The latest politics news from The Texas Tribune.
The latest Texas jobs numbers will be released today, and a positive report would bolster Gov. Rick Perry's economic message on the campaign trail. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports on the battle to define just how well the Texas economy is doing. Full Story
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In which we ask the insiders how the selection of a new lieutenant governor will go, if David Dewhurst moves on to another job after the 2012 elections. Full Story
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As expected, state Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, will run for Congress next year instead of for re-election to the Texas Senate. State Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, may run for his Senate seat. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry likes to rail against the Obama administration's "failed" federal stimulus program, but he and state lawmakers have more than $17 billion in fed-stim dollars to thank for the last two balanced Texas budgets. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry is running for president. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is running for U.S. Senate. And it seems like everyone else in Texas politics is making plans based on one or both of those offices opening in 2012. What if they lose? Full Story
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We'll get to the details soon enough, but the headline is that our insiders think Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is the candidate to beat in next year's U.S. Senate race. Full Story
The insiders are more convinced that ever that Gov. Rick Perry will run for president. Full Story
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The state comptroller talks about the flip in her position on abortion, the data breach at her agency this spring, what office she might seek next and how all of the politics of those subjects mix. Full Story
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Two new political outfits, based in Austin and started by a former legislator who served with and worked for Gov. Rick Perry, will try to rally veterans to the governor's presidential race in Iowa and South Carolina. Full Story
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It's not that Tea Party self-identifiers have different positions on immigration than regular old Republicans. They just feel more strongly about it. Full Story
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Michael Williams, who jumped from the U.S. Senate race to the congressional race in the new CD-33 in North Texas, says he'll jump again: He's running for congress in CD-25, a district that stretches from Tarrant County all the way south to Hays County. Full Story
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Michael Williams might be on the move again, switching from a new Tarrant County-centered congressional district to one that starts on that county's southern edge and runs all the way south of Austin into Hays County. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry, taking flak from social conservatives, took a step back from his laissez-faire approach to New York’s gay marriage law on Thursday. Now he says it threatens the definition of marriage everywhere, including Texas. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry’s name won’t appear on the key Iowa Straw Poll ballot, but he’ll face a test of his strength among Western conservatives this weekend in Denver in a straw poll of declared and undeclared Republican candidates. Full Story
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The business community, particularly the entrepreneur, has much to offer academia, but a narrow focus on the bottom line is a sure way of destroying Texas' top public universities. Full Story
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The U.S. representative on his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, candidates who have adopted some of his ideas and a potential candidate he's never met. Full Story
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State Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, says that he won't be a candidate for Congress in the seat opened by Ron Paul's decision not to seek another term — but he might run for the state Senate. Full Story
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Texas bypassed the Obama administration's Department of Justice on Tuesday, opting to ask a panel of federal judges in Washington, D.C., to review the state's new maps for congressional, legislative and State Board of Education districts. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry, who is considering a run for the White House, has spent nearly $1 million in state campaign funds since January, shelling out thousands of dollars for out-of-state travel, hotels and meetings, records released Friday show. Full Story
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That exhibition of musical chairs is contingent on the outcomes of several lawsuits filed against this or that piece of the new political maps drawn by the Legislature earlier this year. Full Story
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