It's a tradition at the Texas Railroad Commission to give the middle chair -- the chair's seat -- to whichever of the three commissioners is up for election next. That's Elizabeth Ames Jones this time. Jones, a former House member appointed to the RRC when Charles Matthews resigned earlier this year, is up for election in 2006. And she'll run as the agency's chairwoman. Michael Williams gave up the spot at the RRC's last meeting. 

Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace is telling everybody (except reporters, apparently) that he's seriously thinking about running for comptroller of public accounts in next year's Republican primary, setting up a race between him and Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs, who's been organizing and fundraising for that contest for months. Wallace hasn't run statewide. He's a second-term mayor and former city council member, and works for a real estate and investment firm there. Combs, who endorsed Gov. Rick Perry early in the game, is the management favorite at this point and has been working on the comptroller's race since before it was clear what the current comptroller, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, would do. Strayhorn is now running for governor against the guy Combs endorsed. And Combs' entry into the comptroller race was a little too tight for the current occupant. The two squabbled some when Combs said she was running; Combs said Strayhorn assured her the seat would be open, while Strayhorn said she hadn't gone that far. Whatever the case then, it's now clear that Combs is running for an open seat.
  Strayhorn's camp has quietly encouraged Wallace (and, before that, FDIC honcho Don Powell, an Amarillo banker) to get into the race. He's been ducking calls on that subject for a couple of weeks. 

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle and defense lawyer Dick DeGuerin of Houston did this same dance a little over ten years ago, when DeGuerin defended U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. DeGuerin prevailed in the earlier contest, after a fashion. The judge in that case, John Onion Jr., told the prosecutors he would wait until the trial started to decide whether to admit evidence they obtained in a raid on Hutchison's state office (she was treasurer before winning the Senate seat in a special election). Without the certainty of that ruling in hand, Earle didn't present his case against Hutchison. What was expected to be a weeks-long trial turned into a quick acquittal, and Earle and DeGuerin never got their duel in court. The run-up, however, was a smash-mouth affair, and DeGuerin, who is now on U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's team, is taking the same tack this time he took with Earle in 1994. DeLay opened with an attack on Earle, calling the charges baseless and politically motivated. DeGuerin told reporters during the Hutchison fight that Earle had wanted the Senate gig himself and that he was tearing down the Republican in hopes of some political reward that might result. Earle, then and now, offered the same defense: "I don't know what else they would say." 

Ronnie Earle and Tom DeLay are perennially controversial politicians who have managed, so far, to convert the frustrations of their enemies into political strength. Plus, they both provide excellent fundraising fodder to the other side. Republicans use Earle to light up their supporters just as Democrats use DeLay to ignite theirs. At the moment, Earle appears stronger on his home front than DeLay does on his; Travis County may be safer for a Democrat than CD-22 is for a Republican. Earle was first elected district attorney in 1976, and Texas district attorneys are notoriously hard to knock off in elections unless they've committed something that -- in the eyes of voters -- is a sin. He's no exception. His toughest modern race came when Republican Shane Phelps ran against him in 1996. Phelps was a revenge candidate of sorts, with plenty of help from Kay Bailey Hutchison and her cohort, who felt wronged by Earle's prosecution of the U.S. Senator in 1994. He lost, with 44 percent of the vote, and got 45 percent in a rematch four years later. State Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, has been talked about as a candidate for the job, but he used to be Earle's first assistant and won't challenge him. Keel is running for a judgeship next year. Last year, the Republicans didn't even put up a candidate and Earle got 82.9 percent of the vote against William Howell, a Libertarian. That's a four-year term, too, so Earle won't be up for reelection, if he seeks it, until 2008. Travis County remains a tough slog for the GOP. If you'll remember those county maps of the United States after the last presidential election -- the ones that split the country into blue and red for Democratic and Republican voting results -- Travis County looked like a blueberry in a bowl of tomato soup. George W. Bush got just under 42 percent of the vote. Not one Republican ran countywide and won against a Democratic opponent. It's blue. DeLay was surprised by a no-name Democrat -- Richard Morrison -- who capitalized on the incumbent's ethical travails to win 41 percent of the vote in the general election. DeLay got 55 percent, while a Libertarian and an independent corralled the rest of the votes. That's a handy win, but it showed the wolves some red meat; DeLay got 64.3 percent in the 2002 elections, albeit under a different map. Next year, former U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson will be on the Democratic side of the ledger. He lost his seat to Republican Ted Poe of Houston after redistricting and moved into CD-22, but he's got more experience than Morrison had. And with DeLay's new troubles, there is a chance -- yet unproven -- that Democrats will be willing to fund his campaign in a meaningful way. DeLay has been working harder on the home front than in years past, and it's Republican turf. But trouble at the courthouse won't help. DeLay and Lampson had both turned the indictments into fundraising appeals by the end of the day they were dealt by the grand jury. On his political site -- www.tomdelay.com -- DeLay posted his team's legal analysis of the case, along with an attack on Earle, a list of quotes of other people attacking Earle, and a timeline of the case. It includes a "Stand with Tom" link that asks supporters to join an email list, and the website also includes a contribution links so people can give to the campaign online. It apparently does not include any links for contributors to DeLay's legal defense fund, which was up and running well before any indictments were issued. Lampson, meanwhile, sent out a fundraising email that starts with its own spin on the allegations: "Today, a grand jury in Travis County indicted Congressman Tom DeLay on criminal conspiracy charges related to his political organization, TRMPAC, which illegally used corporate funds during the 2002 Texas legislative campaign." It defends Earle as having indicted more Democrats than Republicans, says the election will be about "integrity" and includes three different links to the campaign's fundraising window on the Internet (the main site is www.lampson.com).
  Meaningless Trivia: DeLay's middle name is Dale. So is Earle's. 

Gov. Rick Perry appointed Rick Strange of Midland and Jim Wright of Eastland to new spots on the 11th Court of Appeals. Strange is a private attorney who's on the development board at Hardin-Simmons University, and will join the court for the first time. Wright's already there, but he'll be the chief justice now. He's a former district judge. Both will be on the ballot next year if they want to keep the jobs. Dan Mills of Johnson City, currently an assistant U.S. Attorney, will preside over the 424th Judicial District court that stretches across Blanco, Burnet, Llano and San Saba counties. Perry named Bill Henry of San Marcos to run the 428th Judicial District Court in Hays County. He's an assistant attorney general and was in private practice for 14 years before that. Danny Clancy and Livia Liu have new jobs -- the Guv appointed them to criminal district courts numbers 6 and 7, respectively. Clancy is a county criminal court judge. Liu is an assistant Dallas County district attorney. Both will have to run for election next year to keep those seats. Perry appointed Robert Ellis, a consultant and bank board member, to the board of the Texas Growth Fund, a state fund that makes venture capital and private equity investments. Mike Arismendez Jr. of Shallowater and Lilian Norman-Keeney of Taylor Lake Village are Perry's picks for open spots at the Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation. Arismendez is assistant to Lubbock's City Council and is the former mayor of Shallowater, and he was a Perry appointee on the Texas Motor Vehicle Board. Norman-Keeney is mayor pro-tem of Taylor Lake Village and owns an insurance agency. State Rep. Myra Crownover, R-Denton, was elected treasurer of the Southern States Energy Board, an interstate compact for 16 southern states and two U.S. territories. Jared Wolfe is leaving the friendly confines of the Texas Senate to become executive director of the Texas Association of Health Plans. He's been working for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for three years. Deaths: W.G. Laney, father of former House Speaker Pete Laney, D-Hale Center. He was 86.