Democrats refuse to acknowledge how wildly successful we are at creating jobs. Republicans misunderstand how we’ve done it. Here’s what everyone should know about the Texas Miracle—before it’s too late.
No state has defied the federal government’s environmental regulations more fiercely than Texas, and no governor has been more outspoken about the “job-killing” policies of the EPA than Rick Perry. But does that mean we can all breathe easy?
The senior editor on why Texas has taken the lead in fighting new EPA air pollution regulations and what will become the fuel of choice for the next generation of power plants in Texas and around the country.
The governor may have taken a break from the campaign trail for Thanksgiving, but that didn’t stop the campaign press corps.
These are the latest available polls in key states for the Republican primary: U.S. Republican Primary (Rasmussen) 11/2 Cain 26% Romney 23% Gingrich 15% Perry 8% Iowa Caucus (Insider Advantage) 11/6 Cain 30% Romney 15% Gingrich 12% Paul 9% Bachmann 8% Perry 6% Santorum 2% Huntsman 2% Iowa Caucus (Des
Rick Perry’s stumbles on the national stage have inadvertently highlighted the weakness of his opposition back home—Texas Democrats.
The Huffington Post web site noted yesterday that Rick Perry’s biggest career donor, Bob Perry, has not yet contributed to the governor’s presidential campaign. A likely reason is Rick Perry’s support for legislation that adversely impacts Latinos, such as Voter I.D. laws and sanctuary cities policies. Perry flip-flopped on
It’s not the viewing audience that matters. It’s the conservative commentators who are watching the debate. They are widely read (and listened to) and they are opinion-makers. I was just surfing the Web the other day when I found a Politico article published after the September 11 debate. It
Politicalwire.com reports today that the Perry campaign is unveiling an attack ad against Mitt Romney. Here is the full text of the item: Rick Perry released a tough new ad linking Mitt Romney to President Obama’s new health care law. ABC News calls it the “harshest and most slickly produced
I’m not surprised. As I said last when the Daily Beast‘s Jill Lawrence wrote that Perry needed an economic plan, there is no chance, zip, zero, zilch, none, that Perry would come out with a detailed plan. It’s not what they do. Perry is going to stick to the Carney
Governor Perry faces another hurdle on the issue of race. It is whether the Department of Motor Vehicles should allow specialty license plates that carry the emblem of the Confederate battle flag. Senator Royce West went public with his concerns earlier today. West put out a statement that I will
$17.1 million raised in the third quarter fundraising period. This is a very impressive performance. It buys time and staying power through the next rounds of debates and into the early primaries. The accelerated primary schedule benefits candidates with the most money. (The original version of this post said $18.1
The Republican War Room poll (Sept. 30), from the Houston Chronicle: Romney 28.2% Cain 23.7% Gingrich 9.8% Perry 9.1% Perry has dropped 15 points in ten days. Florida is arguably the most important state in the country in Republican politics. Texas has more delegates, but Texas is not in
The sample covers 1,002 adults and covers the dates of September 19-October 2. Repondents were divided into “lean-Republican” voters and “registered voters.” From the Post’s story: After a quick rise in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has experienced an almost equally dramatic decline,
The next Republican debate, presented by the Washington Post and Bloomberg News, will be held on October 11 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Charlie Rose will be the moderator. Here is the official statement by the sponsors: The Washington Post-Bloomberg debate will focus on the issues voters say
A Perry supporter with ties to the campaign observes that Perry is not getting the enthusiastic treatment from Fox he has always enjoyed in the past. This could be a function of his struggling campaign, or of the confusion of the Republican primary race, but it could also be (the
Erick Erickson posted this on Redstate.com today: Hugh Hewitt has a good takedown of this. It shows the extent to which the Democrats will go to attack Republicans. Stephanie McCrummen, a Washington Post based reporter formerly stationed in Nairobi has a history of fanning racial flames out of context.
