Influential Interest Groups In Texas

There is tremendous evidence, to suggest that individualism is a strong part of Texas culture such as, the use of biennial sessions of the legislature, the partisan election of judges, and limited powers of the governor. The people of Texas with individualism as their root belief do not want government to control their lives. They want the legislature meeting every other year because Texans fear too much time in session might lead to change. This is also the reason they have restricted the powers of governor. Although Texans generally do not want a strong government, this does not stop them from complaining and seeking answers when outcomes in government do not go their way.

In the United States of America, the Republican Party is the party that promotes limited government involvement when it comes to the business aspects of government; however, when it comes to an individual’s personal life, rights and beliefs, the Republican Party’s philosophy of limited government is hypocritical in some aspects. Nevertheless, in the business world, Texas Legislature philosophy advocates for the civil liberties of its people, believing that everyone deserves the opportunity to excel in their State with limited government interference. Furthermore, Texas Legislature philosophy advocates limited government that works on an as needed basis. Case-in-point, the Texas Legislature functions under a biennial system that last 140 days

All members of the Texas state legislature should have one common motive. That is, to represent the citizens of their state. Champagne et. al. states that “…members…are responsible for bringing the interests and concerns of their constituencies directly into the democratic political processes” (2017, p.211). In order to effectively do so, a member of the Texas House will represent roughly 168,000 citizens while a senator may represent more than 811,000 constituents (Champagne et al., 2017,

Texas used to be an independent country before joined the Unite States, and Texas state government still has many conflicts with the federal governments nowadays. The most obvious case is that couple years ago, the governor of Texas announced that he would not accept the Supreme Court's ruling on the law of same sex marriage. In the United States, the Supreme Court, although neither does it controls the military nor the finance over the United States, as a federal agency, it maintains its supremacy authority. Many Americans are inevitably critical about Congress and the President, but few people would doubt the justice and equity of the Supreme Court.

This is an example of a governor’s willingness to work with legislators at quarters and personally lobbying their bills (Rosenthal, A., 2004). The Texas Legislature is the most powerful of the three main branches of government. However, none of the three branches is particularly strong, and the Legislature may be better described as less weak than the other branches (www.laits.utexas.edu). The legislative branch's status amongst the governing structures of both Texas and the United States gives it extensive authority. According to the Handbook of Texas Online:

Texas is considered a very diverse and unique state in many different aspects. It is the second largest state with more than twenty-six million people residing. People all over the state live in a variety of environments, cities, suburbs, rural areas, you name it. Of course though, like in everything else, there are always both positive and negative things. However, despite the fact that Texas have very high poverty rates and it has the second highest income inequality, Texas is a very interesting state and it has a lot of things that are worth learning about. I learned some things about Texas politics that I thought were very interesting. These topics include the State Constitution and the legislature.

There are five people that represent Texas in which there are the U.S. Senators, the U.S. State Representative, the State Senator, and the State Representative which quickest method for obtaining this information is by typing in your zip code or local district in your state. Because of the New Jersey Plan, two people must be elected at-large and represent as a U.S. Senator which John Cornyn and Ted Cruz both represent the entire state of Texas. These Senators represent the interests of their states’ citizens as they write and support legislation along with voting on bills. The U.S. Senators spend most of the time in Washington, D.C., but must still go to their home state to keep in touch with the needs of their citizens in which they also

In this essay I will compare and contrast the different legislative agendas of various interest groups involved with the Texas Government. An interest group (also called an advocacy group, lobbying group, pressure group, or special interest) is a collection of members that are determined to encourage or prevent changes in public policy without trying to be elected. The essay will discuss the four kinds of interest groups, trade, professional, single and public, as well as provide one detailed example of each type. It includes examples from the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, Texas AFT, MADD and TexPIRG interest groups, which are just a few of the many groups in existence out, but it provides an idea of what different types of

The Voice of Public Citizen In Texas” I could relate to both sides of the Local Control and state government. I related a little more with the citizen lobbyist simply because I can relate to what they are trying to oppose. In the article a picture with a banner was presented and quoted “ We will defend ourselves, we will defend our ban”, although Texas Government wants the best for their citizens, but the way they use their powers at times can seem like our government reflect a dictator in power. Citizen lobbyists want to protect the home rule among each city. 1 They want to reflect on House Energy Resource committee, House Environmental Regulation committee, and the representatives

Texas political culture is one that can be described as a combination of three main ideas: individualistic, traditionalism and moralism. Considering Texas and its overwhelming 254 counties we can see these main ideas undoubtedly. The 254 counties each have their own general set of ideas, attitudes and beliefs. The whole state of Texas is simply not just considered individualistic, traditionalism, or moralism, it is considered all three. Individualistic, traditionalism and moralism are all strong values that coexist in our society and they all affect how we as the people live our lives. A political culture shapes a region’s politics.

Texas is the second most populous state as well as the second largest state in the United States of America (Brown, Langenegger, Garcia, Lewis, & Biles, 2014). With a huge number of people currently calling Texas their home, it would make sense to draw the conclusion that the Texas government must make this state a great place to live by serving its citizens to the best of its abilities. However, it is best not to make assumptions and in order to ascertain whether the local government actually fulfills this role we must look at multiple aspects of the government.

In the state of Texas out of the three major branches of government the legislative branch is the most powerful one in the state. In the state government the legislative branch is fierce when it comes to the power of pursuing, controlling and directing the state government’s activities. The

It has been more than 25 years since a major rework has been done on the state’s ethic laws. The current legislature is again under scrutiny for flimsy disclosure rules, legislative conflicts of interest, lobbyist wining and dining congressional members, and extravagant lifestyles fueled by special interest groups. “Dark money” has had a corrupting influence on politics so without reforms those abuses will eventually visit Texas.

The controlling factions makes the differences between the Texas Constitution and the United States Constitution. They reserve powers to the state in the U.S constitution, however the

They have expertise in areas that newly elected representatives do not have. However, lobbyists should be there to give helpful information and not gifts. A lobbyist who has recently left government knows all the facts concerning current issues. The lobbyist also has friends still serving in the legislature, a situation that speaks of undue influence. Nicholas Kusnetz has written informatively for The Center for Public Integrity. His article "Reformers express disappointment over provisions stripped in the 'dark of night'" was written 05/29/2013 and updated 05/19/2014. "Texas passes ethics bill, but many of proposed reforms are left on the cutting room floor", headlines his article.(Kusnetz) A two year ban on lobbying activity after an official leaves office was one of the items left out. In 2013, a large group of new lawmakers arrived in Austin. Many were hopeful that an ethics bill would be passed and a watered down version was. Craig McDonald, director of the lobbyist group, Texans for Public Justice, was extremely disappointed with the bill that did pass. "There were a lot of good things in there that reformers have been asking for for years, and all of those were stripped in the dark of night". (Kusnetz) Governor Rick Perry vetoed the amended bill on June 14, 2014. There is still hope that the new governor, Greg Abbott, will make ethics reform a