Tom DeLay has two fights on his hands. One is legal, and that's what all of the paper flying around the courthouse is about. The other is political, and that's why the lawyers and his supporters and detractors are spending so much of their time in the media, doing interviews and spinning, spinning, spinning.

The legal fight, though it'll play out loudly, boils down to a simple question: Did DeLay and others illegally use corporate money in Texas legislative elections in 2002? They're accused of raising $190,000 above and beyond administrative expenses and then contributing that to an arm of the Republican National Committee. Along with that check, they're alleged to have sent a list of seven candidates along with the amounts each should get. Those seven checks totaled $190,000. The Texans, according to prosecutors, were trading unusable corporate money for usable non-corporate money. That's the basis of the money laundering charges against DeLay, John Colyandro, and Jim Ellis. The conspiracy charge says, essentially, that they did that together and intentionally and knowing they were breaking the law.

On a normal semi-fast track, the case could go to court next spring. DeLay and his legal team want to go faster, though, and for political reasons. He temporarily gave up his gig as House Majority Leader when he was indicted. The Republicans of the House decided some months ago that they didn't want to leave indicted leaders in office. DeLay has until early next year to get rid of the indictment or face the prospect that his fellow Republicans will elect a slate of permanent leaders that doesn't include him. A long or even a normal wait for a trial date could knock him out of power for some time.

It's a flip of what happened to Texas Democrats in redistricting. The 2002 elections put Republicans in solid control of the Legislature for the first time in a century. They promptly redrew congressional districts — maybe "promptly" is a stretch, but they redid the maps — and Texas voters then elected a congressional delegation that includes 21 Republicans and 11 Democrats. Even if it's decided later that something was amiss in the first step of that program, the political composition of the state is changed. The Republicans won. Similarly, a slow trial that would take DeLay out of the leadership in the U.S. House might lead to his exoneration, but he's still be forced out of the fancy office he was in a month ago. That's why the political fight makes a difference to him and his supporters and lawyers. Winning too slowly is the same thing as losing.

What's a Reformer to Do?

Say, for the sake of argument, that the prosecutors and grand juries in Travis County are finished with the 2002 elections. It began almost three years ago as an investigation of whether the Republicans played fair and square on their way to their first legislative majority since Reconstruction. It ended — if it's over — with indictments of a congressman, three political operatives, a trade group, a political action committee, and eight out-of-state corporations.

If you draw a line separating national and state politics, none of the fish in the net came from the state side of that line. Tom DeLay is a Texan but isn't really in state politics. Only one of the political consultants — all of them DeLay associates — even lives in Texas. The Texas Association of Business was indicted but none of its officers, directors or employees faces charges. Those four individuals who were indicted were all connected to the Texans for a Republican Majority PAC and while TRMPAC was indicted, it's also inactive. And more than half of the corporations that were charged with illegally contributing have signed deals specifying just what they did and didn't do, admitting no wrong, agreeing to go forth and sin no more, and contributed to various ethics-boosting efforts favored by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle.

It's not a path to reform. Republican ops, and even the Democrats, will tell you that almost nobody does what TAB, TRMPAC and company are alleged to have done. Nothing so far tells the political hacks to change their ways, so that kind of reform is out. And there's not really anything to change in the law, unless it's shown to have some gaping loophole. There's no obvious reform hook for an ambitious pol here, unless the prosecutors get stomped in the courtroom. If that happens, somebody could always come in and try to make the edges of the field clearer, so everyone would know what's in bounds and what's out of bounds. It's not exactly a feast for reformers of political practice or campaign law.

Reboot

Since our last issue, the charges against U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay have been dropped, and he's been reindicted. A Travis County grand jury, on its first day of work, indicted DeLay, R-Sugar Land, on a new felony count of money laundering and another of conspiracy. 

That's not in addition to the charge leveled last week, but in replacement of it. The law cited in last week's indictment took effect a year after the 2002 elections — a year after the alleged conspiracy DeLay was accused of assisting. DeLay's lawyers noticed and filed papers demanding that the charge be dropped. It has been dropped, but DeLay was reindicted on a money-laundering charge and a different conspiracy charge stemming from the same events. Here's a point you'll hear more about as this goes on: The grand jury that first indicted him disbanded. The next day, prosecutors went to a second grand jury that was in session on other matters and asked them, apparently, to bring a money laundering charge. They declined. Over the weekend, prosecutors say, they got some new evidence (defense lawyers vigorously dispute that), which they took to a third grand jury on Monday. That last panel brought the current charges against DeLay and two associates, John Colyandro of Austin and Jim Ellis of Washington, D.C.

