Warren Chisum has been a busy man the past few days. So when he called us this morning to respond to our Friday story about an omission on his 2007 ethics form, we couldn’t help but ask about the most pressing issue in state politics.
“Well, you know, as a Republican, I have a little problem [...]
State House Appropriations Committee Chairman Warren Chisum says he didn’t list his $600-a-month legislative salary on his 2007 personal financial disclosure form because he doesn’t believe “in the truest sense of the word” that he’s an employee of the state.
But he also said he’d call the state Ethics Commission and ask for clarification on it. [...]
The list of people who were running for Tom Craddick’s job as speaker seemed like it was a mile long just the other day. Now, it’s dwindling as more and more candidates get behind relative newcomer Joe Straus, a Republican from San Antonio.
We’re continuing to update our interactive Google Map looking at the candidates [...]
Looks like Texas will have a new state House speaker soon. Incumbent Speaker Tom Craddick is dropping his bid for re-election to the speaker’s post. More at Dallas Morning News, El Paso Times, Star-Telegram. And don’t forget to keep checking our (ever-updating) Google Map for the House speaker’s race.
Keep up with all the latest [...]
One of the many Texas political blogs we read — can’t remember which one (e-mail me if you do) — recently observed that it would just be easier to list the state House members who AREN’T running for House speaker, rather than list the ones who ARE running.
The same could be said for our interactive [...]
State Rep. Charlie Geren is supposed to be meeting sometime — maybe even right about now — with his “ABC” Republicans in the state as they try to craft their strategy for the House speaker’s race, the Star-Telegram’s Dave Montgomery reports:
Geren, R-Fort Worth, is one of the leaders — some say the leader — of [...]
Confused by the race for House speaker? Our map lifts the veil on the candidates jostling for the job as well as other key players. We highlight one of those players — Appropriations Chairman Warren Chisum — who failed to disclose salary information, according to the documents we showcase via our map.
You might have seen our story last week on how some 1,700-plus state workers made $100,000 or more in 2007. We paired with it a database of those workers’ names and total pay amounts.
I couldn’t help but notice that the state comptroller’s office’s “Where the Money Goes” Web site — which shows you, for instance, [...]
Should public employees’ home addresses be public record?
Texas Watchdog says yes. But a state lawmaker has pre-filed a bill for the upcoming legislative session that looks like it would make state workers’ home addresses, and other information, confidential.
Public employees don’t like us journalists snooping in their businesses, knowing where they live or their phone [...]
Republican Joan Huffman was leading with 56 percent of the vote and only two precincts not yet reported, The Chronicle’s Alan Bernstein is reporting tonight.
When you go to Rep. Kino Flores’ campaign Web site, you hear a sound file of Flores talking, saying “It is better to give than to receive.” Does that explain the fishing cabin on South Padre?
Vince at Capitol Annex is taking on Texas’ least appropriately named state agency, the Texas Railroad Commission, and Sen. Jeff Wentworth’s proposal to rename it as the Texas Energy Commission:
In its day, the Railroad Commission was created to do what its name says it should do: regulate railroads. Today, it has nothing whatsoever to do [...]
Texas Watchdog has original mp3 audio clips of candidates Bell and Huffman on some of the key issues and what’s important to them in the Dec. 16 election. Listen and see what they they have to say on campaign finance, education, transportation and other topics.
The House has been spending big bucks on granite countertops and chandeliers in its quest to keep up with the Senate’s finery. Thanks to these and other additions totaling $140,000, the legislature’s lower chamber will have all the ice it can handle.
The Houston Chronicle’s R.G. Ratcliffe takes a deeper look at the advocacy groups on Capitol Hill that will work to shape legislation in the coming legislative session:
AUSTIN — Advocacy groups on the left and the right rarely get the attention of major political committees and business associations, but these issue-based organizations are spending millions of [...]
From the McAllen Monitor:
Smoke continues to billow from an ongoing criminal investigation into state Rep. Ismael “Kino” Flores, but prosecutors remain mum about the possibility of fire.
The Travis County district attorney’s office has widened its probe to include the legislator’s land dealings, including the purchase of a six-acre ranch north of Alton, Flores’ attorney Roy [...]
State House Speaker Tom Craddick has paid his 30-something lawyer daughter $625,000 in salary from his campaign account over 6 years and has her on his state insurance plan. A Democratic attorney from Houston says that’s against the law — and we’ve got a copy of the complaint.
We’re awfully grateful for the shout out from the editorial board at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram — and they’re right: lawmakers’ personal financial disclosure forms should be available in a searchable database.
The campaign for speaker of the state House is in full swing, and it’ll soon be coming to a mailbox and answering machine near you, Bud Kennedy writes in the Star-Telegram:
Armed with a recent court ruling allowing a bombardment of campaign advertising, the Midland Republican’s friends are about to start calling and mailing us, [...]
Twenty votes are in doubt and not much is at stake — oh, you know, just the control of the Texas legislature and a good chunk of the direction of the entire state for the next two years — in the court case going on in Dallas County over House District 105.
In the wake of a dismal election, while facing the prospect of an intraparty civil war, Texas House Republicans certainly have a lot to talk about. But did they need to do it at an exclusive spa, while collecting gobs of corporate cash in return for access?
Republican bigwigs in the House met this week at [...]
Speak now or forever hold your peace: Everyone who wants Tom Craddick’s job says they’ll be his opposite.
Video: Texas Watchdog’s inaugural investigative piece detailed top Bush money-man Stephen Payne’s close relationship with the White House — a relationship the White House took pains to distance itself from. Here is the video of The Times of London sting, featuring Stephen Payne.
