Main Page

From Texas Political Almanac

Jump to: navigation, search

1 Updates
2 Showcase
3 Texas Government
4 Texas Education
- 4.1 Public Education (K-12)
- 4.2 Higher Education
5 Texas General Government
6 Texas Health Care
7 Texas Criminal Justice
8 Texas Agriculture
9 Texas Energy & Natural Resources
10 Texas Transportation
11 Texas Economy
12 Texas History
13 Texas Geography
14 Scratchpad & Miscellaneous Subjects

Updates

District pages updated for current Congressional, State Senate, and State House districts. All 2001-era districts have had a unique page created in the redistricting sections for each page. State Board of Education pages are in queue to be completed next.
Committee assignments for the 83rd Lege are now updated: House and Senate
An update to the overall outline of content is being created to allow space for non-political topics still relevant to Texas government. Some see information has been provided to areas such as Texas Education.

Showcase

Sunset Bills in the 83rd Legislature being started w/ writeups for select bills: SB213(83R), SB215(83R), SB219(83R)
Congressional writeups: CD1, CD7, CD8, CD9, CD14, CD15, CD16, CD22, CD27, CD29. Previous versions have been saved to 2001-era maps. Each will be updated and moved over to the current district page as time permits.
2011 Elections page is added with complete results. Writeup of contests are in progress, beginning with Houston election.
Harris County Constable Precincts page completed with 2010 Demographics, Precinct Map, and some Election History.
Overview of City of Houston council districts is ported over from the blog.

Texas Government

Federal Officeholders

U.S. Senate

Thomas Rusk Seat: Ted Cruz
Sam Houston Seat: John Cornyn

History of U.S. Senate Elections in Texas

U.S. Congress U.S. Congressional Districts

District

CD1, CD2, CD3, CD4, CD5, CD6, CD7, CD8, CD9, CD10, CD11, CD12, CD13, CD14, CD15, CD16, CD17, CD18, CD19, CD20, CD21, CD22, CD23, CD24, CD25, CD26, CD27, CD28, CD29, CD30, CD31, CD32, CD33, CD34, CD35, CD36

Statewide Officeholders

Governor - Rick Perry
Lt. Governor - David Dewhurst
Attorney General - Greg Abbott
Comptroller of Public Accounts - Susan Combs
Commissioner of the General Land Office - Jerry Patterson
Commissioner of Agriculture - Todd Staples
Railroad Commissioners - Barry Smitherman, David Porter, Christi Craddick
Secretary of State - Nandita Berry

Campaign 2014

On May 29, 2013, Comptroller Susan Combs announced that she would not seek re-election to the office of Comptroller. On July 8, 2013, Governor Rick Perry announced that he would not seek re-election to the office of Governor. These decisions set in motion the largest number of statewide candidacies in a number of years. Major-party nominees for office in 2014 are as follows:

US Senate: John Cornyn (R), David Alameel (D)
Governor: Greg Abbott (R), Wendy Davis (D)
Lt. Governor: Dan Patrick (R), Leticia Van de Putte (D)
Attorney General: Ken Paxton (R), Sam Houston (D)
Comptroller: Glenn Hegar (R), Mike Collier (D)
Land Commish: George P. Bush (R), John Cook [D]
Ag Commish: Sid Miller (R), Jim Hogan (D)
Railroad Commish: Ryan Sitton (R), Steve Brown (D)

State Board of Education

The Texas State Board of Education is an elected board that oversees the public education system in Texas. Members run in partisan elections and represent fifteen single-member districts for four-year terms. The terms are staggered, with half of the seats being up each cycle. However, all seats are up in the first year after new districts are drawn.

Board members set the Texas Essential Knowledge Standards (TEKS) for each subject area. TEKS is the basis for the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test, a standardized test used to determine whether students are meeting standards at specific grade levels. The board also oversees investments in the Permanent School Fund.

State Board of Education Districts

District

SBOE1, SBOE2, SBOE3, SBOE4, SBOE5, SBOE6, SBOE7, SBOE8, SBOE9, SBOE10, SBOE11, SBOE12, SBOE13, SBOE14, SBOE15

Texas Legislature

State Senate

The Texas Senate is the upper house of the Texas Legislature. There are 31 members, each representing single-member districts. The term of office is four years, with no term limits. All Senators are up for re-election in the first year after redistricting, with lots drawn to determine which half of the body is up for election two years later. Republicans control the body 19-12 after the 2012 election cycle.

Senate Districts

District

SD1, SD2, SD3, SD4, SD5, SD6, SD7, SD8, SD9, SD10, SD11, SD12, SD13, SD14, SD15, SD16, SD17, SD18, SD19, SD20, SD21, SD22, SD23, SD24, SD25, SD26, SD27, SD28, SD29, SD30, SD31

Senate Committees

State House

The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Texas Legislature. The House consists of 150 members elected from single-member districts. Representatives are elected to two-year terms with no term limits. The 83rd legislature will be controlled by Republicans 95-55. This follows the 82nd legislature where Republicans had won 99 seats in the 2010 election cycle and gained two more with the ensuing party-switches of Allan Ritter (Nederland) and Aaron Pena (Edinburg) to the Republican Party. The House is led by a Speaker of the House, who is elected by the body at the start of each legislative session. Joe Straus has served as Speaker since the 81st session. Rep. David Simpson has also announced his candidacy for Speaker going into the 83rd session.

