Health care

The spin engines went into overtime when four Texas Democrats went campaigning in Ohio for Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush. The official message was a two-parter. Bush’s folks touted the bipartisan nature of the deal, strumming a chord they’re playing to try to contrast Bush as a non-partisan and his opponent, Democrat Al Gore, as a partisan. Secondly, since Gore’s attacks on Bush’s record have begun to gather some steam, the four were there to fly the flag and say they were ready to punch anyone attacking the Lone Star State.

The state’s Sunset Commission was expected to be tough on the Texas Department of Economic Development and on the state’s Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

The overriding issue of the next legislative session quietly starts its 10-month road show this week in Abilene with the first public hearings on redistricting. The House and Senate committees will collect opinions about what should and shouldn’t be split geographically around the state, a record that will be used in the court battles that will almost certainly follow the next Legislature’s final decisions on the state’s political fence lines. Some members think that public testimony will be important in court. Some think it will be completely ignored once the pencils are put away in favor of ink pens.

Maybe a little sympathy is in order here. Gov. George W. Bush is running for president, and naturally enough, would like to have things running smoothly back on the home front, where the government is dominated by his own party and where the executive branch is populated mostly by his own appointees. But even with all the watchdogs, things have been bumpy on the finance front.

Republicans in Texas have relied for years on a rating system called ORVS, or Optimum Republican Voting Strength, that combines results of recent elections to show which parts of the state are friendly to the GOP. The latest numbers are out, and while there are few surprises, the charts do provide something of a road map to the GOP’s targets in the next election cycle.

Ordinarily, anyone who could collect more than 80 House votes for an issue before it’s even been heard in committee would be happy indeed. But the folks pushing to expand the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, to the maximum are worried about the depth of their support.