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Hopson switch hurts Democratic hopes
State Rep. Chuck Hopson of Jacksonville is switching from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party today, setting back Democratic hopes of winning the Texas House.
A press release from Hopson’s campaign said he thinks President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats do not represent the concerns and values of his East Texas district. Hopson is scheduled to hold a press conference on his switch later this afternoon.
In 2008, Hopson won re-election by 114 votes. He likely would have faced even more difficulty in 2010, considering that Democrats have lost some of their momentum from the 2008 election.
“It takes strength and integrity to stand against the special interests — and while some members have that strength, others, like Chuck Hopson, do not,” said state Democratic Party chairman Boyd Richie.
Richie said Hopson had told Democratic members that he’d rather retire from the House than become a Republican.
With Hopson’s switch, Republicans will hold 77 seats in the Texas House and Democrats will hold 73. While Democrats say they remain confident that they can win a House majority next year, this is the second major blow in recent months to that effort. Earlier this year, Rep. David Farabee, D-Wichita Falls, announced that he would not seek re-election, and his seat is widely expected to fall into Republican hands.
In addition, a handful of Democrats who narrowly defeated Republican incumbents in recent years could get swept out of office if the economy does not bounce back.
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Sales tax slide continues
It was another double-digit decline for Texas’ sales tax collections in October, Comptroller Susan Combs reported on Friday.
The state’s October collections, which reflect sales in September, were down 12.8 percent from the same month a year ago to $1.52 billion.
Falling sales tax collections have been the norm for months now and are expected to continue at least through the end of the year.
The sales tax provides about half of the state’s general revenue, which pays for education, prisons and other basic obligations.
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Hopson said to be switching to Republican Party
Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, said this morning that Rep. Chuck Hopson of Jacksonville has told colleagues he is switching from the Democratic to Republican Party.
Hopson was facing a very tough re-election fight, considering signs of a national mood swinging against Democratic incumbents. He beat his Republican challenger last year by just 114 votes.
“It takes strength and integrity to stand against the special interests - and while some members have that strength, others like Chuck Hopson, apparently do not,” said Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie. “In the Democratic Party, there is room for members who are conservative and progressive - the only reason anyone would leave is for crass political reasons and a refusal to stand up to special interests.”
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Podcast: Texas Political Parlor
Podcast
Texas politics in New York … Tea Party Express chugs back into the Capitol … Self-donating in the Democratic race for governor.
Join the Statesman’s W. Gardner Selby and Kate Alexander and KUT 90.5 FM’s Ian Crawford in the Political Parlor this week.
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Agosto will not run again for SBOE
State Board of Education member Rick Agosto will not seek re-election next year, he said.
Trinity University literature professor Michael Soto, 39, announced Thursday that he will seek the Democratic Party nomination for District 3, which stretches from San Antonio south to the border.
And several top Democratic Party leaders from San Antonio, including state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte and former State Board of Education member Joe Bernal, are backing Soto.
Agosto, who was first elected in 2006, said he needs to spend more time with his family and investment business.
“I’ve enjoyed my time there,” but being a state board member basically can be a full-time job, Agosto said.
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UPDATE: Board acts afresh on tuition plan’s refund policy
UPDATED, 10:28 a.m.: The board that oversees the Texas Guaranteed Tuition Plan, which was once called the Texas Tomorrow Fund, voted this morning to adopt State Comptroller Susan Combs’ proposal to back off an earlier declared change in how the pre-paid tuition program pays refunds. (Read our preview skinny here.)
I’m there and Twittered play by play via twitter.com/gardnerselby.
At least two additional twists developed that will be critical to more than 100,000 holders of the pre-paid tuition contracts.
First, the board agreed to extend until Jan. 31 the time period during which participants can still request lump-sum refunds reflecting their initial investments plus earnings, less administrative fees.
Second, the board directed the plan’s staff to enable about 5,000 participants who have already received refunds to re-join the plan, evidently without getting penalized. Participants who have already rolled their refunds into out-of-state 529 funds would face tax penalties for re-joining the plan this year; the board told staff to offer these participants a return to the plan if they say they want back in by Dec. 31 and then re-join by making installment payments through 2010. (If you’re in the plan, watch for a letter spelling this out in detail.)
No board members objected to these moves today, though two asked questions of Combs, its chair.
