53 percent of Texans strongly favor a repeal of federal health care reform legislation, while 24 percent strongly oppose repeal, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll.
Politics
Stay informed with The Texas Tribuneโs in-depth political coverage, including Texas elections, state government, policy debates, and the leaders shaping the future of the state.
Neener-Neener
It’s an impulse most of us learn to suppress in the seventh grade โ the need give your enemies wedgies, to tape “kick me” signs to their backs, to put lizards in their lunchboxes. Political people don’t suppress it โ they channel it into goofy stunts to attract attention, ridicule opponents and blow off steam.
A Matter of Trust
The D.C.-based Texas Democratic Trust began as an attempt to revive flagging Democratic institutions in Texas and is now a critical source of funding for them and a host of consultants. That has made its director, Matt Angle, as powerful as most political bosses in other states. Maybe too powerful, his critics say.
TribBlog: Of Rats and Men
State Sen. Kirk Watson’s spoof of the governor’s coyote adventure …
The Shell Game
If history is any guide, the Legislature will turn to accounting illusions to mask large portions of a budget shortfall of at least $11 billion. Trouble is, such trickery is a bet on the economy roaring back to life โ and that’s no sure thing.
Sarah Palin in Austin
The former Alaska governor was in Austin last night speaking to and raising money for an anti-abortion group. Mose Buchele of KUT News talked to people who had come to support and protest her appearance.
TribBlog: What Happens in Arizona…
It’s no surprise that Arizona’s new immigration enforcement law is unpopular with Texas Democrats. But it’s hard to find a high-ranking Republican in the state who’ll endorse it, either.
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
E. Smith interviews Gov. Rick Perry for the Trib and Newsweek, Philpott dissects the state’s budget mess in a weeklong series, Hamilton looks at whether Bill White is or was a trial lawyer, M. Smith finds experts all over the state anxiously watching a court case over who owns the water under our feet, Aguilar reports on the battle between Fort Stockton and Clayton Williams Jr. over water in West Texas, Ramshaw finds a population too disabled to get on by itself but not disabled enough to get state help and Miller spends a day with a young man and his mother coping with that situation, Ramsey peeks in on software that lets the government know whether its e-mail messages are getting read and who’s reading what, a highway commissioner reveals just how big a hole Texas has in its road budget, Grissom does the math on the state’s border cameras and learns they cost Texans about $153,800 per arrest, and E. Smith interviews Karen Hughes on the difference between corporate and political P.R. โ and whether there’s such a thing as “Obama Derangement Syndrome.” The best of our best from April 19 to April 23, 2010.
2010: Perry 48, White 44
A new Rasmussen Reports poll has Gov. Rick Perry leading former Houston Mayor Bill White by just 4 points.
T-Squared: Elections, Overtime Edition
Thrills! Spills! Live Runoff coverage tonight!