I am hesitant to opine on things I don't know much about, and so I am loathe to comment on the Washington Post story about what the Post describes as "his family's secluded West Texas hunting camp." The gist of the story, for those unfamiliar with the Post's version,"
Many readers will be familiar with this poll since it has received a great deal of coverage. The poll was posted on September 29. The sample covers 925 registered voters, and there was a smaller subset of likely Republican voters. Romney 23% Perry 19% Cain 17% Gingrich 11% Bachmann 3%
The poll was conducted by American Research Group (ARG) Sample Size: 600 completed telephone interviews among a random sample of likely Republican caucus goers living in Iowa (517 Republicans and 83 no party (independent) voters). Sample Dates: September 22-27, 2011 Margin of Error: ± 4 percentage points, 95% of the
Writing in the Daily Beast earlier this week, Jill Lawrence said that the "missing piece" in Rick Perry's presidential campaign was his blueprint for America. Her recommendation was that Perry should make up for his poor debate performances by coming out with a plan: "Rick Perry would be less
The roots of Rick Perry’s frontier style.
A lot of people are writing Perry off after his awful performance in the Florida debate, but this poll was taken AFTER the disastrous debate. Perry is not a good debater. He is no match for his rivals, who know federal issues better than he does, and are much
After one of the early Republican debates, I raised the issue of whether Perry was having problems with his recovery from back surgery. Perry had looked so uncomfortable in that debate that I wondered if he were wearing a back brace. He kept twisting his torso a little, as if
Does anybody else find it ironic that Perry is faltering because of the rare good deeds that he has done, such as the Dream Act and the HPV mandate? The guy spends ten years being a total hardline conservative with a couple of exceptions, and suddenly his own party is
Could Rick Perry’s stunning loss of the Florida straw poll have been averted? Possibly. The question here is whether the Perry camp was so overconfident that it scheduled him to go to a similar straw poll in Michigan without addressing the delegates in Florida. At the times, Perry and
I wrote a post yesterday under the headline, “The bush leagues,” in which I said that one reason for Perry’s poor performance in the current campaign is that he has had it too easy in Texas during the last ten years–that he has gotten away with ducking debates and dodging
Self-appointed fiscal watchdog Michael Quinn Sullivan blasted legislators yesterday (9/23) for a spending program that allows the state to attract and subsidize Hollywood filmmakers who wish to make movies in Texas. I find myself in rare agreement with Mr. Sullivan on this point. When I wrote a story about cutting
We like to think that Texas politics is as rough as it gets, but it really isn't. This has been a one-party state since W. defeated Ann in 1994. Perry has had a lot of money spent against him, but he has never been in danger of losing a race
The matter of whether Rick Perry has advocated secession arose on Fox News last night. He insisted that he has never used the s-word, except to refer to signs at tea party rallies that say "SECEDE." As far as I know, he is right. Here is what Perry did
The Texas tea party's revolt over Rick Perry's immigration stand is, well, revolting. I seldom agree with Perry, but he is right this time--right in a moral sense, but wrong politically. Building a wall will not make Texas a better state. Denying scholarships to the children of immigrants will not
New York Times/CBS News (most recent poll) Perry 23 Romney 16 Connecticut GOP primary Quinnipiac U. Romney 37 Perry 19 California GOP Primary Field Poll Romney 28 Perry 20 Virginia General Election Obama 44 Perry 42 Virginia GOP Primary Perry 25 Undecided 20 R0mney 19 President Public Policy Polling Obama
UPDATE: Note to readers: Below, I wrote, "I don't see any mystery in these results. Romney figured to gain after Perry's lackluster performance in the Tampa debate." In fact, the poll was taken during the period Sept. 9-12, BEFORE the debate. So Perry's performance in the Tampa debate had no
I thought Perry and Palin were buddies. She came to Texas to endorse him against Bill White in December 09. But her “crony capitalism” attack on Perry was an indication that she sees an opening for her to be the nominee. If she can weaken Perry, and he falters, the
(The author of the following excerpt is Dana Milbank.) The applause identified Rick Perry as the crowd favorite when he took the stage in Tampa for Monday night’s Tea Party debate, greeting his lesser rivals as “fellas.” But two hours later, those fellas – and a gal from Minnesota –
Perry was clearly off his game during the tea party debate. He looked uncomfortable, his face was strained, his combativeness was muted. He looked to me like a man with back pain. I wondered if he were wearing a brace. I've had back surgery, and it hurt to watch him.
