Talking point No. 1 for an elected official facing an ethics investigation in Texas: Blame the politicization of the Public Integrity Unit, which is funded by the Legislature but operates out of the district attorney’s office in heavily Democratic Travis County.
Dan Patrick
Posted inState Government
The Party Line
This weekend, some 14,000 true believers will congregate in Dallas for the state Republican convention, the largest such gathering in the nation. Other than electing a chairman, the main event will be developing a platform — a manifesto meant to be the ideal vision for the future of the Texas GOP. Just don’t ask them all to agree to it. If they did, “it’d be a very dull convention and a very short document,” says Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson.
Posted in
Higher Education
Going the Distance
Increasing numbers of college students are attending classes, and even completing some degree programs, online — an innovation that could be welcome in an era of rising enrollments and shrinking budgets. But virtual higher ed has its critics, who say the distance learning model will never match what one lawmaker terms the “interpersonal Aristotle style” of education.
Posted inState Government
The Middle-Finger Vote
It’s embodied in the Tea Party movement, in this week’s runoff election results from Lubbock and Plano, in last month’s primaries, in Gov. Rick Perry’s embrace of states’ rights and the 10th Amendment, even in Barack Obama’s campaign against the status quo in 2008. Voters are furious, and politicians are listening.
Posted in
State Government
TribBlog: New GOP Group “a Little Undemocratic”?
Karen Hughes, a communications advisor to Speaker Joe Straus, told our TribLive audience this morning that it was “a little undemocratic” of the newly formed Independent Conservative Republicans of Texas not to invite every Republican in the House and Senate to join.
Posted inState Government
TribBlog: Patrick Heralds New Conservative Group
State Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, is promoting a new group — the Independent Conservative Republicans of Texas — on conservative talk radio this morning.
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State Government
Rick Perry vs. the DPS
While the director of the Department of Public Safety and some state senators argue that X-ray machines and metal detectors are critical in the wake of a shooting at the Capitol, the Governor and others in the Legislature worry that a gamut of security hurdles would make the place unwelcoming to the public.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Primary Color: Supreme Court Place 9
Rose Vela is no stranger to challenging establishment-backed judicial candidates — and unlike most who run upstart campaigns, she wins. But this year she’s taking on Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman, the appointee of a governor with the most formidable political machine in recent Texas history.
Posted inState Government
The Brief: February 22, 2010
Today marks the start of the last full week before the March 2 primaries. Accordingly, the papers are spilling some serious ink on down-ballot races.
Posted inState Government
2010: Rick and Sarah
It’s not every campaign rally where volunteers checking your bag at the door ask if you’re carrying a concealed weapon. Then again, not every rally features Rick Perry, Sarah Palin, Ted Nugent, Dan Patrick, and hordes of tearful, exuberant realtors, homeschoolers, farmers, and like-minded Washington, D.C. haters.