We have a busy month of TribLive events ahead, featuring lengthy chats with the likes of Karen Hughes, Deirdre Delisi, and Francicso Cigarroa. To mark the occassion(s), our latest HuTube vlog entry features footage of our dress rehearsal for the very first TribLive. Full Story
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State Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, this afternoon apologized for making her opponent Naomi Gonzalez's sexual orientation an issue in the campaign. Full Story
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Check out Census 2010's latest pitchman, Karl Rove. The man known as Bush's Brain draws on his appreciation for James Madison to sell the Census to those who haven't mailed in their forms yet. Full Story
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Your afternoon reading. Full Story
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State Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, says the reason her opponent Naomi Gonzalez's sexual orientation is important as a political issue is because it could affect her vote on legislation involving gay marriage. Texas legislators and voters statewide already prohibited gay marriage in this state with a constitutional amendment in 2005. So, the story got me wondering whether Chavez voted against that measure. Full Story
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The April runoff is the plain, forgotten cousin of the March primary. Even so, today — the start of early voting — marks the beginning of the end for the April election cycle. That means it’s time to recap. Full Story
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With a few days to go before the April 13 runoffs, we check in on the last four on our list: three of them with incumbents in Bryan, El Paso, and Lubbock defending their seats, and a fourth for an open seat, also in Lubbock. Full Story
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The runoff between John Frullo and Mark Griffin shares one important characteristic with the adjacent race in HD-83: It pits inside-the-tent Lubbock Republicans against a coalition of social and libertarian conservatives who are distinctly unhappy with government in Washington and Texas. In that frame, Frullo's the insurgent and Griffin represents the establishment. Full Story
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Delwin Jones, who was first elected to the Texas House in 1964 after two unsuccessful attempts, says he has handed out 765,000 promotional emery boards since his start in politics. His tenure and those files weren't enough to win a bruising primary outright last month, though, and the veteran legislator now finds himself in a runoff against Tea Party organizer Charles Perry, who's capitalizing on voter anger at incumbents. Full Story
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Naomi Gonzalez calls state Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, a GOP darling, a drinker and a public embarrassment. Chavez calls Gonzalez homosexual, naive and a Republican. The bashing and brawling in this heavily Democratic district is truly something to behold — and there's still more than a week until runoff day. Full Story
"The 2011 session is no time to test the learning curve a freshman member," says state Rep. Fred Brown, R-College Station. But former Brazos County Tax Assessor-Collector Gerald "Buddy" Winn thinks new leadership is precisely what this Central Texas House district needs — even if he's "not the shiniest penny in the pile." Full Story
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It's like finding out the last season of your favorite TV show was a dream sequence: Kay Bailey Hutchison was never really leaving the U.S. Senate after all. Full Story
State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, and former state Rep. Paul Moreno, D-El Paso, will endorse challenger Naomi Gonzalez over incumbent state Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, in the April 13 runoff that will decide the winner of the House District 76 seat, according to the El Paso Times. Full Story
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Hamilton on Tarleton State's fuss over a play featuring a gay Jesus and how it never got to the stage, E. Smith and a gang of political types with unsolicited advice for Bill White, Stiles on Texans' slothful approach to the census, Aguilar on immigrant detention policy and mentally ill inmates, Grissom on federal immigration reform, Rapoport on an effort to protect the state's prepaid college tuition program, Stiles and E. Smith interview Houston Mayor Annise Parker on NASA and the economy and staying out of state politics, Hu on the final move in U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's long and very public fretting over whether to stay in office, Ramsey on Hutchison's ripple through the political pond, Ramshaw on how federal health care legislation looks to Texas budget-writers, Garcia-Ditta on shrinking capacity at Texas mental hospitals, E. Smith has a conversation with former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, and Hamilton, Ramshaw and M. Smith on primary runoffs in Plano, San Antonio, and Central Texas. The best of our best from March 29 to April 2, 2010. Full Story
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Your afternoon reading. Full Story
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Want to see some regulatory muscle in action? See Exhibit A: The Environmental Protection Agency. Full Story
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A small but growing number of state officials are warming to the idea of greater transparency and open access to raw government data, following a budding trend across the country. In the latest example, state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, wrote to numerous Texas agencies, urging them to post "high-value" databases online in open-standard formats. Full Story
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The wait to get into one of Texas' 10 state mental hospitals — already long — may be about to get longer. Last month, as part of its attempt to comply with Gov. Rick Perry’s request that each state agency reduce its budget by 5 percent, the Department of State Health Services proposed eliminating 50 beds from four of the state's 10 mental hospitals: San Antonio, Rusk, Terrell and North Texas Wichita. The state's mental hospitals are already almost at full capacity, with nearly 2,500 self-admitted patients and allegedly criminal patients awaiting treatment so they can stand trial. Full Story
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Cut through the routine Republican primary rhetoric about government spending and job creation and a narrative about the new and old guard emerges in the April 13 runoff in Texas' 23rd congressional district. Full Story
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Your afternoon reading. Full Story
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