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August 2009
More KVUE Blogs
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February 2009 ArchivesNational Journal's annual vote rankings of US Senators is out, and Texas senators proved consistently and reliably conservative in votes on both fiscal and social issues. (Every member of Congress is placed on the liberal-conservative political spectrum based on how they voted in 2008.) US Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, ranked as the 17th most conservative member of the US Senate, with US Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, not far behind as 20th most conservative. Wearing royal blue t-shirts emblazoned with loud yellow letters reading "Tuition Relief Now", nearly one hundred Texas public university students marched from the heart of the UT-Austin campus to the South steps of the State Capitol, as a show of support for SB 105, by state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen. The bill freezes tuition and indexes future increases to inflation. Statewide, tuition at public universities has climbed about 50% since 2003, when lawmakers "deregulated" tuition and allowed universities to set rates... State Rep. Harold Dutton's efforts to get Speaker Joe Straus to allow members to swap committees has failed again, he says. After the speaker said several times from the front mic that he won't allow the switch, on Wednesday, he asked the speaker for a formal ruling. But today, Dutton formally withdrew his motion to get an official ruling. "I knew I was going to get denied," said Dutton. "And they won't let me appeal." ...The second in a series of polls by a Tennessee polling firm, Public Policy Polling, revealed Lt. Gov David Dewhurst and AG Greg Abbott have the edge on Democrats Bill White and John Sharp in a faceoff for US Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's seat. The poll is based on a few suppositions, namely, that Hutchison's seat would come open and that Dewhurst would run for it. In the imaginary matchups, Dewhurst leads White by 42% to 37%, and beats out sharp 42% to 36%. Dewhurst said he doesn't want to talk hypotheti...
First in an occasional series Jay Propes is the "lead off hitter" in our new blog series, Impact Players, which focuses on people around the capitol who play big roles, but don't spend much time in the spotlight. My hope is to include lobbyists, staffers, troopers, the dude who fries the >> Continue reading: Impact Players: Jay Propes I haven't nearly run over any lawmakers lately, which has brought the entries in my LIAR (Lawmakers I Almost Run-over) series to a halt. But have no fear, a new blog series will take its place. We'll call it "Impact Players" -- but to be honest, I really wanted to call it "Domies" (like homies, get it? OK I'll stop talking.) Each Impact Player entry will feature someone who spends lots of time around the pink dome, whose face looks REALLY familiar, but who you may not be able to place at first glance. And, as the title implies, they are ... So far this session, we've seen the seniors, the community colleges, even the interior decorators rally at the capitol. But few of them get the guest appearances of Governor Rick Perry, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst AND Attorney General Greg Abbott. All three will show up to rally with several anti-abortion groups on this "Pro-Life Day". The event's at 10am on the Capitol's south steps. They will speak in favor of state Sen. Dan Patrick/state Rep Frank Corte's legislation (SB 182/HB 36) which requires mothers seeking abortions to first hear the heartbeat and see a sonogram of the fetus. The Governor w... Yikes. Last week's blow-up between state Rep. Leo Berman and Chinese-American attorney Harry Joe is now galvanizing a call to censure the lawmaker for "conduct unbecoming of a member of the Texas legislature".
State Sen. Jane Nelson filed her omnibus bill to reform the state's institutions for the intellectually disabled a few weeks ago, now state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, and state Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, are getting in on the action.
HB 1589/SB 1060 would, in effect, close some of the 13 state "schools", or, institutions for the disabled that cur... A statewide poll conducted by Austin-based polling company Baselice and Associates shows 75% of Texas voters favor allowing slot machines at racetracks and Indian casinos. 23% were against. The survey of 1006 Texas voters was conducted between February 7-11, 2009 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.1%. "Our breadth of support cuts across all lines of gender, race and party," said Tommy Azapardi, Executive Director of Texans for Economic Development, in a statement. Legislation allowing a statewide vote on a racino proposal is expected to be filed shortly. >> Continue reading: Poll: 75% of Texans Favor Slot Machines at Racetracks KUT listeners probably KNOW this already, since it's been mentioned a gazillion times over the airwaves, but KUT - Austin's NPR station - is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
As talk swirls around state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte's possible run for governor on the Democratic side in 2010... I'm curious who else will fill the Democrat's bench. They seem to have the opposite problem as the GOP, which has a glut of statewides wanting to move up, but without a place to move. Austin state senator Kirk Watson has run statewide before, in 2002 for attorney general. The entire Democratic ticket took a thumping that year, as did Democrats nationwide. Since emerging as a talented senator in only his first term, some folks around the capitol have been wondering what Watson will do next. On... Austin-based Texas Civil Rights Project was one of the groups that filed a complaint against Judge Sharon Keller for judicial misconduct. After learning that the State Commission on Judicial Conduct is taking action re: the complaint, the group released this statement: "We hope that it will lead to her removal from office. What Judge Keller did was legally and morally reprehensible and brought the administration of criminal justice in Texas into ill repute across the nation, as evidenced by the New York Times editorial today, calling for her impeachment," said Texas Civil Rights Project Director Jim Harrin...