Combs said she plans to ask the 2011 Legislature to consider injecting about $65 million a year into the plan to ensure its solvency. If that starts happening in the 2012-13 budget period, Combs said, and if such infusions continue for eight years more, the plan will close its projected shortfall, which (depending on investment returns) runs from $1.5 billion to $3 billion.
Combs said too she expects lawmakers to carry out an interim study of the plan’s financial challenges. If that happens, it’ll be announced either by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who orders such studies by the Texas Senate, or House Speaker Joe Straus, who does the same for the House.
“This is a legislatively created program,” Combs said. “I do believe the Legislature will craft a solution in the 2011 session.”
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GOP gov hopeful Medina to advertise en español
Republican Debra Medina says she’ll be the first candidate in the 2010 governor’s race with Spanish-language TV ads.
In the 30- and 60-second spots, which she says will start airing Saturday on Univision in the Rio Grande Valley, Corpus Christi and Laredo, Medina tells viewers that she’s like them: a proud Texan.
In the ads (see below), an announcer says that Medina “shares our values about the importance of family, hard work and faith. She also understands that the money we work so hard to earn should be for us and not for more taxes.”
The announcer calls Medina “alguien como nosotros” — “someone like us.”
Medina, who doesn’t sound at all like a native Spanish speaker, says: “Who is going to think more about Latino families? Rick Perry, Kay Bailey Hutchison or me, who has a Latino family?” The ad then shows Medina with her husband and two children.
Medina’s cultural heritage is German and Bohemian, she told my colleague Gardner Selby last month in an e-mail. “Being married, however, to someone with a Mexican American heritage, I certainly embrace the culture,” she wrote.
But before she explained that, she told Selby, who had asked her whether she considers herself Latina: “I’d not consider myself anything other than a wife and mother, a nurse and a patriot. I believe we too often get into race when it’s immaterial.”
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McCaul hammers absence of GOP members from health-care negotiations; Doggett critiques GOP proposal
U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul of Austin joined Republican House colleagues from Texas this morning in reminding reporters that GOP members—in the minority in the House and Senate—have been left out of the Democratic leadership’s search for a plan broadening access to health coverage.
“When you don’t have a seat at the table, it’s hard to negotiate,” McCaul said during a Washington press conference that I joined by telephone.
McCaul noted too that the secretive way Democratic plans are getting hammered out has strayed from how then-Sen. Barack Obama said last year he expected to proceed.
At an August town hall, Obama said:
I’m going to have all the negotiations around a big table. We’ll have doctors and nurses and hospital administrators. Insurance companies, drug companies — they’ll get a seat at the table, they just won’t be able to buy every chair. But what we will do is, we’ll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies. And so, that approach, I think is what is going to allow people to stay involved in this process.
Didn’t happen—with the result amounting to a broken campaign promise, according to this fact check.
Separately this week, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, questioned House Republicans lately spelling out what they’d prefer in a health-care plan:
After months of delay in offering any proposal, Republicans have been as revealing as a hospital gown regarding why we lack a bipartisan health insurance plan—they have speeches, but no real solutions to offer our families. Sadly, Republican obstructionism is a recurrent pre-existing condition to any meaningful change. Masquerading as reform, their new bill authorizes insurers to continue denying coverage to Americans with ‘pre-existing health conditions,’ such as acne, a C-section, or any other prior medical treatment. The GOP Leadership again sides with insurance monopolies over struggling middle-class families. Under their proposal, competition does not increase and health insurance coverage remains little more than a receipt for premiums paid and likely denial of coverage when families need it the most.
I asked the GOP House members today—including Reps. John Culberson, Kevin Brady and Louie Gohmert—if Texas members of Congress have played substantive roles in the simmering health-care debate. They singled out Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, who serves on a pivotal committee, and Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, the only Texan among conservative-leaning Blue Dog Democrats.
In other words, basically nope. Still, I hope to continue exploring the impact of Texas members on the debate. Fire at me if you have a suggestion, wgselby@statesman.com .
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Two dozen school districts pass tax increases
The good folks at TexasISD.com have done great work this morning to collect the results of elections in school districts where voters were asked to increase the tax rate to pay for school operations.
By their count, 26 of 41 school districts — 63 percent — have approved the tax increases. Most of those elections were held Tuesday, and there’s one more coming up in Crosby ISD in December.
Here in Travis County, voters rejected the proposed 2-cent tax increase.
