U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison hasn't yet said what she's running for next year, but there might be a hint in the hiring.She's bringing Terry Sullivan, who most recently managed the successful campaign of U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, to Texas as her campaign manager. And she signed Scott Howell's Dallas firm, which does media work for campaigns, to do her commercials. In the past, David Weeks of Austin has been the adman, but he has always done commercial work for Gov. Rick Perry. If Hutchison runs for reelection next year, that wouldn't really be a conflict, but if she runs for governor against Perry, she'd need someone new. Howell has a hot hand right now. His winning Senate candidates last year included John Thune, who knocked off Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, Jim Talent of Missouri, DeMint and Norm Coleman of Minnesota. The firm did ads last year for the Bush-Cheney reelection, too. The firm brags on its website that it wins 80 percent of its races. The firm has worked all over the country, and in some Texas races, but has only light experience in statewide races here. In 2002, they did a commercial in the Texas Attorney General's race that promoted Republican Greg Abbott as a law enforcement friend and kicked Democrat Kirk Watson as a trial lawyer while stopping short of asking people to support one or the other. The client was the Law Enforcement Alliance of America, which has claimed it was doing issue ads and thus doesn't have to report where it got its money. Watson has sued over that -- the case is meandering through the federal courts somewhere -- and claims the LEAA spent upwards of $1 million in the last 10 days of the campaign to help defeat him in that race. The group still hasn't reported its contribution amounts or donors, or how much it spent or on what. Howell and his firm produce the ads but aren't among those being sued. The folks in Hutchison's camp say the two new faces don't mean they've made any decisions. Her Senate term is up next year, and they'd be gearing up for a campaign whether she was sizing up the governor's race or not. For the record, she's not saying what she'll do; Hutchison has consistently said she'll make a decision when the legislative session is over and she can see what the playing field looks like.

Fraser repatriates, swearing, newspapering, appointing, and pleadingMary Fraser, after assisting Tony Garza through his last three jobs -- Texas Secretary of State, Texas Railroad Commissioner, and most recently U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, where she was his chief of staff, is returning to Austin from Mexico. She did politics before working for Garza, at the Republican Party of Texas and as an employee of one Karl Rove. No word yet on what she'll do now that she's situated back in Texas. Central Processing: Roger Williams cleared Senate approval and was sworn in as the 105th Texas Secretary of State. He replaced Geoffrey Conner... Elizabeth Ames Jones cleared the Senate Nominations Committee and the full Senate in less than a week, and she's the newest Texas Railroad Commissioner. She's the replacement for Charles Matthews. Press Corp Moves: Gardner Selby will move to the Austin American-Statesman as chief political writer at the end of the month from the Austin bureau of the San Antonio Express-News. He's a veteran Capitol reporter, with the Houston Post and the Dallas Times Herald also on his resume. Appointments: Gov. Rick Perry named Jarvis Hollingsworth of Missouri City the presiding officer at the Teacher Retirement System. Hollingsworth, a partner at Bracewell & Patterson, has been on the TRS board since 2002. Perry named former judge Louis Sturns of Fort Worth to the Texas Racing Commission, which oversees gambling at dog and horse tracks in the state. He's an attorney at Mallory & Sturns now and a member of the Trinity River Authority. He was a state district judge, an appointee to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and a member sof the Texas Ethics Commission. The Guv named Ronny Congleton of Austin to the Texas Workforce Commission. He's a union appointment, a former chairman of the Teamsters Southern Grievance Committee and former president of Teamsters Local 745 in Dallas. And Perry reappointed Michael Cooper Waters of Abilene to the Office of Rural Community Affairs. He's a consultant to the board of Hendrick Health System and a director of the First National Bank there. Rick Roach, the Panhandle district attorney facing drug and weapons charges, agreed to a deal that drops the drug charges in exchange for his resignation and a guilty plea to the gun violations (he had two guns in his briefcase in a courtroom when he was arrested for drug possession). Roach's troubles stem from his addiction to methamphetamines. He faces up to 10 years in federal prison and up to $250,000 in fines. Deaths: Wendell Odom, a judge whose time on the bench included 14 years at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and three years on the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles. He was 84.

