"We are a community based on progressive principles," the governor said, in a speech to several hundred lawmakers and guests at an auditorium in the Capitol complex.
As Mr. Bush, younger brother of George W. Bush, the Texas governor and Republican presidential candidate, addresses lawmakers and guests on Tuesday on the opening day of the state's legislative session, marchers will begin their trek to the Capitol complex, where they plan to remain until Tuesday evening.
"There is no question that Sandy hit us hard," the governor told a chamber packed with lawmakers, dignitaries and guests.
But as the chamber filled with lawmakers and their guests, the TV cameras revealed another expression of dissent.
Since it became common for lawmakers to invite guests to attend the State of the Union address, honorees have been walking political statements for their hosts, and this year is no different.
Each time he signed a bill, applause erupted from lawmakers and their guests, who included Jane Dougherty, whose sister was killed in the attack at Sandy Hook elementary in Newtown, Connecticut; Sandy Phillips, whose daughter was killed in Aurora; and Tom Mauser, whose son was killed in the 1999 Columbine shooting in Colorado.
Though the ceremony is scheduled to begin at 11 30 a.m., prominent guests, including lawmakers, cabinet members and former presidents will begin arriving at 9 a.m.
WASHINGTON ― About 30 young undocumented immigrants are attending the State of the Union on Tuesday as guests of lawmakers ― and one of their colleagues wants to use the opportunity to have those guests arrested.
He told his guests, according to lawmakers, that Democrats were winning and that critics within the party were wrongly focused on "what didn't happen rather than what we have accomplished".
About 1,500 lawmakers, government employees and foreign guests were finally freed in the early hours of Friday morning after thousands of irate protesters had formed a human chain around the Bosnian Parliament building in Sarajevo for 14 hours to demonstrate against an impasse over a law on identification documents.
