Hits and Misses: North Texas keeps its voice

10:12 AM CDT on Saturday, July 5, 2008

North Texas needs all the pull it can get in Austin, and the appointment of state Rep. Dan Branch to the Legislative Budget Board helps. House Speaker Tom Craddick made the right call this week in naming the Dallas Republican to the budget-shaping panel to replace retiring Fred Hill of Richardson. Mr. Branch is the only North Texan on the board, in contrast to Houston's two members. We hope legislative leaders are done slighting North Texas representation on key panels, as we saw in last year's conference on the two-year state budget. North Texas is too big to ignore. (Read a Q&A with Mr. Branch in tomorrow's Points section.)