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Paul Burka

Paul Burka's Profile Photo

Former senior executive editor Paul Burka joined the staff of Texas Monthly in 1974, one year after the magazine’s founding. He led TM’s political coverage for nearly forty years 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 BA in history, and received a JD from the University of Texas School of Law.

Burka spent five years as an attorney with the Texas Legislature, where he served as counsel to the Senate Natural Resources Committee. He won the American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel Award in 1981. He also received a National Magazine Award in 1985, for his two-part profile of Clinton Manges. After retiring from Texas Monthly in 2015, he taught at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He died in 2022.

3666 Articles

State Secrets|
June 30, 1986

State Secrets

Fighting and feuding in the Mexican Lions Club; HL&P loses a lawsuit, and everybody will pay for it; the new math of politics; where’s the beef? on a diet.

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State Secrets|
May 31, 1986

State Secrets

Questioning the teachers’ sense—of humor; desperate times breed desperate ideas; a big step toward interstate banking.

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State Secrets|
April 30, 1986

State Secrets

A boondoggle for coal means more trouble for natural gas; the Houston Chronicle doesn’t rate with HL&P; defense lawyers judge a judge.

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State Secrets|
April 1, 1986

State Secrets

Southwest and Continental make war, knot Love; make way for natural gas on the commodities market; a taxing situation for Speaker Gib.

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State Secrets|
March 1, 1986

State Secrets

How much will $15 oil coast Mark White?; two new R’s for school districts: resistin’ reform; the truth about those bank rumors.

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State Secrets|
February 1, 1986

State Secrets

Mark White’s insurance policy; not all semiconductor dumpers are Japanese; betting on a lottery; Tom Loeffler’s odd ads.

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State Secrets|
December 1, 1985

State Secrets

Mexico’s bureaucracy thwarts Texas land heirs; a new poll has bad news for the guv; taxing times for the state budget; ending a boondoggle for colleges.

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State Secrets|
November 1, 1985

State Secrets

Fundamentalists lose ground in textbook war; White maneuvers to keep Hispanic support; round two for Crystal City.

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State Secrets|
September 30, 1985

State Secrets

Rough sailing for the water plan; sore losers at MHMR; a free ride for Mattox; now a word on behalf of ambulance chasing.

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State Secrets|
August 31, 1985

State Secrets

Looking for a place to go in Galveston; Coastal’s pension pipeline; John Hill for the defense; fallout from the East Texas congressional race.

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State Secrets|
July 31, 1985

State Secrets

Every phone a pay phone; look out, Clinton Manges; the GOP donnybrook; party realignment in San Antonio.

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State Secrets|
June 30, 1985

State Secrets

Singing the blues at the Fort Worth Opera; reversing the Texas Supreme Court; computing the damage at TI; cooking with gas at FERC.

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State Secrets|
April 1, 1985

State Secrets

If Lubbock gets a riverwalk, can a river be far behind?; previewing the mayors’ races; can Texas consultants make PAN dulce?; the Chronicle kills a story.

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State Secrets|
March 1, 1985

State Secrets

Coors and Hispanics make peace; Mexico’s flash in the pan; Gramm’s GOP crusade; Mayor Kathy emerges unscathed.

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State Secrets|
February 1, 1985

State Secrets

What’s the point at the Dallas Museum of Art? What does $25 oil mean for Houston? Hush, Gib. James Baker’s new job is a labor of love.

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State Secrets|
January 1, 1985

State Secrets

To oilmen, intangible means untouchable; to UT, untouchable means Fred Akers; a legal courtship sinks; a billboard solution may float.

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State Secrets|
December 1, 1984

State Secrets

A new law takes the driving out of DWI; a new battle brews on the Texas Supreme Court; Exxon gets rid of an old burden; so does Clinton Manges.

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State Secrets|
November 1, 1984

State Secrets

No joy in Cubville; deregulation is a gas; two airline wars—one cold, one hot; are the politicians back in control at UT?

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State Secrets|
September 30, 1984

State Secrets

Bullock brings a touch of Las Vegas to Texas; two Texas congressmen covet the same plum; an oil company sends a signal to Wall Street; a court fight could cost UT and A&M $20 million; a big man belongs in Houston.

