The committee that will poke and prod the state's tax system, searching for something more lucrative and less painless, has swollen to nearly two dozen Texans, and we've been able to snag most of the names (it's hard to keep a secret when that many people get involved). Gov. Rick Perry is hoping to finish the list and make it public within the next few days, and the panel could get in a couple of meetings before the holidays shut government down.  

Former Comptroller John Sharp, a Democrat who ran against Perry in 1998 and against Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in 2002, will chair the panel. He'll be joined by an assortment of business and policy people from around the state. No elected officials will be on the committee, but both Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick were able to name at least one ally. The list wasn't complete when we went to print, but we've checked these names with some reliable folks:

• Truman Arnold of Texarkana, a Democrat who's in oil and gas and used to own a chain of convenience stores;

• Bill Blaylock, tax director at Texas Instruments in Dallas;

• A. J. Brune III, the CFO of Wagner and Brown in Midland and Craddick's pick for the panel;

• Randy Cain, a tax consultant with Ernst & Young in San Antonio;

• Alonzo Cantu of McAllen, who's in construction, banking and other businesses;

• James Dannebaum of Dannebaum Engineering Corp. of Houston;

• Wendy Lee Gramm, an economist with the Mercatus Center in Washington, the wife of former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, and the rare person on this list with a Wikipedia entry;

• Hunter Hunt, an executive with Hunt Oil in Dallas;

• Woody Hunt, chairman and CEO of Hunt Building Corp. of El Paso;

• Kenneth Jastrow of Austin, Chairman and CEO of Temple-Inland Corp.;

• Jodie Jiles, chairman of the Houston Partnership and an executive with First Albany Capital;

• Judy Lindquist, vice president and general counsel for San Antonio-based H.E.B.;

• William McMinn of Houston, a businessman and Republican donor;

• Ernie Morales, co-owner of Morales Feedlots in Devine;

• Jan Newton, president of SBC-Texas;

• Dennis Patillo, who runs a Houston real estate company and is the incoming chairman of the Texas Association of Realtors;

• John Roach, chairman emeritus of Fort Worth-based Tandy Corp.;

• Robert Rowling of Dallas, owner of Omni Hotels, Gold's Gym International and other enterprises, and the 43rd person on Forbes Magazine's list of richest humans;

• Ron Steinhart of Dallas, a former exec with Bank One and several other banks;

• Dr. David Teuscher, a Beaumont doctor and a member of the State Republican Executive Committee; and

• Howard Wolfe, a Houston attorney and close friend of Dewhurst's.

A footnote: Dewhurst wasn't happy when Perry named Sharp to head the panel and still hasn't met with his former rival. You can get a measure of his ire if you know who he initially suggested for a spot on Perry's tax panel: Jim Francis of Dallas, an outspoken Republican critic of the governor who was urging U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to challenge Perry. Francis didn't make the cut, and Dewhurst and Sharp are apparently trying to put together their first meeting since the rancorous 2002 contest for Lite Guv. 

Judge Not 

Finding evidence of politics in the Texas judiciary is like finding chicken in Bo Pilgrim's refrigerator. They're chosen in partisan elections or appointed by partisan officeholders (the judges, not the chickens) and their fates rise and fall with those of the political parties.  

When somebody in Texas wants to be a judge, they either cozy up to an officeholder with the ability to appoint them, or they get involved in local judicial politics and start raising money and giving money and getting and giving favors, just like constables and sheriffs and governors. A tired line from redistricting — "you can't take the politics out of politics" — applies to judges, too, when they're elected or appointed by politicians.

None of this is a defense of state district Judge Bob Perkins of Austin, removed from a campaign finance trial after lawyers for U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay pointed out Perkins' contributions to various Democratic causes. But it makes for interesting cocktail conversation: Perkins ran as a Democrat, gave to Democrats, and was ousted because some of the groups he supports have spent at least some of their time vilifying DeLay, a national figure in the GOP. A final once-and-for-all replacement judge might have been chosen by the time you read this, but remember: Every state judge in Texas was either elected as a Democrat or a Republican or was put in office by someone elected as a Democrat or a Republican. It's difficult to find what lawyers refer to as a "bright line test" in all of this. What's the thing a judge has to do to upset the balance?

Perkins got bounced after a four-hour hearing that featured Republican consultants, a state representative, a couple of Democratic Party officials from Austin, a former chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court and a law firm researcher. The short version: He contributed to Democratic candidates, the party, and to MoveOn.org. DeLay's lawyers say that's completely legal and even respectable, but they said the pattern of giving would raise questions about Perkins' impartiality outside of the courtroom. State Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, said he's known Perkins for years and thinks the judge would give DeLay a fair trial. But he said, "The majority of my constituents will think this was unfair in light of his contributions."

