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Texas politics is about to take another big step to the right. While nobody outside Texas would describe Gov. Rick Perry or Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst as moderate Republicans, their likely replacements are considerably more conservative — especially in the powerful lieutenant governor's office.

The eyes watching Texas have mostly focused on the governor's race between Wendy Davis and Greg Abbott. But the contest between former conservative radio talk show host Dan Patrick and state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte from San Antonio likely will be of more political consequence.

Texas has what's known as a "weak governor" system, which Rick Perry overcame only because of his historically long occupation of the chair. But lieutenant governor is president of the Texas Senate and Republican Dan Patrick will lead an unprecedentedly conservative Senate, which is mirrored by an equally conservative Texas House.

As a former conservative shock jock, Patrick's politics fit that vein. He wants to teach creationism in public schools, end popular election of U.S. senators, and outlaw abortion including cases of rape. But what's got establishment Republicans particularly concerned is Patrick's plan to do away with the state's property taxes. Texas already doesn't have income taxes. That means property taxes and sales taxes are high to compensate. If Texas were to stop collecting property taxes too, the state's school system — and indeed many elements of local government — would have to be drastically cut back while sales tax would soar.

The regressive consequence could be similar to what has happened in Kansas under the leadership of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

But Texas is not Kansas. If it were a sovereign nation, it would have the 14th largest economy in the world. For decades, the conservative Dallas Morning News editorial board has been the voice of the state's Republican business establishment. It tends to endorse a Democrat only when it feels the GOP candidate is refusing to serve the state's business interests. And in the lieutenant's governor's race, the News endorsed Van de Putte, Patrick's opponent.

In its endorsement editorial the News said of Patrick, "Some of his ideas are singularly disruptive. Taken together they could destabilize state government, the enemy of sound business practices." The News called a vote for Patrick, "reckless" and described Patrick's primary m.o. for governing Texas as "fear and division."

Compared to some of the other more liberal newspapers' descriptions of Patrick's politics, the News' editorial language was toned down. Be that as it may, the latest poll has him leading Van de Putte by 17 percentage points. It's very likely Dan Patrick is Texas's future.

And that is expected to intensify the ongoing power struggle between Tea Party Republicans like Patrick and the state's business elite. But in Texas, after this election the Tea Party wing may well have the votes. Still don't count out the state's millionaires and billionaires, there are many. It is apt to become a test case of conservative politics — big money's self-interest vs. grass roots right wing ideology, Texas style.

2014 elections

Texas

Gary Morse, a visionary property developer, transformed a Florida mobile home park into the nation's largest retirement community. The billionaire died Wednesday at the age of 77.

Under Morse's direction, The Villages, northwest of Orlando, redefined retirement living. It's a community that is remarkable most of all for its size — home to nearly 100,000 residents living in dozens of communities, spread over an area the size of Manhattan.

In a state known for diversity, The Villages, according to the 2010 census, is more than 96 percent non-Hispanic white. And there are twice as many Republicans as Democrats living there — a fact not lost on those running for national office, like former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. In 2008, tens of thousands of residents turned out for her in a huge rally.

Nearly four years later, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney burst into song, holding an impromptu sing-along in The Villages of "America the Beautiful."

The people who live in The Villages say the attention from politicians is nice, but there's something else, they say, that makes the place special.

Bill Gottschalk, president of the homeowners association, sums it up in two words: "the lifestyle." What drew him to The Villages, he says, was the golf, the recreation and the active town centers. "The entertainment at the town squares was just outstanding."

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The Villages: Florida's Disney World For Retirees

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Community Helped Change How We See Retirement

In the early 1980s, when Morse took over the community from his father, it was a mobile home park known as Orange Blossom Gardens. Over the years, he transformed it into The Villages, upgrading from mobile homes to homes built on the site.

Morse was a prominent Republican fundraiser, giving millions of dollars over the years to candidates like George W. Bush, for whom he was a member of the Electoral College.

You didn't see Morse around The Villages much and he rarely gave interviews. Gottschalk never met him, but he still feels the loss. "I believe that one of the best things that Gary leaves behind is a wonderful community that we call home," he says.

The Villages continues to be a family-run business; Morse's children are now in charge of what the company calls "Florida's friendliest retirement hometown."

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Countless episodes of The Simpsons are built around goofball dad Homer's inability to understand anything online, including starting a home business with no declared purpose: Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net.

His reasoning: "Everybody's making money off the Internet, except us!"

It looks like the people who make The Simpsons have solved that problem with Simpsons World; a website and app devoted to all 552+ episodes of the show, packed with extras like specially curated episode playlists and behind the scenes tidbits.

But platforms like Simpsons World aren't just cool clubhouses for superfans. They're also redefining a part of television that's been around since the earliest days of the medium: the TV rerun.

