For the past four years, a group of passionate reformers has been steadily trying to remake how higher education works in Texas—over the screams and howls of many professors and school presidents. Last year the battle came to UT. And the bombs are still flying.
Robert Draper, my former colleague at TEXAS MONTHLY, has written a piece about redistricting in the current issue of the Atlantic. One of the main characters in his story is Tom Hofeller, the former redistricting director of the Republican National Committee, now a paid consultant and a master
Rick Perry’s recent pronouncement about religion and politics—“Church and state separation is the devil’s work”—is an indication of why he will not get anywhere if he tries to run for president again. He might as well wear a stamp on his forehead labeled “extremist.”No doubt there are people in America
I wrote the cover storyin the current issue of TEXAS MONTHLY. The subject is the future of higher education generally and the threats to the academic reputation of UT-Austin in particular. In the story I deal with Governor Perry’s attempt, starting in 2008, to control higher ed by
The case of Abigail Fisher v. the University of Texas at Austin, an affirmative action case involving undergraduate admissions to UT-Austin, is scheduled to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court some time this fall. I wrote about the case in an April BTL, and last night, I
Matt Mackowiak tackled the issue in the Statesman, in an opinion piece headlined “Redistricting doesn’t need fixing.” He writes: With the primary elections in a redistricting year now in the rearview mirror, the predictable lament of losing candidates is to blame the district lines. If only the process were
t has always been my policy that anyone may post comments on this blog. In fact, a large part of the success of this blog has been the community of commenters that has developed around it. I have only asked that comments show respect for other readers, as well as
From the San Antonio Express News: The Air Force chose a woman Saturday to lead its basic training unit at a Texas base where dozens of female recruits have alleged they were sexually assaulted or harassed by male instructors within the past year. Col. Deborah Liddick is
The internal rifts within the Republican party are getting more frequent and more serious. From an AP story in yesterday’s Statesman: At least three Republican electors say they may not support their party’s presidential ticket when the Electoral College meets in December to formally elect the new
I’m referring to the recent poll by Wilson Perkins Allen that shows Romney leading Obama in Texas by 55-40. (McCain had similar numbers, 55-44.) With Democrats getting only 40% of the vote, what’s the surprise in these numbers? There is none. Obama is not providing enough coattails for Democratic legislative
…the reaction from the right wing of the Republican party is going to be a ferocious backlash of “We told you so.” The GOP decided to stick with the front-runner, Mitt Romney, as is its long-established habit, and while it is certainly too early to say that Romney is in
This battle was initiated by Fox News, which accused the mother of Democratic keynoter of being a member of a “radical civil rights movement”and who reportedly thinks the truth behind the Battle of the Alamo is that Texans swiped Mexico’s land. More from the article: The Hispanic Texas
Castro flashed signs of big-time political talent in his speech at the Democratic convention, but he is faced with the same problem as all Texas Democrats: all dressed up with no place to go. Democrats are not positioned to win a statewide race anytime soon. They don’t have the party
I thought Obama had to do two things tonight. One was tell the nation what he was going to do in the next four years that he hadn’t done in the past four years. He did some of that–cut the deficit, cut oil imports, improve fuel economy–but there were no
I thought Julian Castro exceeded expectations in his keynote address. The speech itself was nothing special, but Castro rode its momentum all the way. He hit the right notes–middle class, family, opportunity, Mom, America, working together. All the cliches, in other words, but what is a keynote for if not
That seems to be the question of the moment in politics. As an individual, I would say, “about the same.” For the country as a whole, I don’t think it’s a close issue. The answer is “much better off.” Think back to September 2008. Lehman Brothers collapsed, banks were failing,
The Web site “The Texas Lawbook” asks the intriguing question posed by the headline. If Abbott did save it, he didn’t mean to, that’s for sure. From the Web site: The Texas Attorney General claims in court that the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 is outdated, unnecessary and
This appointment had been rumored for some time, so it was hardly a surprise. Michael Williams has a slim history in the education area, except for serving in the Department of Education during the George H. W. Bush administration and serving on the board of a Catholic school. He faces