A shrinking number of school districts have been approving these elections, but the bleeding seems to have stopped. According to TexasISD, 93 percent of these elections passed in 2006, 78 percent in 2007 and 60 percent in 2008
Why are all these elections necessary? In 2006, the Legislature put a cap on the tax rates that school boards can set. If they want to raise more money than that, they need voter approval. And the more voters approve, the more state funding a school district gets.
Districts that got rejected at the polls will now face some very tough choices. Consider this account from the El Paso Times regarding the Canutillo school district near El Paso: “Because the proposal failed, the district will have hiring freezes, an increase in class sizes, and a freeze on pay raises to eliminate the $1 million deficit and recover $4.5 million in a $9 million rainy-day fund, Tidwell said. With the $1.9 million revenue the Canutillo school district would have received if the proposal on the ballot had passed, officials were looking to increase salaries of 900 employees, which required $500,000. Other expenses Canutillo was looking to fund with the tax increase included building upgrades to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act.”
Voters in Canutillo rejected the proposed tax increase 308-276.
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Turnout about 8 percent in Tuesday’s election
The unofficial figures posted at the Texas secretary of state’s Web site show that about 8 percent of the state’s 13 million registered voters went to the polls on Tuesday.
In contrast, turnout was 8.7 percent for the last election involving constitutional amendments, two years ago. In both elections, all of the amendments were approved.
A caveat concerning Tuesday’s election: Upton and Jim Wells counties haven’t reported their returns yet, said Ashley Burton, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office. Still, 99.79 percent of precincts statewide have turned in figures, so that’s probably close enough for newspaper work.
The margins on the 11 amendments — again, these are unofficial figures subject to change — varied considerably. Proposition 11, limiting the government’s exercise of eminent domain, passed with the widest cushion, 89 percent to 11 percent. No surprise there, considering the lofty place occupied by private property rights in the Texas psyche.
Proposition 1, allowing cities and counties to sell bonds to buy open space near military bases, had the narrowest margin, with 55 percent of voters favoring it. Proposition 4, freeing up about $500 million in dormant funds for public universities aspiring to become major research institutions, had the next-closest margin, with 57 percent voting their approval.
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Texans pass all 11 constitutional amendments
Texas voters on Tuesday approved 11 state constitutional amendments, including one intended to help lift more of the state’s public universities into the ranks of major national research institutions.
Proposition 4 would free up about $500 million from a dormant higher education account to fuel the quest for so-called tier-one status and would create an endowment called the National Research University Fund. Five percent of the money, or about $25 million, would be spun off each year for faculty salaries, graduate student stipends and other uses to help seven emerging research universities strive for the big leagues.
According to The Associated Press, Proposition 11 — which limits the government’s eminent domain powers — had 81 percent of the vote favoring it and 19 percent against, with more than half of all precincts reporting.
Proposition 9, which guarantees public access to beaches, and Proposition 8, to help build veterans hospitals, also sailed to passage, AP reported.
Those were the highest-profile propositions in a low-key statewide election. Only spotty opposition emerged to any of the proposed amendments.
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Elections system pulled from IBM data center contract
IBM Corp.’s failure to protect state information under an $863 million data center consolidation contract has prompted the Texas Secretary of State to pull its elections system from the project.
In August, the Secretary of State got a “wake-up call” when a server crash led to a 13-day outage of the agency’s business records filing system. It exposed serious weaknesses in IBM’s ability to recover lost data, said Secretary of State spokesman Randall Dillard.
If a similar failure had affected the agency’s statewide voter registration data at the time of an election, Texas counties would not have been able to verify new voters as required by federal law.
“We couldn’t allow the ability to conduct fair, credible elections to be jeopardized,” Dillard said.
The agency was granted approval from Gov. Rick Perry’s office and the Department of Information Resources, which is overseeing the contract, in September to withdraw its election system from the contract and set up its own data operation with two separate back-up locations.
The Secretary of State is not alone. Most of the 27 agencies involved in the data center consolidation have expressed deep frustration with the project. A survey taken in the spring of the agencies’ information technology directors found that 88 percent of them were dissatisfied with the services provided by IBM.
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Voters considering university fund, other constitutional amendments
Voters in Texas were deciding today whether to approve 11 proposed constitutional amendments, including one that would free up about $500 million to help public universities strive for tier-one status.
Proposition 4, which faced little organized opposition, would transfer that sum from a dormant higher education account to create an endowment called the National Research University Fund. Five percent of the money, or about $25 million, would be spun off each year for faculty salaries, graduate student stipends and other uses intended to help seven emerging research universities strive for a position on the national stage.
