Steve Brown, a lobbyist and former legislative staffer, says he'll challenge Rep. Dora Olivo, D-Rosenberg, in HD-27.  She didn't have an opponent last year. Olivo won her 2002 reelection, with 63 percent of the votes over Mark Rubal. In 2000, she beat Republican Lester Phipps in the general election, getting 64 percent of the votes, after smothering Samuel Gonzalez in the Democratic primary, where Olivo collected 88 percent of the votes. It's a safely Democratic district, if you look at the results of statewide races, although the congressional district with the biggest overlap belongs to U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land (he squeaked in Olivo territory by six votes on his way to an overall 64 percent win in 2002). The best performance by a statewide Republican candidate came in the comptroller's race, where Carole Keeton Strayhorn (last name Rylander at that time) beat Democrat Marty Akins by 110 votes on her way to a statewide win. Sen. Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria -- whose district partly overlaps the House district -- lost in his section of HD-27 to Phipps, who moved up the ballot in 2002. Though he lost in the district, Armbrister handily beat Phipps elsewhere. Blacks and Hispanics together make up about 65 percent of the district, according to the 2000 Census. Brown is African-American; Olivo is Hispanic. Brown worked for several Houston Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Sen. Rodney Ellis, and Rep. Sylvester Turner, before signing on with the Texas Medical Association as a lobbyist. He's now with the American Heart Association and plans to stay with that organization as he moves from Austin to the district to run against Olivo. Brown says he is aware of rumors that former Rep. Ron Wilson, D-Houston, and House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, are trying to recruit friendly Democrats to run against unfriendly ones, but says he hasn't talked to either of them and says he was urged into the race by people in the district. He says he'll push economic development and education. 

Griggs and Hupp won't be on the ballot in 2006, meaning at least eight incumbents won't be back in 2007. State Rep. Bob Griggs, R-North Richland Hills, has decided to pack it in after all. He put off retirement plans to run in the first place and has been openly talking about hanging up his running shoes after the current term. Now he's announced it: The former school superintendent, who irked some Republicans with his independence from management on education and other issues, will serve out this term in HD-91 and leave. Pat Carlson, who chairs the Tarrant County GOP, has already said she'll run; she and her husband are building a new house in the district (they live outside the district now). Add two more to the mix: Kelly Hancock, a trustee in Birdville ISD, and Charles Scoma, the former mayor of North Richland Hills. Both are Republicans. It's remarkably red territory: No Democrat won that district at the state or county level in the 2002 elections. And state Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, R-Lampasas, says she won't run for reelection in HD-54 at the end of this term. She's not ruling out future public service, but said in a written announcement she'll "continue to serve the public interest in a private capacity." She also said she hopes she'll get a shot at solving school finance before her current term ends, alluding to a possible special session after the Texas Supreme Court rules. Hupp is skipping out two years before her retirement improves. Lawmakers vest in their retirement after eight years in office and can start drawing checks when they're 60 years old. If they serve 12 years, the checks start coming when they're 50 years old. Hupp will have served 10 years in the House at the end of this term. HD-54 is GOP turf; all but one of the statewide Republicans -- Attorney General Greg Abbott -- did slightly better in the district than they did overall in 2002. Two Houston Republicans -- Reps. Peggy Hamric and Joe Nixon -- are giving up their reelection chances to seek promotion tot he Senate. The two will be in a GOP primary (along with City Councilman Mark Ellis, and maybe Ben Streusand, who lost a congressional race last year) to replace Sen. Jon Lindsay, R-Houston, who is retiring after this term. Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, is leaving the House to run for the 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin. Rep. Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, is plotting a challenge to U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo. Former state and U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, is also in the hunt for that spot, which he lost to Cuellar two years ago. Rep. Jim Solis, D-Harlingen, told the Brownsville Herald in early August that the current term will be his last. He's been in office for 12 years. Eddie Lucio III, son of the state senator, is thinking about running for that seat. Rep. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, wants to run for Sen. Frank Madla's spot. Madla, D-San Antonio, plans to seek reelection, but Solis told the San Antonio Express-News he'll give up his current spot for the challenge. 

Frost goes to school, Bell gets a new fundraiser, the governor makes a slew of appointments, and an El Paso judge is reprimanded Former U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, D-Dallas, is off to Massachusetts to take a teaching gig at Harvard University's Institute of Politics. He'll be what's called a "resident fellow," and plans to continue with his other job as a commentator for Fox News. Gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell hired Scott Gale of Washington, D.C., to do his fundraising for the rest of the campaign. Appointments Gov. Rick Perry appointed Julie Caruthers Parsley to another term on the state's Public Utility Commission. Parsley, who used to be the state's solicitor general, started her regulatory gig in November 2002, when Perry first put her on the PUC. The Guv named 17 people to advise him on how to use the Emerging Technology Fund, a more targeted version of the $300 million economic development fund in his office. The new fund, started by the Legislature, will total up to $200 million. Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick oversee the investments, but Perry's new panel will offer advice. The members include Alan Abbott, an El Paso CPA and chairman of Sunland Optical Company, Inc.; Grant Billingsley of Midland is manager of public affairs for Wagner & Brown, Ltd.; Dr. C. Thomas Caskey of Houston, president and CEO of Cogene Biotech Ventures.; Sada Cumber of Austin, chairman and CEO of SozoTek, Inc.; Dr. Lynda de la Vina, dean of the UT San Antonio College of Business; Phillip Drayer of Dallas, president and CEO of Kalydus Asset Advisors; Dr. Pamela Eibeck, dean of engineering at Texas Tech University in Lubbock; Clyde Higgs, president of Tech Fort Worth, a business and technology incubator; Cesar Maldonado of Harlingen, president and founder of MBM Engineering Group, LLC; Bill Morrow of San Marcos, founder of Grande Communications; David Nance of Austin, president and CEO of Introgen Therapeutics; Bernard "Bernie" Paulson, chairman of Corpus Christi Bancshares; Pike Powers of Austin, a partner with Fulbright & Jaworski; David Spenser of San Antonio, president of OnBoard Software, Inc.; Bill Sproull, president of the Richardson Chamber of Commerce and the Metroplex Technology Business Council; Dr. Johannes "Hans" Stork of Dallas, senior vice president and CTO of Texas Instruments, Inc.; and Walter Ulrich of Pearland, president and CEO of Mincron, Inc. Perry picked Albert Betts to run the worker's compensation division at the Texas Department of Insurance. That was an agency unto itself until the Legislature folded it into TDI this year. Betts, an attorney, is currently chief of staff and senior associate commissioner of operations at the insurance agency. The governor named three people to the board of regents at Stephen F. Austin University: Richard Boyer of The Colony, information privacy officer for Children's Medical Center Dallas; James Thompson, president and founder of Team Associates Inc., and a former city councilman in Sugar Land; and Melvin White of Pflugerville, founder of Digital Workforce Academy. All three are alumni. Judicial Spankings: State District Judge Mary Anne Bramblett of El Paso was publicly reprimanded by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, which said she changed a Mexican citizen's date of conviction so that his deportation was no longer mandatory. The commission said the falsified date was ignored by an immigration court which deported the convict, and said Bramblett's action was "inconsistent with [her] reputation in the legal community."