Thanks to sites like Facebook and Twitter, we know the elected officials who represent us better than ever — sometimes in weirdly intimate ways. You can find out that Dan Patrick had to put his dog down, that Wayne Christian is a fan of real estate wunderkind and reality TV star Chad Rogers, and that Bill White just finished listening to a book on tape. But woe to the pol who hasn’t updated her status in a year.
Texas Legislature
Posted in
Health care
2010: Rallying Cry
More than a week after they surfaced in the Republican gubernatorial primary debate, the politics of abortion are again heating up.
Posted in
State Government
2010: Michael Williams Rails
… against Washington, of course, and the less-than-resolute wing of his party: An interview with the Texas Railroad Commissioner, who’d like very much, thank you, to be the next Marco Rubio.
Posted in
Health care
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Hu explores on the schism between Bushworld and Perrywold and the increasingly curious question of what Debra Medina wants; Stiles goes all Shark Week on gubernatorial campaign finance, with searchable databases, bubble maps and word clouds; M. Smith on what happens if there’s a GOP runoff; Rapoport on the sniping between Perry and KBH on transparency; Hamilton on KBH’s abortion issue odyssey; Ramshaw exposes the disgracefully low percentage of state school employees who abuse or kill profoundly disabled Texans and are then prosecuted for their acts; Thevenot on higher ed’s tuition time bomb; Aguilar on the Latino pay gap; Ramsey on Farouk Shami’s “gift” to Hank Gilbert; Ramsey and Philpott on the the Supreme’s Court’s corporate campaign cash fallout; and E. Smith’s interviews with House Speaker Joe Straus with retiring Republican state representative — and future Texas State chancellor? — Brian McCall. The best of our best from January 18 to 22, 2010.
Posted in
Health care
The Abortion Answer
As she demonstrated in last week’s debate, Kay Bailey Hutchison still struggles with how to describe her position on an issue that many Republicans consider sacrosanct.
Posted inState Government
An Interview with Brian McCall
State Rep. Brian McCall, R-Plano, on the leadership of Speaker Joe Straus, the modern Republican party and his decision to leave the Texas House after two decades.
Posted in
Economy
TribBlog: Snip, Snip
No surprise here, but still: State leaders want state agencies to cut five percent from their current budgets “due to the uncertainty of the state’s short-term economic future, as well as potentially substantial long-term costs associated with the passage of federal legislation currently being debated in Washington, D.C.”
Posted in
State Government
Averitt’s Out. Now What?
The Waco senator’s exit could open the door for the Democrats, who don’t have a candidate in the race but might get a chance to add one.
Posted in
State Government
2010: The Democrats Muck Their Hand in Waco
You cannot win if you do not play: Poker players know it, and the Ds, if they mean to make this a two-party state again, need to know it too.
Posted in
State Government
2010: Kip Averitt Drops Senate Reelection Bid
A Burleson insurance agent who was challenging him in the primary is the beneficiary of his unexpected decision, as no Democrat filed to run in the race.
