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The latest Dan Patrick news from The Texas Tribune.

  • TribBlog: Invitation to a Tea Party

    By Reeve Hamilton

    Tea Partiers expect to have a seat at the table during Texas' 82nd Legislative Session, the first since the movement's rise, via the new Tea Party Caucus organized by Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston. The caucus is advised by a select group of Tea Party leaders from around the state, including Greg Holloway, a leader of the Austin Tea Party Patriots and the Common Sense Texans Network. He talked with the Trib about the upcoming session. Full Story 

    Greg Holloway
    Credit: Todd Wiseman

  • TribBlog: Patrick Wades Into Caucus Controversy

    By Evan Smith

    A speaker preference vote in the House Republican Caucus is "simply the right thing to do," state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, said Friday night, wading into a roiling controversy that has pit Republican against Republican in the aftermath of November's election. Full Story 

    State Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston.
    Credit: Candidate photo

  • School's Out

    By Morgan Smith

    The budget shortfall — estimated to be as much as $28 billion — will require the Legislature to take a paring knife and possibly a machete to government agencies and programs. The largest single consumer of state dollars is public education, so it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which funding for teacher salaries, curricular materials and the like isn’t on the chopping block, especially if lawmakers want to make good on their promises of no new taxes. But where is that money going to come from? Full Story 

    Crowded classroom in Edgewood School District, San Antonio, TX
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • TribBlog: Straus Rebuffs Patrick

    By Elise Hu

    State Sen. Dan Patrick issued a release saying he would host a sit-down meeting of the three candidates for speaker in a "neutral" location. But House Speaker Joe Straus' office says it never agreed to to the meet-up. Full Story 

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    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • The Most Unpopular Fraction

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Whatever the size of their majority in the Texas House, Republicans in the Texas Senate have to contend with the rule requiring two-thirds of members to agree to bring a bill up for vote. That's 21 out of 31 — and there are only 19 Republicans in the upper chamber. As Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports, some in the GOP want the rule changed. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman

  • The Crackdown Begins

    By Elise Hu

    Republican state lawmakers, buoyed by their party’s resounding victories on Election Day, have filed several bills ahead of the next legislative session that signal how far they're willing to go in tackling illegal immigration. State Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, filed a nine-bill bundle that included a proposal to require picture IDs at polling places. Full Story 

    Newly-elected state Rep. David Simpson at the head of the line to prefile bills on Nov. 8, 2010.
    Credit: Elise Hu

  • Witch Hunters?

    By Morgan Smith

    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. Full Story 

    Former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and former Travis County D.A. Ronnie Earle.

  • The Party Line

    By Morgan Smith

    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. Full Story 

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    Credit: Graphic by Jacob Villanueva

  • Going the Distance

    By Reeve Hamilton and Grant Derigo

    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. Full Story 

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  • The Middle-Finger Vote

    By Ross Ramsey

    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. Full Story 

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    Credit: Jacqueline Mermea

  • TribBlog: New GOP Group "a Little Undemocratic"?

    By Evan Smith

    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. Full Story 

    April 15, 2010. Karen Hughes speaks in Austin, TX.
    Credit: Bob Daemmerich

  • Rick Perry vs. the DPS

    By Brandi Grissom

    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. Full Story 

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    Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller

  • Primary Color: Supreme Court Place 9

    By Morgan Smith

    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. Full Story 

    Eva Guzman (left), Rose Vela
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • 2010: Rick and Sarah

    By Morgan Smith

    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. Full Story 

    Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at a campaign event for Gov. Rick Perry in 2010.
    Credit: Marjorie Cotera