Former state Comptroller John Sharp, who'd been informally exploring a run for governor, won't run next year. Instead, he'll head a blue ribbon committee for Gov. Rick Perry, looking for a better tax system for the state. 

"He has given me what I consider probably my very last chance to do something historic for the state of Texas," Sharp said. "...It's safe to say there's not going to be any politics whatsoever, probably ever, after this."

Perry didn't name anybody else to the panel, but plans to do so in a couple of weeks. Sharp's group will work on state taxes and not on school finance. But Perry said it's too early to know whether there will be a special session on school finance before the tax panel has done its work. The Texas Supreme Court is wrapping up work on its decision in the latest court case on that subject, according to Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, and lawmakers could come back any time after that to work on the subject that has stumped them for two years. 

But the business of the tax panel was almost secondary to the truce between Sharp and Perry. The two men were pals at Texas A&M University, graduating in the early 1970s and eventually convincing voters to send them to Austin.

Sharp won a House seat in 1978, running as a Democrat from Victoria. He moved to the Senate in 1982, and then won a spot on the Texas Railroad Commission in 1986. He won races for comptroller in 1990 and 1994, then lost in his 1998 and 2002 efforts at lieutenant governor.

Perry started later and went higher, winning a House seat in 1984 as a Democrat from Haskell. He switched parties during his third term and ran for agriculture commissioner in 1990 (beating incumbent Democrat Jim Hightower in an upset). He won reelection in 1994, and he and Sharp collided in that 1998 race for Lite Guv. Perry won the 2002 governor's race after succeeding George W. Bush in 2001.

After losing to Perry, Sharp joined a tax consulting firm — Dallas-based Ryan & Co. — and made another run for Lite Guv in 2002, when Perry was running for a full term as governor. Sharp lost to another Republican, David Dewhurst, and by a bigger margin than his first run.

For all the shock waves it sent across the political, lobby and government bubble in Austin, Perry's Sharp announcement fell in the middle of the news run-up to Hurricane Rita, and if you'd been out of town for a couple of days, you could've missed it. Perry didn't announce the deal in a press release, either from the governor's office or from his political office. None of the groups that ordinarily follow his announcements with faxed and emailed "atta-boys" to the press did anything, either. And there weren't any welcoming words from House Speaker Tom Craddick or Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who've been tinkering unsuccessfully with school finance for well over a year.

But the quiet probably won't last. Sharp is already lining up speaking engagements to talk about state tax reform and lower property taxes, and said in his appearance with Perry that he expects the committee to travel around the state holding hearings. Both men all but killed talk of an income tax as a solution to state finances. "I would check the weather in the lower extremities before we would look at that," Sharp said. Both men ducked other specifics about what the panel might produce.

Sharp let his clients and others know about the assignment in an email shortly after it was announced to the press, telling them Perry wants him to find a solution not only to the state's tax problems, but also to school finance. "I realize it is a tough issue, but it is one I believe has a solution. Had I chose to run for office again, it would have been to solve this problem," he wrote. "The tax system and school funding is too important a problem for me to say no, and I hope you understand and will give me your blessings."

The top execs at Ryan & Co. are among the biggest financial backers to the current comptroller, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who is challenging Perry for the Republican nomination for governor next year.

Many of those execs have contributed individually to Strayhorn's campaign, but they've also given through the Ryan & Company Texas PAC, a political action committee that has spent most of its money over the last couple of years supporting Strayhorn, giving $308,500 between September 2003 and this past summer. Sharp hasn't given directly to Strayhorn, but contributed $14,423 to the company PAC during that same period.

And the firm is almost certain to be a subject of argument during the coming gubernatorial primary campaign. A recent State Auditor's report detailed campaign contributions to Strayhorn from tax consulting firms that also do business with the comptroller's office. They didn't accuse anyone of any wrongdoing, but laid out the information in a way that makes it easy for Perry and other political opponents of Strayhorn to draw conclusions for the benefit of voters. Ryan & Co. led the list of contributors.

