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Paul Burka

Paul Burka's Profile Photo

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.

3666 Articles

Politics & Policy|
January 1, 2000

The Race Is On

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.

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Sports|
December 1, 1999

Having a Ball

It’s no easy task to run the two-time champs of the Ro-Tex-Erie Fantasy Baseball League. But I’m managing.

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State Secrets|
November 1, 1999

Divide and Conquer

What is George W. Bush up to? Twice he has criticized his own party, charging that congressional Republicans were trying to “balance the budget on the backs of the poor” and that the GOP has concentrated on economic issues at the expense of “human problems that persist in the shadow

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Politics & Policy|
November 1, 1999

Water Under the Bridge

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.

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Politics & Policy|
August 31, 1999

Shore Thing

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

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Politics & Policy|
May 31, 1999

A Census of Power

Twenty and a half million. That’s Texas’ projected population in 2000—an increase of more than 20 percent since 1990—and Republicans are salivating at the prospect of gaining seats in the mandatory 2001 redrawing of legislative and congressional districts. Any area that did not keep up with the state’s growth rate

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Politics & Policy|
April 30, 1999

Not So Rosy

Why Bush’s tax cuts are in trouble.President-anoint George W. Bush has adopted a Rose Garden strategy as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination that justifies ducking GOP rivals and the media by saying he has to concentrate on doing his job as governor. But this game plan works only

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Sports|
March 1, 1999

Inside Aggie Inc.

Which sports lose money, the economics of luxury suites, and other secrets of Texas A&M University’s athletic program.

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Politics & Policy|
February 1, 1999

No New Tax Cuts

The first obstacle in George W. Bush’s drive for president is a Republican woman—not potential GOP rival Elizabeth Dole, but a member of his own Texas team, state comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander. Some Bush insiders were peeved aplenty when Rylander slashed $700 million from prevailing estimates of how much money

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Politics & Policy|
December 1, 1998

Surprised Parties

Here’s what Republicans and Democrats were talking about after the November 3 election.George W. Bush’s coattails. They were frayed at best, even though the GOP swept every statewide race. The governor got 68 percent of the vote, but the victorious Republican candidates for lieutenant governor and comptroller, Rick Perry and

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Feature|
December 1, 1998

The Disloyal Opposition

How five right-wing members of the State Board of Education are making life miserable for their fellow Republicans—especially George W. Bush.

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Politics & Policy|
November 1, 1998

More Precious Than Oil

To the astonishment of water owners and users across Texas, the state Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to the rule of capture, the basis of all Texas underground water law. This much-criticized doctrine allows landowners to pump as much underground water as they want, even if the

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Politics & Policy|
September 30, 1998

Two for Texas

Candidates Rick Perry and John Sharp donÕt agree on much, but they both say the race for lieutenant governor is the most important one on the ballot this fall. They’re right.

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Business|
August 31, 1998

Ballpark Figures

Now that the Houston Astros have Randy Johnson, can they afford to sign him to a long-term contract? His first two starts in the Astrodome boosted attendance by 20,000 fans a night. At an average ticket price of $10, that means his economic impact was $200,000, plus an additional $30,000

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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

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|
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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True Crime|
April 30, 1998

The Hero Had Two Faces

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.

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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|
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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Travel & Outdoors|
September 30, 1997

The Real West Texas

High peaks, scant rain, and hardpan soil—but also high art, hip hotels, and a new telescope that’s a star in its own right: Snapshots from a remote region of our state unlike anyplace else on earth.

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Energy|
August 31, 1997

Power Surge

The biggest economic news in Texas is the merging of the electric and natural-gas utility industries in anticipation of the coming deregulation of electricity. Huge deals are in the works: Houston Industries, the parent of Houston Lighting and Power, is acquiring Houston-based NorAm, the nation’s third-largest gas utility; and Texas

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