The Brief: Top Texas News for June 3, 2011

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-newspaper/texas-news/brief-top-texas-news-june-3-2011/

Having already beaten Democrats to a pulp this session, the Texas Legislature's mighty Republican majority may have just set its sights on a new, more unexpected target: Ron Paul.
The Tribune's Jay Root reports that a new congressional map proposed Thursday night by Sen. Kel Seliger, the Amarillo Republican who chairs the Senate Redistricting Committee, cuts the percentage of Anglo voters in Paul's District 14 from 61 percent to 57 percent and boosts the percentage of black and Hispanic voters from 35 percent to 39 percent.
The proposal, crafted by Republicans, would draw Paul, who has served in Congress since the 1970s, into a district demographically friendlier to a Democrat. And Democratic consultant Jeff Crosby thinks that's no coincidence.
"This is clearly a shot taken by the Republican establishment against the hero of the Tea Party," Crosby told the Tribune. "By giving him more than 300,000 new voters, it's clear the Republican establishment doesn't want Ron Paul to come back after he finishes his race for president."

snip

•As the special session got under way Thursday with hearings on the budget, school finance and health care, lawmakers also added several contentious bills to the list of measures they'd like to see revived during the special session, including "sanctuary cities" legislation and the infamous airport "groping" bill.
•Former Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams, the Republican who announced earlier this year that he'd seek Kay Bailey Hutchison's U.S. Senate seat when she retires in 2012, may instead run for Congress if state lawmakers pass current redistricting maps,

•News of Michael Williams' possible switch to a U.S. House race has come amid a flurry of good news for another Republican vying for the same Senate seat: former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz, whom three major players in conservative politics — redstate.com, the FreedomWorks PAC and Club for Growth PAC — have recently endorsed.


Quote of the day-

"This is an exercise in futility. You have the votes to do what you want." — State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, to Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, during a Senate Public Education Committee hearing about whether provisions of her mandate relief should be temporary

More than an exercise in futility, it's really prime examples of the tyranny of the majority. The Texas Rs have super majorities and they plan to get everything they want, no need for playing nice. Not that they ever did - play nice, I mean.

:grr: