They have no money and don't have a niche in mind, but the founders of the Texas Republican Legislative Campaign Committee have filed papers for that new 527 committee in Washington. Bill Crocker, an Austin lawyer who is also one of the state's two Republican National Committee members, says the outfit hasn't raised any money yet. The papers creating it -- IRS forms filed with the feds -- are less than a week old. They list Crocker as president, consultant Jeff Norwood of Austin as vice president, and David Porter of Giddings as secretary/treasurer. The official purpose listed on the form of that tax-exempt outfit is "to accept political contributions and make political expenditures." Crocker says the committee isn't intended to replace any others out there that back Republicans running for the Legislature, and he says they don't have a particular contest in their sites. It's a federal filing, but the group will work solely in Texas and its reports, Crocker says, will be filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. 

Somebody around here should point out the remarkable similarities between Tom DeLay's defense, so far, and Kay Bailey Hutchison's defense against the same prosecutors in 1993 and 1994. Hutchison won acquittal after a searing public investigation and indictments, dropped indictments and re-indictments that threatened her political career. When the judge in that case, John Onion Jr., refused to pre-approve evidence seized by prosecutors from Hutchison's state treasury offices, prosecutors refused to present their case. With nothing from the prosecution to consider, the court acquitted Hutchison. And here's the political moral: She's been invincible in state politics since then. So it's no surprise that when faced with his own Travis County troubles, DeLay hired the same lawyer, Dick DeGuerin of Houston. And DeGuerin is using the same formula that ultimately ended with Hutchison's acquittal on charges of using her state office and staff for political work. There's been little in the way of a legal fight so far. While there have been legal papers flying back and forth, the courtroom wars are mostly still in front of us. But the publicity wars are well under way, and once indictments have been filed, the spotlights and attention move from prosecutors to defenders. And as he did a little over ten years ago, DeGuerin took over the storytelling. He started with a tale the prosecutors have woven -- in this case, that DeLay & Co. helped win the 2002 Texas legislative elections with a vigorous injection of corporate money, some of which they ran through the Republican National Committee to launder it for use in state elections where corporate funds are illegal. And then he went to work building his own story -- and with it, his legal case -- with a series of steps still being played out: • Attack the charges as an attempt to criminalize normal and even desirable political activity. In Hutchison's case, the defense lawyers said it's normal and traditional and honorable to communicate regularly with constituents and that some large number of the people interested in what an officeholder is doing are people who support those officeholders politically. Hutchison, they argued, was just doing her job. DeLay, they're arguing now, changed the face of Texas politics by helping elect a GOP majority in the statehouse, which then helped change the political maps to create a Republican majority in the state's congressional delegation. He's merely been an effective partisan, and that's his job. And besides, they argue he wasn't involved in the sort of day-to-day details and decisions alleged in the indictments. • Attack the prosecutor, saying the investigation is a partisan affair and that the grand jury system has been abused. Last decade, the volley at Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle was that Hutchison had won a seat in the U.S. Senate that he himself wanted and that the prosecution was retribution and also an attempt to win favor with other Democrats like Gov. Ann Richards. Earle, they argued, sought a greater award. And they said the grand jury system used in Travis County promoted cronyism, with Democratic judges picking supporters to serve, who recommended friends in a cycle that produced a politically tainted system. This time, the shots at Earle are similar; the shots at the system are that Earle abused it by shopping his charges to several grand juries before finding one that would report the current charges against DeLay. • Talk to the "jury" through the papers and television and other media so that when the real jury is chosen, the pool will consist of people who know all about the case -- whether they've got it right or wrong -- and people who avoid civics and legal and political stuff as if it were a big bowl of Brussels Sprouts. This one is what defense lawyers do in all high-profile cases. People are seeing the story on the news, so you try to spin the story your own way. It's just like running a political campaign, except that losers sometimes have to go to jail. • Ask for a change of venue, on the basis of political bias of people in Travis County and because they've all read and heard so much about the inquiries into campaign finance that they can't possibly be objective. Hutchison's trial was moved from Austin to Fort Worth. DeGuerin asked for a change of venue in the DeLay trial this week. 

