While the world and its editor are handicapping the 2008 presidential race, Texas Monthly‘s own Paul Burka thinks he can pick the man that will be the next Texas governor. And his selection? Freshman state Sen. Dan Patrick.

According to Burka’s positively giddy blog post, GOPer Patrick (whose contributions to the workings of the Senate come to a failed attempt to overturn the two-thirds rule and a vaguely ridiculous photo-op) is going to be an ideal candidate come 2010 because he doesn’t actually want to be a legislator. The Texas Monthly senior executive editor and Lege insider reckons that Patrick will just translate the localized demagoguery that got him his Houston seat into a gubernatorial run.

Currently, even hardline anti-tax Republicans like Rep. Carl Issett are saying that Texas has dramatically underfunded a whole slew of state agencies and is now paying the price in lost staff and lost services. Against that background, how exactly does Burka think Patrick will win his party over by running on a grandstanding “slash the taxes, and slash ’em some more” platform?

This article appears in February 16 • 2007.

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The Chronicle's first Culture Desk editor, Richard has reported on Austin's growing film production and appreciation scene for over a decade. A graduate of the universities of York, Stirling, and UT-Austin, a Rotten Tomatoes certified critic, and eight-time Best of Austin winner, he's currently at work on two books and a play.