Prosecutors have zeroed in on a series of transactions where the Texans for a Republican Majority PAC gave $190,000 to the national Republican Party and the GOP gave campaign contributions to seven Texas House candidates. They contend the money from TRMPAC was comprised of corporate funds and that the GOP sent back money from individual contributions, effectively converting corporate money — which can't be used legally in Texas campaigns — into money that was legal.

DeLay, according to the indictment, had waived his protection under the statute of limitations (though there is some question as to whether he withdrew that waiver before the new indictments were issued). The statute limits indictments to three years (in this case) after the alleged events took place. The check to the Republican National State Elections Committee was dated September 13, 2002; DeLay's latest indictment is dated October 3, 2005 — three years and two weeks later. The checks from the RNSEC to the seven candidates were dated October 4, 2002 — making the new indictment one day short of the third anniversary.

According to prosecutors, money laundering is a first-degree felony punishable by up to $10,000 in fines and up to life in prison. The conspiracy charges apparently carry penalties of up to $20,000 and up to two years in prison. A copy of the new indictment and other documents relating to the case can be found in the Files section on our website.

First Blush

State leaders have been pushing a "65 percent rule" in public education that would require Texas school district spend at least that percentage of their money on instruction. The definition is up in the air — should transportation be allowed? Food? Coaches? A panel assembled by Texas Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley will work out the definition. But state law already requires school districts in Texas to report an "instructional expenditure ratio" that's supposed to show, according to the Texas Education Agency's website, "the percentage of the district's total actual expenditures... used to fund direct instructional activities."

In the 2002-03 school year (the latest for which TEA has cranked the numbers), the overall ratio for the state's school districts is close to the mark, at 64.8 percent. Keep the caveat in mind — the definition could change as Neeley's panel works, and if it does, the numbers will surely change. But under the measurement currently used, here's how the state's districts stack up:

• Only three of the 25 biggest districts — Austin, Brownsville, and Conroe — are below the 65 percent mark. In the Austin ISD, 62.8 percent of the money went to "instructional expenditures." Brownsville almost made the mark, at 64.9 percent, and Conroe fell in at 63.3 percent. Only ten of the top fifty districts (measured by enrollment) were below 65 percent, and none of those was below 62 percent. By contrast, only seven of the state's smallest 50 districts made the mark.

• Of the state's 1,037 school districts, 250 were at or above the 65 percent mark as it's currently defined. That's fewer than half the districts, but they educate well over half the state's public school students. Those 250 districts enrolled 2,535,678 students out of 4,250,754 enrolled in 2002-03. That's 59.6 percent of the public school students.

• On average, a 65 percent rule will be harder on smaller districts. Districts with ratios over 70 percent had, on average, 11,425 students. Those between 65 and 70 percent had an average of 9,777 students. Those between 60 and 65 percent averaged 2,829 students. Between 55 and 60 percent, 922 students. Below 55 percent, 257 students. The average Texas district has 4,099 students (or did, in the 2002-03 school year), and a little more than half of the state's districts have fewer than 1,000 students. Setting a 65 percent mark and punishing districts that don't make it could, eventually, force consolidation of small districts into larger ones. Policy makers have tried to do that before, but local communities hold their school districts dear and consolidation didn't make for good politics.

We charted the numbers using stats from the TEA's Academic Excellence Indicator System and stuck a copy in our Files section. School districts are sorted by county and then by name.

Enough Already

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.

Comeback Kids

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.

Political Notes

Rep. Scott Campbell, R-San Angelo, has two challengers on the radar, both of them Republicans. Kevin Housely, a trustee with the Christoval ISD, works in family owned telecommunications engineering company and owns a cattle operation. Just out of college, he did political/government stints with former U.S. Rep. Tom Loeffler, former Gov. William Clements, and with former U.S. Rep. Dick Armey, R-Flower Mound. And Drew Darby, a San Angelo lawyer who lost to Campbell in the HD-72 race four years ago, will try again. He's a former city council member and you can read up on him on the Internet, at www.drewdarby.com.

