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Politics & Public Affairs Posts

Stay informed on San Antonio’s elections, city government, and state and national policies that impact life in our city.
March 30, 2025

Monday Musings #12: Trump Invites Bigcitysmalltown to White House Podcast Summit

Declaring that mainstream media is on life support and not expected to survive his second term in office, President Trump announced plans to convene podcasters from across the country at a White House summit in the coming weeks. “Or possible …

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March 17, 2025

Monday Musings #10: Can the City of San Antonio and the State’s Top Elected Leaders Find Common Ground?

An unexpected opportunity has developed for Mayor Ron Nirenberg in his final months in office, and other civic and business leaders, to grasp an olive branch extended by Gov. Greg Abbott in his Feb. 2 State of the State speech. In the speech, Abbot…

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March 10, 2025

Monday Musings #9: 10 Big Questions for San Antonio’s Mayoral Candidates—See What We’re Asking

We’ve got questions for the 27 people who ponied up $100 to run for mayor in the May 3 city election. For those of you who sent in or shared questions, thank you. Several were placed into our final questionnaire, which we sent to the campaign …

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March 3, 2025

Monday Musings #8: A $5 Billion Bet on San Antonio’s Future—Who’s Paying?

🚨NEWS ALERT: Longtime Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff shook up the mayor’s race last Thursday with an enthusiastic endorsement of tech executive Beto Altamirano for mayor. That has to add serious energy to the campaign just days after the…

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Feb. 24, 2025

Monday Musings #7: Why Running for San Antonio Mayor Should Cost More Than $100

San Antonio has a problem with how it conducts local elections, namely the low $100 fee it requires of citizens who want to get their name on a local election ballot. As Andrea Drusch reported in the San Antonio Report last week, that fee has not ri…

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Feb. 16, 2025

Monday Musings #6: How Should We Cover the Mayor’s Race?

I’m starting this week’s Monday Musings with a question for readers, and I hope you’ll share your thoughts. How deeply should our bigcitysmalltown podcast cover the San Antonio mayor’s race? What might seem like a question w…

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Feb. 10, 2025

Monday Musings #5: The U.S.-Mexico Relationship in Uncertain Times

Last Monday was Día de la Constitución in Mexico. As my wife Monika Maeckle and I gazed out the window of our northbound bus, entering the country’s Bajio on our way from Mexico City to San Miguel de Allende, we passed the UNESCO…

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Jan. 20, 2025

Monday Musings #2: San Antonio’s Next Mayor and the City’s Bold Visions

Several readers of my inaugural Monday Musings newsletter circulated last week asked me who I was voting for in the May 3 San Antonio mayor’s race. That’s a premature question since the one-month filing period for candidates only opened …

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Jan. 12, 2025

Monday Musings #1: Who Will be San Antonio's Next Mayor?

Welcome to the inaugural Monday Musings newsletter from me, bigcitysmalltown host Bob Rivard.  The weekly newsletter will arrive in your email inbox every Monday morning, an offering of comments and perspective on the latest local and regional…

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