U.S. State Politics

Greg Abbott Shoots Down Local Rep's Call for Independent Watkins Investigation

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott rejected a request from Republican state Representative Jason Villalba to investigate Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins' use of asset forfeiture funds to make good on a February 2013 traffic accident Watkins caused. Abbott told Villalba that he can't in ... More >>

Watch that San Antonio Redistricting Trial for a Good Picture of Texas Tea-publicans.

That Texas redistricting trial that started up yesterday in federal court in San Antonio? Watch that one. It could be third side of the magic triangle that turns Texas blue. The trial is not about whether the tea-tinged Republican-dominated Texas Legislature gerrymandered the vote maps in 2011. Ask ... More >>

After Flirting with Moderation, Texas GOP Moves Further Right on Immigration

When we left you on Friday, there was a glimmering hope that Texas Republicans might consider adopting a more middle-ground approach to immigration, in an attempt to appeal to Hispanic voters. According to state Representative Jason Villalba, a more moderate stance would be critical to the survival ... More >>

Retailers Turn to Greg Abbott in Fight Against Plastic Bag Bans

The best argument against plastic bag bans like the one Dallas is set to consider very soon is that they're not really worth the energy. Plastic sacks make up a relatively small fraction of the waste stream, hardly enough to justify inconveniencing shoppers or retailers. It's not a particularly goo ... More >>

The Tea Party is Still Very Much Alive In Texas. Dammit.

In the weeks leading up to Tuesday's primary, there was a lot of chatter about how the Tea Party was losing its grip on Texas. It was a nice thought, that Ted Cruz's antics and the constant demagoguing against the federal government had worn thin, nudging voters back to the middle. It just wasn't t ... More >>

Jerry Patterson Is the Lone Sane Republican Running for Lieutenant Governor, Is Doomed

There's not a whole lot of daylight between the Republican candidates for lieutenant governor. All check the requisite conservative boxes on guns, abortion, immigration, healthcare evolution, school choice, the size of government and so on. That said, GOP voters still have a choice for the March 4 ... More >>

Texas Lt. Governor Candidates Agree: Brain-Dead Pregnant Woman Should Still Be On Life Support

KERA's hour-long debate between the four Republican lieutenant-governor hopefuls was, as expected, a desperate scramble to the right. On issue after issue -- evolution, abortion, immigration -- the candidates studiously avoided any hint of moderation. Nowhere was that clearer than in their answers ... More >>

Texas AG Candidate Barry Smitherman Can Shoot All the Guns

One of the prerequisites for holding statewide office in Texas nowadays is the gun-toting photo op. Governor Rick Perry's done plenty. So has Attorney General Greg Abbott and Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson. Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst is the rare exception -- just more proof that he can't ... More >>

Texas National Guard Still Denying Marriage Benefits to Same-Sex Couples

If a same-sex marriage happens outside of Texas, but no law in Texas was there to recognize it, did the marriage ever even happen? Earlier this year, a state senator asked Attorney General Greg Abbott to weigh in on the question in light of all the same-sex couples employed by municipal government ... More >>

Could Mike Rawlings Win a Senate Seat Just by not Being Totally Nuts or Shiftless?

Toward the end of last week I reported that some kind of Democrats -- I wasn't sure which -- have been whispering in Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings' ear about running for John Cornyn's Senate seat in 2014. Rawlings admitted he had spoken with them but discounted the whole deal, saying, "I'm way too fisc ... More >>

Texas' Next Lieutenant Governor Thinks You Shouldn't Be Trusted to Elect Senators

It's not yet clear who will become Texas' next lieutenant governor. David Dewhurst, though tarnished by his defeat at the hands of Wendy Davis and her "unruly mob," could hang onto the seat. Or he could be out-flanked to the right in the Republican primary by a trio of challengers: Agriculture Commi ... More >>

Surprise! Texas GOP Candidates Don't Support Gay Rights -- or Do They?

