Rep. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, hasn't decided what office he'll seek next year. He'll seek reelection or challenge Sen. Frank Madla, D-San Antonio, for his Senate seat. We took that an inch too far last week, taking Uresti out of the House to chase Madla. He says in a written statement that he'll decide sometime within the next 30 days. He's thinking about trying to knock Madla off, but isn't prepared to tell potential House candidates that the field for his HD-118 seat is clear. 

Jason Earle -- son of Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle -- will run for the Texas House in HD-47 next year. The younger Earle, a Democrat, is after the seat now held by Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin. Keel is running for a spot on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and several Republicans have announced their campaigns to win his spot in the Legislature. That group includes Alex Castano, Rich Phillips, Richard Reynolds, and Bill Welch. Earle, who's planning an announcement this week, would be the first Democrat to throw his hat in the ring. He's making a standard dynasty bet, that the familiarity of the family name will help more than any animosity toward his father might hurt. He runs a risk -- in a season that has his father in a legal battle with U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and others -- that Republicans will turn the House race into a referendum on his father. That's a year away, though: The real fight this spring appears to be in the Republican primaries. The winner of that can worry about the Democrat next November. It hasn't hurt Elisabeth Earle's political chances. The daughter of the DA is a County court-at-law judge in Austin. And it puts Keel in an interesting position. He's a Republican seeking higher office. He's also the former first assistant district attorney to Earle and has stayed out of recurrent battles between the prosecutor and the GOP, which began in earnest with Earle's unsuccessful prosecution of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in 1993. But Keel has an out: Once he officially got into the court race, he was bound by election restrictions on judges. He couldn't endorse a candidate even if he wanted to. He won't lose any sleep over it. "It's a good year to have that happen," he says. Earle isn't the only Democrat looking to replace Keel. Valinda Bolton, seeking office for the first time, says she'll be in the primary, too. 

Nate Crain's last day as chairman of the Dallas County Republican Party will come on November 15. He's resigning that post and says at least two moves are on his mind... He's considering a run for chair of the Texas GOP, and he's also mulling a "federal opportunity" he won't detail. That could be anything from an appointment to a run for election to you fill in the blank yourself; he's not saying. The state post is currently in the possession of Houston lawyer Tina Benkiser, criticized by Crain and some others for not weighing in when Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison were jockeying for position in the 2006 gubernatorial elections. Crain did speak out, urging the senator from Dallas to run for reelection and not against the incumbent governor. That's the choice she eventually made, but Benkiser, who won election to the party post with significant help from the Perry camp, never said a word. She's not as quiet about reelection. Benkiser says she is "definitely" running for another term in the chair at the GOP's state convention in June and says she's confident about her chances: "I enjoy widespread support among our grassroots supporters." She says the party has improved its results in district and local elections during her tenure and says that, other than Crain, she's not aware of anyone who's planning a challenge for next year. Crain says Benkiser's decision won't influence his own. He'll jump one way or the other in a couple of months, he says. Meanwhile, former state Rep. Kenn George, R-Dallas, is the only candidate in the queue for Crain's job. The local party's executive committee will pick an interim chair in November, and the race for a full term is next year. George already filed for the March election, and he's apparently the only candidate under consideration for the interim job. 

Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, doesn't plan to leave the Senate, isn't talking to anybody about a high-falutin' job at the Texas Tech University System, and doesn't really know how any of this talk got started. He first heard about it -- from Austin, not Lubbock -- a week ago. He says Chancellor David Smith -- whose post he supposedly had his eye on -- "is doing a good job as far as I'm concerned." Put a cork in it. 

Gov. Rick Perry named Corpus Christi lawyer Colleen McHugh to the University of Texas Board of Regents. She's been on the boards of the Texas Department of Public Safety and on Perry's task force on homeland security. Tara Wall, a former TV newscaster (in Michigan) and more recently in communications for the Republican National Committee, is the new executive director of Harris County's Republican Party. House Speaker Tom Craddick appointed Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, to the Binational Alcohol and Substance Abuse Task Force. Craddick named new members to the Sunset Advisory Commission, including Reps. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, who'll be vice chair, Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, and Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio. Truitt was on the commission before; the other three replace Reps. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, who was chairman, Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, and Peggy Hamric, R-Houston. Police blotter: U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, was busted for drunk driving in South Dakota, where he was attending a class reunion... State Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, told local officials he simply forgot about the handgun in his briefcase; a judge let him go after he was busted at airport security.