An open Republican seat in the Texas House stays in Republican hands.Joe Straus III is on his way to Austin to represent HD-121, one of the state's most Republican House districts. Rep. Elizabeth Ames Jones, R-San Antonio, won in November but didn't take the oath of office when lawmakers convened; she's Gov. Rick Perry's pick for an open spot on the Texas Railroad Commission. Four candidates -- two Republicans, a Democrat and an Independent -- ran in the replacement race. Straus got 9,255 votes (63.6%) to win without a runoff. Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Rose Spector, a Democrat, got 4,707 votes (32.3%). Paul Silber, who served a term in the Lege 30 years ago as a Democrat, ran as an independent and got 401 votes (2.8%). And Glen Starnes, who withdrew from the race and threw his support to Straus but not in time to get off the ballot, got 192 votes. Straus was the management favorite, winning endorsements from Jones and from Perry, among others. He's an investor from a family well known in the horse racing business; his father, Joe Straus Jr., helped start up the Retama track in Selma, just north of San Antonio, and is the chairman of Retama Park. With that, the Texas House has 87 Republicans and 63 Democrats in its membership. One race is still in flux; Democrat Hubert Vo of Houston beat Republican Talmadge Heflin in the HD-149 race in November by less than three dozen votes. Heflin challenged the result, and the House will decide the outcome this month.

The House GOP Caucus elected Rep. Ruben Hope Jr., R-Conroe, to another term as its chairman.The vote totals weren't disclosed, but he beat Rep. Joe Nixon, R-Houston, who wanted to take over the top job. Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, was elected vice chairman over Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, but she ran for treasurer without opposition and will hold that post. Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, was elected secretary without opposition. Those last two positions are new ones in the group.

Vo can stop looking over his shoulderHours after seeing a report siding against his election challenge, former Rep. Talmadge Heflin, R-Houston, finally conceded the November election, but hinted strongly that he's not through with political office The report issued Monday morning by Rep. Will Hartnett, R-Dallas, said Democrat Hubert Vo beat Heflin by at least 10 votes but less than 20. That report would have passed along to a committee and then to the full House, but Heflin's hopes hinged on a finding that either he won outright or that the outcome couldn't be determined. Hartnett's report made it clear that he thought the outcome, while razor thin, was clear. That came out first thing Monday morning, and Heflin quit late in the afternoon.

The House's special master sides with the Democrat in a challenge to November's results.Hubert Vo beat Talmadge Heflin in November by at least 10 votes, according to Rep. Will Hartnett, R-Dallas, in his quasi-judicial report on the election. Hartnett, appointed by House Speaker Tom Craddick to sort out the results of the election, filed a report which will go to a committee for hearings and then, finally, to the full House for a vote. Heflin, defeated by the Democratic challenger in November, appealed the results to the House. Hartnett concludes his 48-page report, in part, with this: "This was a very close election decided by only a handful of votes out of more than 41,357 cast. After months of discovery, the detailed review of the voter files of 259 persons, and hours of examination and analysis of voter files by the parties and the master, it is the opinion of the master that Contestant has failed to meet his burden of proof. The master concludes that Representative Vo retains his seat by not less than 10 votes and not more than 20 votes, depending on the impact of the five votes that may still be counted. "Although there was no evidence of voter fraud generated by or for any candidate in this race, serious questions remain regarding the fraudulent 'deportation' of a significant number of Nigerian American voter registrations from District 149 and several other districts into District 137. "Representative Heflin, a 22-year veteran of the Texas House, and Representative Vo, a freshman member, have conducted themselves during this contest in compliance with the highest standards of this House. The master applauds both of them and their counsel for their cooperation and diligence during the difficult course of this contest." Hartnett's report goes to a special House committee that'll hear testimony on Tuesday and vote out a recommendation to the House; the House is scheduled to vote on Thursday. In case you haven't heard the options before: The House can call either candidate the winner or can order a new election if they can't figure out a winner after this autopsy of the November elections. Documents from the contest are available from the Texas Legislative Council, at www.tlc.state.tx.us/legal/elec_contests.htm. A full copy of Hartnett's report, in Adobe Acrobat format, is available on our website: www.texasweekly.com/Documents/HeflinVsVo_HarnettReport.pdf.