Perkins recused himself from Kay Bailey Hutchison's trial more than ten years ago because he had given $300 to Democrat Bob Krueger, who ran against her. He hasn't given money to any DeLay opponents, but DeLay's lawyers said some of the groups that Perkins has supported have worked against DeLay and that, they contend, amounts to the same thing.

John Hill Jr., the former chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, was one of the witnesses for DeLay's team; Duncan shut him down when he began winding his way through what sounded like a ruling on the case from the witness box. Before that, Hill went over some of the earlier testimony — he and other witnesses sat through the hearing — and then talked about the law, and then said Perkins' conduct clearly called for a recusal under the law.

"He gave money to an organization that was involved in the subject matter of this case," Hill said. Duncan shut him down and said he'd judge the thing himself; the lawyers stopped their questions for Hill pretty quickly after that.

Some of the lawyering that led up to the dispatching of Perkins was more about appearances than about whether he had a bias that might affect the outcome. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle argued against any change in judges: "There is no basis, no precedent, for a recusal based on a judge's political contributions." He said recusing on such grounds would spiral into "sectarian fighting" that would "turn us into Shiites and Kurds and Sunnis."

Richard Keeton, one of DeLay's lawyers, asked Duncan to pull Perkins to preserve respect for the courts. "You can save him from himself here... For the good of Texas, that's not the Luling Press and the Hutto Hippo out there, that's the national press, that's the international press."

Within a couple of minutes, Duncan sewed it up: "The motion to recuse is granted."

Whack-a-Mole 

Ever played that arcade game where you get a mallet so you can hit the gophers as they pop out of their holes? Now it's a way to choose judges. Once the lawyers for Tom DeLay successfully removed a Democratic judge who was set to preside over his trial, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle asked for the recusal of the Republican judge who was supposed to name a replacement.

The prosecutors pointed out the Judge B.B. Schraub's Republican bona fides — he gave more than $5,000 to various candidates over the last few years — saying they were in the same league as the contributions that disqualified Perkins. Within a few hours, Schraub recused himself, kicking the impartiality mess up to Wallace Jefferson, the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court. But Jefferson's political conflicts are as thorny as anyone's in this particular food chain. 

His campaign treasurer in 2002 was Bill Ceverha, who was also the treasurer for Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee at the time. That's the DeLay-founded group that helped elect a GOP majority in the Texas House and also triggered the campaign finance investigation that produced the charges that have been leveled against DeLay. Jefferson's fundraiser in that campaign was Susan Lilly, who also raised money for TRMPAC.

DeLay is accused of conspiring to run corporate money through the national GOP, which then contributed non-corporate money to Texas candidates. The arm of the GOP that did that — the Republican National State Elections Committee — gave Jefferson $25,000 on March 6, 2002. All of those transactions occurred in the same election cycle.

The template for TRMPAC came from Americans for a Republican Majority PAC, another DeLay creation that operates mainly in federal elections. There's another link: ARMPAC contributed $2,000 to Jefferson's judicial campaign on October 10, 2002.

Jefferson hasn't been a contributor to political causes and candidates as Perkins and Schraub were; his only two political donations on record with the Texas Ethics Commission were made to the Harris County Republican Party. One was for $1,500 in July 2001; the other was for $300, paid in March 2002. But Earle filed papers late in the afternoon asking Jefferson to pull out.

But Jefferson acted before those papers landed, choosing Pat Priest, a senior judge in San Antonio, to hear the DeLay case. Priest, born in 1940, is a former district judge who now roves the courts as a visiting judge. He's a former adjunct professor at St. Mary's in San Antonio (that's also where he got his law degree) and was a criminal defense lawyer before he first put on the robes in 1980. Priest wrote a book — Texas Courtroom Criminal Evidence — compiling the rules of operation in those courts.

 Compared with his fellow judges in this tangle, Priest is barely involved in politics. He has made three political contributions since 2000, according to the Texas Ethics Commission, each for $150 and each to San Antonio Democrats in the Texas House: Ruth Jones McClendon, Trey Martinez Fischer and Carlos Uresti. He shut his own political campaign accounts down in 1994, after losing a Democratic primary for a spot on the 4th Court of Appeals in San Antonio. 

At least one loose end remains. The Supreme Court could decide to retract Jefferson's appointment of Priest if they think Earle's recusal motion was in time. That could spark another round. If Priest stays in place, he can move to the next phase of this: DeLay's attorneys think Austin is an unfair place to try a Republican on political charges. They'll be asking their judge — whoever he or she turns out to be — for a change of venue.

The motions and letters back and forth on this issue are available in the Files section of our website, in the order they were filed.