The outcome of this case was predestined. For months, the D.C. court warned that Texas’s failure to provide Hispanic opportunity districts when there were huge Hispanic population gains could be construed as evidence of intentional discrimination. There was no way a fair court could ignore the facts in the case:
I was saddened to hear of the death of astronaut Neil Armstrong, at 82. His passing reminds us of a time when people still believed that government could do great things. Nobody believes that any more. The landing on the moon is one of the great accomplishments of this nation,
Here’s what I think should happen:(1) If Abbott isn’t going to run against Perry, he should challenge Dewhurst for lieutenant governor. It’s the best job available (other than governor), and Dewhurst is gravely wounded. Abbott would beat him like a drum. If Abbott doesn’t run, Dewhurst still has to contend
I was quite surprised to see the story in the Tribune about the fishing cabins along the Intracoastal canal. I’d forgotten about them since the days when I worked in the Senate for Babe Schwartz as committee counsel. The cabins, which we referred to a squatters’ shacks, were built by
There seems to be a new organization that’s getting started. It’s called “Texans First.” Here’s what I think is going on. It’s a Rick Perry play all the way. That’s obvious from the signature on the letter, which is that of Bill Jones, formerly Perry’s general counsel and former chairman
I was very interested to see the story that former Harris County judge Robert Eckels is leading a group that wants to bring a bullet train to Texas, backed by Japanese interests. There was a previous effort to bring a bullet train to Texas in 1993. It didn’t come to
From the Washington Post, August 11: A new nationwide analysis of more than 2,000 cases of alleged election fraud over the past dozen years shows that in-person voter impersonation on Election Day, which has prompted 37 state legislatures to enact or consider tougher voter ID laws, was virtually
The Abilene Reporter-News published a remarkable story about a speech by Republican party chairman Steve Munisteri. “Is Ted Cruz a bright star or what?” Minusteri said in a speech at the Brownwood Country Club. The article continued, “After the meeting, he hesitated to say that Dewhurst, who was backed
From the Web site policymic.com: The Associated Press and several television stations have confirmed that Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan will be Mitt Romney’s vice presidential running mate. * * * * One big question that remains is, how many Republican insiders profited from knowing the pick ahead of time?
Paul Ryan seems to be the favorite, judging from the latest news stories. It makes sense to me because (1) Romney has still not persuaded Republicans of his conservative bona fides, and (2) Ryan is the darling of the GOP base. If chosen, he will energize the convention, as Palin
It looks pretty bleak to me. He can run for reelection in 2014, but there is no assurance that he would win. The last sitting lieutenant governor to try to move up was Ben Barnes in 1972, and he finished third in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Dewhurst’s brand has been
Appearing in the San Antonio Express-News, columnist Rick Casey brought up the subject of Castro’s speech and what it could mean to Texas Democrats. Casey recounted that President Obama, in a recent fundraising visit to San Antonio, told supporters about the millions of dollars that would be spent on TV
Well, I’ll be sure to cover it in 2112.What constitutes a shift? Republicans have been successful in getting Latinos to switch parties. Lozano is in the position of a tennis player trying to consolidate a break of serve. Until you win the next game
Veasy over Garcia. Gallego over Rodriguez. Lozano over Wilson. The right candidate won these races. The Gallego-Canseco general election race will draw national attention. Villabla’s defeat of Bill Keffer was huge too. An Hispanic Republican beat a conservative anglo Republican on his own , without Rick Perry or TLR coming
Before Robert Scott stepped down as the state’s education commissioner in July, he told anyone who would listen that high-stakes standardized exams were ruining the public schools. But is it too late to learn from his lesson?
Going through the comments, I see claims that this was a great night for conservatives. Not to be contrary, but I don’t agree, at least not fully. Yes, Cruz won in a very impressive fashion, and so did Donna Campbell, but several conservatives fell by the wayside: Bill Keffer. Jim
Cruz’s lead has now expanded to 13 points at 10:51. The rout that I predicted in an earlier post has come to pass More legislative races: HD-11: Chuck Hopson appears headed for defeat. All boxes are in. Hopson needed a big vote in Rusk County and he didn’t get it.