The other 10 amendments up for decision included propositions that would guarantee public access to beaches, bar residential appraisals from being set based on a property’s “highest and best use” and ban governmental taking of private property for economic development or tax revenue.
Turnout in the election was expected to be low. In the state’s 15 most populous counties, 2.4 percent of registered voters voted early, said Randall Dillard, a spokesman for the Texas secretary of state’s office.
Constitutional amendments generally have an easy ride at the polls. In the last such election, in November 2007, all 16 amendments passed. But the economic downturn could be a factor this time around.
The research university amendment, which does not involve any new taxes, is part of a broader effort to boost the number of tier-one — also known as top-tier or flagship — institutions in Texas. State lawmakers earlier this year added $50 million to the state’s two-year budget for the emerging research universities on top of their usual appropriations. That money will be parceled out based on how well the schools have done in raising private donations.
The state currently has tier-one schools: the University of Texas, Texas A&M University and Rice University, which is private. Such schools, with stout research grants and intellectual heft, are powerful engines of economic and civic advancement.
The schools aspiring to join the big leagues are UT-Dallas, UT-Arlington, UT-El Paso, UT-San Antonio, Texas Tech University, the University of Houston and the University of North Texas.
Under companion legislation approved by the Legislature this year, those schools would have to meet certain benchmarks to be eligible for distributions from the proposed National Research University Fund. None currently meets the criteria, which include research expenditures of at least $45 million a year and compliance with four of six other standards, such as awarding at least 200 Ph.D. degrees annually and amassing an endowment of at least $400 million.
Fueling a successful rise of just one campus to the top tier could require a $100 million annual injection of state money and private donations for many years, according to higher education leaders. Still, they have described the proposed constitutional amendment and the other spending as important steps in building a pathway.
The dormant account from which the roughly $500 million would be drawn, known as the Higher Education Fund, was set up to receive regular legislative appropriations until it reached $2 billion, after which distributions could begin. Lawmakers have not allocated money to it since 2003, leaving the balance stranded.
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Long history between lawyer, State Board members
When State Board of Education Member David Bradley had a legal question about investing the Permanent School Fund, his first stop was not the lawyer hired by the board to answer such inquiries. It was Austin lawyer Kevin O’Hanlon.
A former general counsel for the Texas Education Agency, O’Hanlon was asked by Bradley to explore the idea of investing a small portion of the $22 billion public school endowment in charter school facilities, the Statesman reported Monday.
O’Hanlon has represented charter schools, including American YouthWorks in Austin, and his involvement in this issue stems from his strong personal and professional ties to several board members, including Bradley, Rene Nunez and Rick Agosto. All three serve on the Permanent School Fund committee.
On the charter school issue, O’Hanlon’s involvement started well over a year ago with a presentation promoting the idea to a State Board committee in July 2008, according to the meeting’s minutes.
At the same time, O’Hanlon was part of a team of lawyers bidding for a Permanent School Fund contract to pursue securities litigation, records show. A board rule prohibiting contact between board members and bidders would have been in effect since the bid was submitted in May. The prohibition continued through this August when the bid process was ended without a hiring decision.
Bradley said he asked O’Hanlon to make the presentation and did not discuss the securities litigation job.
The relationship with board members extends beyond State Board business.
O’Hanlon has has provided legal services to Bradley, R-Beaumont, Agosto, D-San Antonio and Mary Helen Berlanga, D-Corpus Christi, according to disclosure forms filed as part of the bid. Nunez, D-El Paso, has been a friend for a long time, O’Hanlon said.
His law firm also paid a $300 treasurer filing fee for Agosto in 2005 and O’Hanlon gave the candidate another $1,500 that same year, campaign finance records show.
Agosto said O’Hanlon’s firm represented his company, Aureus Partners, but no longer has a business relationship with him. They met when O’Hanlon was a lobbyist for Agosto’s employer, Fortis Investments, which was a money manager for the Permanent School Fund several years ago.
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Gilbert proposes 10 gubernatorial debates
Gubernatorial candidate Hank Gilbert today challenged fellow Democratic hopefuls to a series of 10 debates around Texas.
“My opponents should welcome this opportunity to put themselves and their issues before Democratic primary voters,” Gilbert said.
But one of his leading Democratic rivals, Tom Schieffer, probably won’t be playing along.
