Jay Root, Texas Tribune

Big Tobacco Beats Small Tobacco on Tax Vote

Emily Ramshaw, Texas Tribune and Jay Root, Texas Tribune — Mon, 06 May 2013 23:40:29 +0000

Small cigarette manufacturers would face new state fees on their sales under a measure that passed the Texas House in a preliminary vote on Monday — a big win for Big Tobacco.

The bill passed 85-53.

The nation’s four largest tobacco companies currently pay more than half a billion dollars to the state every year as part of a 1998 lawsuit settlement. They have for years lobbied for small cigarette manufacturers, which were not included in the $17 billion settlement, to face a similar financial penalty.

Oil Lobbyists Oversee Protection of Threatened Lizard

Jay Root, Texas Tribune — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 15:18:07 +0000

When Texas promised to protect a threatened lizard in the oil-rich Permian Basin, state officials entrusted the day-to-day oversight to a nonprofit that sounds like an environmental group: the Texas Habitat Conservation Foundation.

What’s not advertised is the occupation of the board members who created it.

Ethics Commission Backs Off Investigative Power Plan

Jay Root, Texas Tribune — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 19:45:31 +0000

The Texas Ethics Commission backed away Thursday from a controversial proposal to take certain investigative authority away from the Travis County district attorney’s office, but the agency approved two recommendations aimed at enhancing criminal inquiries of state elected officials.

Against the Grain, Texas GOP Dominated on Election Day

Jay Root, Texas Tribune — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 14:00:19 +0000

Democratic victories across the nation left Republican voters and activists with the political version of a hangover last week. In the alternate universe known as Texas, they are blaming the Champagne.

Republicans here are celebrating another statewide sweep. They held onto huge majorities in the Legislature and the Texas congressional delegation. And at a time of increasing angst about their ability to thrive as the Hispanic population grows, the Texas Republican Party has fielded the first Hispanic U.S. senator from Texas — Ted Cruz.

“Thank God for Texas,” Chris Turner, a Republican consultant, said in a post-election speech to Republican activists in a conservative suburb of Austin. He said, joking, that the state might consider using stimulus money “to build a moat around our northern border.”

Nationwide, conservatives watched as Democrats scored come-from-behind victories in some red-state U.S. Senate contests and thinned out the Republican Party’s majority in the U.S. House. Victories by gay rights proponents and supporters of legalized pot did nothing to lift their spirits.

Cruz Easily Wins U.S. Senate Race

Jay Root, Texas Tribune — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 03:19:31 +0000

Ted Cruz, a Harvard-educated lawyer and Tea Party icon, easily won the U.S. Senate race Tuesday night, becoming the first Hispanic from Texas to land the job.

Cruz had a huge, insurmountable lead in early returns. In early statewide returns, his total was slightly behind Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's total, but the gap represented a relatively low number of split ballots. Romney was beating President Obama by more than 15 points with about 10 percent of the precincts reporting, according to early unofficial returns.

The outcome of the U.S. Senate race was never much in doubt. Democrats haven’t won statewide in Texas since 1994, and Democrat Paul Sadler had so little money — about 5 percent of what Cruz raised — that he couldn’t even afford to run a single TV ad hitting all media markets.

Heated Battle in CD-23 Getting Lots of Attention

Jay Root, Texas Tribune — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 15:31:26 +0000

SAN ANTONIO — Texas Republicans are used to playing offense — and winning — but in the sprawling 23^rd Congressional District, they have a fight on their hands.

Two years ago, Francisco "Quico" Cansecorode the Tea Party wave to Washington after defeating the Democratic incumbent. Now he faces a challenge from state Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, who has served in the Legislature for 22 years.

The district, larger than Mississippi, stretches from San Antonio to El Paso and encompasses 800 miles of the Texas-Mexico border. It has the unusual distinction of being both overwhelmingly Hispanic (66 percent) and almost perfectly balanced between the two parties.

In 2008, Barack Obama got 49.88 percent of the vote here, and John McCain got 49.27 percent.

Three Republicans Hit GOP Congressman For 'Jesus Ad'

Jay Root, Texas Tribune — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:39:29 +0000

Three Republicans who served in the Legislature with Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, are criticizing his GOP opponent's use of a picture of Jesus in a controversial mail piece.

Gallego said U.S. Rep. Quico Canseco's adverstisment, which uses both the face of Jesus and two men kissing each other to criticize the Democrat’s stand on social issues, went “beyond the pale,” and he has called on Canseco to apologize to the voters who got it.

Canseco's campaign said the congressman stands by the ad and calls it accurate.

The Gallego campaign released statements from state Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, and former Reps. Elvira Reyna, R-Mesquite, and David Swinford, R-Dumas.

Dewhurst Declares Support for School Choice Legislation

Morgan Smith, Texas Tribune and Jay Root, Texas Tribune — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 20:13:10 +0000

WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. — Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, throwing some red meat to conservatives after his bruising defeat at the hands of Tea Party darling Ted Cruz, has put private school vouchers and expanded “parental choice” back on the legislative agenda.

Speaking to delegates at the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, Dewhurst said he would work with state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, to hammer out the details of the proposal.

Dewhurst made it clear that he supports the voucher concept, though he said that is just one of many options to pursue.