The House's assignments are out. Get a copy at this link: www.texasweekly.com/documents/HouseInterimCharges.pdf. 

What if the corporate franchise tax was replaced with an "insurance premium" -- so that anybody paying the state's business levy kept their liability protection and those who didn't pay lost it? Former Comptroller John Sharp, who's heading Gov. Rick Perry's task force on taxes, is tossing that idea around with business groups. He says it's not the work of the task force -- the members of which haven't been named yet -- but just one of many ideas bumping around. The idea starts with the seed of "corporate privilege"; one of the arguments for the corporate franchise tax (and the reason for its peculiar name) is that the state grants companies the right to operate here in return for the tax those companies pay. Sharp is taking that a couple of ticks forward. Corporations and some other business organizations have limited liability -- you can't go after the owners for more than their company is worth. Those sorts of businesses currently pay state taxes. But other businesses, organized as sole proprietorships or partnerships or whatever -- don't pay the tax. Because of the way they're formed, forcing them to pay a business tax would be, in effect, forcing them to pay an unconstitutional state personal income tax. Sharp's suggestion: Give businesses that pay the tax the limited liability protection enjoyed by corporations, and deny it to those that don't. He pitched the idea to the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association, backpedaling as he laid it out to say it's just an idea and hasn't risen to the level of a "plan" or a "proposal." It would have the advantage, at first blush, of raising state money from businesses that don't pay taxes now, maybe without tripping over the dreaded personal income tax. And you'll remember that when Perry and Sharp announced the formation of the task force, both said personal income taxes will not be among the options under consideration. The panel hasn't been put together yet. Sharp says it'll likely have around a dozen members and that they'll be "names you know." And he and others are working to staff the task force, which will have the dual role of going around the state to put a plan together and then helping to sell that plan -- or at least explain it -- when the Legislature is ready for a look. That could come in the 2007 regular session, or earlier, if the courts order a solution to the state's school finance system earlier than that. 

Most of the big money in the all-Democratic HD-143 race is from conservatives. The special election to replace Democratic state Rep. Joe Moreno in HD-143 coincides with next month's constitutional amendment election. That Houston ballot will have six names on it, with the distinct possibility of a runoff to follow. All six are Democrats: Al Flores Jr., a lawyer; Charles George, a corrections officer; Ana Hernandez, a lawyer; Rick Molina, a lawyer; Dorothy Olmos, an educator and business owner; and Laura Salinas, an assistant leasing administrator. Apropos of nothing in particular, they were all born between 1947 and 1978. All filed from Houston addresses, with the exception of Molina, who's from Pasadena. At the 30-day mark, Salinas had $48.12 in the bank. She collected $24,987 in contributions, including $15,000 from the Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC, and $1,000 from Mike Toomey, a lobbyist, former Republican House member and former chief of staff to Govs. Rick Perry and Bill Clements. She spent $31,877. Hernandez, with a month to go, had $23,513 in the bank after bringing in $54,183 and spending $48,346 in July, August, and September. Her donors include Houston builder and Republican stalwart Bob Perry, $10,000; Dallas City Limits LLC Operating Account, $5,000; Texas State Teachers Association PAC, $3,000; and the Mostyn Law Firm, $2,500. Several unions and law firms were in there for $1,000 or less. Dallas City Limits LLC is a development venture of Billy Bob Barnett and Bill Bueck. Flores raised $24,956, spent $15,069, and had $3,890 in the bank at the end of the reporting period. He raised $3,275 from Esteban Adame, founder of a bus company; $3,000 from Aguilar Geneil; and $2,300 from Larry Flores, among others. Molina spent $4,292, raised $1,083 and closed the period with no money on hand (and no loans). George's report wasn't available on the Texas Ethics Commission's website. Olmos reported raising no money, spending no money and having no money on hand with 30 days left. 

