
At Play in the Fields of the Lord
Baseball, an old and idiosyncratic game, loses and old and idiosyncratic field.
The dean of the Capitol press corps, senior executive editor Paul Burka joined the staff of Texas Monthly one year after the magazine’s founding, in 1973. For nearly forty years he has led the magazine’s political coverage and spearheaded its storied roundup of the Best and Worst Legislators each biennium. A lifelong Texan, he was born in Galveston, graduated from Rice University with a B.A. in history, and received a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law.
Burka is a member of the State Bar of Texas and spent five years as an attorney with the Texas Legislature, where he served as counsel to the Senate Natural Resources Committee.
Burka won a National Magazine Award for reporting excellence in 1985 and the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award. He is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and teaches at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a frequent guest discussing politics on national news programs on MSNBC, Fox, NBC, and CNN.
Baseball, an old and idiosyncratic game, loses and old and idiosyncratic field.
By Paul Burka
A familiar plaintiff. A familar case. Will the outcome be any different?…
By Paul Burka
As bad as it is, it goes beyond any possible criminal wrongdoing.
By Paul Burka
The recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court show how far Texas has fallen from the mainstream. The recent reactions by our leaders only make it worse.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
Greg Abbott emerged this session as the state’s uncontested leader—despite a few missteps along the way.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
Could the state’s refusal to expand the program ultimately cost billions of dollars?…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
His passing marks the end of an era in Texas.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
If you find out what Greg Abbott is up to, let the rest of us know.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
Paul Burka bids farewell to Texas Monthly—and wonders what happened to the Texas he once knew. …
By Paul Burka
Who will lead the flagship campus when Bill Powers leaves in June? …
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
There’s one thing we can all agree on when it comes to Dan Patrick.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
What Greg Abbott’s nominee to the UT Board of Regents means for the state.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
On the first full day of the Dan Patrick era, he makes his mark on the Senate.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
It’s the turnout, stupid.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
The dean of the Capitol press corps announces his upcoming retirement from TEXAS MONTHLY.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
I was surprised to read that Wendy Davis intends to make another run at public office, as yet unspecified. Among other things, she has retracted her support for open carry. But it is hard to see what kind of future Davis has, particularly when Battleground Texas proved to be as…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
It appears that Governor-elect Abbott is considering some form of Medicaid expansion. If this is indeed the case, it is incredibly good news for Texas. Rick Perry’s rejection of Medicaid expansion was petulant and extremely damaging to the state. The cost of expansion to the state is miniscule…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
The news that Speaker Joe Straus has become the Vice Chair of the Republican Legislative Campaign should be the final nail in the coffin of Michael Quinn Sullivan and Empower Texans. Of course I know it won’t. But it should end any speculation that Straus has any political worries whatsoever;…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
Greg Abbott is off to a fast start—and that is good for Texas.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
After every major election, it seems I find myself writing an obituary for the Texas Democratic party. It’s not a true obituary, I suppose, since the Democrats are not exactly dead, just comatose. This year brought a rare combination of considerable early optimism by Democrats, followed by the worst pasting…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
Texas is a Republican state and nothing is likely to change that in the foreseeable future.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
Battleground Texas, the organization chosen by the Obama White House to “turn Texas blue,” proved to have been nothing more than a mirage. In fact, Battleground did more to sabotage the Democratic effort — unintentionally — than to support it, thanks to Jeremy Bird, Battleground’s leader. Bird produced a memo…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
Does Jeb Bush have a chance at the White House? Or is the family name too damaged?…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
It provides such a meager amount of funding that it's hardly worth the effort of putting it on the ballot at all.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
UPDATE: In my original post, I mistakenly referred to previous endorsements by some of the state’s major newspapers, and I have corrected the errors. This election has all the earmarks of being one of the strangest ever. First, as I have opined before, this is the weakest ticket the Republican…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
To the surprise of no one, the Morning News has endorsed Greg Abbott for governor. It is a choice that I won’t criticize. But I will raise this red flag: that Wendy Davis has uncovered serious issues about Abbott’s character and lack of empathy for Texans who have…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
A federal judge in Corpus Christi called the state's voter ID law "an unconstitutional poll tax"…
By Erica Grieder and Paul Burka
The war chest matters in 2014, but it sets the tone in 2018.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
I’m not surprised that the race for governor has tightened according to the recent Lyceum Poll. This is a contest between two candidates who have the support of large constituencies that stretch far beyond Texas. Abbott is among the state’s most prominent attorneys and is no stranger to…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
The final debate in the 2014 governor's race is over, and the winner was clear-cut.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
The candidates' true colors were on full display.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
When one looks at the wheeling and dealing that went on with the Texas Enterprise Fund, my question is this: Why is it not an impeachable offense? These folks used the Enterprise Fund for their private playground. They awarded $222 million to entities that, according to the Dallas Morning News,…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
Alas, I was out of the state for the Texas gubernatorial debate on Friday evening, but having watched the replay, I can’t say that I missed much. As debates go, I found it relatively low-wattage. Both candidates were articulate and reasonably polite to their opponents, though I thought Davis…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
Recent actions by state government have reinforced my belief that the state rarely does anything FOR the public; it only does things TO the public. The latest example is that Texas insurance commissioner Julia Rathgeber allowed the three largest home insurance companies to impose significant rate increases. Rathgeber could have…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
I was interested by Eric Bearse’s piece in the Quorum Report yesterday concerning Wendy Davis and abortion. Bearse wrote, among other things: “The reason Wendy Davis has never recovered politically from her abortion filibuster is she fought on turf where she couldn’t win. Outside of San Francisco…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
He's still raising money for his race for governor. And it's not because he's worried about Wendy.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
It is all but certain that Attorney General Greg Abbott will appeal Judge Dietz’s school finance ruling. It’s classic Abbott. He has to win, even if he realizes that he is going to lose.But the Legislature’s treatment of the schools during the 2011 session all but guarantees a loss for Abbott.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
Why Republicans should listen to what female voters are saying.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
The governor has a first-class legal team, but some of its arguments concerning the indictment sound more like rhetoric than law. Such as “an unconstitutional attack on Perry’s rights” And …”defies common sense” And …”a violation of the Texas and U.S. constitutions” And … “an improper attempt to criminalize politics”…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
Smearing the prosecutor is just about the dumbest thing a defendant in a criminal case can do. The second dumbest thing is to threaten the prosecutor.
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
The indictment of Rick Perry turns Texas politics upside down. …
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
UPDATE: I’ve included a link to the indictments at the bottom of this post. Thought Texas politics couldn’t get any weirder? A short time ago special prosecutor Michael McCrum announced that a grand jury had indicted Perry on two counts related to his veto of funds for the Public Integrity…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
I don’t think Republicans recognize what is happening to their party in Texas. The GOP is verging on irrelevance. The failure of Texas to land the Republican national convention should have been a wake-up call for the state party. There was a reason why the Republicans chose Cleveland over Dallas:…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
With three months to go until the general election, there isn't much reason to talk about the governor's race. It's over. …
By brian sweany and Paul Burka
To close this discussion, I simply want to say one thing: This was completely predictable. There was no reason to send the National Guard to the Border. There was no mission. There was no objective. It was just political theatre to make Rick Perry look like he was doing something,…
By brian sweany and Paul Burka