Every week or so, managing editor Patrick Williams disappears into his office and reemerges a cranky, nicotine-addicted, third-person-referring superhero we like to call Buzz. So The Associated Press last week reported the results of a survey it sent to the top Republican candidates for statewide o ... More >>

Meet the Republicans Who Are Lining Up for Wendy Davis' Senate Seat

Wendy Davis still hasn't declared whether or not she plans to run for Governor. If she does, she'll face a formidable challenge in Attorney General Greg Abbott, Rick Perry's all-but-anointed successor. If she doesn't, she faces a challenge that's almost as formidable winning reelection in a Republic ... More >>

Poll: Texans Still Don't Particularly Like Rick Perry, but He'd Whip Senator Wendy Davis in Gubernatorial Race

Senator Wendy Davis stood beneath the dome for 11 hours in Mizuno sneakers (and, quite possibly, adult diapers) filibustering abortion legislation that could have shuttered all but a handful of providers. At one point nearly 200,000 tuned into watch, until three rather sketchy points of order brough ... More >>

Texas Republicans are Already Using the Filibuster as Ammo in Fight for Wendy Davis' Senate Seat

Even before Fort Worth Democrat Wendy Davis took the Senate floor late Tuesday morning and launched into the filibuster that would ultimately grab the nation's attention and kill attempts to railroad abortion restrictions through the state Legislature, she was at the top of Texas Republicans' hit li ... More >>

Tips for Rick Perry's Next Campaign: Stop Being Such a Lefty

Good read by Jay Root in The Texas Tribune today about whether Governor Oops will run for re-election as governor of Texas or run for something else, who knows what, president of France, whatever. Root suggests it will be the governorship again for Oops, and he talks some about other Republican gube ... More >>

Every Anti-Abortion Bill in the Texas Legislature This Session Has Failed

Man. We remember a time, long ago last legislative session, when all your state lawmakers wanted to do was talk about abortion and how much they hated it. They were super-duper against it, as they could not seem to stop talking about, so much so that they cheerily decimated the Texas Women's Health ... More >>

Associa CEO and State Senator John Carona's Many Colorful Conflicts of Interest

John Carona, our Republican state senator from Dallas, learned some hard lessons this session about how his fellow lawmakers' business interests tend to dominate the doings in the legislature. Last month, Carona's bill to try to reform the incredibly predatory payday loan industry was picked down to ... More >>

Hey, Rick Perry, Listen. Is That a Fat Lady You Hear Singing?

Is it too soon and maybe even bad luck to say this out loud? Is it even possible that Governor Oops could be over? I'm knocking on wood, tossing salt over my shoulder, making the sign of the cross with my index fingers and looking for garlic in the kitchen as I speak, I promise. But yesterday cons ... More >>

Greg Abbott Wants To Make Texas' Interim (And Still Probably Unconstitutional) Redistricting Plan Permanent

As you may recall, Texas' 2011 plan to redraw political boundaries was so brazenly partisan, so undeniably bent on reducing minority influence, and the evidence was so mountainous and convincing that a federal court didn't even bother cataloging it all in its ruling against the state. "The parties h ... More >>

As Supreme Court Debates Gay Marriage, Texas Politicians Explain How it Violates God's Law

The attention of the country, or at least that segment of it that's politically aware enough to pay attention, is focused squarely on the U.S. Supreme Court,which this week is debating a pair of potentially momentous cases. Hollingsworth v. Perry, which was argued today, could do away with Californi ... More >>

There's a Push for Term Limits in Austin, and It's Being Led by a Longtime Perry Ally

Right now, there's a push underway in the Texas legislature to impose term limits on the state's elected officials. A bill, filed by Representative Lyle Larson, a San Antonio Republican, is currently being mulled by a House committee. A similar proposal by Tyler Republican Kevin Eltife is being cons ... More >>