Sorting out that Unexpected Handshake 

Chris Bell of Houston, who's been actively campaigning and trying to raise money for a run for the Democratic nomination for governor, is now relieved of the biggest obstacle: John Sharp isn't running. Felix Alvarado, a Fort Worth teacher who says he'll run, hasn't been pushing as hard as Bell, but gets the same sort of boost in not having to share votes with a rival who has already run statewide.

Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who's hoping Democrats and moderates vote in the Republican primary, ought to be happy as well. Sharp won't be on the opposite side of the ballot trying to get some of those same people to vote in the Democratic primary. That's one less experienced candidate who's competing to be the alternative to the incumbent. On the other hand, Sharp works for a tax firm that is one of Strayhorn's biggest supporters, and she might see him as joining with her enemy.

Writer and musician Kinky Friedman, running as an independent, has one less big name on the list of competitors. Independents get on the ballot by collecting signatures from registered voters who don't vote in primaries. This situation could certainly change, but there's a chance right now that Democrats won't be treated to much excitement on the statewide ballot in the March primaries. Bigger races increase turnout; quiet ones don't. Sharp's exit might lower the number of Democrats voting in March, increasing the number available to sign Friedman's petitions. After that, Friedman's chances improve if he's seen by voters as the best alternative to Perry, assuming they're looking for alternatives at that point in this election drill. But that depends on the primary results, and on whether a Democratic candidate can seriously challenge Perry in next year's general election.

Gov. Rick Perry gets rid of the only remaining candidate whose poll numbers seriously rivaled his own. Most handicappers would say at this point that the Democrats are at a serious disadvantage in a statewide race in Texas. But Perry has been wobbly — particularly before his widely praised efforts to help Hurricane Katrina evacuees — and it doesn't do him any good to have a relatively well-known Democrat available as an alternative. Sharp didn't endorse Perry for reelection, but conservative Democrats will take his assistance as a cue, another bonus for the Guv.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who beat Sharp in the 2002 election, didn't say anything publicly. But he and Sharp never patched things up after fighting for the state job, and Dewhurst has to be wondering whether he and his rival can work together on school finance.

For House Speaker Tom Craddick, it's a wash. He and Sharp haven't been direct rivals though they're from different parties. They served together when Sharp was in the House. And it's possible that the tax committee will actually produce something lawmakers can stomach. That's something Craddick and Dewhurst and Perry haven't been able to do.

What about the man in the middle? Sharp has lost his last two statewide races, and it's very difficult for a Democrat to raise enough money for a serious campaign; just look at Bell's campaign finance reports. Sharp's numbers in some polls were better than other Democrats, and in some surveys even rival Perry's numbers. Losing a third big race would probably put the last nail in Sharp's political coffin, and the absence of solid financing increases that risk. Since leaving office eight years ago, he's been financially successful. The firm that employs him, Ryan & Co., has chosen to oppose Perry in the governor's race against Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn. This new deal puts Sharp on Perry's side, effectively covering the other side of the bet. He's probably giving up his political future, but the business move seems to make sense.

The Real Hurricane

Someone we know in Carole Keeton Strayhorn's camp was muttering the other day about Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and their effect on state politics and, in particular, the way they've burnished the governor's reputation: "Thank God it's not February."

Perry and most other candidates shut down their fundraising machines — at least the part that involves parties and receptions — when people began streaming out of Louisiana. Rita's presence in the Gulf and its wobbly and threatening path to the shoreline kept most political embargos in place. Strayhorn pulled down her radio ads as Rita approached land. Kinky Friedman unveiled an ad that'll go up on the Internet. That has the advantage of not appearing between storm stories on the normal electronic media where these things normally appear.

Unless there's a screw-up, the emergency management stuff puts Perry in front of the cameras looking gubernatorial, and every day of it disposes of a little more of the stink that school finance left. It's dicey to talk about it right now (more for them than for us), but it'll be a surprise if some of the footage being shot right now doesn't make it into political ads early next year.

The Texas folks also had the advantage of Louisiana going first. Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment. In this case, though, the big goofs have so far been on the other side of the state line. The Federal Emergency Management Agency made landfall in Texas a full two days before Rita. State officials knew in Katrina's wake that they needed to take care of people in hospitals and nursing homes and to bus out people too poor to get out alone. One glitch was unforeseen: Traffic jams on northbound and westbound highways that stretched for miles and miles and miles.

