Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst officially announced that he was running for the GOP nomination to fill Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s seat about a month ago. The announcement could be described as “below the radar,” making the first announcement in a video on his website. Since then, the Dewhurst bandwagon has been rolling along almost in “stealth” mode, with the Lieutenant Governor choosing not to participate in some early candidate forums.

In this week’s “Texas Political Parlor,” KUT’s Ian Crawford and Jason Embry of the Austin American-Statesman discuss Dewhurst’s decision not to participate in some of the early Senate forums.

Ian Crawford: Jason, you wrote this week that Mr. Dewhurst has been absent virtually all of the candidate forums early on. How’s that going down with some of the GOP faithful?

Jason Embry: Not too well. Of course you know, I mean the people who come out to these forums, a lot of them have been held on the weekend, Saturday nights. This is a very small percentage, even of the primary electorate. But these are people who actively engaged. They spend a lot of time on social media and that sort of thing — not all of them, but some of them do. So these are people who can certainly create buzz, one way or another. And the buzz so far is, “Where is David Dewhurst?”

Crawford: Does he even really have to do anything in the early going? I mean, he is the one with the big name recognition right now.

Embry: Well, he is. But how many times have we seen candidates who lose because of complacency? He does have to get out there and earn this nomination, and I think he will…sort of on his schedule, which is often how we see Dewhurst do things at the Capitol. Right now, you’re just not seeing publicly a lot of work on his part, in terms of going out and being in front of voters, and certainly not with his opponents. He may be spending a lot of time raising money behind the scenes and that sort of thing. We will know that soon enough. But he is not spending a lot of time out there, just directly interacting with voters that we can tell.

You can here more of the discussion by clicking on the audio player at the top of this post.

This week in the Texas Political Parlor, we’re talking about the expected announcement from Governor Rick Perry on his presidential aspirations. He’ll be in South Carolina Saturday, ahead of stops in New Hampshire and Iowa. The Governor’s spokesperson said Thursday that Perry will announce his plans to run for president tomorrow.

KUT’s Matt Largey speaks with the Austin American-Statesman‘s Jason Embry about what’s to come.

The meeting comes weeks after the Texas Legislature passed a bill that gives school districts greater latitude in which materials they can use from the Texas Education Agency’s approved list. The main reason is money. Public school support takes a $4 billion hit in the budget biennium that starts in September. So the board isn’t recommending a list of books, but rather a list of digital materials to supplement what’s already in classrooms. But mixed in with that discussion is the continued tension over biology textbooks that include the concept of intelligent design alongside the theory of evolution.

KUT’s Ian Crawford and Kate Alexander of the Austin American-Statesman discuss the new look of the SBOE and whether the political calculus has shifted on the board in this week’s “Texas Political Parlor.”

When U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, announced that she would retire at the end of her current term, a lot of successor speculation centered on Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst. For his part, Dewhurst has been mum on the subject, focusing his energies on running the Texas Senate during the recent legislative sessions. In the past, however, he’s said he’d announce a decision in mid-July.

Well, it’s mid-July, and we’re still waiting. So are the other candidates for the GOP senatorial nomination. KUT’s Ian Crawford and Jason Embry of the Austin American-Statesman discuss the possibility of a Dewhurst senate run in this week’s “Texas Political Parlor.”

The boundary lines are being challenged in the courts. A trial date has been set for September 6 to argue the lines. But that’s not stopping candidates from lining up for a chance to sit in the 113th Congress. State Representative Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio) has already thrown his hat into the ring for the nomination in the 35th Congressional District, which currently stretches from Southeast Austin to San Antonio. Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) has seen a significant change in his District 25, which now stretches westward through Lakeway and Bee Cave and into the Hill Country. There is speculation that he could jump into the race for the 35th District, but Doggett hasn’t announced his intentions yet.

In this week’s “Texas Political Parlor,” KUT’s Ian Crawford and Tim Eaton of the Austin American-Statesman look at the race that may be shaping up for Austin’s newest congressional seat.

This session left a bad taste in the mouths of many lawmakers, largely because of a bare-bones 2012-2013 budget. But the legislators who return to Austin in January 2013 may get a worse taste in their mouths, if speculation of a bigger budget hole by House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, comes to pass.

Then again, 18 months is a long, long time in politics. There’s a national election ahead, as well as a race with newly-drawn districts for state representatives and senators. There’s also speculation about where the state’s top office holders might be when the 83rd Legislature gavels to order. KUT’s Ian Crawford and Jason Embry of the Austin American-Statesman dust off their crystal ball and take a look ahead in this week’s “Texas Political Parlor.”

Hints are floating around the State Capitol that Governor Perry may call a second special session, if the House and Senate can’t get together on proposed changes to the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association. No one is saying when the call may come, but many folks beneath the Pink Dome are just waiting for the other shoe to drop. KUT’s Ian Crawford and Tim Eaton of the Austin American-Statesman discuss the factors that could lead to a second 30-day call.

Lawmakers took a $4 billion bite out of state support to education, bucking a long-standing trend of funding for Texas’ public schools. Backers of the move say it’s part of a move to get the state to spend within its means; opponents say the legislature turned its back on schools.

In this week’s “Texas Political Parlor,” KUT’s Ian Crawford and Kate Alexander of the Austin American-Statesman discuss the change and whether the new stance could become permanent.

The governor speaks before a conservative Hispanic group in Los Angeles, the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans and a key group of New York Republicans (occupying a spot once saved for Donald Trump). It’s not as if he’s ever left the state to speak to out-of-state Republican or conservative groups before. But he wasn’t being linked to a run for the White House by most observers.

KUT’s Ian Crawford and Jason Embry of the Austin American-Statesman discuss Governor Perry’s speaking tour and what implications it has for him nationally and back home in this week’s “Texas Political Parlor.”

Legislators are spending part of this special legislative session trying to agree on a new congressional district map for Texas. In this week’s “Political Parlor,” KUT’s Jennifer Stayton speaks with Jason Embry of the Austin-American Statesman about at the proposal to create four new seats for Texas and to carve Travis County into multiple districts.