Darby finished second in a four-candidate primary in 2002. Campbell survived late-breaking election news in 2004; a few weeks before the general election, news reports of a drunk driving arrest and of his allegedly seeking an illegitimate massage in a legitimate massage parlor got out. He still won easily, pulling 57 percent of the vote against Democrat Jeri Stone, but hasn't been tested in a GOP primary.

• No surprise here: Gov. Rick Perry won the endorsement of the Texas Civil Justice League's political action committee. That's a tort reform group.

• The Wall Street Journal cites a Zogby Interactive poll that has Rick Perry leading Democrat Chris Bell in a head-to-head race by 12.9 percentage points. They've got Perry at 40.1 and Bell at 27.2, closer than in their polling a month before. Kinky Friedman got 18 percent in their survey. But they polled after Hurricane Katrina and prior to Hurricane Rita. Perry's folks contend his performance during those storms will boost his standing with voters. Carole Keeton Strayhorn would beat Bell, too, but by a smaller margin; Zogby gives her 34.6 percent to the Democrat's 26 percent in a head-to-head contest. Their margin of error was +/- 2.9 percent.

• Susan Combs got all but one of the Senate's Republicans to endorse her bid for comptroller. Combs, the state's Ag commissioner, got everybody but Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte. He's the head of the GOP caucus in the Senate and stays out of the endorsement bidness. Everybody else on the GOP side is with Combs.

• Kinky Friedman's campaign aides say he and lawyer Dick DeGuerin are still pals, but say their relationship is best described as "occasional and casual." That's a bit different from their announcement a few weeks ago, when they said DeGuerin had signed on as an unpaid campaign adviser. But that was before the Houston lawyer, who spends much of his time at his place in Marfa, showed up as the lawyer for Tom DeLay. He'll continue to help Friedman with fundraisers and stuff.

Political People and Their Moves

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.

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.

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.

Quotes of the Week 

Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht, telling The Dallas Morning News that a judge's personal views don't necessarily indicate how they'll rule on something, citing Justice Antonin Scalia's opinion allowing flag-burning: "Can you imaging Justice Scalia burning a flag? It's not going to happen. But what does the Constitution say, can you do it or not? Yes, the Constitution says you can do it."

U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, talking to the Houston Chronicle about losing his position as majority leader because of the indictments: "I will virtually be in charge of the agenda and driving the agenda. I am still a member of Congress. I can still work on legislation."

Attorney Dick DeGuerin, after Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle got a new grand jury to reindict DeLay on its first day in session, in the Houston Chronicle: "It proves a district attorney can lead a grand jury around like a bull with a ring through its nose."

William Gibson, foreman of the first grand jury that indicted Tom DeLay, quoted by The Dallas Morning News: "As far as we're concerned, they presented us enough evidence and witnesses that we felt we were on the right track. I would not have put my name on that grand jury indictment unless I felt we had ample probable cause."

Earle, defending his decision to let a documentary crew follow the campaign finance case, in The Dallas Morning News: "My office follows all the same proper rules about rightfully protected information for all the media no matter who they are. I told them the truth, and they thought it was a movie. Go figure. I'm just doing my job."

Theresa Farley of Danbury, who got stuck in evacuation traffic, telling the Brazosport Facts about other drivers: "They were rude, they were running us off the road. They had Houston damn bumper stickers." 

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Texas Weekly: Volume 22, Issue 17, 10 October 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.