The incoming storm kept politics off the front pages — Sharp's entrance was back on the metro and city pages — but Perry stayed out front. In the political ledgers, that's a win for Perry. That makes three important wins in as many months for a governor who was in pretty rough condition this summer. U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, his most dangerous potential rival, decided not to run for governor. Sharp, Moriarty to Perry's Holmes, folded. And the storms flooded out questions about Perry's leadership that arose during the school finance fights.

Hurricane Rita (and maybe some lingering effects of Hurricane Katrina) convinced two of the state's large education groups not to go to Houston this weekend for a convention. The Texas Association of School Boards and the Texas Association of School Administrators were set to meet at the George R. Brown Convention Center but decided to reschedule that for later.

That could have been interesting timing in more ways than one: The Texas Supreme Court (according to its chief justice) has decided the school finance case and is readying its decision for public consumption. They usually announce rulings on Fridays. The court is deciding an appeal of a lower court ruling that set an October 1 deadline for a remedy to the state's school finance system. State District Judge John Dietz ruled that the current system is unconstitutional. 

The Legislative Budget Board meeting that was set for this week got delayed yet again, this time because Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick wanted to wait out Hurricane Katrina (Rita perked up after the announcement). They were planning to direct some unspent money to some unmet needs, but decided to wait and see what it'll cost the state to take care of evacuees from New Orleans and elsewhere. They also sent letters to the Texas Education Agency, telling that outfit to go ahead and pay textbook publishers $295 million they're owed.

And finally, here's a note from the TEA to school districts that closed because of Hurricane Rita, or that miss school days because they were serving as shelters for Hurricane Katrina victims. They don't have to make up those lost days.

Come and Take It 

Kinky Friedman's first advertising is up, but not on TV or radio -- he's relying on its entertainment value to get people to drive viewers to his website. You can view it at www.kinkyfriedman.com/kinkytoon.

Campaign folk say the ad won't go up on regular media — and that the campaign probably won't mess with that until "maybe this time next year" according to Dean Barkley, who's running the show. Their model is a "JibJab" commercial spoof that ran during the 2004 presidential race, becoming an Internet phenomenon and a model for "viral advertising." It depends more on people passing it around than on people sitting in front of their TV sets and happening to see it.

Friedman's two-minute spot includes a fair amount of campaign messaging — some biographical material and swipes at issues like teacher pay, leadership, candidates who run by saying they love babies and Jesus and speaking Spanish and tax cuts to sway voters. "I love Texas," says one candidate in the cartoon. "I love Texas... en español," says the other. One's response: "I love babies and Jesus." Other's: "I love tax cuts and Jesus."

And it mixes it with the one-liners and visual jokes and cartoons to keep viewers interested enough to pass it on. It's got crosses and menorahs, and a towel snap at Mississippi that includes an astronaut. "I don't think Kinky is the type of person who weighs the risk of who he offends," Barkley said. "... He doesn't like the politicization of Jesus."

Barkley said they're working on more of the same sort of commercials and said they might come in with another one in about a month.

Heavy Metal

Reboot the old Texas Association of Manufacturers. Lobbyists for companies in the manufacturing industries like oil, high tech, chemical, airplane, and timber are talking about reviving that trade group.

The gripe of those big manufacturers — sometimes called the heavy metal lobby — is that their influence in other groups, like the Texas Association of Business and the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association, is diluted. Their particular problem is with TAB, which doesn't lobby on some issues of interest to them because their interests don't parallel those of other businesses in the group.

Their two pet peeves are in energy matters — they spend large chunks of their money powering their manufacturing plants — and on state taxation. Electric companies have different rates for different types of consumers, and what's good for a big manufacturer might not coincide with what's good for a retailer. That's true in tax policy, too, where relief for homeowners and small businesses from property taxes, for instance, might be financed with increases on bigger businesses.

Lobbyists who've been talking about this say the tax bills considered by legislators this year pushed the industries to seriously talk about re-forming the association. They hope to have a "council" in place for the next special session, if there is one, on school finance. If that works, they'll probably formalize it and hang up shingles and hire full-time staff.