State district Judge Bob Perkins will ask another judge to decide whether Perkins' support of Democratic candidates and causes should disqualify him from presiding over U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's trial on conspiracy and money-laundering charges. DeLay's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, wants a new judge and a new locale for that trial. DeGuerin says he wants Perkins off the case because of the judge's contributions to Democrats, particularly to organizations like MoveOn.org, which he says is directly opposing DeLay, and to the Democratic National Committee, since transactions between Texans for a Republican Majority PAC and the Republican National Committee are at the heart of the money laundering charge against DeLay. "This is not about Democrat or Republican judges," DeGuerin said after the hearing. "The judge has every right to be a Democrat or a Republican -- that's not what it's about. It's about Judge Perkins having actively supported people who were in opposition to Congressman DeLay. Since this case has been in court, he's made six monetary contributions to either the Democratic Party in Texas or the Democratic National Committee. in addition, he made contributions to one of the candidates who TRMPAC supported. It just doesn't look right." Perkins told the attorneys he'd be asking another judge to decide whether the case ought to be moved out of Perkin's court. DeGuerin has also asked that the trial be moved out of Austin, where he contends a three-year barrage of stories about the 2002 election investigation has poisoned chances for a fair trial. Asked where he'd like to go, he pointed to one of the state's most reliably Republican terrains: "It would be nice to be in Fort Worth." 

A quick check of state and federal election data puts Houston attorney Dick DeGuerin mostly -- but not completely -- on the Democratic side of the ledger. And the list includes a contribution to a Democrat who was trying to knock off Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land -- now DeGuerin's client -- in the 2002 elections. DeGuerin gave $1,000 to Frank Briscoe Jr., a Democrat who challenged Tom DeLay in 2002. Briscoe didn't make it out of the Democratic primary, losing to Tim Riley, who managed only 35 percent of the vote against DeLay that year. There's a back-story; Briscoe's father, Frank Briscoe Sr., was the Harris County District Attorney who gave DeGuerin his first job out of law school. Another member of that family -- a cousin -- is former Gov. Dolph Briscoe, also a Democrat. In his effort to knock Judge Bob Perkins off the case, DeGuerin has cited the judge's support for Democratic organizations directly opposed to his client. The Perkins' contributions in question are more recent, but DeGuerin himself opposed DeLay, financially, in 2002. He's given $11,200 to state candidates and PACs since 2000, according to the Texas Ethics Commission, including $2,000 to Republican judicial candidates. He gave $450 to the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, which is generally associated with Democrats. The balance went to Democratic statewide candidates like Kirk Watson, John Sharp, Charlie Baird, and to a handful of Houston legislators and judicial candidates. He's spent more money on Republicans at the national level, starting with former client U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Since 2000, according to the Federal Election Commission, DeGuerin contributed $3,400 to Hutchison's Senate campaign account. He contributed $1,000 to then-Judge Ted Poe's successful campaign for Congress last year. Poe knocked off Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson of Beaumont, who has since moved to run against DeLay in next year's election (DeGuerin was a Lampson contributor back in 1996). The defense lawyer also gave to Democrats: He contributed $1,000 to former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk's unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate. He gave the $1,000 to Briscoe, a Democrat, in 2002. And he made a $1,000 contribution to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2002. 

Put Ben Bentzin officially into the HD-48 race. He'll run now that Rep. Todd Baxter, R-Austin, has announced his resignation. Baxter is leaving on November 1, though his term runs through 2006. Gov. Rick Perry will call a special election to fill the seat and has two options: Let those voters choose a new representative in May, which is the next uniform election date on the legal calendar; or call an emergency election that would fall 36 to 50 days after the governor's proclamation. Perry called a quick election the last time a Republican seat in the House was open -- when Elizabeth Ames Jones gave up her spot for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission. Rep. Joe Strauss, R-San Antonio, was in place in the House before the regular session was over. The last time a Democrat's chair was empty, the governor left the position empty until the next uniform election date. Rep. Joe Moreno, D-Houston, died near the end of the regular legislative session; his voters went unrepresented through two special sessions on school finance this summer and will get elect a replacement next month.