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State Secrets|
August 31, 1984

State Secrets

Trauma for Texas hospitals; more trouble (what else?) for Clinton Manges; why Doggett should win—but probably won’t; and real deals in Houston.

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State Secrets|
July 31, 1984

State Secrets

Aggies and UT play beach brawl; Valero’s gas pains; education bureaucracy shake-up; the truth about those Hines rumors.

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State Secrets|
June 30, 1984

State Secrets

Presenting the Big Bend Condos and Solitario Safari; Mexico finds out what it feels like to have an immigrant problem; Oscar Wyatt and Clinton Manges gird for battle; inside report from the special session.

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State Secrets|
May 31, 1984

State Secrets

The leaning Tower of peace, aaagh—at last we learn what the “public” in Republican stands for; how do you spell relief? D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R; parks lose out yet again.

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Politics & Policy|
May 31, 1984

The Man in the Black Hat, Part One

Clinton Manges built his empire on brushland and oil wells, political contributions and lawsuits. His influence extends to the state capitol and oil company boardrooms. To get where he is, he studied under three masters of South Texas.

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State Secrets|
April 30, 1984

State Secrets

Why Mark White wishes he’d never heard of H. Ross Perot; a new lawsuit threatens to play havoc with local schools; one last word (we promise) about yuppies; seems like politics as usual at UT.

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State Secrets|
April 1, 1984

State Secrets

Gary Hart’s rise hurts two Texas politicos; at last, a solution to the South Texas Nuclear Project mess; the all-new Braniff turns out to be the same old Braniff; a delicate question about doctors.

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State Secrets|
March 1, 1984

State Secrets

Mesa gets an unwanted ally in its battle against Gulf; how to turn $100 million into $12 million; why 1984 is a good year for incumbents; the legal establishment takes aim at a controversial supreme court judge.

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State Secrets|
February 1, 1984

State Secrets

Mark White’s campaign promises come back to haunt him; Arthur Temple gets rich(er) off Time Inc.; who got burned when the torch was passed at First City; a Pyhrric victory for the oil industry.

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State Secrets|
January 1, 1984

State Secrets

Storm damage from Alicia may include the public's right to use the beach; Texas pecan growers go nuts over the feds; Mexico's ruling party turns up the heat on the opposition; why there may be an NCAA football play-off sooner than you think.

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State Secrets|
December 1, 1983

State Secrets

More trouble ahead for Jim Mattox; oil pipeline for sale—cheap; the EPA gets dumped over toxic dumping; raindrops on GTE’s head at Braniff Place.

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State Secrets|
November 1, 1983

State Secrets

The Supreme Court scores one for Texas against the Yankees; blame the recession on InterFirst; why Phil Gramm makes a great Republican; an oil squabble matches the greedy little independents against poor, starving Big Oil.

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State Secrets|
September 30, 1983

State Secrets

The National Weather Service blows Hurricane Alicia; how the storm will blow insurance rates; Texas congressmen vie for a plum committee seal; a suggestion for spending the spare $2 million.

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State Secrets|
August 31, 1983

State Secrets

It’s Post time in the race to take over Houston’s morning newspaper, and here are the odds; Doctor Death takes a holiday in Dallas; a bank merger causes frowns at Fulbright & Jaworski; does Jim Mattox have a future?

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State Secrets|
July 31, 1983

State Secrets

James Watt’s plan to thin the Big Thicket; the worst bridges in Texas; Republicans try to turn Clintgate into another Sharpstown; the Texas Supreme Court socks home buyers on the chin.

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State Secrets|
June 30, 1983

State Secrets

Briscoe’s beef; new wave health care; a bright idea for Houston Lighting & Power; the case of the lagging law school.

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State Secrets|
May 31, 1983

State Secrets

Big banks have interest in Delaware - but so far no principle; a price-fixing suit puts realtors out of commission; why some teachers don’t deserve a pay raise; a new kingmaker emerges in South Texas.

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State Secrets|
April 30, 1983

State Secrets

TV’s path to riches for Robert Caro’s The Path to Power; a big Texas howdy to PCBs; Reagan and Castro’s map wars; another prison reform idea turns sour.

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State Secrets|
April 1, 1983

State Secrets

Southwest Airlines’ California gamble pays off - and Texans do the paying: update from Gibgate; why Bellaire is not Park Place; a truly dumb idea from UT.

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