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The latest politics news from The Texas Tribune.

  • A Taxing Session?

    By Ben Philpott, KUT News

    Lawmakers will find themselves in a multibillion-dollar ditch when they return to Austin in January 2011. Constitutionally, they can't write a deficit budget, so they're expected to use not just cuts but revenue raisers to keep the books in balance. Ben Philpott, who covers politics and public policy for KUT News and the Tribune, filed this report. Full Story 

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  • Redistricting Reality

    By Ross Ramsey

    In 2011, political mapmakers will take the latest census numbers (Texas is expected to have a population of more than 25 million) and use them to draw new congressional and legislative districts. The last time this was done, in 2003, Republican mappers took control of the U.S. House by peeling away seats from the Democrats. This time, Texas is poised to add up to four seats to its congressional delegation — and early numbers indicate bad news ahead for West Texas and other areas that haven't kept up with the state's phenomenal growth. Full Story 

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    Credit: Matt Stiles

  • The Price of Reform

    By Emily Ramshaw

    Behind the fiery health care rhetoric is a measure expected to dramatically expand Texas’ Medicaid program, adding up to 1 million adults to the state’s insurance roll — but at a steep cost. Texas will have to come up with hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue to foot its share of the bill. Full Story 

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    Credit: Jacob Villanueva

  • The First Corporate Ad

    By Ross Ramsey

    The first political ads bought by a corporation in Texas appeared in East Texas newspapers just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court effectively ended the state's ban on that kind of spending. They challenged the Republican bona fides of state Rep. Chuck Hopson of Jacksonville, a Democrat who switched parties in November and ran in a three-way GOP primary. Full Story 

    The KDR Development Inc. advertisement that ran in the Panola Watchman

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Ross Ramsey

    Grissom on the 1.2 million Texans who've lost their licenses under the Driver Responsibility Act and the impenetrable black box that is the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Ramshaw and Kraft on nurses with substance abuse problems and rehabilitation that can get them back to work, M. Smith finds it's not easy being Rick Green, Stiles on counting Texans (and everybody else), Rapoport on the State Board of Education's war with itself and the runoff in SBOE District 10, Thevenot's revealing interview with a big-city superintendent on closing bad schools, Aguilar on the tensions over water on the Texas-Mexico border, Hamilton on the new Coffee Party, Hu on Kesha Rogers and why her party doesn't want her, Philpott on the runoff in HD-47, Ramsey on Bill White and the politics of taxes, and E. Smith's conversation with Game Change authors Mark Halperin and John Heleimann: The best of our best from March 15 to 19. Full Story 

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  • The Elefante in the Room

    By Brian Thevenot

    Railroad Commission Chairman Victor Carrillo, a seven-year incumbent with a background in the industry he regulates, got trounced in the GOP primary on Tuesday by an unknown, David Porter, who spent little money on the race. He's not the only one who thinks his Hispanic surname cost him his job. Full Story 

    Victor Carillo, David Porter

  • Carrillo: Hispanic Surname Caused Election Loss

    By Brian Thevenot

    "Early polling showed that the typical GOP primary voter has very little info about the position of Railroad Commissioner, what we do, or who my opponent or I were. Given the choice between “Porter” and “Carrillo” — unfortunately, the Hispanic-surname was a serious setback from which I could never recover." Full Story 

    Railroad Commission Victor Carrillo

  • Weak Tea?

    By Reeve Hamilton

    Candidates favored by the Tea Party movement did not fare well on primary night, but they had an effect on several races. Full Story 

    January 16, 2009: A coalition of Tea Party groups rally against Democrats and U.S. President Barack Obama Saturday afternoon at the Texas Capitol.
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • HuTube: At the Polls

    By Elise Hu

    Photographer Justin Dehn and I hit up some polling places around Austin to see what was on voters minds. We selected some timely music for our drive. Full Story 

  • The Polling Center: Voter Empathy

    By Jim Henson

    Whether he crosses the 50% threshold or is forced into a run-off when the polls close next Tuesday, the results of the last UT/Texas Tribune Poll suggest that Rick Perry's synchronous orbit over a big chunk of the Republican primary electorate has helped him prove many observers — not to mention KBH boosters and donors — very wrong. Full Story 

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    Credit: Marjorie Cotera

  • Accentuate the Negative

    By Ross Ramsey

    Do attack ads work? In the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll, we tested the effectiveness of two "comparative" commercials run in the governor's race to see if they were persuasive to voters. Apparently so. Full Story 

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