Wendy Davis Emerges
Wendy Davis jumps into two contentious issues--not a moment too soon for her campaign.
Brian D. Sweany has been the editor in chief of Texas Monthly since July 2014. A native Texan who was born on Texas Independence Day, he began his career in journalism as an intern at the magazine in 1996, and in the intervening years, he held nearly every possible job in the editorial department. Before being promoted to his current post, he was a senior executive editor in charge of Texas Monthly's political coverage. Sweany has also worked as an assistant professor in the journalism department at Ithaca College, in New York, and as a senior editor at D Magazine, in Dallas. He is active in a number of civic and volunteer organizations, serving on the boards of the Texas Book Festival, the Texas Cultural Trust, and the Frank W. and Sue Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas, in Denton. He lives in Austin with his wife, two children, and an ever-growing manuscript for The Kingdom of the Saddle, a biography of Charles Goodnight to be published by Penguin.
Wendy Davis jumps into two contentious issues--not a moment too soon for her campaign.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
With a little luck--and some perfectly smoked brisket--the 84th Legislature will correct a longstanding wrong and make barbecue the official state dish.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Harry Reid to the left of him. The tea party to the right. Senator John Cornyn on the challenges of running a “big tent” GOP in a time of fierce partisanship.
By Brian D. Sweany and Texas Monthly
It's 2010 all over again: Bonnie Parker is challenging Sarah Davis for HD 134.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Is the House Republican from Amarillo a potential challenger for Speaker Joe Straus?
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Nathan Hecht, the recently sworn-in Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, is a disgrace: a judge who ignores the spirit of the law.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
The popular historian leaves behind an impressive body of work.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
For the second time this election season, I have to ask: Where's Wendy Davis?
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Michael Quinn Sullivan looks to be a main protagonist in the Republican Civil War.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
State senator Leticia Van de Putte throws her hat in the ring for lieutenant governor.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
What we learned about Dallas that fateful day.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Agriculture commissioner Todd Staples is showing new signs of life in his race for lieutenant governor.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Why Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
What are the potential conflicts of interest in the Texas Enterprise Fund involving a close friend of Rick Perry's?
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Democrats look to take a shot at at least two incumbent Republicans in the Legislature in 2014.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
The gubernatorial candidate hasn't been seen much on the campaign trail.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
What the lieutenant governor is doing is not what he should be doing if he wants to win in 2014.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
He is on the verge of becoming a complete failure as president.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Wallace Jefferson sizes up his historic tenure as the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Texas.
The attorney general's latest revelation of his campaign platform represents a continuation of his tea-party oriented campaign.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Public Policy Polling’s most recent survey shows that Rick Perry has virtually no support for president among Texans. Indeed, he is so poorly regarded that he would lose a head-to-head matchup with Hillary Clinton.The days when Perry was actually relevant are long gone. No one pays any attention
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
The news that Harris County voters turned down a proposal on Tuesday to remake the Astrodome into an exhibit and special events center makes me quite sad. In its heyday, the mid-sixties, the Astrodome was the symbol of Houston’s ascension to major-league status, not just as a venue for baseball,
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Could the rumors that University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban may be the next football coach at the University of Texas be true?
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
The clear winner in Tuesday's election was Speaker of the House Joe Straus, who pushed for spending on water projects.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Democrats are understandably delirious over the finding in the UT/Texas Tribune Poll that Wendy Davis trails Greg Abbott by single digits. But that is not the most significant finding in the poll.The most significant finding is that “the fundamentals of Texas politics have not changed,” says pollster Jim
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Mark McCaig, Republican gadfly extraordinaire and frequent tormentor of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, posted a commentary on the Big Jolly Politics site over the weekend. Among his observations is an attack on the rankings of state legislators published by the Texas Association of Business. Writes McCaig: With the
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
No one should be surprised by the numbers for the governor's race in the new UT-Texas Tribune Poll, which show Abbott with a single-digit lead over Wendy Davis.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Rick Perry dismissed the ongoing impeachment hearings against UT Board of Regent Wallace Hall as "extraordinary political theater."
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
The evangelical leader's candidacy would be enough to cause major heartburn among the GOP establishment in Texas.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Astonishing as it may seem, I think he is worse than Perry.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
What are the main challenges for the Wendy Davis campaign? Aside from the basic math of a statewide election, that is? Well, according to one trusted Democratic operative, the biggest is “to get everyone to swim in the same direction.” For instance, should Battleground Texas give up its identity and
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Karen Tumulty, a Texan herself, has a story in yesterday’s Washington Post that says Ted Cruz is reshaping the Texas Republican party: Just about every GOP candidate with aspirations to statewide office in 2014 seems to be styling himself or herself after Cruz. In tight formation, they are
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Moderate Republicans and Democrats who underestimate Ted Cruz are making a mistake.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
If someone handed me a flier that declared, "Get your guns & Head to San Antonio," I would probably get in my car and head for Dallas as fast as I could.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Attorney general candidate Dan Branch has issued a statement vowing to attack voter fraud. And once again, I am compelled to point out that voter fraud is a solution in search of a problem. Except for rare incidents, such as those involving ACORN a few years back, voter
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
The good news about Brandon Creighton’s and Steve Toth’s decision to run for Tommy Williams’ Senate seat (SD 4) is that there will be one less far-right member of the Legislature. One of them has to lose. In all seriousness, I think Creighton made a mistake with this decision. He
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
An excerpt from Brian D. Sweany's forthcoming cover story on Greg Abbott.
By Brian D. Sweany and Texas Monthly
Greg Abbott will almost certainly be our next governor. What’s less certain is what sort of governor he will be.
Tom Pauken, the former chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission, knows he has an uphill climb to defeat Greg Abbott in the Republican primary for governor next March. But he’s not interested in what he calls “the divine right of succession.”
The Burleson state representative's depature from the legislature means that another mainstream Republican has effectively been driven out of the pink dome after being targeted by a tea party candidate.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
His latest campaign video invokes tea party language.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Before everyone declares Dewhurst to be dead, just keep in mind that while his rivals may be starved for money, Dewhurst is not.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
The Missouri Legislature is on the cusp of passing a law that nullifies all federal firearms regulations in the state. A similar bill died in the Texas Senate this session.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
I didn’t make the list of the Texas Tribune insiders, but I’m going to try to have my say about the survey on the lieutenant governor’s race nonetheless. First, I think Dewhurst’s 11 percent is too low. There are enough mainstream conservatives left in the Republican party that
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
The lieutenant governor was quoted as saying, "It's my hope, friends, that about a year from now that people are saying, 'Why were we talking about Wendy Davis?" What he should be worried about is whether people will be saying, about a year from now, "Why were we talking about David
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
The retirement of Jim Pitts from the House of Representatives is a sad day. Pitts, who was named a Best this past session, was one of the original eleven Republicans who met to choose a new speaker in 2009 to succeed Tom Craddick. That speaker, of course,
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Is John Smithee, the Republican state rep from Amarillo, running for speaker?
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
It's looking increasingly likely that Wendy Davis will run for governor in 2014. But still, the paucity of credible candidates for other statewide offices is a real problem for Democrats.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
Mike Novak, a former Bexar County commissioner, plans to challenge State Senator Donna Campbell in the Republican primary.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany
The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin has some advice for Governor Rick Perry, should he choose to enter the presidential race in 2016.
By Paul Burka and Brian D. Sweany