The timing looks bad for TAB, which has been indicted by a Travis County grand jury on campaign finance and ethics charges related to the 2002 legislative elections. Temple-Inland's Tony Bennett and Rob Looney with the Texas Oil and Gas Association both said that wasn't the trigger — that they've been talking about the new association for some time. And Bennett said TTARA is more focused on research and doesn't lobby, so the conflicts between diverse members there don't cause the same kinds of problems. Both said Texas is one of the biggest states without such a group and that the companies involved want a unified voice on just a couple of issues.

Resign to Run

Current officeholders and appointed officials have more slack than they might think when it comes to running for state office. The constitution says you have to resign one office to run for another, and also prevents some officials from running for another office during the term of their current office, even if they've quit with time left in the term.

But the Secretary of State's election wizards say the best current set of rules can be found in a Texas Supreme Court decision and an opinion from then Attorney General Dan Morales. They read those two documents to mean that candidates who resign from their current elected or appointed jobs before they file for office will be eligible. Note the word "file" in that last sentence; the folks at SOS say announcing for office and raising money and that sort of thing don't count: It's the filing for office that trips the wire.

The AG's office has a long version of this online, with the sorts of nuances you'd expect. It's an announcement for office, for instance, if you say you're gonna run in some sort of public forum or in a press release. If you're "seriously considering" it, you're not announcing. Here's a dinger: An announcement by, say, a county official automatically loses her the county job — even if it turns out she is ineligible for the office she planned to seek.

We were prompted to ask by the number of people in official jobs who feel the need to legislate (it doesn't apply to current legislators or other elected state officeholders). Examples: Robert Nichols, who quit the Texas Transportation Commission to run for Senate; Frank Denton, an appointee to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation who's in that same contest; Bob Reeves, a member of the Sabine Compact Commissionand yes, a candidate for that same SD-3 seat; Mark Ellis, a Houston city councilman running for state Senate in SD-7; a number of school trustees around the state. You get the idea.

Afterglow 

Lawmakers went home several weeks ago after failing to work out a solution to school finance, and chances are they'll be back in a few weeks or months for another crack at it. But they're still dueling, via mail and email.  Earlier this month, Bob Griggs, R-North Richland Hills, sent a letter explaining his decision to retire and imploring other educators (he's a former school superintendent) to consider running for office and to represent public education in Austin. Grigg's letter drew a response from Rep. Bill Keffer of Dallas, a fellow Republican who was on the other side of the education reform fight. But what Griggs sees as alarming, Keffer sees as reform.

"Without exception, every member of the "established educators" fraternity who testified made his position perfectly clear: 'Send more money (usually the amount specified was $8 billion), but don't tell us how to spend it, and don't change anything we're doing' - in other words, status quo plus more money," Keffer wrote. "The position that I and the other Republican members of the committee tried to make just as clear in response was: 'Reform before revenue; the one approach we cannot and will not abide is sending more money without first drastically reforming the way we do public education in Texas.'" 

Mystery Messages and Other Political Briefs 

Somebody who wants the constitutional ban on gay marriage to pass has been putting unsigned flyers on car windows in downtown Austin. The missives contend "homosexual activists plan to bus in hundreds of people from other states a month early, in order to vote against the traditional marriage amendment." It tells readers not to "blow this off and not bother to vote."

• Gov. Rick Perry got endorsements from the Texas Association of Realtors, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and adds U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio, to the list of fellow politicos who are supporting him. Add to that list the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas

• John Courage, a San Antonio Democrat who has been on the ballot several times over the last decade, says he'll run for Congress against U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio. CD-21 runs from San Antonio into Austin. Courage's website: www.courageforcongress.org.

• San Antonio lawyer Rene Barrientos, formerly of Eagle Pass, has been telling interested parties that he's planning to run for state Senate against Frank Madla, D-San Antonio, in SD-19.

• Hans Dersch, who won a gold medal in swimming at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, will run for the Lege in HD-54. Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, R-Lampasas, is giving up that spot after this term. Dersch is now a small businessman in Marble Falls, and he's running on lower property taxes, better schools and limited government. No website yet.

