Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller's itch for public attention earned him his latest headline, aided by his overdeveloped political reflex for deflecting blame. But the attention comes at an inopportune time.
Ross Ramsey: http://trib.it/1rh9Ob6
Join us on Facebook Wednesday morning at 10:15 am CDT for a #FBLive TribCast, our political gabfest podcast. We’ll talk about Cruz’s performance in the NY primary and Ken Paxton and Sid Miller’s legal troubles. Plus, we’ll take your questions.
Texas doesn’t have a cabinet form of government, but in Gov. Greg Abbott’s case, it might soon have the next best thing. If the wheels of justice turn against K...en Paxton, Sid Miller or both, forcing or prompting one or both to leave office, Abbott would have vacancies to fill.
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The younger part of the state’s population doesn’t look like the older part, and a new report suggests we should have a look at that before we make a big mess.
Ross Ramsey: http://trib.it/1SxuNMw
The contest between current Texas Republican Party Chairman Tom Mechler and his opponent, Jared Woodfill, is about purity, about which kinds of conservatives the Texas GOP represents and about what the party is supposed to be doing.
Some of the state officeholders elected in 2014 face struggles to gain control of their government, political and legal duties. They're looking like the gang that couldn’t shoot straight, or the 1962 Mets. But the stakes are more serious than that.
Ross Ramsey: http://trib.it/25VH47w
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has a book coming out next month. Surely that doesn't mean he's planning ...
Ross Ramsey, Ben Hasson and Emily Albracht: http://trib.it/25NRINH
Cutting prices can be expensive. The Texas Department of Transportation offered up the most recent example of that, answering the Legislature’s question about the price of making the state’s toll roads free. Spoiler alert: It's high.
Ross Ramsey: http://trib.it/1PIjsYg
Politicians won’t say it but the fact is, voters are ignorant. They are truly terrible at sorting good from bad information, at checking things out, at questioning their own assumptions when new information comes in.
Ross Ramsey: http://trib.it/1UAOdXv
One thing has remained true during this political cycle, even as we all watch our early predictions sour: The disruption that has marked the Republican Party in Texas and the U.S. for the last decade is still blooming.
Ross Ramsey: http://trib.it/1Rqonz8
This week on WFAA-TV's Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whitely, Bud Kennedy & Ross Ramsey: Ted Cruz and those "establishment" endorsements and much, much more:
The governor and lawmakers promise to reignite their efforts to tighten ethics laws in Texas, but they have so far been missing a key incentive to make reluctant officeholders go along: public interest.
On this week's TribCast, Ross talks to Evan, Patrick and Matthew about the race for the Republican presidential nomination, the Tribune's "Ballpark Figures" analysis of college sports costs, and Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.
So you want to be an independent candidate for president and you want to be on the ballot in Texas? You have until May 9, and there's some fine print to read first, writes Ross Ramsey.
Texas agriculture commissioners have historically had a hard time getting any news coverage. It sometimes seems the only way to get any attention at that relati...vely low rung on the statewide ladder is to foul up. That’s why you’ve probably seen so much of Sid Miller during the past year or so.
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This week on WFAA-TV's Inside Texas Politics, host Jason Whitely, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy and our own Ross Ramsey talk about the GOP race for... the presidential nomination, President Obama's SCOTUS nominee, voter fraud, fonts ... and much more!
Watch: http://trib.it/1LzQEGh
Three Texas Republicans could have golden tickets to their national political convention this summer; unlike their colleagues, they’ll be allowed to vote for any presidential candidate they choose.
It's true that Texas has cases of voter fraud, but it's more a trickle than a flood. Gov. Greg Abbott says that voter fraud is "rampant," but the numbers don't seem to bear that out.
Ross Ramsey: http://trib.it/1pHW6Nw
Perhaps it’s not in the best interests of the people now in office in Texas — whatever their party labels — to change the electoral setup that put them in office.
