The Bryan newspaper is reporting that Senate finance Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, may be running for re-election. Ogden had announced in September he was leaving the Senate, and he had been expected to make a run for Congress....
Houston Mayor Bill White just announced that he will consider a run for governor over the Thanksgiving weekend. Our sources earlier today told us White was running but would delay a formal announcement until after the holidays. Here's White's statement:...
Here's the audio of Fort Worth businessman Tom Schieffer dropping out of the governor's race and urging Houston Mayor Bill White to get in. Schieffer says a candidate forum last week with others in the race was not the...
What would a run for governor by Houston Mayor Bill White mean for Democrats? "My view is heavily influenced by what I've read and heard from political operatives on the Democratic side, which is it was their dream someone like...
Fort Worth businessman Tom Schieffer said he met with Houston Mayor Bill White on Sunday in Houston to urge him to run for governor instead of United States Senate. Schieffer said Texas is facing a "crisis of leadership" and that...
State Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, isn't waiting for an announcement to endorse Bill White for governor, typical of the fast-and-furious reaction to the report that Tom Schieffer's getting out of the race and White may be in. The Hill...
Houston Mayor Bill White is declining to comment on whether he is entering the governor's upon the exit of Fort Worth businessman Tom Schieffer. White told Bradley Olson his campaign will put out an announcement after Schieffer's 3 p.m. news...
AUSTIN -- The trustees of Texas' public higher education endowment funds are recommending more than $3.3 million in performance bonuses for investment managers despite $2.6 billion in lost value over the past fiscal year. But the top managers of the...
Republican likes Staubach for Governor Who can unify Texas Republicans in the midst of a tough primary battle? How about a former Dallas Cowboys quarterback? At a luncheon on Nov. 13, Roger Staubach jokingly stated that he was planning a...
Your marriage may not be legal, according to Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Democratic candidate for Attorney General. Radnofsky said that all marriages are in legal danger because the wording of the 2005 amendment to the Texas Constitution that bans gay...
Truth testing U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's first television commercial is difficult because it focuses on the national healthcare debate. The ad is a lot like the radio commerical and robo call that we wrote about yesterday. She is telling...
Gov. Rick Perry is responding to U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's first television commercial with one of their own that bashes Washignton politics but never aims directly at Hutchison. UPDATED: OK. I take that back. I had technical issues and...
A spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison confirmed that senator's gubernatoril campaign will begin television advertising today. Jennifer Baker said the commercial will run statewide through Thanksgiving. Perry is expected to run a commercial responding to Hutchison's ad....
We reported this morning on U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison firing the first shot in the paid media campaign for governor with a new radio ad. Here it is:...
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is using robo calls to make sure her supporters know she is still in the governor's race against Gov. Rick Perry. Hutchison late last week announced she would not resign from the Senate for the...
The Texas Lottery Commission today took a step toward expanding the state's gambling options to include Powerball. The commission unanimously voted to publish rules for the game for public comment. If the panel gives final approval to the rules early...
Gov. Rick Perry defended his 2007 executive order that required all girls to get a human papillomavirus vaccine before the sixth grade. The order was blocked by the state Senate after an outcry from both sides of the aisle about...
Hair care millionaire Farouk Shami fired up his Farouk for Governor Web page today in anticipation of his official launch Thursday into the campaign for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Others in the race include Felix Alvarado, Kinky Friedman, Hank Gilbert...
It looks like the dominoes in the 2010 election are beginning to fall anyway. Despite U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's announcement that she will not resign until after the March primary, other candidates have not been deterred from running for...
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's announcement that she will retain her Senate seat through next March's GOP primary led to renewed speculation that Houston Mayor Bill White would drop his own Senate bid to jump into the Democratic gubernatorial primary....
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and some of her key aides are telling other Republican lawmakers that she is not going to resign her Senate seat for her run against Gov. Rick Perry until after the primary. Campaign has confirmed....
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and some of her key aides are telling other Republican lawmakers that she is not going to resign her Senate seat for her run against Gov. Rick Perry until after the primary. Campaign has confirmed....
