|
|
|
A few days ago, a suburban Fort Worth-area race was mostly a local contest to determine whether a 14-year incumbent met the conservative purity standards of Republican voters. But almost overnight, according to eight-day campaign finance reports, a series of PAC donations and the support of homebuilding giant Richard Weekley changed the HD 92 race into one that has not only taken a sensationalized turn but also garnered the attention of the press statewide and vaulted a formerly underfunded challenger to the financial-backing level of the incumbent.
|
What started as a local race between Rep. Todd Smith (R-Euless) and Jeff Cason took on a new tone when Texans for Lawsuit Reform founder Dick Weekley and fellow TLR donors Leo Linbeck III and Harlan and Trammell Crow funded the Citizen Leader PAC, which launched attacks on Smith via the web, mailers, and phone calls.
Much larger now than Smith’s political future are the questions: Do Republicans want independent legislators who think, or will Texas government become a private fiefdom for the benefit of a handful of feudal lords? And is the tort reform movement about creating a fair balance between individuals and corporations in the legal system, or is it succumbing to special interests?
|
William Murchison
2/19/2010
Even Gov. Rick Perry’s chief opponent for reelection agreed in principle with the challenge that Perry, Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott, and Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples mounted this week against the Environmental Protection Agency’s newly launched campaign against greenhouse gases.
Actually it turns out that a lot of people besides Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, plus Perry, Abbott, and Staples, worry about EPA’s foray into branches of regulation not originally contemplated by Congress in the Clean Air Act of 1970.
|
At the Texas Hospital Association’s annual leadership conference in Austin this week, the consensus emerged that the state will face serious challenges in coming up with the money just to maintain the current Medicaid system.
Throwing in the potential expansions under the health care reforms championed by Democrats could be next to impossible, state budget leaders say.
|
A Feb. 11 appearance by gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina on “The Glenn Beck Show” had her opponents moving in for the kill and her staff scrambling to put the genie back in the bottle.
|
Six Republican candidates are running for the seat being vacated by Texas Supreme Court Justice Harriett O’Neill in Place 3.
Not much mental acuity is required to predict a runoff between two of the six, who are Jeff Brown, Rick Green, Debra Lehrmann, Jim Moseley, Rebecca Simmons and Rick Strange. The winner will face Democrat Jim Sharp in November.
|
Lawmakers these past few years have emphasized structuring the higher education system to ensure that a higher percentage of students earn degrees or certificates in a more timely manner.
Commissioner of Higher Education Raymund Paredes spoke last week to the Texas Association of Business and detailed his proposal to include a merit component to the awarding of previously need-only TEXAS [Toward Excellence, Access, and Success] Grant scholarships to state universities. In a conversation with LSR, Paredes elaborated on his ideas.
|
Texas consumers: prepare for a body blow. Unless it can be blocked, the feds are set to drop kick Texas’ prosperity in a big way.
|
It appears cities and counties weren’t the only units of government participating in the publicly-funded lobby effort to increase taxes for North Texas commuter rail projects. Documents recently uncovered by LSR show that city and county lobbyists asked for universities to send letters to legislators endorsing the transportation tax hike. At least one – the University of North Texas in Denton – did so.
The engagement of state agencies to influence the state legislature could well add new fuel to the debate over taxpayer-funded lobbying.
|
William Lutz
Jan 15, 2010
The three major Republican candidates for governor participated in a televised debate Jan. 14, where they fought and debated over taxes, social issues, and the role of government in the lives of everyday Texans. For the most part, the candidates effectively repeated their talking points, but the failure of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to give a straightforward answer on her position on whether the constitution protects a woman’s right to an abortion amplified doubts some social conservatives have about her candidacy. A few observations about the debate:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|