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All Coverage

  • Tricky Recipe

    By Ross Ramsey

    There's one week to go 'til the state convention for the Democrats and some counties are still ironing out what they see as kinks in their delegate selection. The Texas Democrats haven't been so divided about their candidates in decades, so the selection process is about as competitive as the presidential race itself. Full Story 

  • Ghosts and Other Scary Stuff

    By Ross Ramsey

    Travis County prosecutors have issued subpoenas in their investigation of the so-called Ghost Worker case. The primary House committee investigating that affair has, as a result, pulled up (a second committee hasn't changed course, but could). And the piles of Open Information Requests from politicians, partisans and the press should start yielding some results in the next week or so. Full Story 

  • Surprised?

    By Ross Ramsey

    By now, Texas businesses were supposed to have already filed returns and written checks for the newish business margins tax. They got a one-month reprieve from Comptroller Susan Combs, who decided the level of confusion was high enough to give everyone another month to calculate and pay up. Full Story 

  • Something for Nothing

    By Ross Ramsey

    It's the kind of Special Deals for Politicians saga that can taint the whole institution: Texas lawmakers are accused of lying about their employees to obtain benefits to which those workers would not otherwise be entitled. Full Story 

  • Gusher!

    By Ross Ramsey

    While other states are facing deficits large and small, the Texas Legislature will start its next session with a surplus of almost $15 billion, according to House Speaker Tom Craddick. Full Story 

  • Playing "If"

    By Ross Ramsey

    You'll hear Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst mentioned if you start a conversation about the next governor's race, but the stars are aligning to send him to Washington, if he's interested. Full Story 

  • Going for Three

    By Ross Ramsey

    Gov. Rick Perry, talking to reporters from The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, became the first candidate to say — without reservations — that he'll be on the gubernatorial ballot in 2010. Full Story 

  • How It All Came Out

    By Ross Ramsey

    In the only statewide runoff race — the Democratic battle for Railroad Commission — political novice Mark Thompson outran Dale Henry, who was making a third run for a job on that regulatory panel. Thompson got 59.2 percent of the vote, and will challenge Republican incumbent Michael Williams. Full Story 

  • Late Hits

    By Ross Ramsey

    We take you now to Runoff Land, where a handful of candidates are still smacking each other for a chance at their party's nomination. Full Story 

  • The Cure for Record Turnout

    By Ross Ramsey

    Early voting in the April runoff elections runs Monday through Friday of next week (that's March 31-April 4). The pickings are slim, and you're loopy if you think turnout will look like it did in the first week of March. Full Story 

  • A Fling or a Trend?

    By Ross Ramsey

    Texas Republicans have never had a primary like this one. They got a quarter of a million more voters to the polls this year than they did in the presidential primaries four years ago. Full Story 

  • The Big Wave

    By Ross Ramsey

    The early voting tsunami is great for political scientists, but it sure makes elected and wanna-be-elected officials nervous. It's big, but it's impossible right now to know who's voting and how, whether the voters are new, whether Republicans are voting in the Democratic primary, whatever. It's a big, fat question mark. For incumbents, that sort of uncertainty is maddening. Full Story 

  • Texas Voters: Both Primaries are Close

    By Ross Ramsey

    A week before the start of early voting in the March 4 party primaries, Hillary Clinton leads Barack Obama in Texas by eight percentage points and John McCain leads Mike Huckabee here by four — a statistical tie — according to polling done for the Texas Credit Union League. Full Story 

  • Names, Trivia, and Money

    By Ross Ramsey

    The ballots are more or less complete, pending court actions and dirty tricks and all the usual stuff. And the annual courtship between the vampires and the blood banks — candidates and financiers — is well underway. Full Story