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All Coverage

  • Paint It Red

    By Ross Ramsey

    Texas Republicans won four of the five expensively contested congressional seats on Election Day, grabbing hold of the last cul-de-sac they didn't fully control in the neighborhoods of federal and state government. With the results now in hand, the Texas elephant herd's dominion now includes the White House, both of the state's U.S. Senate seats, the Texas congressional delegation, every statewide elected position in the executive and judicial branches, the state Senate and the state House. Twenty years ago, that landscape was populated mostly by donkeys. Full Story 

  • Eye of the Hurricane

    By Ross Ramsey

    It's a strange thing to be surrounded by an election that has the whole country in a lather while at home, there's no doubt about the outcome at the top of the ticket and — with exceptions for a handful of congressional races — a ballot dominated by personality clashes, professional feuds and local races. Full Story 

  • Red Light

    By Ross Ramsey

    An Austin judge ordered the Associated Republicans of Texas PAC to stop taking, spending, or soliciting any corporate money until after the November 2 election. If the ruling holds — ART is appealing it — it'll mean money from corporations and unions can't be used for any purpose by political action committees that aren't affiliated with them, either directly or through a trade group. And the ruling could have implications in ongoing grand jury investigations of campaign finance in the 2002 elections that put the first Republican majority in the Texas House since Reconstruction. Full Story 

  • Defying Political Gravity

    By Ross Ramsey

    After the 2002 elections, it was obvious to every political wonk with a spreadsheet and a lick of sense that Reps. John Mabry, D-Waco, and Ken Mercer, R-San Antonio, were in trouble. They appeared to be downright pre-cooked: Mabry won in Republican territory when his opponent imploded; Mercer won in Democratic territory when his opponent was indicted. The conventional wisdom was (and this is not over yet) that the two politicos would soon be giving up their spots to the rightful owners from the opposing parties. But they're both alive and each has a chance at winning a sophomore legislative term. Their opponents have run sloppy campaigns, they've run good ones, and in Mabry's case, the environment is under the influence of a hotly disputed congressional race. Full Story 

  • The Spoils of War

    By Ross Ramsey

    An old saying: One's an accident, two is a coincidence, and three is a trend. The biggest of the missiles aimed at U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, missed when a congressional panel decided to admonish him in a letter instead of doing something more severe. But they didn't dismiss serious campaign finance charges, choosing instead to put those on hold while prosecutors and grand jurors in Travis County, Texas are still working. Full Story 

  • Unfettered Speculation

    By Ross Ramsey

    U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison told a gaggle of reporters this summer that she'd be announcing her political plans early next summer, and aides say nothing has changed since then. The question, of course, is whether she'll run for reelection, run for governor, or give up show biz. None of that is new, and it's no longer news that political people without much to watch in state elections this year are obsessing on that question. But that obsessing, along with worries over the financing of schools and the financing of political campaigns, is producing some weird and interesting ideas about politics in Texas over the next 18 months, through a legislative session and into the 2006 primaries. To wit: Full Story 

  • Storm Clouds

    By Ross Ramsey

    After 21 months of investigation by Travis County prosecutors, deliberations by three different grand juries and skirmishes along the way that went all the way up the appellate food chain, 32 indictments of three individuals and eight corporations might seem like a small string of fish. These aren't even public officials, though they worked with top officials in the Texas and U.S. Houses. Full Story 

  • Your Money or Your Kids

    By Ross Ramsey

    State District Judge John Dietz, ruling on the heels of closing arguments, said the state's system of funding public schools is unconstitutional and ordered the Legislature to fix it within a year. His detailed ruling won't be out for a couple of weeks, but if you do a quick calculation of what he said so far, it's easy to argue that the state will have to spend another $3 billion or so each year on public education. That's in addition to any money that would be used lowering local property taxes. (Click here for a copy of Dietz's bench ruling.) Full Story 

