If the Texas politics of George W. Bush seem to be the blueprint for success in Washington these days, what are they like back in the Lone Star state? Filmmaker Paul Stekler takes his camera to Texas to find out, in a lively, behind-the-scenes look at a pair of 2002 elections—one for state representative in a district that includes Lyndon Johnson’s hometown, and the other a polarizing race for governor that pits President Bush’s ascendant Republican Party against an historic multicultural Democratic ticket. The characters include Karl Rove, Ann Richards, Molly Ivins, Paul Begala, Henry Cisneros, and especially two, young ambitious candidates for state rep, who literally fight it out until late on election night, leaving one last man standing. These elections shed some light on what works in American politics today—and where politics, in an increasingly diverse and partisan nation, might be going in the future.