The latest politics news from The Texas Tribune.
Gov. Rick Perry proposed term limits for federal judges and cuts in pay and work hours for Congress, so we put those issues to the insiders and added Texas versions: What about a full-time Legislature, and appointed judges instead of elected ones? Full Story
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Marc Musick, the University of Texas at Austin’s College of Liberal Arts associate dean of student affairs, makes the case in a new faculty productivity report that his institution provides “an incredible return on investment for the state.” Full Story
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Rick Perry's "oops" moment was costly in our survey of political and government insiders, and we also took soundings on third-party candidates, court-drawn political maps, and the strength of the Tea Party. Full Story
Another GOP presidential debate, you say? Tell us about it. We'll be liveblogging tonight's "Your Money, Your Vote" debate, hosted by CNBC and the Michigan Republican Party, from the campus of Oakland University in Rochester, Mich. Full Story
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Gov. Rick Perry is increasingly sharing third place with former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a candidate many — including some of Gingrich's former strategists — had written off. Full Story
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Next year's congressional and legislative elections in Texas will probably be conducted using political maps drawn by federal judges instead of those drawn by lawmakers. Full Story
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The new UT/Texas Tribune poll found Texans in a lukewarm mood about Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential bid, but the Inside Intelligence survey has found Texas insiders edging into downright cranky territory in their assessments of the governor. Full Story
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The insiders answered questions from the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll for the second week in a row, this time on the death penalty, education, top issues facing Texas, and whether the people they know would vote for a Mormon candidate with whom they agree on issues. Full Story
The Trib's Thanh Tan kicks of a week of stories on the new University of Texas/Texas Tribune political poll — which shows Herman Cain in a statistical tie with Rick Perry in Texas — by interviewing the poll's co-director, Jim Henson of the Texas Politics Project. Full Story
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We stuck with the presidential race and the governor in this week's nonscientific survey of political and government insiders, asking for their impressions of Gov. Rick Perry and how his candidacy reflects on the state. Full Story
At a press conference hours after releasing his tax and spending plan, Rick Perry faced questions about his low poll numbers and his comments on Barack Obama's birth certificate. Full Story
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Our insiders are watching their governor closely, and half of the people who've been watching him the longest — and professionally, at that — say he's not doing as well in the presidential campaign as they expected. That said, they're not writing him off. Full Story
A recurring theme questioned the status quo of the boards that govern higher education at this week’s day-long meeting of the Joint Oversight Committee on Higher Education Governance, Excellence, and Transparency: Are the boards that govern higher education due for more restrictive conflict-of-interest policies? Full Story
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Aaronson interactively asks if stimulus funds created jobs in Texas, Aguilar on new voter registrar rules that could decrease voter turnout, Galbraith on a UT professor's debunking of climate change "myths," Grissom on an epic clash of El Paso political titans, Hamilton on the right's new higher ed guru, Murphy maps household data from the 2010 Census, Ramsey on a coming rules fight in the Texas Senate, Root and M. Smith on Rick Perry's performance at the New Hampshire debate and M. Smith talks public ed cuts with the state's Superintendent of the Year: The best of our best content from October 10-14, 2011. Full Story
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This week, we asked the insiders whether the school finance lawsuits will play in the elections and in the next legislative session. Full Story
Thomas Lindsay, recently selected to head the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Higher Education, attributes the state's growing awareness of higher education to the discussion begun by the TPPF. Full Story
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The redrawing of political district lines — which ideally happens just once a decade after a federal census — could create a series of crazy election cycles for Texas voters and candidates. It happened in the 1990s, and it could happen again now. Full Story
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It's been a noisy week for Rick Perry, the presidential candidate, so we asked the insiders whether any of what they've heard and read over the last few days will stick. Will the stories have legs? Is the good news good enough to last? The bad news? Full Story
Next month, Texans will go to the polls to decide whether to authorize $6 billion in bonding authority dedicated to building and fixing water infrastructure. But some conservatives and Tea Party members have concerns about the measure. Full Story
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Chris Harris and Will Hartnett say they won't be back, but the horde of candidates for state and federal legislative seats is growing. Full Story
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