  • Off to the Races

    By Ross Ramsey

    With Labor Day behind us and the finish line on the horizon, at least a dozen Texas House races should be handicapped as serious contests. Mark another nine or so as contests that could turn if conditions change significantly or if an incumbent slips or underestimates the problem. Full Story 

  • The Guns of August (and September)

    By Ross Ramsey

    Political journalists are often called fight promoters — people who'll try to start a contest where there isn't one — but the state's senior senator and the governor are making the job easy. They're even giving us facts to play with, and starting the fights without much prompting from the likes of us. Full Story 

  • Gloomy Numbers For Every Political Taste

    By Ross Ramsey

    The U.S. Bureau of the Census prefaced the Republican Party's national convention with a bummer of a report that says, among other things, that Texas has the highest percentage of uninsured people of any state and that the median income here dropped during the first years of this decade. Full Story 

  • A Special Case

    By Ross Ramsey

    Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, is in a pretty safe district for a Democrat, as these things go. In the last election against his current opponent, Jeffrey Hibbs, Dunnam pulled 60.2 percent of the vote. And with the exception of Tony Sanchez Jr., who lost by a little in this House district while losing by a lot statewide, the Democrats running for statewide office in Dunnam's district swept in 2002. Full Story 

  • Gig 'Em

    By Ross Ramsey

    Here's a question somewhere in the minds of people watching the congressional race between Democrat Chet Edwards of Waco and Republican Arlene Wohlgemuth of Burleson: Is the average voter in Brazos County more likely to vote for an Aggie or a Republican? Full Story 

  • School's Out for Summer

    By Ross Ramsey

    School finance didn't move an inch while we were on summer break. Not an iota. In early July, Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, was showing a plan she hoped would get some support, the idea being that if lawmakers liked it, the Lege could come back to Austin for a quick special session. They'd do something to lower property taxes and increase the state's share of public school funding with a combination of sales, business and tobacco taxes, and could frost that cake with money from slot machines if enough legislators would go along. Full Story 

  • Wake Everyone When You're Ready

    By Ross Ramsey

    Judging from the reaction to the latest solution to the school finance mess, a special session on the subject would come as a huge surprise to legislators and lobsters alike. Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, is proposing a combination of business, sales, and tobacco taxes to raise money for education and to buy down local school property taxes. If lawmakers and voters are willing, they could increase the size of the property tax cut by allowing slot machines in Texas. Full Story 

  • Money for Nothing

    By Ross Ramsey

    State auditors say managers of the Children's Health Insurance Program let about $20 million slip away in the form of "unnecessary or excessive payments to Clarendon National Insurance Co.," the company that had a provider contract for CHIP. The payments, the auditors wrote, "constitute an abuse of the commission's fiduciary responsibility to oversee and manage" the contract. CHIP is administered by the Health and Human Services Commission, which is in the midst of a massive reorganization and an investigation of lapses in protective services for adults and children. Full Story 

  • Window of Opportunity

    By Ross Ramsey

    Aides to Gov. Rick Perry tell us he hasn't changed his tune on the likelihood of a special session. Perry told a reporter in Tyler that he doesn't see any reason to call members back if they can't reach a deal in the next few weeks, but didn't back down from his plans to call one if there's any way to do so. By the time that news reached the mainland, it had morphed into a story saying Perry had lowered the alert level on a special session by a couple of notches, and was maybe even leaning against it. Full Story 

  • What Ails the Texas Democrats?

    By Ross Ramsey

    While the delegates to the state convention in Houston were busy in caucuses and buying buttons and listening to speeches, a small group of Democratic legislators, aides, consultants, and political hacks met privately with the University of Houston's Richard Murray, who talked them through an 11-page memo on what's wrong with the Party and what he thinks they should do about it. Full Story 

  • One from Column A, One from Column B

    By Ross Ramsey

    Throw Rick Perry, Kay Bailey Hutchison, and Carole Keeton Strayhorn into one three-day convention, and it doesn't matter how heavy you lay on the religion and an uncomfortably detailed platform: The main subject of conversation is the next Republican primary for governor in 2006. Full Story