“Tom Schieffer is already participating in candidate forums around the state,” said Schieffer spokesman Clay Robison. “He looks forward to continuing his dialogue with Texas Democrats as we move toward the March primary.”’
Gilbert also extended the invitation to candidates Kinky Friedman and Felix Alvarado, and a Gilbert spokesman said he’d also invite any other Democrat who formally announces a run for governor.
Mark Thompson, a therapist who had said he’d run for governor, has endorsed Gilbert, telling the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that “there’s just too many people running.”
Gilbert’s proposed debate schedule includes Tyler, which is close to his home in Whitehouse:
Week of Jan. 4: Education debate in El Paso
Week of Jan. 11: All-issues debate in Dallas/Fort Worth
Week of Jan. 18: Jobs/economy debate in Amarillo
Week of Jan. 25: Energy/environment debate in Houston
Week of Feb. 1: All-issues debates in McAllen and Laredo
Week of Feb. 8: Environmental policy debate in Austin
Week of Feb. 15: All-issues debate in Tyler
Week of Feb. 22: All-issues debate in San Antonio
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Berman challenger opts out
Former Tyler Mayor Joey Seeber told the Tyler Morning Telegraph today that he is dropping his bid for the Texas House seat now held by Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler.
Seeber had earlier said he would run in the Republican primary when it looked as though Berman might seek the GOP nomination for governor. It appeared Seeber would continue to seek the seat after Berman said he’d run for re-election, but today’s announcement puts an end to those plans.
Seeber hadn’t been making many waves on the campaign trail. Now we know why.
Check out the Tyler Morning Telegraph story here.
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Texas docs endorse Perry
The Texas Medical Association’s political arm, TEXPAC, today announced its endorsement of Gov. Rick Perry’s re-election campaign.
The group selected Perry because of his “unwavering support and defense of Texas’ medical liability reforms and his efforts to protect the sacred patient-physician bond,” said Dr. William Fleming III, president of the association.
But relations between the doctors and Perry haven’t always been so warm.
In 2002, the year after Perry vetoed a bill that would have required insurance companies to promptly pay routine medical claims, the association endorsed Perry’s Democratic opponent, Tony Sanchez. At the time, Perry said that the legislation would have encouraged frivolous lawsuits.
And this year, the governor publicly indicated he wouldn’t support a Texas Medical Association-backed legislative proposal to allow about 80,000 families to buy into the Children’s Health Insurance Program. (The measure died before landing on Perry’s desk).
“We don’t agree 100 percent, but we agree most of the time,” Fleming told reporters at a press conference today at the association’s Austin headquarters, which Perry attended.
On tort reform, they tend to agree.
Since Texas voters in 2003 approved a constitutional amendment limiting jury awards in medical malpractice cases, Perry said, the number of doctors applying to practice in the state has increased 57 percent.
“There were too many areas of Texas where there was a dwindling access to health care because of these frivolous lawsuits,” Perry said. In some areas of the state, he said, doctors were “almost an endangered species.”
Since the reforms, 14,498 doctors either returned to practice in Texas or started practicing in the state, Perry said.
These days, the association — which includes nearly 44,000 Texas doctors and medical students — likes Perry so much that Fleming, in an apparent slip, called the governor “Dr. Perry.”
Perry said that the endorsement was the second most important physician endorsement he’s ever received.
The most important: when Dr. Joe Thigpen granted Perry permission to marry Thigpen’s daughter, Anita.
The AP photo below by Harry Cabluck shows Fleming, left, and Perry.
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A tale of Sen. Watson’s ego and eggs
As a state senator, Austin Democrat Kirk Watson picks up plenty of awards. But he says his wife, Liz, who has known him since elementary school, keeps him grounded.
In his e-mail newsletter this morning, Watson shared the story of how on a recent day when he was honored by Marathon Kids, he sent his wife a text message reminding her that he was heading to Whole Foods to pick up the award.
She texted back, “That’s great,” and her husband wrote in his newsletter: “My ego momentarily ticked up a bit.”
Then he read the rest of her text message: “While you’re there, pick up some eggs and whatever else you want.”
“So I shook some hands,” Watson wrote, “thanked folks for the award, headed downstairs, made a beeline for the egg cooler, checked out, headed home, and made myself some dinner.”
“Yeah, I had eggs.”
The photo below by Robert Godwin for the American-Statesman’s Glossy magazine shows the Watsons in August.