• Andy Smith, a communications manager at Texas Instruments, will run as a Democrat in HD-107 against Rep. Bill Keffer, R-Dallas. Smith's platform includes lowering local property taxes and reforming legislative and lobby ethics laws. If elected, Smith would be the only openly gay member of the Texas House. His website: www.electandysmith.com.

• Austin attorney Hugh Brady thought about running for the House (in HD-48, now held by Rep. Todd Baxter, R-Austin) but has decided against it. It would have been crowded: Three other Democrats are already in, including Andy Brown, Donna Howard, and Kathy Rider.

• The Texas Farm Bureau is holding a campaign seminar for "candidates, their spouses, and others involved or interested in campaigns" in Austin on October 25-26. They try to cover the basics and don't care which party you're in. There's more info on their website, at www.txfb.org.

• The Texas Lyceum has put together a statewide conference on education. That's in Fort Worth on October 7 (convenient for people going to a football game in Dallas that weekend) and it's titled "The Texas High School Diploma: What is it worth?" More here: www.texaslyceum.org.

• Department of Corrections: In a recent item on Alex Castano, a Republican in the HD-47 contest, we had him home-schooling his kids. That was true until this year, when he and his wife enrolled the five oldest (of seven total) in an elementary school in Austin... An item on TRMPAC indictments said the group had routed money to the Texas Republican Party; it should have said to an arm of the national GOP. Sorry, sorry, sorry. 

Political People and Their Moves 

Gov. Rick Perry appointed Rolando Olvera Jr. to wear the robes in the 138th Judicial District Court in Cameron and Willacy Counties. Olvera, a member of the Texas Lottery Commission, is a name partner in a Brownsville law firm. He'll replace Robert Garza, who's leaving the court to return to private practice. Olvera's a Republican and a previous Perry appointee to the bench. He was appointed to a court spot in 2001 but lost it in the 2002 elections. He'll be defending the new spot next year, and the Democrats already have a candidate putting a campaign together.

John Hildreth, who has chaired the board of the Center for Public Policy Priorities since 1992, is stepping aside; Joe Rubio, a Catholic deacon and vice president of Catholic Charities in Houston, will take that spot. And CPPP is adding a new board member: Catherine Mosbacher of Houston, who served on the board of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services as an appointee of Govs. George W. Bush and Rick Perry.

John Pitts Sr. is leaving the Akin Gump law firm to hang out his own shingle doing law and lobbying. He's also signed on as a consultant to Washington, D.C.-based Arnold & Porter. His twin — Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie — is the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

Brett Findley is the new chief of staff to Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano. He's worked on policy issues there for almost three years and gets the spot opened when Luke Bellsnyder left state employment for the lobby.

Marisa Martin leaves the offices of Sen. Kyle Janek, R-Houston, to become associate director of the Scott & White Center of Health Policy. 

Quotes of the Week 

John Sharp, accepting an appointment from his former rival, Gov. Rick Perry: "I'm not very good at politics anyway... If I were good, I would be appointing him."

Former Wilmer-Hutchins ISD trustee Joan Bonner telling The Dallas Morning News that district officials who misspent federal money should be held to account: "I don't care if they have to sell a kidney, they need to pay this money back. We know they don't have a heart or a brain, but a kidney might be usable."

The quote from writer Armistead Maupin that got a line of coffee cups pulled from a coffee shop at Baylor University: "My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don't make that mistake yourself. Life's too damn short."

Trazanna Moreno, telling the Associated Press about turning back after getting stuck trying to leave Houston for Dallas to avoid Hurricane Rita: "We ended up going six miles in two hours and 45 minutes. It could be that if we ended up stranded in the middle of nowhere that we'd be in a worse position in a car dealing with hurricane-force winds than we would in our house."

Laura Stromberg, spokeswoman for Kinky Friedman, asked by the Austin American-Statesman about another campaign's objection to Friedman's spoofs of candidates who invoke religion: "We're all a little too uptight. Jesus Christ, get over it."

