the weaker party

For the official turnout figures in Texas, click here . Here are the most recent turnout figures - percent of turnout to voting age popula...

The number of people who have voted in primaries has changed little since then despite the fact that the population of the state has quintup...

A nice look at the data that confirms the low levels of participation in the state. - Click here for the study . Aside from their findings a...

A look at what the Republican candidates are actually running for right now. - Click here for the story . After a pres­id­en­tial nom­i...

-  Fire Sprinklers Lacking In Three Housing Authority High-Rises For The Elderly And Disabled . -  Ramsey: Shifting Numbers in Your Property...

Texas Watchdog has a couple items on the assortment of bonds that will be on the ballot in the upcoming election. The first takes a critical...

Here's a small sampling of what was written up. The consensus seems to be that Clinton won, Sanders impacted the content of what was dis...

The dip in oil prices is finally hitting the Texas budget. - Click here for the story . Comptroller Glenn Hegar, conceding that he had be...

An interest group tries to stifle competition. - Click here for the article . On Monday, Reuters reported that the Department of Justice...

We will be looking at the role the southern strategy played in helping the Republican Party reassert its strength following the New Deal. Th...

And here's the second. The Supreme Court found parts of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act to unconstitutionally restrict the freedom of...

This is the first of two Supreme Court cases I want to go over in class this week and/or next. This rolled back the effectiveness of the Vot...

Click here for detail: - Brazoria Voter Info . - Brazoria County Clerk's - Election Page . - Sample Ballots .

For those of you in 2306 who are writing on this issue in the upcoming election. Notice that the key is likely to be turnout. Also note that...

We wont be looking in depth at budgeting issues across the nation - but you might have some interest in it. State Budget Solutions is a non ...

The Texas Constitution establishes the no debt shall be incurred, but allows loopholes that - no surprise - have allowed debt to be both acq...

Here are journalistic accounts of the passage of the budget. Let's read through the first one in class since it - Legislature Sends $2...

Let's also walk through this in 2306. - Click here for HB1 . The link takes you through the process the general appropriations bill took...

This might be the best place to look to get an idea about what is and is not in the budget passed by the legislature this past spring. - Cli...

We will detail this in 2305 this week and next. My position is that there is no explicit right, because it is not states, and states can sti...

These first three regard the Texas Lieutenant Governor's effort to direct what types of issues will be considered in the 85th session be...

From NYT - click here for the article . They are overwhelmingly white, rich, older and male, in a nation that is being remade by the youn...

The author points to one of the key reasons why elections turnout as they do. It's not public opinion or the quality of the candidates,...

The Wikipedia page linked to in the previous post mentioned that Obergefell is a "landmark" Supreme Court case, and it links to a ...

This is the court decision that recognized gay marriage. It allows us to bridge consideration of both the courts and civil rights, so its wo...

- Legislative Process . - Bill statistics . - Vetoed legislation . - 84th Session .

The debate rages - we will unpack these in 2306 soon, but here are a two links to get going on it. The difference appears to be in what data...

Some fancy charts .

The latest school shooting has - once again - focused attention on gun policy and raised questions about the relationship between gun laws a...

More battles rage over the content of K-12 social studies textbook. This time its over how slaves are referred to in a caption. Here's a...

The story is in Vox. - Click here for it .

I love this stuff. It doesn't specifically mention the development of national law enforcement agencies - most law enforcement was hand...

- Regardless of 2016 Outcome, Cruz Faces Hurdles With Senate . Our junior Senator might be burning too many bridges to be effective either a...

So says Rice Poli Sci guy Mark Jones. - Click here for the article .

A series of measures limiting the ability of local governments to collect property taxes may lead to an increase in sales taxes. The author ...

The state of Texas is no stranger to the United States Supreme Court. Here is a look at the cases from Texas that will be heard there. It...

Reminds me a bit of the Kim Davis controversy. It goes beyond the religious views of an individual by involving a governing entity. This mak...

I'm pretty sure I missed a few, but I'd like to orient some of the conversation about the Texas executive branch around these instit...

For our upcoming look at how the South went from being Democratic to Republican. I addition to racial issues, underlying hostility to labor ...

The new term starts tomorrow - here are a few sources for detail about the cases they will consider. - NYT: Supreme Court Prepares to Take O...

9am - intro by county commissioner el Franco Lee 9:05am - assistant county attorney Douglas Rae offers his help and catches is up on th...

This'll be my fourth stint working the polls and the third as a precinct judge, which means that I'm in charge of the whole thing an...

We brought this up in 2305 Tuesday. The Supreme Court lacks and ethics code - the legislature is about to give it one. Is this constitutiona...

Vox is impressed that the Senate might actually pass something substantive. The bill shows that the nation has drastically changed its opini...

This is becoming a pretty standard part of the budgeting process. - Click here for the story . On the eve of the government’s annual budg...

We'll have to deal with this soon as well. Here UT struggles with it. - Click here for the story . A strong majority of speakers at t...

The Lieutenant Governor doubles down. - Click here for the article . Amid an ongoing lawsuit over deep cuts that lawmakers made this year...

Here's an opinion piece arguing that the Harris County District Attorney should use her discretion to restrict how it implements one of...

For 2306 students mulling over week 6's assignment. The state is trying to argued that the cuts will not limit access to care. Here the...

There have been several articles recently about how Cruz has been contained in the Senate. - Click here for this one . Ted Cruz called out...

The author tries to put his finger on what's motivating the Republican base (or the Tea Party wing anyway) to take out their leaders. Th...

From Roll Call: McCarthy Raises Campaign Cash, But He's No Boehner . House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is one of the strongest c...

Let's start talking about the proposed amendments in class. - Click here for the document .

Here's a great comparison between what it takes to be a good Speaker of the House in the Texas Legislature as opposed to the U.S. Congr...

This the subject of week 6's 2306 written assignment and I posted on it previously. - Click here for it . Remember that I want some ...

A second option for this week's written assignment for GOVT 2305 is to look at the impact the resignation of John Boehner - who became s...