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Simpsons World allows viewers with a cable subscription to access every episode and watch special playlists. Fox hide caption

itoggle caption Fox

Simpsons World allows viewers with a cable subscription to access every episode and watch special playlists.

Fox

When Homer Simpson built a website, it was a horribly cacophonous mess of material stolen from other websites. "You'd think all the noises would be annoying," he says, practically reading the viewers' minds. "But they're not."

Um, right. Fortunately, FX Networks did a bit better when they built Simpsons World, which allows viewers with a cable subscription to access every episode, watch special playlists, look up the popularity of each episode and more. Next year, more features are coming, including social media sharing and the ability to create your own playlists.

And they're already learning from users. When the site debuted last week, it embedded four minutes of commercials in every episode. After an online backlash, they've cut that total down to one minute for the next six months.

Chuck Saftler, chief operating officer for FX, says the company dreamed up Simpsons World as they were negotiating to buy rights for all Simpsons episodes to bolster their new cable channel, called FXX.

"We realized that we were in a very changing time in terms of how television is consumed," he says. "Buying [cable TV rights alone] for something close to 10 years didn't seem intuitively correct."

So FX spent a reported $750 million to also lock up what are called "non-linear rights" — basically the ability to stream and digitally distribute the episodes — after promising the rights holders that they wouldn't just put the Simpsons into a generic video-on-demand menu.

Using an exhaustive book episode guide by Simpsons creator Matt Groening as an inspiration, the Simpsons World app and website was born.

Saftler says the company wanted to satisfy two kinds of viewers; old fashioned TV fans watching the show on cable and people who watch shows on whatever device is available.

"I do believe there are going to be a number of viewers that still want to have episodes served up live and have that 'lean back,' decompressed experience," he says. "But I also believe that there are viewers that want to have that 'lean forward,' where they curate their own experience."

But now that fans can "curate" their own TV playlists online, why wouldn't most people watch exactly what they want, exactly when they want to watch it?

“ Choice is good, but too much choice is paralyzing. If you go there not knowing what you're looking for, it can be paralyzing.

- Chuck Saftler, chief operating officer for FX

Saftler offers a simple answer: "Choice is good, but too much choice is paralyzing," he says. "If you go there not knowing what you're looking for, it can be paralyzing."

It's an interesting paradox. Even in today's on-demand media culture, viewers still sometimes want the option of watching what someone else has chosen for them.

And The Simpsons isn't the only show giving viewers this kind of choice.

Earlier this year, the creators of South Park cut a deal with Hulu worth a reported $80 million, selling streaming rights to all 240+ episodes of the show for the Hulu Plus subscription site.

Fans can also visit SouthParkStudios.com to see a smaller collection of about 30 episodes (including new episodes one day after they air on Comedy Central), read a wiki and blogs, create an avatar of themselves in the South Park animation style and more.

Media

HBO GO Available To Non-Cable Subscribers In 2015

Earlier this week, Hulu also announced plans to add episodes of Viacom-owned series such as Ren & Stimpy and The Daily Show to their libraries. Given recent announcements of stand-alone digital services from HBO and CBS, there's now a host of online platforms using libraries of TV reruns to build an audience that's independent from cable TV or broadcasters or even television sets.

This is quite a long way from where TV reruns started.

Rebroadcasts of old shows have always been moneymakers for the TV business. Decades ago, reruns of shows like Leave it to Beaver and Gilligan's Island were appointment viewing for kids after school, turning the shows into treasured icons for a generation and keeping young fans watching television.

Later, as cable channels began to evolve, they used reruns to fill 24-hour schedules and build their identity before developing original shows. Both TNT and A&E used old Law & Order episodes that way, sometimes airing the shows four times a day.

Now reruns provide the same service for online platforms like Netflix, Hulu and Simpsons World.

It's another interesting paradox; once again, TV reruns have brought viewers' love for old shows together with new technology to shape TV's future.

In case you haven't been following this year's election that much (don't worry, we're not judging you), we've rounded up a list of big ideas in play in the 2014 midterms.

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You're likely to see fewer of these cast this year than there were two years ago. YinYang/iStockphoto hide caption

itoggle caption YinYang/iStockphoto

You're likely to see fewer of these cast this year than there were two years ago.

YinYang/iStockphoto

Turnout: In a nutshell, it likely will be lower than in 2012. The Pew Research Center says voter turnout in the midterms has been lower than in presidential election years as far back as the 1840s.

NPR politics editor Charlie Mahtesian says that "[low] turnout in a midterm election also means the composition of the electorate looks different. In a midterm like this one, demographically the electorate tends to be older and whiter. That tends to be a recipe for a good Republican year." Pew's got a little more background on GOP engagement here. It says Republicans are more excited than Democrats about this election.