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Texas Weekly: Volume 22, Issue 15, 26 September 2005. Ross Ramsey, Editor. George Phenix, Publisher. Copyright 2005 by Printing Production Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. One-year online subscription: $250. For information about your subscription, call (800) 611-4980 or email info@texasweekly.com. For news, email ramsey@texasweekly.com, or call (512) 288-6598.

A Travis County grand jury indicted U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and two aides -- John Colyandro and Jim Ellis -- on charges of conspiring to exchange $190,000 in corporate political contributions for that amount of non-corporate money, in violation of Texas election laws. DeLay replied with a partisan blast at Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle and a profession of innocence: "I have done nothing wrong. I have violated no law, no regulation, no rule of the House. I have done nothing unlawful, unethical, or, I might add, unprecedented, even in the political campaigns of Mr. Earle himself. My defense in this case will not be technical or legalistic. It will be categorical and absolute. I am innocent. Mr. Earle and his staff know it. And I will prove it." The indictment forced DeLay out of his leadership post in the U.S. House. He said he will temporarily step down while he fights the accusations. Earlier this year, he and supporters attempted to change House Republican Conference rules to allow leaders to hold their posts even if indicted. But the furor of opponents was too strong, and they left the rule as it. The indictment forces DeLay aside, at least for now. Here's a link to Earle's press release, and to the indictment itself: Press Release announcing DeLay's indictment... ... and the Indictment itself . Earle said he wasn't motivated by partisan politics, but by an imbalance of power: "I think that the Texas law that prohibits corporate contributions is a vital link in Texas democracy, and I think that great issue facing the American public is large aggregations of wealth, whether they be corporate or private, that are used in the political process. Texas law prohibits the use of corporate money -- it makes that a felony... my job is to prosecute felonies." The charges against one of the nation's most powerful politicians came at the busy end of a grand jury term, and with just a month left before the third anniversary of the 2002 general elections. Earlier this month, the grand jury restated year-old indictments against two DeLay associates, and also indicted a business trade group and a DeLay-related political action committee for illegal use of corporate money in the 2002 Texas legislative elections. Many of the alleged infractions under investigation have three-year statutes of limitation, but Earle, asked if he's done, said the investigation is ongoing. Another grand jury starts work next week, and Earle said it's "entirely possible" they could take up the election cases (it's coming back in any case, for the regular lineup of crimes and misdemeanors, real and alleged, that occupy the schedule of the county courthouse). DeLay started TRMPAC and was one of five board members, along with then-Railroad Commissioner Tony Garza, who's now the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, Sen. Florence Shapiro, Rep. Dianne Delisi and former Rep. Bill Ceverha of Dallas. The political action committee was patterned after Americans for a Republican Majority, or ARMPAC, a similar DeLay outfit that operates in federal races.  

