The proverbial fat lady hasn't sung yet, but she is backstage, warming up. And Texas lawmakers haven't completed work on any of the legislation they came to enact.
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An interactive look at the legislative and congressional district maps used for the 2012 elections — the same maps Gov. Rick Perry asked lawmakers to ratify during the current special session — and what they're like, demographically and politically.
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Texans is waiting to find out whether its voter ID law and its redistricting maps will be affected by a Supreme Court ruling on Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. But another ruling in an Arizona case could come into play.
Full StoryThis week in the Texas Weekly Newsreel: The end of the special session is in sight, the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune polls are out and a judge says new school finance litigation case will begin in January.
Full StoryFor this week's nonscientific poll of political and governmental insiders, we asked about the state of the state and the country, the quality of the schools and what high school should do, about pensions and paychecks, and about redistricting.
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Key meetings and events for the coming week.
Full StoryIt's virtually impossible to predict what Rick Perry will do, but speculation is mounting that he won't run for re-election. That chatter is increasing now that the governor has said he will make his intentions known before July 1.
Rick Perry isn’t the state’s top Republican in every respect, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. For instance, he is Texas voters’ second-favorite Republican in the race for president in 2016 — a fantasy contest that saw Ted Cruz getting 25 percent to Perry’s 10 percent. Aside from the political horse races, that survey covered voters’ views of politicians and political institutions, the civic and economic environment, and issues ranging from abortion and public education to gun laws and gay marriage.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is collecting three pensions on top of his fulltime salary, earning more than $65,000 in benefits last year, according to the National Journal. Cornyn was a state district judge, a Texas Supreme Court justice and then attorney general, and gets a separate pension from each of those jobs. He’s not collecting a federal pension while he works, according to that report.
Here’s a surprise for those who were expecting a special session on public education sometime in the next 18 months: After hearing brief arguments on whether to reopen evidence in the school finance case because of laws passed during the legislative session, state district court Judge John Dietz announced this that a new, six-week trial will begin in January. That probably wouldn’t leave enough time for an appeal to clear the Texas Supreme Court before the 2014-15 school year — and that takes away the biggest reason for a special session on school finance before the 2015 regular session.
Citing concerns about eminent domain abuse and the potential contamination of water resources, a coalition led by former Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina is asking state lawmakers to conduct interim studies and hold public meetings on the issue of oil pipeline expansion.
Ballot notes:
Constance Allison is the new legislative director and Jamie Dudensing is the new policy director for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. The two were promoted after deputy chief of staff Julia Rathgeber left the lite guv’s office to become the state’s insurance commissioner. Dudensing has worked for Dewhurst for eight years in a variety of jobs; Allison worked for former Sen. Steve Ogden and joined Dewhurst’s staff last year.
