted in
Demographics
Single White Female
The force of the GOP wave in November was so strong that black Republicans and Latino Republicans outnumber the Texas House’s new endangered species: the white Democratic woman. And if the 16-vote victory of state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, doesn’t survive a recount, the species will be extinct.
Posted inState Government
Branch: Calling it a Speaker’s Race is “Generous”
At this morning’s TribLive event, state Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, speaks out on the challenge to his close friend and colleague, Speaker Joe Straus.
