John Sharp

Politics & Policy |
August 17, 2011

Rove criticizes Perry for dissing Bush

Wayne Slater has an interesting story [this was earlier in the week] — which I am unable to link to, but it is in the Quorum Report — about Karl Rove’s displeasure with Rick Perry’s lack of gratitude toward then-Governor Bush during the 1998 primary races for governor and lieutenant

By Paul Burka

Politics & Policy |
February 2, 2010

What is Medina up to?

A couple of weeks ago I questioned in this space whether Medina might enter the Senate race if Hutchison resigns her seat after the primary or the runoff? Apparently someone else was thinking the same thing. The analysis that follows was sent to me by someone who is well known

By Paul Burka

Politics & Policy |
November 23, 2009

Waiting for the Hutchison ad

I had a conversation with John Sharp this afternoon. Sharp said that White’s first preference has always been to run for governor. What had kept him out of the governor’s race was the prospect that Hutchison would win the primary, leaving White to face the most popular figure in Texas

By Paul Burka

Politics & Policy |
April 21, 2009

Sharp: If at first you don’t secede…

John Sharp has a spot on YouTube criticizing his former, or perhaps current, and possibly even future friend Rick Perry for his remarks about secession. Here is the text of "The Greatest Country on Earth," in which Sharp does not mention Perry by name: During World War II

By Paul Burka

Politics & Policy |
December 19, 2008

Not So Fast

To: Bill White, John Sharp CC: David Dewhurst, Florence Shapiro, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Roger Williams, Michael Williams, Kay Granger, Greg Abbott, members of the Texas congressional delegation Re: Texas Senate race You folks might want to reconsider your decision to run for the vacancy that will be created when Kay

By Paul Burka

Politics & Policy |
December 18, 2008

Should the Democrats punt the governor’s race?

It’s probably too late to ask the question, because it appears to have already been answered. With Bill White and John Sharp in the race to serve out the remainder of Kay Bailey Hutchison’s term, no obvious candidate remains to challenge the winner of the primary between Hutchison and Rick

By Paul Burka

Politics & Policy |
December 11, 2008

Roger Williams joins the Senate race

UPDATE: I should have given Roger Williams credit in this writeup for his outstanding performance in the chair on the first day of the 2007 session, when he presided over the speaker’s race. He showed no favoritism and made a crucial ruling, overruling a point of order, that a secret

By Paul Burka

Politics & Policy |
December 9, 2008

Can Sharp Win the Senate Race?

The former state comptroller announced his candidacy today. He does not plan to form an exploratory committee but will begin raising money immediately. This will be Sharp’s second bite at the Senate apple. In 1992, when Lloyd Bentsen resigned his seat to become Secretary of the Treasury in the first

By Paul Burka

Politics & Policy |
December 8, 2008

Secret Disservice

Your daily space queen video! It’s worth clicking on just to see what I look like when I forget to sit on a telephone book. Paul Burka on the secret speaker’s ballot, and why he was for it before he he was against it. (Flip flopper.) Honorably mentioned: Speaker Craddick,

By Eileen Smith

Politics & Policy |
June 30, 2000

How W. Can Lose

What are George Bush’s weaknesses as he heads into the fall campaign? We asked six Texas Democrats— a former governor, a former lieutenant governor, two wannabes, and two wiseacre pundits—to make the case against him. They pulled no punches.

By Evan Smith

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.

By Paul Burka

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

By Paul Burka

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

By Paul Burka

Politics & Policy |
January 1, 1996

Bugging Out

Farmers in the Rio Grande Valley are reeling from last year’s crop disaster—and they don’t cotton to agriculture commissioner Rick Perry’s excuses.

By Joe Nick Patoski