In his statement to reporters in Washington, U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, says he'll temporarily give up his job as majority leader -- the House GOP's rules require it -- and concentrate on defending himself in Texas. His statement, in full:  "This morning, in an act of blatant political partisanship, a rogue district attorney in Travis County, Texas, named Ronnie Earle, charged me with one count of criminal conspiracy, a reckless charge wholly unsupported by the facts. This is one of the weakest, most baseless indictments in American history. It's a sham, and Mr. Earle knows it. It's a charge that can not hold up even under the most glancing scrutiny. "This act is the product of a coordinated, premeditated campaign of political retribution, the all too predictable result of a vengeful investigation led by a partisan fanatic. Mr. Earle is abusing the power of his office to exact personal revenge for the role I played in the Texas Republican legislative campaign in 2002, and my advocacy for a new, fair, and constitutional congressional map for our state in 2003. "As it turned out, those efforts were successful. Texas Republicans did indeed win a legislative majority. A fair and representative congressional map was drawn and it was approved by the Legislature. And the Texas congressional delegation now, after the 2004 elections, fairly represents the values and attitudes of the people of the state of Texas. "Over the course of this long and bitter political battle, it became clear that the retribution for our success would be ferocious. Today, that retribution is being exacted. Mr. Earle, an unabashed partisan zealot with a well-documented history of launching baseless investigations and indictments against his political enemies, has been targeting a political action committee on whose advisory board I once served. During his investigation, he has gone out of his way to give several media interviews in his office -- the only days he actually comes to the office, I'm told -- in which he has singled me out for personal attacks in direct violation of his public responsibility to conduct an impartial inquiry. "Despite his longstanding animosity toward me -- and the abusive investigation that animosity has unfortunately rendered -- as recently as two weeks ago, Mr. Earle himself publicly admitted I had never been a focus or target of his inquiry. Soon thereafter, Mr. Earle's hometown newspaper ran a biting editorial about his investigation, rhetorically asking what the point had been, after all, if I wasn't to be indicted. It was this renewed political pressure in the waning days of his hollow investigation that led to this morning's action, political pressure that also came from Democrat leaders. "In accordance with the rules of the House Republican Conference, I will temporarily step aside as floor leader in order to win exoneration from these baseless charges. "Now let me be very, very clear. I have done nothing wrong. I have violated no law, no regulation, no rule of the House. I have done nothing unlawful, unethical, or, I might add, unprecedented, even in the political campaigns of Mr. Earle himself. My defense in this case will not be technical or legalistic. It will be categorical and absolute. I am innocent. Mr. Earle and his staff know it. And I will prove it. "Here in Washington, there's work -- hard, hard work -- ahead of our conference. We have a war to win, a region to rebuild, a budget to balance, taxes to cut, a government to reform, and a nation to lead. In coming weeks, the House is committed to major legislation reforming our border security and immigration laws, alleviating the rising costs of gasoline and heating fuel before the winter, and saving tens of billions of dollars through reforming federal entitlement programs. My job right now is to serve my constituents and our nation in support of this ambitious and needed agenda. "As for the charges, I have the facts, the law, and the truth on my side -- just as I have against every false allegation my opponents have flung at me over the last ten years. Once exposed to the light of objective scrutiny, every one of their frivolous accusations against me has been dismissed, and so will Mr. Earle's. "Thank you very much for this opportunity to speak to you guys today. Thank you." 