He continues to rail against the federal stimulus package on principle, but Governor Rick Perry wrote President Barack Obama today, saying he will accept all $17 billion of the federal stimulus money to which Texas is entitled. "I remain opposed to using these funds to expand existing government programs," Perry writes. ...US Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's spokesman says the senator will return the campaign money she's received from Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford. Stanford's come under scrutiny for what one federal official called banking "fraud of shocking magnitude". Since 1989, the Houston businessman donated a total of $7,300 to KBH, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. No word on whether US Sen John Cornyn, R-Texas, will follow suit. Cornyn got a far larger sum from Stanford, >> Continue reading: Hutchison To Return Tainted Money The behind-the-scenes tension over House committee assignments bubbled up onto the house floor just now. House Democratic Caucus head state Rep Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, a constant thorn in former speaker Craddick's side, put Speaker Joe Straus on the spot. Dunnam took the back mike, asking Straus whether he would recognize a motion to suspend the rules to allow a vote on two members who want to voluntarily switch committees. Members would vote to allow the committee switch, but Straus would first have to ALLOW that vote. "The question is whether or not the chair will allow us to have a discussio... How many theme days were there at the Capitol today? I think it was simultaneously El Paso Day, NFIB Small Business Day, Kidney Day, Texas Interior Decorators Day, and whatever day that resulted in the cacophony of pounding and music around lunchtime. Lost in my general distraction were various items that you've probably seen by now -- state Sen. Jane Nelson's new bills to fight the bulge in public school students, >> Continue reading: Lost in the Shuffle
The newly appointed Chair of Appropriations is only the second Texas Appropriations Committee Chair to serve two or more nonconsecutive terms. The only other guy to do this was Chairman Bill Heatly, half a century ago.... Mike Levy, recently retired publisher of Texas Monthly magazine, drops his exploratory bid for Austin mayor. He cites personal reasons in an unexpectedly long goodbye letter, which is posted in full after the jump. The nut graph, as it's called in print journalism: I have learned a lot in the last several months, including that my candidacy would be more than just viable. Congratulations to state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, who finished the Austin Half Marathon today without significant self-loathing. Finish time? Two hours, ten minutes, 23 seconds. "I was digging deep toward the end," Rodriguez said. The rolling hills of the course make the Austin full and half distances among the less-desirable races of the season. But Rodriguez finished in something like 3,000th place and was still standing Sunday night. Other Central Texas lawmaker runners include state Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, and state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, who skipped this yea... Here's some facts and figures on the new committee assignments, as complied by the Texas Legislative Council. -- Partisan Makeup: 76 Republicans and 74 Democrats -- The number of standing committees down from 40 to 34 -- Total of 296 positions on substantive committees. -- With the exception of the Speaker and the Chairs of Appropriations and State Affairs, each member was assigned two slots on substantive committees -- 18 committees are chaired by Republicans and 16 are chaired by Democrats. In 2007, 30 were chaired by Republicans and 10 by Democrats --15 of th... And they're out. The biggies: Craddick is not chairing or vice-chairing any committee, but did get on State Affairs and Energy Resources. Committee Appointments >> Continue reading: House Committee Assignments Revealed