Gov. Rick Perry today said U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison should concentrate on doing her job in the nation's capital rather than spending time in Texas campaigning against him. Perry said she has been A.W.O.L. in some areas....
After Gov. Rick Perry ripped President Barack Obama Wednesday for being "hell-bent on taking America towards a socialist country," his predecessor also offered some of his own criticism of the current administration in Washington. Former President George W. Bush said...
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is calling for senate hearings on the shooting at Fort Hood and the military and FBI's failure to act on intelligence on the shooter before the tragedy took place. "I'm at the point of questioning,"...
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison reacts to the Rasmussen poll and discusses how the health care debate are affecting her thoughts about resigning to run against Gov. Rick Perry in the GOP primary....
State Comptroller Susan Combs said today that despite a slide in tax collections, she doesn't expect that she'll need to change the revenue estimate for the current budget -- at least not at this point. Combs, questioned by reporters after...
Rasmussen Reports this morning is reporting a new poll showing Gov. Rick Perry leading U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison 46 percent to 35 percent in the Texas GOP primary for governor. Activist Debra Medina had 4 percent support. Perry...
The rumor of the day is that state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, is going to retire. State SenatorJeff Wentworth Even the senator has heard it. Yes, he plans to retire some day. But for now, he's preparing for a...
Dewhurst may run if there is a race Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst says that he will only consider a Senate run if Hutchison resigns. "I don't want to be distracted unless there's a position open," Dewhurst said. Dewhurst is currently...
Gov. Rick Perry told the Republican Women's Club in Midland yesterday that the nation needs more tea parties to fight policies of the Obama Administration. Find more videos like this on Mywesttexas Chatter...
The national healthcare debate is threatening to upset a public appearance and fund-raiser U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has scheduled for next Tuesday in Houston with former Vice President Dick Cheney. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has set Tuesday as...
The issue: Texas employers next year will pay more than twice the $1.09 billion in jobless insurance taxes they'll pay this year. The taxes will go up more in the following years. The increase is meant to restore the unemployment...
Hutchison wants term limits U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is co-sponsoring a bill from U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. to create a constitutional amendment imposing term limits on members of Congress. The amendment would prohibit U.S. Representatives from serving more...
A new Rasmussen Reports phone survey finds 60 percent of likely voters say the Fort Hood massacre should be investigated by military authorities as a terrorist act. Even more -- 76 percent -- think the Army should remove officers from...
Former Texas Forensic Science Commission Chairman Sam Bassett responded today to current Chairman John Bradley's contention that rules need to be put into place before the panel can finish its investigation of the arson science used to convict Cameron Todd...
The Texas Workforce Commission today took a step to moderate next year's unemployment insurance tax increase - but a spokeswoman said businesses still will pay at least two times the $1.09 billion they paid this year due to demand created...
Sen. John Whitmire told Texas Forensics Commission Chairman John Bradley to investigate why the Houston Police Department has not opened and tested 4,000 rape kits. He said it is horrible for the raped women to know they went through the...
Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, said the fact that Dallas County has used DNA testing to find 30 men in prison were innocent and the fact Harris County destroyed DNA in cases it handled shows the importance for studying forensic science...
The argument over the Willingham case and the Innocence Project continued between Sen. Rodney Ellis and John Bradley. "The (forensics) commission is not charged with debating the death penalty. The commission is not charged with determining whether people are guilty...
Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, said there are 742 offenders in Texas prisons in arson case so a commission study of arson forensics is important. Bradley noted that Ellis is on the board of the Innocence Project, which brought the...
Forensics commission chairman John Bradley said there is no doubt that Gov. Rick Perry's replacement of three members of the commission disrupted the study of the Willingham arson case.But Bradley said that was partly because the Legislature had given commission...
Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston said he questions whether the forensic science commission should be looking at individual cases. Patrick said he does not see that in the law. "Nowhere in the legislation do I see a role for the commission...
Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, asked Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley whether the Texas Forensics Commission under his leadership will hear the arson report prepared by Craig Beyler in the Cameron Todd Willingham case. Bradley said he believes it...