This is an issue that could get a lot of national attention, if the Department of Motor Vehicles approves a new license plate bearing an image of the Confederate battle flag–the Stars and Bars–on Perry’s watch. The DMV is currently deadlocked 4-4 on the matter of the plates and the
Joe Conason's article contains nothing that is new to those who follow Texas government. It focuses on the Accenture contract and the attempt to save money by privatizing the health care bureaucracy, a scheme that was the brainchild of Arlene Wohlgemuth in the Medicaid legislation of 2003. I thought
Who won the Republican debate? According to Jennifer Rubin, who writes the "Right Turn" conservative blog for the Washington Post, it was Karl Rove and Dick Cheney: Neither was on the stage, but Karl Rove and Dick Cheney put the Social Security issue front and center. Earlier in the day,
I expect Perry to be seen as the winner. All he has to do is just repeat his prepackaged zingers, and he will come off well. Anyway, it won’t be the comments that win the debate; it will be Perry’s TV appearance and persona. As his media guru, David Weeks,
All the papers are running stories today about the upcoming Republican debate at the Reagan Library, which will be Perry's first test. What kind of a debater is he? He was involved in debates against Tony Sanchez in 2002, against Chris Bell, Carole Strayhorn, and Kinky Friedman in 2006, and
“We are going to have to make serious decisions in the future because we can’t keep stretching the nickel,” Patrick said. “How do we fund education long term? I think we should add 2 cents to the sales tax, and dedicate that to education. The reason I think that is:
In 2006, Kinky Friedman thought he'd be the better governor. In 2011, he is ready for a Perry presidency.
St. Catherine Episcopal Church sign <p style="color: #303333"><strong><a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Durney-profile.jpg"><img class="alignleft wp-image-530874" src="https://www.texasmonthly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Durney-profile.jpg" alt="Durney profile" width="300" height="417" /></a>Owner/Pitmaster:</strong> <a href="http://www.texasmonthly.com/bbq/jerk-baby-back-ribs/" target="_blank">Hometown Bar-B-Que</a>; Opened 2013</p> <p style="color: #303333"><strong>Age:</strong> 42</p> <p style="color: #303333"><strong>Smoker:</strong> Indirect Heat Wood-Fired Pit</p> <p style="color: #303333"><strong>Wood:</strong> Oak and Cherry</p> Billy Durney is all New York, but he
I used to teach a course at the Lyndon B. Johnson school of Public Affairs, for first-year students, called "Policy Development." The metaphor for the course was a cauldron of soup, into which all the issues of the day were dumped. Sometimes these issues floated to the top; sometimes they
Perry 27% Romney 14% Palin 10% Bachmann 9% …and so on Perry has doubled up Romney in this poll. The more extreme his rhetoric gets, the more extreme his poll numbers get. Conditions of the poll: Interviews with 1,017 adult Americans conducted by telephone by ORC International on August 24-25,
Ken Herman has a story today about Mr. Morrow’s efforts to dig up dirt about Rick Perry. This includes a full-page ad in the Austin Chronicle soliciting information about Perry’s personal behavior earlier in his career. Readers of this space will recognize Mr. Morrow’s name. He is a frequent commenter
I’m speaking of Steve Ogden, who ripped into Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst and his own Senate colleagues this week in a speech in College Station. What he said was the truth–that Dewhurst was ineffective and that all his colleagues cared about was politics. During the discussions over a school finance bill
Huge numbers for Perry. He turned Romney’s 23-18 lead into a 17-29 deficit in one month. By region: East: Perry 16%, Romney 17%, Paul 15% Midwest: Perry 23%, Romney 20%, Paul 18% South: Perry 39%, Romney 12%, Paul 9% West: Perry 28%, Romney 22%, Paul 12% Among voters 65+, Perry
There is this thing about writing. When you publish something under your name, you own it, for better or for worse. I have experienced the “for worse” side of it. It’s no fun, as Rick Perry is finding out. He wrote a book, presumably with assistance, called Fed Up. In
