Idealistic? Yes. Reform-Minded? Absolutely. Bipartisan? That Too. During the 1971 session, the state representatives who came to be known as the Dirty Thirty were everything you’ve learned not to expect in politics. The group—which eventually numbered 35 members—put aside party loyalty (Democrats (D) are marked in blue,
Even his neighbors in New Braunfels haven’t heard much from Bob Krueger since he left Africa more than a year ago. Oh, they know that his wife, Kathleen, led a failed effort to ban beer on the Comal River, and they hear him occasionally on the half-hour Sunday morning religious
Rodney Ellis was excellent. Gary Elkins was well, significantly less so. Bill Ratliff was a model of dignified leadership. Domingo Garcia was a one-man leper colony. Our biennial roundup of the Legislature's leading lights and dim bulbs.
A diary of San Antonio Democrat Leticia Van de Putte's first session as a state senator.
Judging the three Texan candidates for the nation's highest court.
Free advice for Tony Sanchez.
Pamela Colloff flags down Austin's hottest political scribe.
One of us worked for Bill Clinton, the other for George W. Bush. Do we agree on how the new president is doing? What do you think?
The question about the James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Act isn't whether it will pass. The question is, Is it good law?
In Maverick County illegal immigrants are crossing in record numbers, creating a war zone. Mexicans have been shot and killed, houses robbed, cattle stolen. Some ranchers are fleeing. But others, like Dob Cunningham, have decided to stay and fight.
The El Paso mayor's race.
A collection of the letters of influential sociologist C. Wright Mills shows that his radical ideas were grounded in his Texas upbringing.
A passel of Texans invaded the nation’s capital in January, and the town may never be the same. A report from the inaugral front.
The next statewide elections are twenty months away, but a pack of would-be candidatesfrom a Laredo oilman to the mayor of Austinare already running hard.
After twenty years as a reporter who gave politicians a hard time, I decided to run for the Dallas City Council. Now I’m the one getting the hard time—from my fellow pols, who don’t trust me, and my former colleagues in the press, who’ve got me in their sights. And
How Bill Ratliff became lieutenant governorand what it means for Texas.
Inside the election's numbers.
And the campaign goes on—into the legislative session.
His election was historic for many reasons, not least because he embodies the stifled hopes of generations of his countrymen. Still, the obstacles he faces when he assumes the presidency on December 1 are considerable. Will he be able to deliver?
When Senators Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchison blocked the nomination of El Paso's Enrique Moreno to the powerful Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals they triggered a firestorm of protest fueled by wounded ethnic pride.
George W.'s endgame.
Members of LBJ's inner circle share their remembrances of a man whose powers of persuasion were truly awe-inspiring.
The first test was whether primary voters thought he had what it takes to be president. It was touch and go for a while, but he passed. Now George W. Bush has to get the rest of the country on his side. An inside look at his plan for doing
What are George Bush’s weaknesses as he heads into the fall campaign? We asked six Texas Democrats— a former governor, a former lieutenant governor, two wannabes, and two wiseacre pundits—to make the case against him. They pulled no punches.
Life around the town of Crawford sure was slow until George W. Bush bought a ranch there.
The New York Times versus Texas: It’s only the beginning.
LBJ, George Wallace, Selma: Eavesdropping on the making of history 35 years ago this month.
Is Kay Bailey Hutchison plotting a run for Governor? And other questions about Texas politics in the new millennium.
The changing of the calendars marks the start of the presidential campaign (this time we really mean it), and George W. Bush is still the favorite to win.
The read on James H. Hatfield, a Bush biographer with a past of his own.
Paul Burka on John Connally, Patricia Kilday Hart on Minnie Fisher Cunningham, John Ratliff on Dan Moody, Patricia Busa McConnico on George Parr, and Katy Vine on the TV spot of the century.
“Johnson continues to tower over Texas politics not just because he was the first Texas-bred president but because, 26 years in his grave, he continues to extend the very idea of Texas into American political history.”
For an East Texas school, there’s nothing elementary about George W. Bush’s education plan.
Henry Cisneros’ power derived from his ability to bring people together. It was supposed to get him elected governor, senator, president. He’s finally the president, all right —of a Spanish-language TV network. And all thoughts of a career in public life are in the past.
Drugs. Cussing. Funeral home regulation. George W. Bush is on the ropes—or is he?
Attorney General John Cornyn sure knows how to stir up controversy. He has attacked the fees of the outside lawyers hired by the state in its successful lawsuit against tobacco companies, impugned the integrity of his predecessor, Dan Morales, and now has created a huge exception to the state’s open
Communicator in chief.
CONGRATULATIONS TO TEXAS MONTHLY for your comprehensive look at the life and times of Governor Bush [“Who Is George W. Bush?” June 1999]. I don’t want to diminish an otherwise outstanding effort, but despite your careful fact checking, the articles included a couple of misrepresentations I feel obligated to
Has Dan Morales gone up in smoke? by Skip Hollandsworth.
Officially, the issue tearing apart the West Texas' largest native American tribe is one of lineage. Who is and is not a member. But the real dispute is over money—earned in unimaginable amounts at the casino on their reservation and coveted by rival factions willing to risk everything.
Meet the superheroes of George W. Bush’s campaign for the presidency: a quartet of brainy advisers who are helping him to refine and sell his ideas on the economy, foreign policy, and the like.
No one denies that there was love at the center of Lady Bird Johnson’s marriage to LBJ. But like Hillary Clinton, she endured quite a bit, spousally speaking, as her husband’s star was on the rise.
Remembering the real Bob Bullock.
When Fast Eddie Garcia was shot to death, San Antonio mourned the loss of not only a man but also a behind-the-scenes power broker at the center of the city’s good ol’ amigo network.
The book (make that books) on George W. Bush.
WHEN BOB DAEMMRICH starts snapping pictures in the state capitol, lawmakers snap to attention. They know the 44-year-old photographer is after candid shots for Texas Monthly’s biennial rating of the state’s lawmakers (see “The Best and the Worst Legislators,”). Daemmrich, whose pictures frequently appear in Newsweek and Time, has
Rob Junell—Democrat, San Angelo, 52 Bill Ratliff—Republican, Mount Pleasant, 62 From different parties but of like minds, the chairmen of the two budget-writing committees have taken state spending off the table as an issue for other lawmakers to worry about or fight over. House Appropriations chair Junell and Senate Finance
Democrat, Houston, 45. Too much coffee? Can’t sleep? Tossing and turning all night? Log on to the Legislature’s Web site (www.capitol.state.tx.us) and listen to an audio clip of the House Public Education Committee engaged in a discussion of school finance. It’s mind-numbing jargon: tier one, tier two, tier three, basic
Democrat, Galveston, 52. If Patty Gray had done nothing more than negotiate a compromise between the optometrists and the ophthalmologists, she would have been on every legislator’s Ten Best list. Lawmakers long ago grew weary of these Hatfields and McCoys bringing their feud over the human eye to the Legislature;
Democrat, Alpine, 37. Out in the wild, and in the wild and woolly House of Representatives, life is a struggle for turf. Find a piece of ground to call your own—a committee chairmanship, perhaps, or a field of expertise—and you are well on your way to power and influence. Pete