Voter turnout also could be affected by a number of voting law changes in several states that some think could hurt Democrats. NPR's Pam Fessler has a roundup.

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If past is prelude, President Obama's party may be in for a rough time. Evan Vucci/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Evan Vucci/AP

If past is prelude, President Obama's party may be in for a rough time.

Evan Vucci/AP

The 'Six-Year Itch': This is the idea that the election in the sixth year of a president's two terms tends to be very bad for the party in power.

PBS Newshour says all seven presidents elected since the Great Depression have seen their parties lose seats in both the House and Senate during their second terms. This will probably hold true for President Obama, as well. According to Gallup, Obama's job approval rating has been under 50 percent for well over a year.

Money: The Center for Responsive Politics says almost $4 billion will be spent on this election — making it the most expensive midterm ever, with Republicans spending a bit more than Democrats. Some of that stems from the Supreme Court's controversial decision in Citizens United in 2010 that made it legal for corporations and unions to spend as much as they want to support or attack candidates.

ABC News has a nice roundup of the most expensive races of this election. The North Carolina Senate battle between Democrat Kay Hagan and Republican Thom Tillis tops the list, with $113 million spent so far. Another interesting tidbit: NPR's Peter Overby reports that the number of TV ads running this election is actually down from 2010.

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Sen. Mary Landrieu, whose family has deep political roots in Louisiana, and former President Bill Clinton, whose wife may have her eye on the White House in 2016. Gerald Herbert/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Gerald Herbert/AP

Sen. Mary Landrieu, whose family has deep political roots in Louisiana, and former President Bill Clinton, whose wife may have her eye on the White House in 2016.

Gerald Herbert/AP

Dynasties: Several big-name politicians running for office this year — and some rumored to be running soon — come from families with other successful politicians. NPR's Mahtesian calls this the recurring theme of dynasty politics. "For a country that was founded in rebellion," he says, "we really have a soft spot for political royalty."

He's right. You've got Sen. Mary Landrieu, the Louisiana Democrat whose father and brother have been mayors of New Orleans. Then there's Sen. Mark Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat whose father was also a senator. And Democratic Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado comes from a long line of political royalty. His cousin Sen. Tom Udall, a fellow Democrat from New Mexico, is also running for re-election this year.

In Texas, GOP candidate George P. Bush, son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and nephew of George W., is running for land commissioner. (Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, dropped her Senate bid earlier this year.)

And the 2016 presidential race already has outlines of dynastic politics – with prospective candidates such as Jeb Bush, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and, of course, Hillary Clinton.

Mahtesian says this phenomenon isn't new: Until Obama won the presidency in 2008, every single winning presidential ticket since 1980 featured either the son of a U.S. senator or the son of a U.S. president.

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Who will win congressional seats that are in play? Odds are they will be incumbents. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption

itoggle caption J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Who will win congressional seats that are in play? Odds are they will be incumbents.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Incumbency: There are some sitting House and Senate members who should be worried about holding onto their seats, but for the most part, incumbents stay put. "Few things in life are more predictable than the chances of an incumbent member of the U.S. House of Representatives winning reelection," says the Center for Responsive Politics. The way that districts are drawn — at its most extreme, that's called gerrymandering — to put lots of like-minded people in the same districts plays a part. Another factor is the tremendous advantages of incumbency: Sitting lawmakers are more established and better able to raise money.

When incumbents do get upset, they're likely to be the most junior members of the House and Senate. When more seasoned incumbents fall, it's often because they are politically wounded or haven't put enough time toward the hard grind of retail politics back home.

Mahtesian says that sometimes "they just can't do the rubber chicken circuit anymore." Just look at GOP Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, who's in trouble in his conservative state.

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Knowing all of these things, what should you expect on Tuesday?

Well, Mahtesian says that when you look at all of the closest House races nationwide, there are more Democrats in trouble than Republicans. He says Republicans seem poised to win between 4 and 14 seats, strengthening their grip on that chamber.

As for the Senate, several political forecasters and handicappers think Republicans will wrest control.

Republicans need a net gain of six seats to win the majority. Of the 36 Senate seats on the ballot this year, Democrats are defending 21 of them — seven in states that Mitt Romney won — which is good news for the GOP. And of the Republican senators up for re-election, only one is running in a state that Obama won, which is also good for Republicans.

If Republicans do win the majority, the South will help pave the path: Louisiana, Arkansas and North Carolina have key races featuring vulnerable Democratic senators. Republicans, however, will need to hold onto their seats in Georgia and Kentucky. Other important Senate races to watch: Colorado and Iowa.

midterm election

U.S. House

U.S. Senate

Democrats

President Obama

Republicans