By William Lutz on
7/27/2011 10:09 AM
Rep. Beverly Woolley (R-Houston) announced she is not seeking re-election next year. During her time in office, Woolley became one of the most influential members of the House Republican Caucus, serving as chair of the House Calendars Committee and later as Speaker Pro Tem. On a policy level, she is best known for her advocacy and involvement in efforts to protect private property rights and reform eminent domain.
House Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) issued the following statement:
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By William Lutz on
7/15/2011 4:19 PM
Now that the legislators have gone home. The LSR staff will be on vacation. Therefore comments to the blog will get approved on a much slower timetable than usual. We will return Mon. July 25. We are also working hard on our final subscription issue of LSR, which we hope to send to our subscribers soon. Have a great summer.
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By William Lutz on
7/15/2011 12:18 PM
Earlier this week, I received a submission from a higher education expert who often publishes his work under the pseudonym Publius Audax. He disagrees with UT Liberal Arts Dean Randy Diehl’s recent report attacking the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Texas philanthropist Jeff Sandefer’s "7 Breakthrough Solutions." He also proposes a reform of his own – evaluating Texas universities using a double-blind exam similar to what is found at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. We post the piece below:
"Randy Diehl, dean of liberal arts at UT-Austin, and his "executive leadership team" have produced "A Response to the Seven ‘Breakthrough’ Solutions" (http://bit.ly/pSuWuI) proposed by Jeff Sandefer, the founder of the Acton Business School and a key leader of the higher education reform movement in Texas. Diehl’s response deserves close attention, if for no other reason than as a model of the use of confusion, misdirection and irrelevancy as propagandistic techniques.
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By William Lutz on
7/15/2011 12:17 PM
Lots of campaign announcements have reached our desk in the last few days. Here are some of the highlights:
* Elizabeth Ames Jones announced that W.A. "Tex" Moncrief, Ed Whitacre, and George P. Mitchell will be co-chairs of her campaign.
* Seth McKinney is no longer running for the Texas House of Representatives. (LSR previously did a blog post on his announcement).
* Ted Cruz received endorsements from three former chairmen of the Republican Party of Texas: Tina Benkiser, Cathie Adams, and George Strake. Cruz has also been endorsed by George P. Bush.
* Conservative Republicans of Texas endorsed Barry Smitherman for the Texas Railroad Commission.
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By William Lutz on
7/15/2011 12:04 PM
Secretary of State Hope Andrade announced the ballot order for the November constitutional amendment election. We post the proposed constitutional amendments and their proposition numbers below:
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By William Lutz on
7/12/2011 5:47 PM
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Surfside Beach) announced he will not seek re-election today. Paul's announcement was made to The Facts today. LSR has received several statements and announcements from distinguisted Texans and potential candidates. We reprint below:
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By William Lutz on
7/12/2011 2:54 PM
Comptroller Susan Combs announced last week that she has hired a Chief Privacy Officer and a Chief Information Security Officer to augment her staff. These new hires are another step in a series of actions Combs is taking to fix highly-publicized leaks of personnel information from state computer systems. These hires come shortly after some in the press raked Combs over the coals for hiring a policy advisor who had political experience.
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By William Lutz on
7/8/2011 4:09 PM
The Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education – a group that supports higher education reform ideas offered by the state’s university presidents and chancellors and has expressed concerns with some higher education reform ideas offered from outside academia – fired a rhetorical howitzer at Gov. Rick Perry yesterday. Political observers in Texas are left wondering why the organization chose to attack Perry by name and how this will play out.
The coalition’s main communications consultants used to work for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and former president George W. Bush, two elected officials whose political interests have not always aligned perfectly with those of Perry. A member of the coalition’s operating committee, former ambassador and Higher Education Coordinating Board Chair Pamela Willeford, said she has supported Perry, and the organization is bipartisan and is about higher education, not partisan politics. She also said that decisions about what statements to issue are made by the organization’s operating committee, not its consultants.
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By William Lutz on
7/8/2011 1:18 PM
(Editor's Note: Updated at 3:40 pm to add a statement from Smitherman)
Gov. Rick Perry named Public Utility Commission Chairman Barry Smitherman to the Railroad Commission of Texas. Smitherman has been a member of the Public Utility Commission since 2004 and its chairman since 2007. Smitherman combines support for and an appreciation of markets with knowledge of the energy industry and political acumen.
“Barry’s strong leadership at the Texas Public Utility Commission helped make Texas energy and telecommunications markets stronger and more affordable, and served the best interests of Texas consumers and families,” said Perry. “As he did at the PUC, Railroad Commissioner Smitherman will continue to push back against the Obama Administration’s misguided energy policies, which threaten Texas jobs and our nation’s energy security. His knowledge of Texas’ energy market and our energy needs is unparalleled, and I’m confident he will continue to serve our state well in his new capacity at the Railroad Commission.”
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By William Lutz on
7/7/2011 1:54 PM
A fixture in the Capitol Press Corps is joining the Texas Association of Business, effective Aug. 1. For the past 18 years, Robert Wood has covered the Capitol for radio, both for KLBJ-AM and for the Texas State Network. He is known and respected throughout the Capitol for the insightful questions he asks at news conferences.
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