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UPDATED: Combs reverses course on tuition plan; legislator rejoices
State Comptroller Susan Combs has decided to urge a board she heads to cancel plans to change the way refunds are handled for customers of the state’s original pre-paid college tuition plan.
Presuming the board adopts Combs’ recommendation, families in the program will no longer need to decide by Nov. 30 whether to cancel their contract in order to receive earnings from their investments. Combs will also present recommendations to allow families who cancelled contracts during an ongoing opt-out period to resume their contracts if they choose to do so, the agency said.
I hope to visit with Combs this afternoon. Feel free to fire a question my way at wgselby@statesman.com, but do so soon if you can.
“Praise be to God,” reacted Rep. Jim McReynolds, D-Lufkin, who had asked Attorney General Greg Abbott to review the legality of the board helmed by Combs changing the refund policy.
“I appreciate what she’s done,” McReynolds said. “I’m proud of her.”
After some complaints, Combs concluded the refund policy is properly a legislative issue, meaning any such move would be up to lawmakers, who aren’t expected back in session until the regular session in 2011.
On Monday, the American-Statesman published a look at the May 12 decision to change the refund policy for the Texas Guaranteed Tuition Plan, what was originally called the Texas Tomorrow Fund. See that article here.
The board is expected to have meeting to shift its gears next week.
In her announcement, Combs says: “I am very pleased by the interest and attention shown by legislators and their willingness to address the financial stability of the guaranteed tuition plan. I ask that the Legislature conduct an interim study of the projected $1.7 billion - $2.1 billion shortfall, which may start to appear as soon as 2015. This is an issue that should be addressed sooner than later, and I believe the Legislature needs to start funding the plan in 2011 to fix the projected plan deficit.”
Saying she still thinks the plan needs help to stay solvent, Combs added that she’s heeding an outcry from more than 100,000 holders of contracts in the program and more than 40 legislators.
“My first obligation is to protect the state’s assets, especially in this economic climate. I commend the board for its hard work and focus on their efforts to fix a hard problem,” she said. “A recent decision to limit refunds for cancelled contracts was due to a grave concern over the solvency of the TGTP and my commitment to fiscal responsibility. At the same time, I have listened to the concerns of legislators and contract-holders, and I am recommending any changes to the program be postponed until the Legislature convenes in 2011.”
Fetch Combs’ press release here.
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Madeleine Albright, in Austin, raising money today for expected McCaul challenger
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, paused in Austin for Saturday’s Texas Book Festival, is the guest of honor as I type for a fund-raiser for Austin’s Jack McDonald, the Perficient executive who’s raised more than $1 million in hopes of unseating GOP U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, next year.
McDonald’s camp casts today’s closed-to-reporters’ “discussion” of international affairs at MPower Labs as a fresh demonstration of the strength of the Democrat’s campaign. Fetch the invitation by clicking here, though keep in mind the gathering ends at noon.
And if McCaul airs a reaction, I’ll update this blog.
Loose talk: Albright sported a bronze Texas pin at a taping of “Texas Monthly Talks” this morning. “Where else could I wear it?” Albright said, according to someone in the audience.
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Podcast: Texas Political Parlor
Podcast
New Republican chief in town …. Higher education left off campaign trail … There’s an election Tuesday? … Most talkative Texan in Congress.
Step into the Texas Political Parlor, where Capitol reporters from the Statesman and KUT 90.5 FM talk about this week’s headlines in Texas politics.
Texas Political Parlor
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Latest comments
Кажется, это подойдет.
... read the full comment by Смирнов | Comment on Travis County delegates email survey responses Read Travis County delegates email survey responses
Hopson is on to something, such as Exhibit A: The non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation just confirmed that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962) could land people
... read the full comment by Bob | Comment on Hopson switch hurts Democratic hopes Read Hopson switch hurts Democratic hopes
So, jr, when EXACTLY will you obots/demobots start taking responsibility for the mess?? Sure the little shrub screwed up just about everything, but do you ever anticipate turning the mirror on your party and its Dear Leader?
... read the full comment by atxgrrl | Comment on Hopson switch hurts Democratic hopes Read Hopson switch hurts Democratic hopes
it’s difficult to read these demo bashers when Georgie Porgie Puddin’ ‘n Pie left it for Obama—— the econmy, the wars, the bailouts [yes, dumb-butts W handed out “stimulus” money last year], high unemployment——
... read the full comment by jr | Comment on Hopson switch hurts Democratic hopes Read Hopson switch hurts Democratic hopes
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