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All Coverage

  • Who Done It?

    By Ross Ramsey

    Six Fort Worth Republicans are asking for an investigation of automated phone calls they say might have swung the results of a special election earlier this month. Full Story 

  • Following the Money

    By Ross Ramsey

    Democrat Chris Bell is suing Republican Rick Perry and the Washington, D.C.-based Republican Governor's Association over the provenance of $1 million in campaign money in last year's gubernatorial election. Full Story 

  • Crash Test Dummies

    By Ross Ramsey

    Dan Barrett and Mark Shelton — a lawyer and a doctor, a Democrat and a Republican, an opponent and a supporter of the current Speaker of the House — will face each other in a runoff in HD-97 in a few weeks. The money is big, the stakes are big, and there's nothing else going on in state politics at the moment. It's a Petri dish full of what'll be happening in House races for the next 12 months. Full Story 

  • A Very Expensive Footnote

    By Ross Ramsey

    Democrat Mikal Watts — having spent $947,505 "exploring" a run for the U.S. Senate — decided not to run after all. That removes one serious opponent for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, but the Texas Republican will still face opposition a year from now — probably state Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston. Full Story 

  • England's New Flag

    By Ross Ramsey

    Rep. Kirk England of Grand Prairie is switching parties, saying he'll seek reelection as a Democrat. There hasn't been a party switch in the Texas Legislature in a decade, and it's been a long, long time since a legislator left the Republicans for the Democrats and survived the switch. Full Story 

  • Sweet Sixteen

    By Ross Ramsey

    The political air is different in sixteen legislative districts: Republicans win statewide races, but Democrats dominate in legislative contests. Full Story 

  • Campaign Maps, By the Numbers

    By Ross Ramsey

    Redistricting, with just a few exceptions, still has a strong hold on the makeup of the state Senate and the Texas congressional delegation. But several House members continue to confound the mapmakers, winning in districts where, on paper, they shouldn't. Full Story 

  • Green Pastures

    By Ross Ramsey

    We pulled the numbers from campaign reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission and the Federal Election Commission and ranked officeholders and candidates by how much they had in their accounts at mid-year. Full Story 

  • The Speaker Thing

    By Ross Ramsey

    Start with a follow-up to last week's story about the powers of the House Speaker, and the attempts to get Attorney General Greg Abbott to referee. The issue is now in the hands of the lawyers, mostly, and that means there is a large stack of briefs to go through. Full Story 

  • While We Were Out

    By Ross Ramsey

    Legal arguments about how the Texas House should run have picked up, but it's still too early to tell whether Attorney General Greg Abbott will weigh in and whether, if he does, it'll make any difference in the final outcome. Full Story 

  • Who's Subsidizing Whom?

    By Ross Ramsey

    The state's biggest phone companies and their competitors are fighting over a fund that subsidizes companies that provide phone service where it would otherwise be unaffordable. AT&T;, the biggest, says the Universal Service Fund doesn't cover its costs. Competitors say the company gets at least twice what it should. Full Story 

  • Campaign Finance, to Start the Season

    By Ross Ramsey

    Just as state officeholders were racing to stock their election accounts by an end-of-month deadline, the state and federal courts got busy on the subject of campaign finance. The state's highest criminal court had good news for former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, while the nation's highest court had good news for corporations and unions and groups that campaign on so-called issue ads in the last week's before elections. Full Story