The following two paragraphs are the conclusion of an article that appeared in the Pasadena Citizen about an appearance by Kay Bailey Hutchison yesterday in which she discussed her transportation plan. The article appears on the Hutchison campaign web site: When asked about paying for transportation improvements, she was less
This was sent today on the letterhead of Baselice & Associates to Texans for Rick Perry: Below are a few results from a telephone survey of N=609 randomly selected Republican primary voters in Texas that we conducted December 19-21, 2009. The margin of error to the results of this survey
The Quorum Report’s Daily Buzz says that the Perry campaign sent out a Mike Baselice poll to supporters via e-mail, with no supporting information, that showed: Perry 49% Hutchison 36% Medina 5% That sounds reasonable to me. The November Texas Tribune/UT poll had Perry 42%, Hutchison 30%, Media 7%. This
Let’s start by asking what is TxDOT’s biggest problem. The answer is: the culture of the agency. It is impervious to change. The most important element in the plan that Hutchison announced yesterday was to bring in a professional manager — a CEO — to oversee the agency. While I
Frank Corte announced his retirement today. He is chair of Defense Affairs and State-Federal Relations, so Straus will be able to bestow a chairmanship. Corte was a fixture on the Ten Worst list in his early years in the Legislature. He was smart-alecky on the mike and less than truthful
Hutchison unveiled her transportation policy today in Tyler. She spoke at the local Chamber of Commerce. Appearing with her were the mayor, the sheriff, and Congressman Louis Gohmert. Perry has been getting endorsements from just about all the trade associations, but Hutchison has endorsements from local officials. Later, she appeared
The year’s end is a time for making lists. The list that follows is my choice of the events that most affected Texas politics in 2009. No doubt readers will have their own lists; I invite them to post their versions in the comments section. What follows is my collection
Ross Ramsey, writing in the Texas Tribune today, has a story that the Hutchison campaign asked that I not be allowed to be a panelist on the gubernatorial debate on the grounds that KERA, the Dallas PBS station that is hosting the debate, and NPR both have policies against opinion
Out of the blue, I got an email from Scott Cohen, executive chef of Pavil, a brasserie I like a lot in San Antonio. This is what he said: “I was thinking about Christmas and decided to make this lamb shank recipe at home so my wife can relax
Here is who has filed so far: Governor: Felix Alvarado, Bill Dear, Farouk Shami, Bill White Lieutenant Governor: Ronnie Earle Attorney General: Barbara Ann Radnofsky Land Commissioner: Bill Burton Railroad Commissioner: Jeff Weems Agriculture Commissioner: Kinky Friedman (Hank Gilbert has said that he will run) A knowledgeable Democratic source told
Every election cycle Democrats look for signs that the Hispanic vote is going to reach the breakout stage. And every election cycle it doesn’t happen. Political consultant Marc Campos sent out the figures for the major Hispanic precincts in the mayoral runoff. His commentary: Every H-Town Latino political player ought
The website ProPublica has a report on the TARP bailout that suggests the mammoth lending program will not turn out to be a fiasco for the taxpayers after all: The government’s best estimate, released December 10, is that the bailouts of AIG and the auto companies will ultimately
The carts go around and around, delivering steaming platters and bamboo boxes filled with sumptuous morsels: baked barbecued pork folls, fried taro dumplings, shrimp pancakes, wonderful eggplant thingies stuffed with some sort of minced shrimp–we were so mesmerized that we hardly noticed an hour and a half had passed. Dim
This is the web site for the official returns. To get to it, click here: It shows Parker winning 53.60% of the vote to Locke’s 46.40%. It also shows that 738 of 738 precincts have reported. I used these numbers in my previous report on the race. Then
Annise Parker won the runoff with 52.78% of the vote to Gene Locke’s 47.22%, amounting to an 11,000 vote margin [This is the corrected tally; see “What was Parker’s final margin?” above]. She grabbed the lead with the early vote and kept it to the end. A late poll supposedly
Usually I get the green enchiladas at Julio’s, which is a little hole in the wall on Duval, not too far from the office. Today, the weather was so miserable–though less so than awful, bone-chilling yesterday–that I thought: caldo, yes! I love Julio’s Mexican chicken soup–it’s got a fabulous
This report comes from Chase Untermeyer, whom Capitol veterans will remember as a former state representative from Houston and aide to vice-president George H. W. Bush, and later an assistant secretary of the Navy and ambassador to Qatar. He is also the author of “The House is not a Home,”
The end of Huffines’ tenure is a significant loss to UT. First, Huffines shared and supported the vision of the UT leadership for the university’s future. Second, Huffines’ relationship with the governor was unique, a friendship of equals and mutual respect. Huffines had a lot of influence with Perry. Too
Bill King, who was a potential candidate for mayor of Houston before deciding not to make the race, has been sounding the alarm about the city’s financial condition. He sent out an e-mail today that refers to an article by Chronicle business writer Loren Steffy. King writes: Steffy
The title is “Texas Tough.” The spot opens with Hutchison in an ag setting, shaking hands with farm and ranch types. Then she appears standing at a microphone. Behind her four people are arrayed, with a fifth barely visible in the shadows. This is the unhappiest-looking collection of people I
