Worth a look. The dominant theme is the increased influence of Latinos in the state, and questions about Rick Perry's future and how it impacts the rest of the state. Some highlights:
2. Ted Cruz’s triumphant rise.
A year ago, most of the Austin press corps viewed Ted Cruz as a longshot Tea Party favorite unlikely even to make a Republican runoff for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison. Today, the former Solicitor General and first Latino to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court clerk is now the Senator-elect. On Jan. 3, he will become, at age 42, the first Hispanic senator ever to serve Texas. He’s already being talked about as a future vice presidential (or presidential) contender.
3. The Castro Brothers, Parte Dos.
The best-known brothers named Castro don’t live in Cuba anymore. Instead, they hail from San Antonio. President Obama’s choice of San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro to deliver the keynote speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention made him an instant national star. Or, rather, his passionate speech and strong communications skills made him an instant star. But the most visible Castro in early 2013 may be twin brother Joaquin, who is forecast to be one of the stars of the freshman class in the U.S. House of Representatives. After a decade in the wilderness, the Texas Democratic Party has two reasons to be optimistic.
6. The bottleneck.
Perry’s desire to remain in power — and Dewhurst’s failure to move up — has created a major bottleneck at the top of Texas state government. There are a good dozen Republicans who covet one of the top three jobs (add Attorney General to guv and lite guv). But most are frozen in place until we know what Perry and Dewhurst are going to do in 2014. That means you, AG Greg Abbott. Among the others waiting for the dominoes to fall (or not): Comptroller Susan Combs and Austin congressman Michael McCaul, the new chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