Political advisors to Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, pulled the plug on an unusual fundraiser for "Speaker Tom Craddick's Political Action Committee" after inquiries about the event. Pitts, the House Appropriations Committee chairman, was traveling outside the U.S. and unavailable for comment. But before he left, he sent a letter to House colleagues from the Dallas delegation asking them to help with a funder on December 1: "I believe, together, we can plan an event that will honor Tom Craddick for his outstanding work during the 79th Legislative Session." It was to be held at Pitts' second home, in Dallas, and the letter asked each recipient to "commit to raising $10,000 for Speaker Craddick and to bringing a minimum of 25 people to show their support for our first Republican Speaker in over 100 years." He said he would provide the location -- his $2.5 million home in the Park Cities area -- and would underwrite the event. Members who signed up would have been listed as hosts, and he asked them to line up their lists of invitees by October 24. The letter, sent last week, caused some murmuring among legislators and lobbyists who knew about it. Many House members are working on raising money for their own political accounts right now, and $10,000 -- all in a day's work for a statewide officeholder dragging the sack -- is a lot of money to most state representatives. The Stars Over Texas PAC, set up by House leaders to defend incumbent Republicans in elections, wasn't mentioned in Pitts' letter. The Stars Over Texas PAC had $162,231 on hand at mid-year. Craddick's own account is in good shape -- he reported $2.7 million in cash on hand as of June 30, outpacing all but a handful of elected officials -- and so far, he doesn't have an opponent for his reelection bid next year. The letter didn't make it clear what the money would be for -- Craddick's speaker account, his own campaign accounts, or some larger effort to help with campaigns of other legislators. Craig Murphy, a consultant to Pitts who returned our call to the representative, said they decided to halt preparations because of that ambiguity. He said the intent was to raise money for Craddick's own campaign account. A spokeswoman for Craddick, Alexis DeLee, said his political folks weren't aware of the event and weren't involved in the preparations: "We don't know anything about it." According to Murphy, this is a postponement and not a cancellation. He said they'll clear up the confusion and try to put another fundraiser for Craddick together soon -- this time with clearer descriptions of where the money is going. 

The proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage isn't the only thing on the ballot next month. That's proposition 2, and it'll continue to get the headlines, and it'll be the draw, and it'll provide, for political hacks and other watchers, a peek at the most fervent voters on either side. The voter lists generated by this election -- for both sides -- will be the kernels of the get-out-the-vote efforts in March for candidates who rely on those "base" voters. They'll take the lists of who voted, compare those with lists of "their" voters, and know who's most active in each precinct of the state. That's handy information for statewide and local candidates alike. But it's not all prep work for the March primaries. Along with Prop 2, there are eight other deals on the ballot, and we're listing them below for people afraid of learning of this stuff for the first time when they're in the actual voting booth. Full expositions and arguments are available from the studiously non-partisan House Research Organization's website. The actual language you'll see if and when you vote: Proposition 1: "The constitutional amendment creating the Texas rail relocation and improvement fund and authorizing grants of money and issuance of obligations for financing the relocation, rehabilitation, and expansion of rail facilities." Proposition 2: "The constitutional amendment providing that marriage in this state consists only of the union of one man and one woman and prohibiting this state or a political subdivision of this state from creating or recognizing any legal status identical or similar to marriage." Proposition 3: "The constitutional amendment clarifying that certain economic development programs do not constitute a debt." Proposition 4: "The constitutional amendment authorizing the denial of bail to a criminal defendant who violates a condition of the defendant's release pending trial." Proposition 5: "The constitutional amendment allowing the legislature to define rates of interest for commercial loans." Proposition 6: "The constitutional amendment to include one additional public member and a constitutional county court judge in the membership of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct." Proposition 7: "The constitutional amendment authorizing line-of-credit advances under a reverse mortgage." Proposition 8: "The constitutional amendment providing for the clearing of land titles by relinquishing and releasing any state claim to sovereign ownership or title to interest in certain land in Upshur County and in Smith County." Proposition 9: "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for a six-year term for a board member of a regional mobility authority." Voters have approved 432 amendments to the constitution so far. And the elections for these things aren't exactly barnburners: Turnout for the last constitutional amendment election, in September 2003, was 1.47 million. That's within range of the number that turns out for primaries, which is why it's so useful to those consultants we mentioned up top. In 2004, less than half a year after that 2003 election, 687,615 Republicans and 839,231 Democrats -- a total of 1.52 million voters -- turned up at the party primaries. That's a difference of only 56,403 voters, and they tend, in both cases, to be the sort of people who vote no matter what. The vote totals aren't always that close, but hot-button issues like gay marriage draw more voters than the usual fodder of constitutional elections, and can pull the numbers up to primary election levels, as they did two years back. Early voting starts on Monday, October 24 (two days earlier in some counties) and ends Friday, November 4. The actual election is on Tuesday, November 8. 