There never was any doubt that Bill White was running for governor, and for that matter there wasn’t much doubt that he wanted to run for governor even when he was running for the Senate. Perry is now fighting a two-front war. A general election race against a Democrat will
I wonder if this is going to be a repeat of the 1980 race, when Brazos County had a powerful state senator who was defeated by an upstart. Bill Moore, known as “The Bull of the Brazos,” was up for reelection that year. Moore was one of the most powerful
Our stalwart and somewhat chilly Big Bend correspondent Fern McDougal writes, ” Far West Texas was hit with a soggy snowstorm Dec. 1, but diners at the Food Shark in Marfa were snug, warm and, I would think, rather amused. “The Food Shark Dining Bus, a rolling dining room, was
I met yesterday with William Hurd, who plans to seek the Republican nomination for Congressional District 23, a sprawling district that runs from San Antonio to El Paso, between Interstate 10 and the Rio Grande. I first met Hurd ten years ago, when he was student body president at Texas
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times is reporting that Republican party chairman Cathie Adams has made an endorsement in the contest for the Texas Supreme Court seat recently vacated by Scott Brister, in violation of her own pledge to remain neutral in GOP primary races. Adams is backing Eva Guzman,
Contrary to my previous post, the Hutchison campaign did get earned media from her appearance in San Antonio. (I have serious deficiencies as a Web researcher.) I will have posted a link below. Actually, what I said in that earlier post was that I had checked the Express-News and KENS
Hutchison made stops yesterday in Houston and San Antonio to tout her education proposals. I went to the San Antonio event. It was held in the library of Horace Mann, a middle school on the near northwest side. Horace Mann is a single-sex campus for girls, most of them African-American
Heading south to the land of live oaks and cotton.
A prayer (and a migas recipe) for the unemployed.
A prayer (and a migas recipe) for the unemployed.
Terry Stickels is combining his love of puzzles with spreading awareness of Alzheimer’s disease in his new book, The Big Brain Puzzle Book .
Chef Ethan Holmes, formerly the executive chef of Taverna, in Austin.
Recipe from Donna Xander.
A prayer for pagan souls and finding redemption in almond cake.
Recipe from Samar by Stephan Pyles, Dallas
Dallas
Ciao Bello, Houston and Justine’s, Austin
John Spong, Steven Tabbutt, and Von
Most people would never suspect that I—a 53-year-old retired Navy veteran who is conservative to the core—would support the legalization of marijuana [“Texas High Ways,” October 2009]. However, I do. It has come to the point in the state of Texas where too much time and effort is being wasted
The night I got married we danced for hours at the AmVets Post 65, in Marfa. It’s a large building with sheet-metal siding, a beat-up but gracious wooden stage, dramatic wooden rafters, and an Iwo Jima mural between the doors to the lobby. Like a lot of small-town halls,
As an instrumental virtuoso with a wildly curious nature, the 47-year-old songwriter, banjo player, and guitarist is known for genre cross-pollination: He has played bluegrass with Austin band the Bad Livers, jazz with Bill Frisell, and country with Robert Earl Keen. Pizza Box (ATO), Barnes’s first album on a
It’s East not West Texas that’s known as a blues hotbed, but Long John Hunter (born in 1931 in Louisiana) staked his claim in the hardscrabble juke joints of El Paso and Juárez, most notably the Lobby Bar. Hunter’s raucous thirteen-year, seven-night-a-week tenure there, which began in 1957, is
Though he manhandles his guitar like a professional wrestler and sings with the voice of a walrus, Austin’s Jon Dee Graham makes music about human frailty and emotional vulnerability. Graham has endured a lot lately: His son was diagnosed with a debilitating disease, and last year, a car accident
By now the archetypal Texas country-pop of Lyle Lovett rings with such easygoing familiarity that even his new songs sound like old favorites. It’s a testament to how well Lovett inhabits his own skin. And yet while recent years have seen some excellent recordings, a few of them—particularly the
The award-winning dramatist (Signs of Life: Six Comedies of Menace) looks to the Texas roots of novelist Patricia Highsmith to explain the traits and compulsions that informed her life. In The Talented Miss Highsmith, she explores the crime writer’s journals and love letters to reveal a complex and erratic
In 2006 Washington Post lifestyle columnist Hank Stuever headed to Frisco (population: roughly 90,000) as a modern explorer seeking the headwaters of the River Xmas, and the result is Tinsel: A Search for America’s Christmas Present. Though not against the holiday, he archly notes its nineteeth-century origins and
Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession will surprise readers who know Austin native Julie Powell only as the winsome novice chef played by Amy Adams in the film version of Julie & Julia, Powell’s near-brilliant first book. Images of that Julie—and of the saltier blogger from
As he nears the winter of his Pulitzer- and Oscar-winning career, Larry McMurtry is taking a staid victory lap with a three-volume memoir, which now yields its second installment: Literary Life. At 175 pages, it is a scant look back at forty-plus books and half a century of
Veer off I-35 to explore this lively stretch of boutiques, bistros, and gift shops galore.
HistoryAs with most rodeo events, pinpointing barrel racing’s exact origin is near impossible. “It probably started out as pretty women on fast horses, but now it’s a competitive sport for serious athletes,” says Martha Josey, a world-champion barrel racer, Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Famer, and co-owner of Josey Ranch,