The Texas Forensic Science Commission's new chairman, Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, told the Senate committee today that he has proposed standards that he thinks the agency needs to employ in its investigations.Bradley said he believes the commission is...
Houston Mayor Bill White and former Texas Comptroller John Sharp are both in the top five in the nation in the amount of self-funding for their campaigns so far, according to an article in USA Today. Both men are vying...
Dressed in his usual black cowboy outfit, Kinky Friedman showed up for today's Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing on the Cameron Todd Willingham execution. Asked why he was here, Friedman replied, "Justice."...
The Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing on the Texas Forensics Commission investigation into the arson techniques used in the Cameron Todd Willingham case will be carried by livestream from the Senate today at 10 a.m.: http://www.senate.state.tx.us/bin/live.php Willingham was executed in...
The Fort Hood shootings couldn't escape mention even at a political news conference today. Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie, who blasted Rep. Chuck Hopson of Jacksonville for deciding to switch from the Democratic to the Republican party, opened this...
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst spoke to students at the University of Texas about energy and told them Texas does not really exist. But he then added more to the statement. "Texas doesn't actually exist," Dewhurst said. "It's a state of...
Gov. Rick Perry joined former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich in writing an op-ed about health care in Friday's Washington Post. In the op-ed, Perry and Gingrich write that the states, and not the federal government, should take the lead...
One-upmanship is still alive and well in the Republican gubernatorial primary race. Recently, Gov. Rick Perry said that he is the "better conservative" in the race with U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Perry refused to say whether Hutchison was a...
Thompson the first casualty The Texas Governor's race has had its first casualty. Garland Therapist and Democrat Mark Thompson announced that he is dropping out of the race for Texas Governor because the field is too crowded. Thompson then announced...
Proposed constitutional amendments to protect open beaches and to limit government from taking private property for profit-making ventures were among 11 winning voter approval in early returns. Proposition 11 to limit government eminent domain power had more than 80 percent...
Of all the counties with major universities, only one seems to be going against Proposition 4, the proposed constitutional amendment to put seven universities on the path of becoming Tier One research institutions. That county would be Brazos, home of...
The early vote coming in shows Proposition 4 to promote the creation of more Tier One universities, including the University of Houston, is failing in most rural counties. However, the proposition has a solid lead in most urban counties and...
Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina went on the offensive against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison today in an op-ed she is sending to newspapers. Conservative and pro-choice rarely fall in the same sentence, unless you're referring to "conservative" gubernatorial...
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's campaign manager went on the offensive today to say the University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll that showed Gov. Rick Perry with a 12 percentage point lead in the Republican primary was unreliable. For Terry...
No, not the Bill White you're thinking of. That's Bill White, mayor of Houston and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. This is Bill White, chairman of State Finance Commission and treasurer of the Sun City Texas Community Association of...
University of Texas pollsters have come up with results in the Texas Republican gubernatorial primary that are almost identical to a poll they conducted in June -- Gov. Rick Perry leads U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison by 12 percentage points....
Tort reform erases all old wounds, according to Gov. Rick Perry and the folks at the Texas Medical Association as the statewide group of doctors endorsed Perry today over U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican gubernatorial primary. You'll...
State Rep. Dan Branch's decision to seek re-election was seen by some as another sign that GOP hopefuls are giving up hope that U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will resign to focus on her challenge of GOP Gov. Rick Perry....
Though it is still uncertain whether Gov. Rick Perry will even get to name a replacement for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, it is apparent that Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams is moving toward the front of the pack...
Eugenia Willingham, stepmother to Cameron Todd Willingham, has responded to Willingham's ex-wife's recent statement which claimed that she believes Willingham was guilty. "First, Todd's ex-wife reportedly says now that he confessed to her. I don't believe this is true. More...
Gov. Rick Perry is currently facing questions about a 7,000 mile trip to Israel that he took in August to accept the "Defender of Jerusalem" Award. Taxpayers picked up the $70,000 tab for the DPS security detail. At the same...
After Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison received the endorsement of former Vice President Dick Cheney, her opponent in the Republican primary, Gov. Rick Perry, countered with an endorsement from Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. Both men are governors from Gulf Coast states...