Dallas' Helen Giddings and Other Black Lawmakers Object to Security Measures at Rick Perry's Mansion

State Representative Helen Giddings was one of several Democratic lawmakers invited to the Governor's Mansion Monday afternoon for a reception hosted by the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. But she never showed up. Giddings declined the invitation to protest the requirement that she undergo a backgr ... More >>

More Texas Republicans Are Urging the Boy Scouts to Dig In Their Heels on Gay Ban

Texas Values, an organization whose goal is to "preserve and advance a culture of family values," has issued an open letter to the Boy Scouts of America with their thoughts on lifting the ban on gay scouts. They're against it. "While adopting this ill-considered and wrongly devised policy might ear ... More >>

Texas AG Greg Abbott Warns Hillary Clinton to Keep European Election Monitors from Messing with Texas

On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, in a bit of international chest-pounding, sent a strongly worded letter to the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe threatening criminal charges if the group carried out a hinted-at plan to show up in Texas come November 6. ... More >>

Election Proves Ted Cruz is a Talented Politician, But a Harbinger of Tea Party Dominance? Not So Much.

We knew it already, but Ted Cruz is Texas' next U.S. Senator. Sure, he still has to face Democrat Paul Sadler in the November general election, but this is Texas, where so long as you promise to cut taxes and put a big 'R' somewhere near your name, you're good. The victory, unthinkable a few months ... More >>

Looks Like the Tea Party's Gonna Elect Cruz Fair and Square. So, Let's Change the Game.

Texas will elect it's next senator today. Odds are, you won't vote for him. In fact, a good number of you, even if you're registered to vote, can't vote in the truly decisive race going down Tuesday, because you were dumb enough to vote in the Democratic primary in May. Suckers. So, let's all clap ... More >>

Texas Democrats Make Fun of Republicans with Weird Animated Video, Santorum Jokes

Someone has shown the Texas Democratic Party the video creator apps on YouTube, and the results are Lego George W. Bush, a joke about santorum (the frothy kind), a version of Rick Perry that looks like a rotund funeral home director and some jabs at sweater vests. Politicians, please start making ... More >>

Ask a Mexican: Why Are Mexicans Always Changing Their Names?

Medicaid Women's Health Program Is One Step Closer To Death

The Medicaid Women's Health Program provides some 130,000 Texas women with vital medical care: family planning, birth control, cancer screenings and annual exams. And for that, of course, it must die. That, at least, has long been the case as far as Republican lawmakers are concerned. And after last ... More >>

Governor Gaffe Comes Back to Texas, Wounded But No Wiser

Wait a minute. Forgive me, but I must misuse and abuse a bit of Dylan Thomas here to suggest we should not let Rick Perry go quite so gentle into that good night. I'm reading a lot of crap about how he bombed in his presidential campaign because he was "ill-prepared" and committed gaffes. It's way ... More >>

State Maps Stayed, Texas AG Abbott Now Wants Supremes to Delay Candidate Filing Period

Carol Kent's hoping to run for House Disrict 107, if there is a House Distict 107.​As we were leaving the office Friday, word came down that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (and former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement) got what they wanted from the U.S. Supreme Court: a ruling that, for now, ... More >>

Paul Clement's To-Do List Just Got Longer As He Tries to Toss Texas's Redistricting Maps

​On Wednesday we got our first look at the new-look Texas maps drawn by the court, which is attempting to rectify the U.S. Department of Justice's concerns that the state Legislature is attempting to keep Hispanics from voting for Hispanic candidates, especially in Dallas-Fort Worth. To which Texa ... More >>

If Nothing Else, MALDEF's Very Happy With the Federal Court's New State Redistricting Map

​About a month ago we noted that the Department of Justice was very unhappy with how state legislators redrew Texas's congressional districts -- something to do with how the new map "actually reduced minority electoral power" in Dallas-Fort Worth, for starters. Hence the ongoing litigation in San ... More >>

Top Chef: Texas Cost Taxpayers $200K More Than First Reported, Thanks to San Antonio

​We've been telling you since the summer about the estimated $400,000 the Texas governor's office agreed to pay the producers in exchange for them promoting the state's brand in the ongoing, Texas-centric season of Top Chef. Last we checked in, the producers, a California company called Magica ... More >>

Rick Perry's Manufactured Miracle

Rick Perry's Texas is a job-making, low-taxing oasis of prosperity. It's also pure fantasy.