Taking a look at other statewide races, congressional races, and legislative races: I regret to report that in the Democratic primary, Pete Gallego lost his race against Ciro Rodriguez. Craddick defeats Chisum (Railroad Commision) Smitherman defeats Parker (Railroad Commission) Randy Weber defeats Felicia Harris (CD 14) — the old Ron
Slowly but inexorably, Cruz is widening his lead. It’s up to 8 points now statewide. Looking at House races: BONNEN-SITTON Bonnen is “sitton” pretty: Bonnen 57.0% Sitton 42.9% JIM LANDTROOP-KEN KING Landtroop is winning. He’s hard to beat. CRUZ WINS URBAN/SUBURBAN TEXAS Look at these numbers: Collin County:
I’ll be reporting on the runoffs tonight. Dewhurst vs. Cruz is the most important race, of course, but there also are a number of runoffs for legislative seats. UPDATE: Aaron Pena just tweeted (per the Trib) Cruz 65%, Dewhurst 35% in Hidalgo Co. early returns. Cruz grabbed a 5-point lead
I had a conversation with a source in the Cruz camp, who spoke on background. Their latest poll, with which the source was familiar, was taken on Sunday night, and showed Cruz with a double-digit lead and everything trending in Cruz’s direction.The Cruz campaign polled only people who had actually
The race has been moving in this direction for months now. Nothing Dewhurst has tried has changed the dynamics of the race at all. If anything, the millions Dewhurst has spent on TV have hurt his own campaign. The China ad and the Kids for Cash scandal ad
The Senate race between David Dewhurst and Ted Cruz is shaping up to be the most important race in many years, going back to the Bush-Richards governor’s race of 1994. That race settled that Texas had become a Republican state and would remain one going into the future. The Dewhurst-Cruz
Short take: Late. to. the. party.Having already taken a hard right turn, she tries to move back to the middle. By the time she decides which office to run for, she’s going to be dizzy from all the twists and turns she has taken.
An unanticipated surge of early voting in Bexar County could benefit hometown state Senate candidate Jeff Wentworth in the high-profile race for state Senate district 25. On Monday, the first day of early voting, 4,705 voters cast ballots in the Republican primary, a rate of 540 votes per
Dewhurst gave his best performance of the campaign, but it may not matter. He still has a tendency to be stiff and wooden. It’s almost painful to watch him struggle to achieve fluency. Cruz has a big edge as a speaker; he reeled off points, “One…two…three…four.” It was good debating
From Politco 7/18: When Barack Obama asserted Tuesday that Texas will be a swing state “soon,” he was echoing the belief, commonly held among Democrats, that the state’s changing demographics make the transition from red to blue inevitable. Howard Dean was so confident of it that in
I came across this article yesterday in the daily Kaiser Health News: Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he rejects the “Obamacare power grab” and will block measures expanding health insurance to millions in his state. The country’s second-biggest health insurer is betting he won’t succeed. The same
I was not able to live-blog the debate, as I had intended to do, but I did take extensive notes during the Q&A, and the responses appear below: HEALTH CARE The first question was about Medicaid expansion: Texas hospitals say no Medicaid expansion mean that more people will be showing
I’ll be liveblogging the debate tonight. It will be televised on the Belo stations in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin.
From Politico: The Republican pollster that signaled Dick Lugar’s demise and Deb Fischer’s late surge is now flagging an upset in the making in the Texas Senate race. Tea party favorite Ted Cruz is leading Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst 47 percent to 38 percent in the GOP
Cruz’s strength in the primary was the suburbs. He won Collin, Denton, and Montgomery counties and fought Dewhurst to a draw in Fort Bend. Dewhurst underperformed in the cities and the suburbs but swamped Cruz in rural Texas. Collin County: Cruz 35.45% Dewhurst 30.65% Denton County: Cruz 34.73% Dewhurst 31.42%