One of the changes in Texas ethics laws recommended by gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell -- a ban on contributions during the governor's post-session veto period -- actually became law during the 2003 session. That buried the other changes he wants, including dollar limits on campaign contributions. His campaign blamed the fumble on telephone advice from a lawyer at the Texas Ethics Commission, but the current law -- with the ban in it -- is described on that agency's website, in a section designed to help political people stay out of trouble. They provide a translation for non-lawyers, and a legal citation for the shysters who want actual language. "Members of the legislature and most statewide officers may not accept political contributions during a period that begins 30 days before a regular legislative session convenes and ends 20 days after final adjournment. Elec. Code 253.034." Bell is trying to capitalize on his stand against U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land; as a congressman, Bell filed an ethics complaint against the Republican that led to DeLay's admonishment by the House's priests of ethics. He says ethics and corruption won't be the basis for his run for governor, but Bell listed several safeguards he wants added to state law. He wants to limit the size of campaign contributions to $5,000 for individuals and $10,000 for political action committees. Those are the limits in city races in Houston, where Bell was a city council member. He cited a Campaigns for People study that said 76 percent of all contributions in the 2002 elections came in chunks of $5,000 or more. Bell also wants a $100,000 limit on aggregate contributions by one person during an election cycle. Bell wants to prohibit government employees from joining the lobby upon quitting; an independent redistricting commission to make elections more competitive; a ban on 'undisclosed issue ads' in the two months before an election; a law that blocks campaign contributors from doing business with officeholders they backed financially; a ban on "procurement lobbying" that forces potential contracts to deal with procurement people and prohibits trying to get officeholders to lend influence; and restructuring the Texas Ethics Commission to make it an active regulator of campaign finance in state elections with the power to do audits and a new enforcement division. 

Lawyers for U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay and supporters of the temporarily deposed House majority leader are capitalizing on the legal hopscotch prosecutors played on their way to his indictments. The lawyers want to put Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle in the dock to explain how and why he went through three grand juries on the way to indicting the congressman on money laundering and conspiracy charges. And a media blitz manned by DeLay supporters and channeled through ads, talk show appearances, and interviews with news reporters is lowering the fire under DeLay and raising the flames under Earle. If you're watching the war on two fronts, the legal battle hasn't changed much; for that, wait for the first court appearances about a week from now (and don't be surprised if and when DeLay's team asks for a change of venue). DeLay and his bunch have the upper hand in the political battle at the moment, demanding that Earle explain getting an indictment out of one grand jury, failing to get a second indictment to replace it from a second grand jury, polling the members of the first grand jury on the phone after their panel was disbanded and then, finally, getting fresh indictments out of third grand jury that had been in business for less than a day. At the least, the prosecutors gave DeLay's team plenty of material to work with. They filed papers asking for access to secret grand jury testimony, information, recordings and such. They accused the prosecutors of encouraging grand jurors to do media interviews damaging to DeLay. They contend they need the grand jury stuff -- and access to the grand jurors themselves -- to develop a case of prosecutorial misconduct. And if they can put that together, it'll form the basis of a motion to throw out the indictments against their guy. All of that is in a stack of stuff you can download from our website, here: www.texasweekly.com/documents/DeLayMotionToDismiss.pdf Included in that stack is a letter from Dick DeGuerin, DeLay's lead attorney, asking Earle to submit to an "immediate deposition" to talk about the five days that included the first indictment and the last one and outlining some of the questions. Earle didn't offer much of a reply, either in court filings or to the press. He issued a statement: "Because of laws protecting grand jury secrecy, there are limitations to what we can say at this time, but we fully expect to prevail in this matter." Meanwhile, a group called The Free Enterprise Fund is running spots urging viewers to call the DA -- his number is listed in the ad -- to call Earle to tell him he's out of line prosecuting DeLay. The spots start with a barking Rottweiler, and an announcer saying, "A prosecutor with a political agenda can be vicious. When liberal Democrat Ronnie Earle went after Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison, the judge threw out his case. But now, Earle's after another Republican, Tom DeLay. When one grand jury rejected Earle's case, he kept it quiet and ran to a second grand jury. He's helping make a movie hyping the case. Earle's even exploited the DeLay case to raise money for liberal politicians." (The dog starts whimpering.) "That's wrong. Bad, Ronnie, bad. Tell Earle he's wrong -- it's not a crime to be a conservative." The screen flashes Earle's office number, with a fuzzy picture of him and the Fund's logo. You can watch it at www.freeenterprisefund.org/. Weird details: DeLay's defense team includes, of counsel, Richard Keeton, a Houston attorney and the brother of state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who is running for governor. DeLay's lead lawyer, DeGuerin, is an unpaid advisor to the Kinky Friedman campaign. 

