The Texas Weekly Hotlist, General Election 2014
In which we rank the races by risk to the incumbents and/or the level of drama for candidates and voters in the state's congressional and legislative races.
Full StoryIn which we rank the races by risk to the incumbents and/or the level of drama for candidates and voters in the state's congressional and legislative races.
Full StoryA new tool comes online for candidates to create their own digital ad campaign, and the week in endorsements.
Full StoryThis week in the Newsreel: a compilation of greatest hits from keynote speakers at the 2014 Texas Tribune Festival.
Full StoryFor this week’s nonscientific survey of insiders in government and politics, we asked about the state’s photographic voter ID law and its chances in the courts.
Full StoryKey meetings and events for the coming week.
Full StoryAnd so we should not be aligned with such people — they’re just, they’re just literally lying.
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt on his decision to cut ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), citing that group's stances on climate change
I just wanted to see what it would do, and I overdid it, naturally, and I was laying there, and it felt like the flesh was falling off my bones.
Willie Nelson, letting New York Times' columnist Maureen Dowd know she wasn't alone in having a misadventure with pot-laced edibles
I’m a Democrat, and I will die as a Democrat.
U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, who apparenly is not switching parties. Good to know.
They call us the three amigos.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on his siding with liberal colleagues Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., against arming and training Syrian rebels to fight ISIS
It didn’t turn out so well. What people want is for the government to function and not to throw temper tantrums and say we’re not going to play ball.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on the legislative tactics in his own party on defunding the Affordable Care Act that led to the federal government shutdown
A damning state audit released Thursday found the Texas Enterprise Fund — an economic incentive program long championed by Gov. Rick Perry — was riddled with weak oversight policies. One finding was that $170 million was awarded to recipients that never formally applied for the funds.
Perry's legal team asked for the governor to be excused from all future non-evidentiary hearings in advance of his trial on felony charges related to his veto of funding for the Public Integrity Unit. An Oct. 13 hearing conflicts with a Perry speaking engagement the next day in England. The special prosecutor in the case, Michael McCrum, opposed the request.
The head of the Public Integrity Unit confirmed that an investigation of GOP attorney general nominee Ken Paxton would not proceed until after the November elections. The complaint filed against Paxton keys off his being disciplined by the Texas State Securities Board for failing to register as a solicitor for a financial services firm.
Alferma Giles of Sugar Land and Manda Hall of Austin were appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to the Early Childhood Intervention Advisory Committee. Giles' term expires Feb. 1, 2017, and Hall's term expires Feb. 1, 2015.
Stan Cromartie of League City and Lamont Meaux of Stowell were reappointed by Perry to the Gulf Coast Waste Disposal Authority Board of Directors for terms to expire Aug. 31, 2016.
Texas AFL-CIO President Becky Moeller will not seek re-election. She will have served eight years at the helm of the organization when her current term concludes in July 2015.
Jim Grace has hired on with the government law and policy practice at Greenberg Traurig, LLP. He previously headed the Texas government relations practice at Baker Botts LLP. He was also previously chairman of the Greater Houston Partnership’s Government Relations Advisory Committee.
Disclosure: Greenberg Traurig, LLP was in 2010 a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Texas Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.