Politics

Think like the political pros and your mind will go to the long game instead of the short one. The short game is the elections of 2010. The long game is redistricting in 2011, when maps are drawn that corral the voters into the districts that will elect legislators for the next ten years.

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Debra Medina may yet have a role to play in the race for governor. Analysts say her potential effect ranges from negligible to potential spoiler.

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Nearly 130,000 students attend Texas charter schools, but 40,000 more are waiting to get in.

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Candidates from both sides of the spectrum are self-recruited and responsible for their own campaigns. So what's the value of a relationship with the state's political parties?

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After Houston mayor Bill White joined the race for governor late last week, one of his first stops was Austin, a Democratic stronghold that made for a nice, safe place to start his campaign.

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It was a political week, with a full-court press from our staff on Bill White's switch to the governor's race and all of the fallout; the moves during the first week of filing for political races; Philpott's look at Republicans challenging Republicans; Hu's latest in the popular Stump Interrupted series; Ramshaw on emergency rooms, family doctors, and child protection; Stiles and Grissom mapping payday lending locations juxtaposed with family income data; Rapoport on the state budget and education; Thevenot on KBH's plans for schools; and Hamilton on the power (or not) of political endorsements. The best of the best from November 28 to December 4, 2009.

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All ears are upon Houston Mayor Bill White — a man whose own ears Texas Monthly calls “perhaps a size too large for the superstructure.”

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Your afternoon reading.

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Remember Van Taylor?

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The collaboration of the big five newspapers on polling in the 2010 election cycle is good news for Texas.

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Education has emerged as one of the more contentious fronts in the gubernatorial campaign, with Kay Bailey Hutchison this week releasing a barrage of school proposals and attacks on the status quo. But the differences between the candidates have more to do with execution than with design.

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Democrats are still talking about who'll fill out their statewide ticket, and it doesn't look like they'll know by the end of the week. Republicans might not see everyone's filing this week, but expect all of their non-judicial statewide incumbents to file for reelection.

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Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, will seek reelection next year. Is that really a ray of hope for Elizabeth Ames Jones? Really?

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They certainly provide daily fodder for campaign news coverage, but there’s no guarantee that endorsements will translate to anything positive for a candidate — let alone an electoral victory.

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Removals of Texas children from abusive homes have reached their highest point since the 2008 polygamist sect raid, when hundreds were taken into custody in a single day.

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Two Houston bloggers duke it out over the wisdom and promise of the mayor's gubernatorial candidacy.

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Your afternoon reading.

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With the Thanksgiving behind us, it’s time to put noses back to the grindstone — unless you are state Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown.

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The final amendment in the Bill of Rights provides state leaders their best avenue around federal policies they don't agree with. That is, if the Tenth Amendment actually means something.

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Congressional Quarterly's latest rankings of congressional races has only three Texas contests in the "likely" category, two on the Democratic side and one on the Republican side.

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