Rick Perry Fuels Speculation About Re-election Bid

Jay Root, Texas Tribune — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:12:47 +0000

Ambitious Republicans have been waiting in the wings for years, anticipating when Gov. Rick Perry will step out from under the spotlight they crave.

But the longtime governor may not be ready to move off the stage just yet.

Despite carrying the wounds from his gaffe-prone presidential campaign, Perry showed this week he still knows how to dominate the political conversation. He urged all Republican candidates for state office this year to sign on to his pledge to cut spending and oppose all tax increases — and many of them are rushing to embrace it. (And even if they're not embracing it, they're talking about it).

Santorum's Exit a Blow to Texas' Presidential Primary

Jay Root, Texas Tribune — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 20:52:00 +0000

Rick Santorum’s withdrawal today from the 2012 presidential contest makes Texas Republicans, once again, all but irrelevant in their party’s nomination process.

The drawn-out nature of the race had given party activists rare hope that this would be the most competitive presidential primary since 1976, when Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford duked it out in a contest that didn’t end until the party’s convention.

But a legal fight this year over redistricting pushed the Texas primary to May 29 from early March.

Straus, Speaker of Texas House, Endorses Romney

Jay Root, Texas Tribune — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:36:12 +0000

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is picking up a big Texas endorsement Tuesday — from Speaker of the House Joe Straus.

“The people of Texas are looking for a leader that will stand up to President Obama and clearly articulate conservative values. We’ve had enough of the out-of-control spending, government intrusion, and economic decline of the last three years,” Romney said in a release. “I look forward to working with Joe in the months to come as I outline my vision to restore America’s greatness.”

The Straus endorsement comes as a new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll shows rival Rick Santorum with a huge lead in the Lone Star State, crushing both Newt Gingrich and Romney by double digit margins. Gov. Rick Perry, who withdrew from the presidential race late late last month, has endorsed Gingrich.

Keystone Pipeline Sparks Property Rights Backlash

Jay Root, Texas Tribune — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:56:07 +0000

As the White House and Congress battle it out over the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, the Canadian company that wants to build it is still using its land-seizure powers to get property easements for the ambitious project.

And it’s ruffling some feathers in a politically conservative patch of Texas.

Several landowners along the proposed pipeline route say TransCanada has bullied them into selling their property by asserting “eminent domain” authority, the same power that governments use to seize land for highways and other public infrastructure projects. A property rights coalition tracking the condemnation proceedings has uncovered at least 89 land condemnation lawsuits involving TransCanada in 17 counties from the Red River to the Gulf Coast — cases that could test the limits of a private company's power to condemn property.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's Out, but Campaign Could Live On

Jay Root, Texas Tribune — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:15:20 +0000

Rick Perry’s presidential campaign is trying to remain a player in national politics even though the candidate dropped out of the race nearly a month ago.

Perry’s presidential campaign treasurer, Sal Purpura, is asking the Federal Election Commission whether it can use certain donated funds to create a federal political action committee — possibly even a super PAC — that could solicit unlimited contributions and potentially run ads to support favored candidates or causes.

Purpura asked the FEC on Monday to render an official opinion about whether Perry could convert his campaign to “non-connected PAC status.” Purpura said the campaign is considering a variety of conversion options, including one that would create a super PAC.

The campaign is proposing to fund initial operations of the new committee with some of the $270,000 it had left in the bank when Perry quit the race Jan. 19.

McCaul Family's Pipeline Holdings Stir Controversy

Jay Root, Texas Tribune — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:28:34 +0000

Legislation cracking down on insider trading by members of Congress hasn’t landed on the floor of the U.S. House yet, but it’s already become a political football in Congressional District 10.

That’s because the Democrat who wants that seat, international affairs consultant Dan Grant, is alleging that incumbent Rep.Michael McCaul, R-Austin, is benefiting from lax ethics rules for U.S. representatives and senators — rules the pending U.S. STOCK Act would help strengthen.

McCaul says his opponent is flat wrong.

At the heart of the dispute is the McCaul family’s private interest in the company pushing the Keystone XL Pipeline — and the congressman’s public advocacy for the project as a member of Congress. McCaul, believed to be the second-wealthiest member of Congress, reported that his family owned $115,000 to $300,000 in TransCanada Corporation stock as of 2010, the latest year available, according to ethics filings compiled online by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Rick Perry Says He Has ‘Plenty of Fight’ Left

Jay Root, Texas Tribune — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:20:17 +0000

He may be out the race for the White House, but a combative Rick Perry said Monday he would keep fighting for the conservative ideals he championed on the campaign trail.

“I’m not slipping off into the sunset. I’m not riding off into the west,” Perry told Republican activists in Round Rock. “We’ve got plenty of work to do right here in the state of Texas. And I got plenty of fight left in this old 61-year-old body.”

It was Perry’s first public appearance since pulling of out the presidential race on Jan. 19. He was treated to a hero’s welcome — including two standing ovations — at the event, a fundraiser for the Republican Party of Williamson County.

Perry, who had never lost an election before, leaned on the sports culture of Texas A&M University, his alma mater, to explain what happened to him in the 2012 race. Aggies don’t like to use terms like “lose” or “defeat.”

“We just ran out of time,” Perry said. “I’m not used to running out of time.”