Travis County prosecutors got interested in the 2002 elections right after the results were in. And they've said they were tipped publicly -- as opposed to anonymously -- when the Texas Association of Business bragged openly about its role in helping making the Texas House Republican for the first time since the Civil War.  TAB crowed about their successful efforts, delivering thick packets to reporters and other interested parties -- packets that contained all of the direct mail pieces that were dropped in the districts of their favorite and least favorite candidates. That program was financed largely with corporate money, but TAB argued that it was a legal form of campaigning, since the pieces were sent to educate voters and not to tell them how to vote. They also said they weren't coordinating their activities with the campaigns themselves. The inquiry initially seemed to focus on coordination of activities between TAB, the Texans for a Republican Majority PAC, or TRMPAC, started by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and other groups including Texans for Lawsuit Reform and the Law Enforcement Association of America. The grand juries and prosecutors were asking questions about who talked to whom and when, and whether contributions and expenditures were being coordinated, and about who was sharing polling information and campaign strategies, and so on. They were trying to figure out whether the people who took over the Legislature in 2002 did so because they broke the law or because they were simply more clever than their opponents. That's still the basic question almost three years later. Republicans made no secret of their desire to complete their takeover of Texas politics. Redistricting had produced a map of House districts that was friendlier to the GOP and that gave Republicans a real chance to win a House majority for the first time in a century. A big enough majority could then unseat House Speaker Pete Laney, a Democrat, and could open congressional redistricting to send the Republican wave through the Texas congressional delegation. The 2002 elections put the first and most important piece of that plan in place, and Republican officeholders and strategists from the local to the national level were doing what they could to help. That's just politics. The question is whether they did anything illegal along the way, turning a legal conspiracy -- to take over the Texas Legislature through elections -- into an illegal one -- to do all of that by circumventing the state's election law and using corporate money where it's not allowed. Through 2003, 2004 and most of 2005, various grand juries looked at campaign finance reports and campaign ads and talked to people who were involved in the campaigns. In September of last year, a grand jury reported the first indictments, naming John Colyandro, Jim Ellis, Warren RoBold, and eight corporations. Over the months that followed, several of those corporations signed agreements admitting no wrongdoing, promising to go forth and sin no more, agreeing to cooperate with the investigation, and in some cases, contributing to ethics programs at the University of Texas and elsewhere. In return, the charges against them were dropped. The three men haven't been tried on the charges against them. And charges against Colyandro and Ellis have been expanded and reworded in the last year (they were also named in the most recent indictment, along with DeLay). Here's a quick walk through what the grand juries have done. You can look through all of the indictments in the files section of our website. Click on "files" under the Texas Weekly masthead, or type in this address: www.texasweekly.com/documents. • September 2004: A grand jury issues 32 indictments against Colyandro, Ellis, RoBold -- associates of DeLay -- and eight corporations after weeks of speculation that the panel would forego indictments in favor of a report recommending changes to state election law. The companies were charged with using corporate money in campaigns. Colyandro and Ellis were charged with money laundering, which carries a sentence of up to life in prison. Colyandro and RoBold were accused of illegally accepting corporate contributions. At the time, DeLay issued a statement: "This just emphasizes what I've been saying all along, that this investigation isn't about me. I haven't been asked to testify, I haven't been asked to provide any records, I haven't been asked to come as a witness.'' • May 2005: State District Judge Joe Hart says Bill Ceverha, TRMPAC's treasurer failed to properly report $613,433 in contributions and $684,507 in spending during the 2002 elections and is personally liable for almost $200,000 in damages to the Democrats against whom the money was spent. • July 2005: The grand jury revises its charges against Colyandro and Ellis, changing the work "check" to "funds" in allegations they illegally laundered corporate money for use in political campaigns. • September 2005: A new indictment against Colyandro and Ellis repeats earlier money-laundering charges and adds charges they made illegal contributions of corporate money and that they gave money to the Republican Party illegally close to an election, and that they engaged in a criminal conspiracy to violate Texas election laws. • September 2005: The grand jury issues five indictments containing 130 counts against TRMPAC and TAB. TAB was accused of illegally soliciting corporate contributions, illegally contributing corporate money, and illegally spending that money directly and indirectly. TRMPAC was accused of illegally accepting corporate money.
  -- September 2005: DeLay is indicted (and Colyandro and Ellis are re-indicted) on charges of conspiracy to violate state election laws. The grand jury said they agreed that TRMPAC would accept corporate contributions, that they then delivered a $190,000 check to the Republican National Committee along with a list of seven House candidates in Texas and that the RNC then cut checks to the seven candidates from non-corporate accounts. That's the same transaction that led to money laundering charges against Colyandro and Ellis a year ago. 

Dallas County GOP chairman Nate Crain won't seek another term, but told fellow Republicans he's interested in becoming state chairman next year. Tina Benkiser hasn't said whether she'll run for reelection. The Dallas Morning News has former Rep. Kenn George, R-Dallas, contending for Crain's current job. • Put David Harris, a Fort Worth Democrat, in the CD-6 race against U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis. Harris, a major in the Army Reserve and an Iraq vet, is launching his campaign and his website in the next few weeks, but he's emailing regular commentary about the incumbent. His website is www.followmetodc.com.?
? Don't fall out of your chair if Ben Streusand shows up running for the Texas Senate against Sen. Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria. Armbrister hasn't declared for reelection, and Republicans are looking at his turf and thinking it ought to be on their side of the ledger (Republicans in the Senate see Armbrister as a reliable ally on the other side of the lines, but that's not how it plays in Fort Bend County). Streusand was looking at SD-7, where Jon Lindsay, R-Houston, is not seeking reelection. But that's a crowded race with at least three Republicans already running and some Republicans are nudging Streusand, who lost a race for Congress to U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, last year, to think about SD-18. • Texans for Lawsuit Reform endosed Lee Parsley for the 3rd Court of Appeals, based in Austin. He's a Republican and the husband of Public Utility Commissioner Julie Parsley. • One for the lawyers: The Texas Supreme Court granted dispensation to attorneys who miss filing deadlines because of Hurricane Rita, particularly when the offices of court clerks who'd normally receive those filings are closed. 

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.