Top Chef Producers Sue to Suppress Details of Their Deal With Texas Taxpayers

Chris Christie, the seriously-non-president-running governor of New Jersey, recently pulled the plug on $420,000 in government subsidies for Jersey Shore, calling the tax incentives "wasteful spending" on a show that poorly represents his state. Texas Governor Rick Perry's office? It sees no such w ... More >>

Perry Sticks By His Guns on Social Security

Are you listening, old people?

Top Chef To Cost Texas Taxpayers $400,000, Give Or Take the Bacon Budget

"Mmm. Taxpayer-funded chocolate is delicious."​For several weeks now, as Top Chef crews have bounced around the state shooting next season's Texas-centric version of the popular Bravo reality show, journalists and food bloggers have wondered: How much, if anything, did the state pay for the sh ... More >>

Fantasy Voter Fraud

Riddle in an Enigma: Puzzled by Austin's Odd Priorities

Sweatin' It Out With the Justice League!

Photos by Sam MertenState Senator Royce West and county judge candidate Clay Jenkins help pump up the crowd as District Attorney Craig Watkins grabs the mic Saturday afternoon.​This, in case you have not heard, is the "Summer of Justice." Which, as far as summers-of goes, ranks somewhere in betwee ... More >>

Houston Mayor Bill White is Running for Governor. Unless He Isn't. We Think.

Says Rick Perry: I'm "Resisting Further Government Intrusion" and Saying No to $500 Mil in Unemployment Insurance

Just arrived in Austin, only to find in my in-box, oh, 'bout a dozen Friends' links to either Governor Rick Perry's speech down in Houston or the Burnt Orange Report's compendium of reactions to said speech. As you may know by now, the governor is saying no to more than $500 million in unemployment ... More >>

Kay Bailey Hutchison's Fellow GOP Senators Begging Her Not to Leave D.C. Just Yet

On Tuesday, Governor Rick Perry told the Associated Press he seriously doubted Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was going to challenge him come 2010. Because, look, "there's plenty of time for the senator to think that it's not in her best interest, Texas' best interest or the country's best interest to ... More >>

Popular Conservative Texas House Candidate Dunning Has Some Republicans Worried

Why is Hillary Neglecting Delegate-Rich Dallas County?

While Obama has events going on throughout the city, Clinton is nowhere to be found

My Ex-Girlfriend's Husband is "Lead Consultant" For Sam Coats' Mayoral Campaign. That's Odd.

Sam Coats is running for mayor. You knew that, right? Because I totally forgot. Well, we just got the press release from Sam Coats' folks informing us who's going to be running his mayoral campaign, and top o' the list is Jason Stanford, who used to call us all the time back when he was campaign man ... More >>

Rafael Anchia Wants to Kill Anti-Immigration Legislation Dead. Good Luck With All That.

Rafael Anchia is trying to kick out immigration legislation, but not immigrants. Because nothing gets the Friend of Unfair Park more riled up than the words "immigration legislation" (or "Avi Adelman," geez), we thought it'd be a good idea to mention the press release we just received from the offic ... More >>

Anchia to Tackle "Divisive and Misguided" Anti-Immigration Legislation

State Representative Rafael Anchia Don't tell FrontBurner, because they'll think he's a racist, but Representative Rafael Anchia belongs to the Mexican American Legislative Caucus of the Texas House of Representatives. And last week, Anchia was named vice-chair of MALC's newly formed task force on i ... More >>