I'll admit to never having understood Texas politics. I never paid any attention to George W. Bush as governor until he declared "Jesus Day" in Texas and until he smirked about and otherwise made fun of that woman the state executed...Karla Faye Tucker... At those moments, I concluded there was something really wrong with Bush, and I wondered just how bizarre the state's voters and politics really were.
I would pay attention to this year's gubernatorial election in Texas. If White becomes governor, not only will there be some major reforms in the state, but there could be some at the national level. White strong-armed the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (under Perry, mind you) into complying with the EPA's requirements for what chemical plants could emit into the air. He went to the EPA and the EPA basically said, "Um, yeaaahhhh...no." and forced the TCEQ into upholding national emissions requirements. White then went to the offending companies and told them that he would sue them out of business and told them that he would sue them out of business if they didn't clean up their act. Harmful emissions plummeted. This is a guy who made his fortune in this industry too.
He also went to the Fifth Ward in Houston and cleaned out all of the cocaine dens and whatnot. When he was done there, he paid contractors to go in and re-insulate and seal up all the cracks on the houses in order to a.) help the lower class people there save money and b.) reduce energy consumption in an effort to go green. Speaking of going green, under his leadership, Houston is now the number one purchaser of wind turbines in the United States.
In terms of fiscal responsibility, he did all of that, got rid of a deficit, built a surplus (even in the midst of Katrina aid, Rita, and Ike), and managed to create a pretty awesome surplus when he left office.
In terms of education, he created a voluntary summer school program that any student could enroll in. It cost as little as $2000 per child to do. Those kids' test scores all increased. He and his wife also created a reach-out program to get high school dropouts to come back to school. He, his wife, and thousands of volunteers went around door-to-door encouraging dropouts to go back to school. An estimated 8,800 people have gone back to school as a result of this program.
As far as humanitarian efforts go, I need only say "Katrina" and you will know what I am talking about.
If you want to see stuff about the issues, it's extremely refreshing because he actually has plans that he wants to set in motion the moment he gets elected. And they aren't just "throw money at it until it goes away" plans. They're plans that really get down to the heart of the problem.
Bill White for Texas
Anyways, that's enough thread derailment for me. If you want to talk about it more, shoot me a PM. If enough people PM me, I will post a thread.
EDIT: Just so you know how much of a ****head Perry is, he takes credit for White's work in improving air quality in this letter to Obama.
http://www.governor.state.tx.us/files/press-office/O-ObamaBarack201005280133.pdf