Texas Take

Not so long ago, a lot of Texas Republicans were running for cover from President Trump.

Now, with The Donald's approval ratings high in Texas on the even of the March 6 primary, many are running to embrace him. "I agree with President Trump" seems to be the new mantra for some GOP conservatives.

Included is Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who's put up a new television ad underscoring his closeness with Trump, who many conservative Texas Republicans think is anything but.  Trump is popular and he's a Republican, and that's what counts most right now.

A lot of other Republicans are not playing so nice with each other. The State GOP executive Committee has publicly censured fellow Republican, retiring House Speaker Joe Straus, for not toeing the party line. Gov. Greg Abbott is running campaign ads against state Rep. Sarah Davis, R-Houston, accusing her of being too liberal.

GOP consultant Luke Macias has done an about-face on supporting state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, who he once helped get elected. And Land Commissioner George P. Bush and predecessor Jerry Patterson, who is now challenging Bush for reelection, aren't saying anything nice about each other.

Texas Politics may be entertaining, but the growing unpleasantness is beginning to look more like a Jerry Springer Show.

Our sponsor this week: The Texas Association of Counties.

With Mike Ward, the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, it's Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics -- coming to you in collaboration with Texas Public Radio.

After a three-day shutdown of the federal government, Congress is back at working trying to resolve the issue that triggered it: What to do with The Dreamers, the undocumented immigrants that were brought to this country by their parents.

Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, who has been working on a compromise solution to deporting the 124,000 Dreamers in Texas, says there's another hitch: Approval of $81 billion in Hurricane Harvey relief funds, much of that headed to Texas, is stalled until a deal on Dreamers is worked out.

In a week when state leaders had to borrow $38 million from the prison system budget to keep funding housing relief programs, until the federal money arrives, nail biting continues in Houston and other communities devastated by Harvey as the political primary season gets into full swing.

The rhetoric is heating up in legislative races, over NAFTA and over toll roads, a perennial favorite for drama, as county judges call for state leaders to lighten up on the pay-as-you-drive roads they say are the only way Texas can keep up with its mushrooming traffic growth.

Texas Politics are seldom boring, always entertaining.

Our sponsor this week: The Texas Association of Counties.

With Mike Ward, the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, it's Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics -- coming to you in collaboration with Texas Public Radio.

Within hours after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott rolled out his plan put the brakes on skyrocketing property taxes in Texas, to GOP cheering, Democrats and a variety of other groups were shooting at it right and left.

Lupe Valdez, at an Austin forum a day later, appeared to leave open the door to perhaps raising taxes -- a comment she walked back within hours. "I'd have to lose a leg before I'd do that, and I don't want to lose a leg," she told a TV interviewer.

As the political season heated up this week, Abbott took heat for blasting state Rep. Sarah Davis, R-Houston, on a push he said she made to tap emergency funds -- a push that House records show she never made.

As the political squabbling grew this week, with the March 6 primary election getting closer,  so did the  list of additional costs the state will face in the coming year: Recovery from Hurricane Harvey, relying on state funds because federal funding continues to be delayed; $85 million in special education mandates, and perhaps millions more to overhaul the foster-care system to satisfy a just-rendered federal court order.

You can always count on this: Texas Politics are seldom boring, always entertaining.

With Mike Ward, the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, it's Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics -- now coming to you in collaboration with Texas Public Radio.

As the elbowing among dozens of little-known Texas candidates in both parties intensifies as they scramble to get attention just eight weeks before the election, President Trump is again stealing the limelight with an explosive remark featuring an expletive.

Just days earlier, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick appeared on a Dallas radio talk show extolling Trump as among the greatest presidents -- the greatest, in fact, behind iconic Republican Ronald Reagan.

While Trump has low polls numbers in a lot of states, his standing with Texas Republicans remains rock solid. That's even as The Donald increasingly becomes a boogeyman for Democrats running for most any office. Democratic candidates at all levels are seeking to energize their base to oust state GOP leaders who support Trump.

Fighting over an immigration deal in Washington for Dreamers, and calls in Austin to cut the state's $800 million in border security funding rounded out another political week in which the unexpected made the headlines.

As we say in Texas, politics is seldom boring, but always entertaining.

Welcome our sponsor this week: The Texas Association of Counties.

With Mike Ward, the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, it's Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics -- now coming to you in collaboration with Texas Public Radio.

As U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz touts the Republican-pushed tax cuts recently approved in Washington, he predicts that Texans will see more in their paychecks by next month. A prophecy, he calls it, that will refute the claims of Democrats who opposed the cuts.

With the spring primary elections in Texas just weeks away, fireworks are already underway in several races, mostly among Republicans, as Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and GOP challenger Trey Blocker have words and as Land Commissioner George P. Bush pushes back from criticism by challenger Jerry Patterson over the Alamo and Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts.

GOP STUDY: Ted Cruz begins 2018 Senate race with 18 point lead over Texas Democrat Beto O'Rourke

Several House and Senate contests are already shaping up to be political firefights, as Gov. Greg Abbott gets involved in several legislative races -- a rarity for a Texas governor. Add to the entertainment the feral hogs that are running wild and the longstanding fight over illegal voting, and you have a full slate of entertainment for Texans.

