Episode 103: The Lobby and THE Lege
What is the role and influence of the lobby in this year's session? Is it fair to look up at the lobbyists in the chamber balconies and call that area the "owner's box"?
We'll revisit a classic Texas sequence from the 1994 film Vote for Me: Politics in America, and then discuss what's changed in the last 10 years.
Panelists:
- April Castro, Associated Press
- Christy Hoppe, The Dallas Morning News
- Michael King, The Austin Chronicle
April
Castro
April Castro has covered the Texas Legislature for The Associated Press
for two years. She focuses on Texas education issues, including the
school finance debate currently before the Legislature. A Texas Tech
Red Raider and native Texan, she worked for the AP in Dallas before
moving to Austin.
Christy
Hoppe
Christy Hoppe is the Austin Bureau Chief of The
Dallas Morning News. She has covered politics and policies in the
state Capitol through the terms of four governors. Prior to Austin,
Christy worked as a reporter and editor in Dallas. A graduate of the
University of Texas, she began her newspaper career with The Corpus
Christi Caller-Times.
Michael
King
Michael King is the News Editor of the Austin Chronicle, and covers
city and state politics for the newsweekly. He has covered the Texas
Capitol for more than a decade, at the Chronicle and earlier at the
Texas Observer, where he was an editor from 1995-2000. Over the
years, he has written on culture and politics for publications
ranging from the New Haven Advocate to the Los Angeles Times, and on
subjects ranging from toll roads to capital punishment.
More about this topic:
- "Texas
Observer: Indictment Heat Hits the Lobby"
By Andrew Wheat (The Texas Observer, Oct. 25, 2004) - "Follow
the Money"
by Ian Willmore (The Observer, Aug. 18, 2002) - "Spinning
Out of Control?"
by Robert Bryce (Austin Chronicle, Feb. 18, 1999) - "DeLay,
Inc. on the Brink? Prosecutors Probe the Legality of Tom Delay's Texas
Republican Majority."
by Andrew Wheat (The Multinational Monitor, April, 2004) - "Indictment
Heat Hits the Lobby"
By Andrew Wheat (The Texas Observer, Oct 22, 2004) - "Texas'
First Postmodern Lobbyist"
By Andrew Wheat (The Texas Observer, Dec 17, 2004)
