Free Republic

There are 4 candidates, in the GOP primary, for Texas State Senate, but only ONE is worthy of your vote.Cast you vote for Carrie de Moor.

The race for Texas district30, for the Texas Senate is heating up; however, one candidate, Brent Hagenbuch, is being sued by the three other candidates. WHY? Because he has listed his office as his HOME, which is illegal and the signed paper for him to run, is now considered to be perjurious.

The Texas state Senate approved a sweeping election reform bill Tuesday night, one day after dozens of House Democrats fled the state to prevent the chamber from taking up the legislation. The state Senate approved the bill on an 18-4 party-line vote. Nine Senate Democrats had joined 51 of their House colleagues in hightailing it to Washington, DC, though this was not enough to deny the upper chamber a quorum. However, the legislation is now stalled due to the absence of a quorum in the House. Republicans say the measures in the bill — which include ending drive-thru and 24-hour...

First of all, I'm a native Texan and a Ronald Reagan-style Republican. Not a drop of RINO blood in me. And, I want to go on record saying I loathe John Cornyn and I've had high hopes of seeing him defeated in the GOP Primary this year. But, I have some real concerns that Cornyn could win reelection if we blow the March 4th GOP Primary. We could miss a great opportunity like Missouri did by nominating Todd Aikin, who had the IQ of a foot stool, and gave Barack Obama's girlfriend, Claire McCaskill another six years. Are my fears...

Today Dan Patrick, founder of the Tea Party Caucus in the Senate,  endorsed Lt. Governor David Dewhurst for the US Senate race.  It’s not a surprise that Dan Patrick has been secretly supporting Dewhurst.  Reports from Austin and Houston claim that Dan Patrick has been strong arming other Texas congressmen for weeks.  The petulant and unbalanced Dan Patrick interview of Ted Cruz, and the Dewhurst campaign’s dishonest, NBC-like editing in still another attack ad, have left voters furious.   Voters across Texas have been calling the Dewhurst campaign to express their displeasure and one Tea Party activist in Houston told...

Comptroller Susan Combs on Thursday added her name to the long list of Texas elected officials who are backing Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in his bid for the U.S. Senate. Dewhurst has been “relentless and focused on conservative principles,” said Combs, who credited the lieutenant governor for putting Texas in a strong economic position. “Fighting for principle is not always easy and it is not always visible,” Combs said at an Austin news conference. “I will tell you that actions speak a lot louder than words.” The low-key news conference at Run-Tex on Riverside Drive stands in stark contrast to...

Clear Lake, TX – On Monday Governor Rick Perry will join Rep. Larry Taylor to help him campaign for the Texas Senate. The campaign stop will begin at 11:15 AM at the NASA Hilton, 3000 NASA Parkway, Houston, TX 77058. Taylor hopes to replace longtime Texas Senator Mike Jackson who is...

The Texas Senate today gave final approval to a measure that would allow persons holding concealed handgun licenses to carry firearms on Texas public college and university campuses. The legislation now moves to the Texas House where it has strong bipartisan support. The legislation passed despite strong opposition from student government and leaders at the University of Texas and some other schools. Many students, nonetheless, have advocated for concealed carry on campus following the Virginia Tech massacre.

Huffman takes Senate Dist. 17 seat in runoff By ALAN BERNSTEIN Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Dec. 16, 2008, 11:32PM 1 2 STEVE UECKERT CHRONICLE BuzzRepublican Joan Huffman defeated Democrat Chris Bell in Tuesday's runoff election for a Houston-area seat in the Texas Senate, setting a new high for the number of women in the 31-member legislative chamber. With votes from all precincts counted, Huffman, a former judge and prosecutor, had 56 percent against the former congressman and Houston councilman, according to results that will be made final and official in a few days. "I have my supporters and thousands of...

State Rep. Jim McReynolds has sent a letter to the Texas Department of Transportation saying he thinks TxDOT should drop the idea of tying the Trans-Texas Corridor in with plans for routing Interstate 69 through East Texas. McReynolds says tremendous negative outcry from his constituents and other East Texas residents has made it clear to him no one wants infrastructure that massive and disruptive to the quality of life to be built, taking big swaths out of the Pineywoods countryside. "Within the past several weeks, I have personally attended every TxDOT hearing held in my district regarding this proposed corridor,"...

In the midst of inflation, funding difficulties and halted expansion projects, a budget error on the part of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) may have exacerbated their challenges. "TxDOT does some mysterious accounting," said Rep. Chuck Hopson (D-Jacksonville). "They had close to $1 billion counted in their budget twice." "That was a serious error on our part and we have made changes to try to prevent that type of error from occurring again," said TxDOT Spokesman Chris Lippincott, adding that the amount added twice in their financial statement was unrelated to the $1.2 billion in federal rescissions, which are...

Senior executives of the Texas Department of Transportation can expect some heavy grilling from state legislators when the state Legislature convenes next January, state Rep. Jim McReynolds said Friday. Speaking to the monthly First Friday luncheon of The Chamber, Lufkin-Angelina County, McReynolds said many legislators, especially those from rural East Texas, are unhappy with TxDOT leaders over the Trans- Texas Corridor project and how it has incorporated plans for an Interstate 69 through the region. McReynolds said he attended all four of the TxDOT hearings on the TTC held in his district, which included one in Diboll, and "never heard...

AUSTIN - When it comes to road improvement and maintenance, by most accounts, the South Plains and Panhandle are fortunate. Despite a $1.1 billion accounting error, the Texas Department of Transportation recently reported no projects in the region have been canceled or delayed while cities like Dallas, Houston and Laredo had at least a half dozen highway projects delayed. But the $1.1 billion-error, which occurred because TxDOT inadvertently counted some bond money twice and consequently allocated more funding than it had, is just the latest problem plaguing the beleaguered agency. For months, TxDOT executive director Amadeo Saenz and other transportation...

Sometimes the truth just has a way of coming to light. A public information officer with the Texas Department of Transportation this week wrote a column in the Herald-Press describing the financial woes facing TxDOT and how because of those problems the state’s transportation department doesn’t have the money to deal with many of the state’s transportation issues. Apparently, several of the state’s senators do not feel that is the case at all. David Dewhurst called out the state’s interim chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, Hope Andrade, on this very issue, according to a story from the Associated Press....

A big protest is planned for Monday afternoon, ahead of the latest public hearing on the proposed statewide tollway. Lots of landowners are upset about the state’s plan to build a tollway from Mexico to northeast Texas. There have already been several town hall meetings about the Trans-Texas Corridor. Most of the people who have spoken out about the plan say it will put them out of business. But state officials argue the tollway is necessary to keep up with the growing population in Texas. Monday’s meeting is being held in Huntsville. It starts at 6:30 p.m. at the Walker...

State Sen. Glen Hegar says he opposes a route that would bring the mammoth Trans Texas Corridor through his district. The Texas Department of Transportation has kicked off a series of public meetings to discuss the project. Meetings are scheduled for Tuesday in Hempstead (6:30 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 22892 Mack Washington St.) and Jan. 29 in Bellville (at the Austin County fairgrounds, also beginning at 6:30 p.m.). No meetings are scheduled in Washington County, which likely wouldn’t be impacted much by the highway project. Much of the discussion in public meetings already held centers on Interstate...

Push for higher gas tax could follow chief's death The death of Ric Williamson, the fiery, whip-smart chairman of the state transportation commission, could upend the still-roiling debate over toll roads in Texas in the new year. Mr. Williamson died Saturday of a heart attack at age 55, sending shock waves through the nearly 15,000-employee department he led as well as the political and policy circles where his combative style and pro-toll-road agenda had engendered enormous change – and criticism. Always careful to credit Gov. Rick Perry, a close friend and former roommate, Mr. Williamson emerged as a lightning rod...

Deficit may top $1.8 billion by fiscal 2012 with current slate of road projects AUSTIN — The Texas Department of Transportation, working to fend off a funding shortfall, intends to cut hundreds of millions of dollars budgeted for everything from consulting engineers to right-of-way purchases. The plan wouldn't affect existing road projects, and it's "difficult to say" what future projects would be delayed as a result, agency spokesman Randall Dillard said Friday. Projections show that if existing plans on awarding contracts and expenditures were to go forward, the department would have at least a $1.8 billion deficit by fiscal year...

A report left out of the public spotlight for more than six months reveals that officials at the Texas Department of Transportation want to toll interstate highways and shelter private investors from paying income taxes on toll revenue. On Feb. 28, Texas transportation officials submitted the report to the 110th Congress entitled “Forward Momentum.” The report did not attract much attention at the time. State lawmakers have only recently begun to speak out about it. Texas state Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, called the recommendations a form of double taxation, according to The Associated Press. In the report, TxDOT urges federal...

Even though he didn't get a majority for re-election last year, Gov. Rick Perry's 39 percent was ahead of everybody else. And so he's now in a term that lasts into 2011. In the eyes of some of his detractors in the blogosphere, that's too long. Political activist Linda Curtis has started a website calling on legislators in 2009 to impeach the governor (www.impeachperry.indytexans.org/). That's a pretty rash idea. But since Texas doesn't allow for recall elections, like the one that nailed California Democratic Gov. Gray Davis in 2003, Texans' only way to toss Perry out before the 2010 election...