I Still Hate Chili
Fess up now. In your heart of hearts, don’t you hate it, too?
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.
Fess up now. In your heart of hearts, don’t you hate it, too?
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.
How the Republicans took over Texas—and what it means.
For fifteen years Galveston knew Tim Kingsbury as a civic leader and do-gooder. Then the wife—and life—he deserted back in Ohio caught up with him in Texas.
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.
What’s so important about a stack of wood? Every Aggie knows that the answer is tradition—which is why, after a catastrophe that took the lives of twelve young men and women, the decision of whether to continue, change, or call a halt to the bonfire looms so large at Texas
In word and deed, the George W. Bush now residing in the White House bears little resemblance to the Texas governor I gladly sent to Washington. That's why I'm so ambivalent about reelecting him.
Baseball, an old and idiosyncratic game, loses and old and idiosyncratic field.
A familiar plaintiff. A familar case. Will the outcome be any different?
As bad as it is, it goes beyond any possible criminal wrongdoing.
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.
Greg Abbott emerged this session as the state’s uncontested leader—despite a few missteps along the way.
Could the state’s refusal to expand the program ultimately cost billions of dollars?
His passing marks the end of an era in Texas.
If you find out what Greg Abbott is up to, let the rest of us know.
Paul Burka bids farewell to Texas Monthly—and wonders what happened to the Texas he once knew.
Who will lead the flagship campus when Bill Powers leaves in June?
There’s one thing we can all agree on when it comes to Dan Patrick.
His death is a loss to Texas.
What Greg Abbott’s nominee to the UT Board of Regents means for the state.
On the first full day of the Dan Patrick era, he makes his mark on the Senate.
It’s the turnout, stupid.
The dean of the Capitol press corps announces his upcoming retirement from Texas Monthly.
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
The “clear frontrunner” will be hard to beat.
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 (mainly covering
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;
Greg Abbott is off to a fast start—and that is good for Texas.
Joe Straus is safe--and he always was.
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
Texas is a Republican state and nothing is likely to change that in the foreseeable future.
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
Does Jeb Bush have a chance at the White House? Or is the family name too damaged?
It provides such a meager amount of funding that it's hardly worth the effort of putting it on the ballot at all.
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 party
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
A federal judge in Corpus Christi called the state's voter ID law "an unconstitutional poll tax"
The war chest matters in 2014, but it sets the tone in 2018.
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
The final debate in the 2014 governor's race is over, and the winner was clear-cut.
The candidates' true colors were on full display.
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,
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
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
Paul Burka on Jim Hogan and the plight of the Democrats.
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 and
He's still raising money for his race for governor. And it's not because he's worried about Wendy.
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.
Why Republicans should listen to what female voters are saying.
The false criticism of Joe Straus.
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”And … “based on state
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.
The indictment of Rick Perry turns Texas politics upside down.
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 Unit:
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:
With three months to go until the general election, there isn't much reason to talk about the governor's race. It's over.
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,