As they say in Texas, politics is seldom boring, always entertaining.

Welcome our sponsor this week: The Texas Association of Counties.

With Mike Ward, the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, it's Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics -- now coming to you in collaboration with Texas Public Radio.

Tax cuts, cuts, cuts, as President Trump loves to say, were approved by Congress to great Republican jubilation, and predictions by Democrats that the bill could be a GOP Waterloo.

Hmmm. The two parties had much the same stance just a few years ago when so-called Obamacare was enacted, and only time gave an indication of who lost and who won.

With the 2018 elections just ramping up, the Republican primaries for agriculture commissioner, land commissioner and several House and Senate contests are already shaping up to be more like a Jerry Springer Show brawl than a civilized political discourse.

In a heated Fort Worth contest, incumbent Republican state Rep. Charlie Geren and challenger Bo French are engaging in a bitter exchange over politivcal pranks and a satirical Facebook page, of all things.

"A divisive and vitriolic primary" election, is how one political scientist summed up what will likely come to the surface in coming weeks, as candidates and challengers in several races go after each other with everything they've got. The hair-pulling is about to get really ugly.

As they say in Texas, politics is seldom boring, always entertaining.

Welcome our sponsor this week: The Texas Association of Counties.

With Mike Ward, the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, it's Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics -- now coming to you in collaboration with Texas Public Radio.

Sex continues to dominate politics in Texas and Washington.

U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold of Corpus Christi becomes the latest casualty of the sex-harassment scandal in Washington, even as new allegations surface that he crudely treated staffers and was boorish and worse with woman who worked for him.

In Austin, the filing period for candidates in 2018 elections closed, and almost immediately the sparks started flying -- first between incumbent Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and GOP challenger over a 1981 song by Ted Nugent, Miller's campaign chairman.

Nugent's "Jail Bait" is about sexual notions about a 13-year-old girl. Oops!

Jeff Mateer, who had been nominated for a federal judgeship, had his name withdrawn by President Trump over comments he made in a 2015 speech suggesting that transgender children were part of "Satan's Plan."

At the Texas Capitol, Gov. Greg Abbott has dispatched storied Texas Rangers to investigate reports of sexual abuse in the state's youth lockups.

With Mike Ward, the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, it's Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics -- now coming to you in collaboration with Texas Public Radio.

Texas Democrats have eight -- count 'em, eight -- candidates running for governor in the spring 2018 primary. Eleven candidates, seven Republicans and four Democrats, have signed on to replace Ted Poe in Congress.

Outspoken Republican Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has picked up a GOP primary challenger. So has GOP Land Commissioner George P. Bush, who has three -- including his colorful predecessor, Jerry Patterson, long an outspoken critic.

To say the least, the 2018 elections season promises to be, as the Church Lady once said, so sp-e-e-e-cial.

Add to that rambunctious list yet more debate over the bathroom bill, controversy over the Alamo and mounting complaints about the recovery from Hurricane Harvey, and the political season in Texas is beginning to look like a main event. Get the lowdown on what's really going on in this week's Texas Take podcast.

With Mike Ward, the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, it's Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics -- now coming to you in collaboration with Texas Public Radio.

Amid continuing revelations about lurid details from his last, and demands from fellow Republicans to step aside, U.S. Rep. Joe Barton decides not to seek another term. He becomes the first casualty of the national uproar over sexual harassment.

 Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick push back on plans by the Texas Department of Transportation to add more toll roads to Texas' transportation future.

 And oft-controversial Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller picks up a GOP primary opponent who hopes that Texans have had their fill of the colorful Sid, who fires an opening salvo at challenger Trey Blocker by calling him out for supporting liberal Democrats in the past.

Miller, if you recall, is the guy who flew to Oklahoma at taxpayer expense for a cure-all "Jesus Shot."

 As Texas politics continue to jerk from the anatomical to the serious, this is the place where you can find out what's really going on behind all the government-speak and partisan bluster.

 With Mike Ward, the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, it's Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics -- now coming to you in collaboration with Texas Public Radio

In Texas and Washington, politics seems to be getting uglier and uglier.

Take, for instance, the U.S. Senate campaign of Alabama justice and conservative icon Roy Moore, who has been accused of groping and trying to date young girls years ago. Appearing at a rally to support Moore was Houston doctor and conservative Texas Republican Steven Hotze, who insisted that those trying to force Moore from the race are part a left-wing conspiracy.

In his speech, he spoke about communist Democrats and the alt-left press.

Back in Texas, Gov. Abbott took the unusual step of endorsing a Republican challenger to a sitting House member, state Rep. Sarah Davis, because she is not conservative enough to suit him.

Filmmakers who are looking to shoot a movie about state Sen. Wendy Davis' historic abortion filibuster in 2013 plan to include the pivotal "let her speak"moment, where then-Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, demands to know what it will take for a woman to be heard in the Senate.

They plan to cast Davis in that role, not Latina Van de Putte. Sandra Bullock is to play Davis.

As the political season in Texas continues to more resemble a Jerry Springer show, this is the place where you can find out what's really doing on behind all the political talk and bluster.

With Mike Ward, the Houston Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, it's Texas' leading online podcast about Lone Star politics -- now coming to you in collaboration with Texas Public Radio.