The map in effect for 2012 (H309) is the creation of a 3-judge panel that resulted from a prior court-drawn map being overturned by the Supreme Court (H302). The legislature's plan (H283) serves as the basis for what Republicans in the legislature sought during the 82nd session. It remains to be seen whether 2014 elections will be held under a new map created from the ongoing lawsuit against the legislature's map, a new legislative-drawn map from the 2013 session, or possibly under the same map as 2012.

Speaker of the House
House Speaker Pro Tem

House Districts

District

HD1, HD2, HD3, HD4, HD5, HD6, HD7, HD8, HD9, HD10, HD11, HD12, HD13, HD14, HD15, HD16, HD17, HD18, HD19, HD20, HD21, HD22, HD23, HD24, HD25, HD26, HD27, HD28, HD29, HD30, HD31, HD32, HD33, HD34, HD35, HD36, HD37, HD38, HD39, HD40, HD41, HD42, HD43, HD44, HD45, HD46, HD47, HD48, HD49, HD50, HD51, HD52, HD53, HD54, HD55, HD56, HD57, HD58, HD59, HD60, HD61, HD62, HD63, HD64, HD65, HD66, HD67, HD68, HD69, HD70, HD71, HD72, HD73, HD74, HD75, HD76, HD77, HD78, HD79, HD80, HD81, HD82, HD83, HD84, HD85, HD86, HD87, HD88, HD89, HD90, HD91, HD92, HD93, HD94, HD95, HD96, HD97, HD98, HD99, HD100, HD101, HD102, HD103, HD104, HD105, HD106, HD107, HD108, HD109, HD110, HD111, HD112, HD113, HD114, HD115, HD116, HD117, HD118, HD119, HD120, HD121, HD122, HD123, HD124, HD125, HD126, HD127, HD128, HD129, HD130, HD131, HD132, HD133, HD134, HD135, HD136, HD137, HD138, HD139, HD140, HD141, HD142, HD143, HD144, HD145, HD146, HD147, HD148, HD149, HD150

House Committees

Texas Sunset Commission

In 1977, the Texas Legislature created the Sunset Advisory Commission to identify and eliminate waste, duplication, and inefficiency in government agencies. The 12-member Commission is a legislative body that reviews the policies and programs of more than 150 government agencies every 12 years. The Commission questions the need for each agency, looks for potential duplication of other public services or programs, and considers new and innovative changes to improve each agency's operations and activities. The Commission seeks public input through hearings on every agency under Sunset review and recommends actions on each agency to the full Legislature. In most cases, agencies under Sunset review are automatically abolished unless legislation is enacted to continue them.

2013 Texas Legislative Session

Administrative

Issues

Archive

2011 Texas Legislative Session

Local Government

Texas Judiciary

Texas Supreme Court

Composed of the Chief Justice and eight Justices, the Supreme Court of Texas is the court of last resort for civil matters in the State of Texas. The Supreme Court is in Austin, next to the State Capitol.

The Justices of the Supreme Court are elected to staggered six-year terms in state-wide elections. When a vacancy arises the Governor may appoint a Justice, subject to Senate confirmation, to serve out the remainder of an unexpired term until the next general election. All members of the Court must be at least 35 years of age, a citizen of Texas, licensed to practice law in Texas, and must have practiced law (or have been a lawyer and a judge of a court of record together) for at least ten years (see Tex. Const., Art. 5, Sec. 2).

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

The Court of Criminal Appeals is Texas' highest court for criminal cases. The Court consists of a Presiding Judge and eight Judges. They are elected by the voters of the entire state, and they hold their offices for terms of six years. The Court sits in Austin - near the Capitol. From time to time it may sit in other cities to hear cases.

Texas Court of Appeals

The fourteen Courts of Appeals have intermediate appellate jurisdiction in both civil and criminal cases appealed from district or county courts. Each Court of Appeals has jurisdiction in a specific geographical region of the State. Each Court is presided over by a chief justice and has at least two other justices. The specific number of justices on each Court is set by statute and ranges from three to thirteen.

Presently there are eighty justices authorized for these Courts. Appeals in the Courts of Appeals are usually heard by a panel of three justices, unless in a particular case an en banc hearing is ordered, in which instance all the justices of that Court hear and consider the case.

Texas District Courts

The district courts are the trial courts of general jurisdiction of Texas.The geographical area served by each court is established by the Legislature, but each county must be served by at least one district court. In sparsely populated areas of the State, several counties may be served by a single district court, while an urban county may be served by many district courts.

There are currently 156 courts and affiliated judges. 359 districts contain one county, while 97 districts contain more than one county..

District courts have original jurisdiction in all felony criminal cases, divorce cases, cases involving title to land, election contest cases, civil matters in which the amount in controversy (the amount of money or damages involved) is $200 or more, and any matters in which jurisdiction is not placed in another trial court. While most district courts try both criminal and civil cases, in the more densely populated counties the courts may specialize in civil, criminal, juvenile, or family law matters.

Texas County-level Courts

County-level courts consist of three types:

Constitutional County Courts: one court in each county
Statutory County Courts: established in 88 counties
Statutory Probate Courts: established in 10 counties

Texas Justice Courts

Texas Municipal Courts

Elections

Texas Education

State Board of Education
Texas Education Agency

Public Education (K-12)

During the 2010-11 school year, Texas had 4,933,617 students and 334,930 teachers. The graduating class for the prior school year was 280,520 students. The Texas Education Association (TEA) lists 1,237 different school districts and charter schools throughout the state. These districts contain 8468 different schools at all levels. The data produced for the 2008-09 school year calculates the per-pupil spending throughout the state at $7,418 per student.