I don't know what they found in those studies, but I think microblogging site Twitter has ventured into mainstream when curmudgeonly politicians like my... The committee assignments aren't out yet, but Speaker Joe Straus does have a staff now. The appointments were just made official with a release. Here ya go, capitol insiders: Executive Staff: Lisa Kaufman, Director of Budget and Policy/General Counsel The Statesman's Jason Embry once said, "The world needs another blog like it needs more candidates for House speaker," but if you haven't started reading the Texas Observer's Floor Pass just yet, it's worth a gander. I enjoyed their committee preview this morning, an overview of what to look for when Speaker Straus announces his committee assignments Thursday. The analysis is broken down into parts -- the big three (committees), chairmanships and other committees to watch. >> Continue reading: Have You Seen My Floor Pass? From Mike Goldfein in our Belo Washington Bureau: As Sen. Hutchison was speaking on the floor this morning in opposition to the Economic Stimulus her cell phone went off. She turned in exasperation to a staff aide who rushed over, grabbed her handbag, and took away the offending phone.What I want to know is, what is her ringtone? Any guesses?... Gosh, we're a year out from a GOP primary, but Governor Rick Perry and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison are already happy to engage with one another over the issues of the day. I was personally a little surprised that she actually answered the question about whether she thought the public flogging of Robert Rowling (UTIMCO chair) was political. She called it "payback" for his support of her in the gubernatorial showdown. Perry struck back at KBH this afternoon: "I think its pretty hard to explain to Texans that you want to come to Texas and do another job when you can't even do the one we've hired you t... On possibility of Perry opting to leave stimulus money on the table: On UTIMCO's R...
"Our nation must have more scientists and engineers because they are the ones who will keep us strong and thriving," US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison said to TBEC, the Texas Business and Education Coalition this morning. KBH is speaking right now, after a botched intro. (i.e. Here's Kay Bailey Hutchison [Applause]... Oh wait she's not here yet... [Awkward room silence]... OK here she is! [Applause]. She's speaking about the rise of Asia and Asian scientists and how we're going to be left behind. (Those pesky Asians.) "The United States is being left behind. In China, more than 40% of gradua... Just a few quick shots of the inside of the Speaker's Apartment. Leave any thoughts about the decor in the comments! ...Speaker Straus invited the press corps to the speaker's capitol apartment this morning, took wide-ranging questions on everything from committee assignments to Milton Rister to UTIMCO, then hung around and mingled among the corps over breakfast tacos and fruit. (Straus said he liked the blueberries.)
It's a first for many in the capitol press corps -- a chance to see and hang out inside the 1,800 sq. ft. speaker's capitol apartment. Speaker Joe Straus invited the press "to personally greet and meet members of the Capitol press corps and permit members of the Corp to view, tour, photograph or video tape the newly renovated Speaker's Apartment." It comes on the heels of the AP's latest story on how former speaker Tom Craddick spent all but $18 on last minute renovations to that apartment before he left. But as the Stat...
That said, I thought this handy box for >> Continue reading: Tickets, Packets, Pistols and More... Longtime PJ readers will remember The Purge, a meandering series on email as open records in Texas. The Purge led FOI advocate John Washburn to push and force the release of thousands of Governor Rick Perry's office emails, and highlighted a longstanding policy in the governor's office of purging electronic public records every two weeks, or even sooner, because staffers get to decide which of their ... DPS Capitol Police confirms a man tried to commit suicide on the capitol lawn this afternoon, but did not go through with it. APD dispatch reported it to DPS, and authorities have not located the man. No one was hurt. ...Disgraced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick finished up his 99 day sentence in jail today and is reportedly headed to Dallas now that he's a free man. "Kilpatrick's lawyers have said he has a job interview in Texas but would not elaborate on what the job is," according to the Detroit Free Press. (Full story here)
Governor Rick Perry designated several hurricane-related issues as "emergency items" this morning, which lets lawmakers consider them in the first 30 days of session. Straight from the gov's office, the emergency items include: Just in case you haven't seen it yet, I've put the letter from Dewhurst and Straus asking state agencies to cut their budgets 2.5% in the "extended" part of this entry after the jump. ...The City of Austin approved $830,000 in spending to pay for the services of fifteen contract lobbyists this session. It's more than any other local government is spending this year. The hired guns will focus on Austin's "primary issues" as outlined by the city's government relations office: - Opposing appraisal/revenue caps |
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