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. • Another story going around is that Sen. Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria, is planning to bow out of the Legislature. He was traveling and unavailable to shoot the bull when we called, but here's a sign: He's scheduled a fundraiser for November 30 in Victoria, and he apparently told at least one Republican wannabe that it won't be an open seat in 2006. • State Sen. Todd Staples, who's giving up that job to run for Texas agriculture commissioner, is backing Robert Nichols of Jacksonville in the four-way race for the Senate seat. He introduced the former highway commissioner at Nichol's official announcement in Palestine. Three other Republicans are in the hunt, including Frank Denton of Conroe, David Kleimann of Willis, and Bob Reeves of Center. • Radio talk show host Dan Patrick is running for Senate, something he's talked about before but never actually done, but he hasn't given up his radio show at this point. He's joined the pack in SD-7, where Jon Lindsay, R-Houston, has decided not to seek reelection. Patrick will face Houston City Councilman Mark Ellis, and state Reps. Peggy Hamric and Joe Nixon. They're all Republicans, and they've already lived through their first debate. The hot topic in this north Houston suburban district? Schools? Taxes? Transportation? Nope: Immigration and border security. • Mary Beth Harrell is running for Congress against U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Georgetown. She's billing herself as the wife of a retired military officer and the mother of two active-duty soldiers, and as a tough-on-crime lawyer. She was a "city prosecutor" in Nolanville and was an "interim prosecutor" in Temple. She and her husband operate St. Francis Animal Sanctuary, a non-profit animal rescue outfit, and just opened another one called Assisi Animal Refuge. There's a website: www.marybethharrellforcongress.com. She didn't say so in an email about her announcement, but Harrell is running as a Democrat. That means she's got work to do: Carter got two-thirds of the vote against a Democrat last November, and statewide Democrats averaged 59.1 percent in CD-31 during that cycle. • Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell, will seek reelection, but she'll have a challenger from her own party. Wade Gent, a 31-year-old attorney whose father, Wayne Gent, is the Kaufman County Judge (we're guessing Kaufman County is one of the few governments in the state that includes a link to The Drudge Report on its homepage, at www.kaufmancounty.net) says the Legislature isn't getting things done and needs new blood. Brown announced, after some local speculation about her plans, that she will in fact seek reelection to a fifth term. And in her announcement, she said she was encouraged to do that by Gov. Rick Perry and by House Speaker Tom Craddick. Gent (the candidate, not the judge) says he's running, in part, because of Brown's vote against a school tax change that would have lowered property taxes by raising the size of homestead exemptions. That would have benefited a lot of people in the district, he says, though it was unpopular with Republican leaders in the House. • Jody Anderson, who finished second in the Republican primary for HD-12 last year, is running again. Anderson, who was until June the executive director of the Manufactured Housing Association's Texas operation, is hoping to make it to November, where he'd challenge Rep. Jim McReynolds, D-Lufkin. Anderson lost a relatively close race against former Rep. Billy Clemons in 2004; Clemons then lost a 51-49 squeaker to McReynolds. • Remember Juan Garcia III? He's a naval aviator and Gulf War vet who talked about running for U.S. Senate back when there was some question about whether U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison wanted a return ticket to Washington, D.C. Now that she's running for reelection, Garcia has his name in the hat for another government gig: He's an applicant for the top job at the Texas Lottery Commission. • Tom DeLay is to Texas Democrats what Hillary Clinton is to the Republicans. He's the guy they use to get their troops lathered up. Andy Brown, one of several Democrats vying to challenge state Rep. Todd Baxter, R-Austin, has flyers out with the tagline: "Progressive Democrat challenges the Tom DeLay machine." Baxter was one of seven candidates who got checks from the Republican National Committee in 2002 that allegedly were "laundered" from corporate money given to the RNC by Texans for a Republican Majority. He survived that slap two years ago, but with DeLay and others in the news, it's back. 

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.