About the authors
Our team of political writers and junkies stretches from Fort Worth (Anna Tinsley, Aman Batheja, Richard Stubbe, John Gravois, Steve Campbell) to Austin (Jay Root, R.A. Dyer, John Moritz) to Washington, D.C. (Davey Joe Montgomery, Maria Recio).
Jay Root has been Austin bureau chief of the Star-Telegram since October 1996. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, Root began his journalism career at the Houston Post in 1990 and served as Washington correspondent for the Post and Agence France-Presse. Root files regular reports from the southern border region and Mexico and has appeared on MSNBC, National Public Radio and other broadcast outlets. A native of Liberty, Texas, Root won a first place award for commentary from the Houston Press Club in 2005, was named top reporter for daily coverage by Capitol Inside in 2003, and received an award for specialty coverage from the Associated Press Managing Editors Association in 2002.
Aman Batheja joined the Star-Telegram in 2003 and has covered local and state politics since 2006. He is originally from New York but finds Texas politics more entertaining.
Anna M. Tinsley, a Fort Worth native, has spent more than 15 years covering local, Texas and national government and politics. A Baylor University graduate, she worked at newspapers in Odessa and Corpus Christi, before covering the Texas Legislature six years for the Scripps Howard Austin Bureau. Since joining the Star-Telegram in 2001, she has covered city hall and local politics and now writes about national and international news and politics.
John Moritz has been covering politics, state government and the Texas criminal justice system in Austin since 1996. He’s been with the Star-Telegram for 24 years and has served as a deputy metro editor in Arlington directing coverage for public safety and city government beats. Before that, he covered Arlington City Hall. John is a New Jersey native who has made Texas his home since 1973. he served in the U.S. Army for three years and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington.
R.A. Dyer covers consumer and utility issues for the Star-Telegram, as well as the state parks system, education, and the Texas House of Representatives. Before taking his position at the Austin bureau in late 1998, Dyer worked for nearly a decade at the Houston Chronicle where he covered local politics, but also military conflicts abroad -- including U.S. interventions in Panama and Haiti. During his 20 years in journalism, Dyer also has reported from Costa Rica and Mexico City. He was named reporter of the year by the Star-Telegram in 2006, and is the author of two books about pocket billiards, Hustler Days and The Hustler and the Champ.
Richard Stubbe, assistant government affairs editor, joined the Star-Telegram in 2002 as an assistant business editor. A native of Little Rock, Ark., he was raised in Houston and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. He has worked for three Texas newspapers as well as newspapers in Indiana, Ohio and South Carolina.
John Gravois, assistant managing editor for government affairs, cut his teeth covering Louisiana politics in the late 1970s before heading west to Texas. He spent 13 years at The Houston Post, including stints in the newspaper's Austin and Washington bureaus, and then joined the Star-Telegram in 1995. He has covered or supervised coverage of every statewide and national election since 1988. He supervises coverage of local and state government and politics, national and international news.
