Statehouse veterans scoffed last January when Democrat Ann Richards vowed to create a "new Texas" ruled by a responsive, "customer-oriented" government. Now the skepticism has turned into shock. In only three months the first woman to govern Texas in 56 years has moved with the speed of a Panhandle twister to shake up the good-ole-boy network that has long dominated the Lone Star State.
Days after settling into her office, Richards began to prune and energize the bloated bureaucracy and "make government mean something in people's lives." She quickly imposed a hiring freeze and pushed a sweeping audit of state operations...