Rep. Bob Hunter, after 20 years in office and with a diagnosis of prostate cancer, says he won't seek reelection next year. The Abilene Republican is optimistic about radiation treatments ahead, but says between that and an upcoming project at Abilene Christian University, he'll bow out. At least three people have their eye on the chair in HD-71, all of them Republicans: Abilene Mayor Norman Archibald; Rob Beckham, who lost a challenge to then-U.S. Rep. Charlie Stenholm in 2002 (Beckham got 47 percent overall, but narrowly beat the Democrat if you only count voters in Hunter's district); and former mayor Gary McCaleb, vice president and a management professor at ACU. Hunter says he knows of several others who are interested, and says he won't endorse a potential successor. It's a two-county district -- Taylor and Nolan -- and has a strong Republican flavor to it (Nolan still elects Democrats to local offices, but went strongly for Bush and for statewide Republicans in 2004; Taylor was Republican top to bottom, with the exception of Stenholm, who got 50.49 percent of the vote). Keeping score? Hunter is the ninth current member of the House to say he won't run for reelection. With the death earlier this year of Rep. Joe Moreno, D-Houston, at least ten members of the next House will be freshmen. Our list, in addition to those two, includes Reps. Bob Griggs, R-North Richland Hills, Peggy Hamric, R-Houston, Suzanna Gratia Hupp, R-Lampasas, Terry Keel, R-Austin, Joe Nixon, R-Houston, Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, Jim Solis, D-Harlingen, and Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio. Five -- Hamric, Keel, Nixon, Raymond, and Uresti -- are dropping out to seek higher office in next year's elections. Three senators won't be back: Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin, Jon Lindsay, R-Houston, and Todd Staples, R-Palestine. Staples is running for higher office; the other two are hanging up their running shoes. 

Okay, so they're not kids. But they are trying to get back into office. Former Rep. Talmadge Heflin, R-Houston, says he wants a rematch -- he'll challenge Rep. Hubert Vo, D-Houston, in next year's elections for HD-149. Heflin, a member of the House for 22 years, lost a squeaker in 2004 to Vo, a political newcomer. The head of House Appropriations, Heflin was a key member of the leadership team in the House, and his defeat was one of the few things Texas Democrats had to crow about after the 2004 election cycle. The race went to an election contest -- what a recount is called when it's adjudicated by the House itself -- but Heflin couldn't flip the result. He ended up losing, according to the House's report on the issue, by at least 10 votes and by fewer than 20. When that report came out (authored by fellow Rep. Will Hartnett, R-Dallas), Heflin decided to concede without asking for a vote from the full House. He says he'll refine his message this time -- "make my accomplishments more clear to the voters" -- and says he's also going to talk about Vo's lack of experience and clout in the House. One test will be in the fundraising, and how well Heflin, a former member close to the current management, does against Vo, who has the power of incumbency this time, for whatever that's worth. The district is marginally Republican; in state and county races that cover all of HD-149, Vo was the sole Democratic winner in 2004. • Former Webb County Judge Mercurio Martinez Jr. kicked off his campaign for state representative; the Laredo Democrat is running for the spot now occupied by Rep. Richard Raymond, D-Laredo. Raymond is running for Congress, against U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and former U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio. Martinez is on the Laredo Community College Board and was county judge for 12 years until he lost a reelection bid to Louis Bruni in 2002. He's also been on the school board and the city council. Two others are looking at the HD-42 race: Sergio Mora and Rudy Ochoa. 

Harriet Miers, if she makes it through the U.S. Senate and all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, would be only the second Texan ever to serve on that panel. The first was Tom Clark, who served as attorney general under President Harry Truman. Truman named him to the court in 1949 and he retired in 1967 when his son, Ramsey Clark, was appointed attorney general by President Lyndon Baines Johnson. Former Rep. Robert Earley pulled up and moved to Fort Worth, closing his Austin lobby shop to become the senior vice president for public affairs and advocacy at John Peter Smith Hospital, The former Portland Democrat (it's near Corpus Christi, if you're new here) had part of the Tarrant County Hospital District as a client and it grew into a fulltime gig. This puts him close to an old boss: Earley was an aide to former U.S. Rep. Tom Vandergriff, who is now the Tarrant County Judge. Eddie Aldrete is the new senior VP at IBC, the Laredo-based banking outfit. He'll remain in San Antonio, where he's finishing a gig as temporary CEO of the symphony. His old day job was with Austin-based Public Strategies Inc., working in the Alamo City office. Michael Grimes, most recently chief of staff to Sen. Chris Harris, R-Arlington, is joining the lobbying arm of the Fort Worth-based Eppstein Group. Grimes, who worked for then-Gov. George W. Bush before joining Harris, will be based in Austin. Department of Corrections: We took the wrong guy out of the middle seat at the Texas Railroad Commission when Elizabeth Ames Jones was named to it last week. Victor Carrillo was chairman until September's last meeting. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Appointments: Gov. Rick Perry named Robert Wingo of El Paso to the Texas Economic Development Corporation, a non-profit set up to provide financial and other support to the state's economic development efforts. Wingo heads an advertising firm. Perry named Rick Rhodes of Austin (and a former mayor of Sweetwater) to the Texas Small Business Development Corporation. Mark Bivins of Amarillo is Perry's choice for a spot on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. He's a rancher, and the brother of former state Sen. Teel Bivins, R-Amarillo, who is currently serving as the U.S. ambassador to Sweden. The Guv named Vicki Lynn Menard of Crawford to preside over the new 414th judicial district court in McLennan County. She's an attorney in private practice right now. And Perry named 11 people to a task force that will rework the state's evacuation procedures, so the next Houston evacuation, if there is one, doesn't jam the freeways badly enough to make the nightly news in Japan. The members: Jack Little of Houston, former CEO at Shell Oil Co., chairman; Gordon Bethune, Houston, former CEO of Continental Airlines; Theron Bowman, chief of police in Arlington; former Kemah Mayor Bill King; Bill Klesse, San Antonio, COO of Valero Energy; Carol Lewis, Houston, a professor at Texas Southern University; Erle Nye, Dallas, former CEO of TXU Corp.; Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson; David Saperstein, Houston, CEO of Five S Capital; Karen Sexton, Galveston, CEO for Hospitals and Clinics at UT Medical Branch; and Mike Trevino, Houston, an exec with Marathon Oil.