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Politics & Policy

Reporting and commentary on the Legislature, campaigns, and elected officials

Politics & Policy|
July 31, 1998

Poll Taxed

The hottest topic in the crucial lieutenant governor’s race between Republican agriculture commissioner Rick Perry and Democratic state comptroller John Sharp is the reliability of the Scripps Howard–owned Texas Poll. When the March poll showed Sharp leading with 41 percent of surveyed voters to Perry’s 35 percent, R’s complained vigorously

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Politics & Policy|
June 30, 1998

Situation Wanted

Headline: Situation Wanted by Evan SmithThe revolving door between politics and the media is swinging furiously in New York and Washington, D.C., so why should it be any different in Austin? In this year’s race for attorney general, for instance, the major party candidates have hired journalists as their spokespersons:

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Politics & Policy|
June 30, 1998

President Bush?

He’s the front-runner even before he has officially entered the race, but sky-high expectations are the least of the obstacles George W. Bush faces in his quest for the White House.

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Politics & Policy|
June 30, 1998

A Letter to the Mayor

The Honorable Lee P. Brown Mayor of HoustonHouston, TexasDear Mayor Brown,THANKS AGAIN FOR SEEING ME the other day. I’m always happy to have a reason to go to Houston City Hall. It’s not much to look at from the outside, but inside it’s one of my favorite

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Health|
May 31, 1998

Rx for Scandal

The poor quality of health care in the state’s penal system is enough to make you sick. Plus: Inside Tex Moncrief’s IRS mess; a River Oaks bookie is tried for murder; UT’s writing program achieves Texas-size success; and things get woolly for thestate’s mohair producers.

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Politics & Policy|
May 31, 1998

Family Values

AS IF TEXAS Democrats didn’t have enough trouble, the state party is losing one chairman (incumbent Bill White) and not getting another (uncandidate Cecile Richards, daughter of Ann) because both wanted to spend more time with their families. White, who describes himself as “not all that partisan—I prefer to find

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Politics & Policy|
April 30, 1998

City Limits

How serious is the fight by suburbs to limit the annexation power of cities? It’s become a matter of life and death. In Kingwood, which was recently swallowed by Houston, opponents of annexation are blaming several deaths in the area on slow response time by Houston ambulances. Annexation is also

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Politics & Policy|
April 1, 1998

Primary Cullers

Winners in the March 10 primaries:George W. Bush His archnemesis, former Republican state chairman Tom Pauken, failed to make the runoff for attorney general, while his point man for his strategy to win Hispanic votes, former Secretary of State Tony Garza, won the GOP nomination for railroad commissioner.Big Money The

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Politics & Policy|
March 1, 1998

Learning His Lesson

George W. Bush’s plan to teach every child how to read by the third grade is unquestionably the right thing to do. So how come he’s gotten such mixed reviews? (“We’ve had a hard time,” admits a Bush staffer.) The answer, like much of politics these days, is in the

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Politics & Policy|
January 1, 1998

President and Accounted For

BUSH VERSUS GORE: Is it the battle for president in 2000? No, it was the Houston mayoral runoff in December. When Vice President Al Gore, with his eye on the Democratic nomination two years hence, came to a fundraiser for eventual winner Lee Brown, Bill Clinton’s first drug czar, the

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Politics & Policy|
January 1, 1998

Who killed the Texas Democratic party?

AT LEAST DAN MORALES knew that the mere proclamation he was going to have a press conference was not likely to stop the world in its tracks. The night before and all that morning, some supporters, as well as the attorney general himself, were busy calling around to say that

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Politics & Policy|
December 1, 1997

Brown in Front

Ten reasons why former police chief Lee Brown is well positioned to be elected Houston’s first black mayor on December 6: (1) He ran stronger than expected in the November 4 primary, with 42 percent to Rob Mosbacher’s 29 percent. Both were projected to poll in the 30’s. (2) The

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Politics & Policy|
November 1, 1997

Taking a Chance

The Texas Legislature may have killed the goose that laid the golden egg—and Governor George W. Bush’s goose could be cooked—if dire forecasts about state lottery revenue prove to be correct. To balance the state budget this past spring, lawmakers cut the winners’ share of lottery revenue from 55.5 percent

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Politics & Policy|
November 1, 1997

The Revision Thing

The opening of the George Bush presidential library at Texas A&M is a good occasion to ask two questions on the mind of everyone but Bush himself: How good a president was he? And what sort of ex-president has he been?

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Politics & Policy|
September 30, 1997

The (Non)candidate

George W. Bush faces a dilemma. What’s a poor front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination supposed to do when all anyone in the media wants to talk about is when he’s going to announce his intentions? Why don’t interviewers ask him about shoes or ships or sealing wax—anything but that?

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Best and Worst Legislators|
June 30, 1997

Zero Zero Zero

Bless his heart, he’s just in the wrong place. The Legislature is not right for him. His conservative beliefs are too extreme, his suspicions are too easily aroused, his learning curve is too flat. The man isn’t dumb. He’s got an MBA from Harvard. They read books there. But he

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