An Inside Look At The National Laboratory For Bad Government
Molly Ivins once called Texas “the national laboratory for bad government”—and for good reason—Texas politics is like a legal contact sport. From mid-decade redistricting debacles, runaway corruption at juvenile prisons and a House Speaker who assumes monarchal authority to legislative antics and bizarre campaign debacles, nobody knows Texas politics better than the bloggers and citizen journalists who regularly cover it. In this panel, four of Texas’ premier bloggers will address a variety of issues and topics to give the attendee an insider’s view of politics and the legislative process in Texas.
Brian Hamon is a senior software engineer at a Silicon Valley tech company who, for the past three years, has published a local political blog and worked as an activist in the Democratic party. He was elected to the Texas Democratic Party's State Executive Committee in June 2008.
Matt Glazer cut his political teeth on Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign. Trained by U.S.P.I.R.G.'s GreenCorps, Matt has worked in the field and online for dozens of campaigns and causes from the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance and Equality Texas to Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, Texas Democratic Party Chair Boyd Richie and State Rep. Pete Gallego. An award-winning speaker on effective use of new media, Matt is also Editor-In-Chief of the nationally-recognized political blog Burnt Orange Report. Matt holds a B.A. in Political Science from Trinity University.
Born and raised in New York, Charles Kuffner got to Texas as fast as he could by enrolling at Trinity University in 1984. Charles has blogged at Off the Kuff since 2002, and online at the Houston Chronicle since 2006. His is the longest continuously published progressive political blog in Texas, and one of the first anywhere to focus primarily on state and local politics. He has twice been named Best Local Political Blog by the Houston Press, and was recently named by Texas Monthly as one of "35 People Who Will Shape Our Future."
Vince Leibowitz is the editor and publisher of Capitol Annex, one of Texas' most prominent progressive political blogs. A former award-winning "main-stream media" journalist, Vince is active in Democratic Party politics and is the winner of the 2002 Nancy Monson Award from the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas and the Texas Press Association. Vince presently serves as Chair of the Texas Progressive Alliance, the nation's largest formalized coalition of state-level political bloggers and Netroots activists.
Boadicea is the managing editor of TexasKaos.com and recently was elected to the board of the Texas Progressive Alliance. She lives in Austin, and works in the tech industry. Nominated for a Koufax Award in 2006, Boadicea cut her teeth on politics in growing up in Arizona. When she moved to Texas, she saw how profoundly weird state politics could really be. She's alternately been appalled and amused ever since.