Adventures in Telemarketing 

The state's top lawyer has taken to the phones to promote a constitutional amendment against gay marriage.

"This is Attorney General Greg Abbott. A shadowy group is making deceptive phone calls to trick you on how to vote on Proposition Two. Let me be clear. A vote for Proposition Two is a vote for traditional marriage. Early voting ends this Friday. Please protect marriage by voting early for Proposition Two so we can keep marriage between a man and a woman."

The shadowy group he's referring to is No Nonsense in November, which was set up weeks ago to oppose the constitutional amendment. They didn't identify themselves in their ads. Neither did Abbott's sponsor, but his aides say he did the recording for the Republican Party of Texas, which paid for the phone calls. A spokeswoman for the GOP wouldn't say how many calls were made, or to whom. Other Republicans have taped messages, apparently, and some voters will be hearing those comments on their answering machines between now and Election Day next week.

Abbott's message started hitting answering machines — at least those in reporters' offices, where we got ours — a day after the No Nonsense group did a round with people reading judicial comments from Abbott himself and from Justice Nathan Hecht, Abbott's former colleague on the Texas Supreme Court. The two Republicans initially scheduled a press conference to protest the use of their words, but decided against it. Abbott did the ad, while Hecht issued a statement saying his words were taken out of context.

The anti-2 folks say the wording of it is sloppy and would accidentally outlaw marriage of any sort, if read literally. Abbott contests that, as do the authors of the amendment, who say opponents are trying to confuse voters. But the opponents pulled out an Abbott opinion — he used to be on the high court — where he said judges should rely on the words before them over the intent of the Legislature. Hecht's quote was taken from an interview in which he was defending Harriet Miers. He told the Austin American-Statesman that the personal views of judges are outweighed by the laws they interpret: "When you're construing the Constitution or statute, you're stuck with what's there."

Abbott, as you can see, is taking a position on the amendment. Hecht, who might eventually hear a case stemming from the thing, has no public position on it. 

Voting, Polling, Begging and other Political Notes 

Early voting has been heavier than some people were expecting. One constitutional amendment — a proposed ban on gay marriage — is a draw for voters, but there's not much else around the state to get the blood flowing. Houston's city elections correspond with the amendment elections, but there's not much fight in that. With a couple of days of early voting uncounted, turnout in the 15 biggest counties in Texas totaled 3.3 percent of the registered voters. Harris County accounted for almost a fourth of the overall total, but the big turnouts on a percentage basis have been in Travis County (7.1 percent with two days uncounted) and neighboring Williamson County (6.3 percent had voted early). Secretary of State Roger Williams is predicting a 16 percent turnout when it's all over. That stinks, but it's a high number for this kind of election. Only 12.2 percent of the voters showed up for constitutional amendments in 2003.

• Gov. Rick Perry would beat all comers according to a Zogby Interactive poll from mid-September. The surprise in the bucket of numbers is that Kinky Friedman out-polls Tony Sanchez, the Laredo Democrat who spent almost $70 million losing to Perry in 2002. By Zogby's lights, Perry would pull 40 to 41 percent of the vote in any three-way general election race with potential opponents Friedman, Sanchez, Chris Bell, John Sharp, or Jim Turner. Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn would get 32 to 35 percent of the vote in any of those general election scenarios, but would come out in first place. They didn't test the Republican primary featuring Perry and Strayhorn. They got responses from 1,227 people between September 16 and 21 and say their margin of error is +/- 2.9 percent.

• U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, had a good week. He got a Democratic judge — Bob Perkins — knocked out of his trial, and he reported raising $318,020 during the third quarter for his defense fund. He spent $278,466 from that fund during the same period. Contributions are capped at $5,000.

• Kinky Friedman's campaign says they raised $170,000 at a fundraiser featuring singer Willie Nelson and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura. Separately, that campaign is trying to get people to watch a reality TV show on Country Music Television about the campaign to better their chances of keeping it on the air. That prompted Jason Stanford with Democrat Chris Bell's campaign: "We hear that on the last episode Kinky gets voted off the island."

• Endorsements: Gov. Rick Perry picks up the San Antonio Police Officers Association, the Texas Society of Professional Engineers, and U.S. Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Midland. Susan Combs, running for comptroller, got a nod from the Texas Civil Justice League.

• Robert Sanchez, a Republican who had started a campaign against U.S. Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, announced he won't run after all. He began the effort last March and said in a note to supporters that "many of the necessary elements of the campaign did not develop as needed."

• Oliver Bell, an Austin Republican, tells the local paper he's decided not to run for the Texas Senate after all. Democratic attorney Kirk Watson — former mayor and current president of the chamber of commerce — is the only candidate at this point who's announced he'll run for the spot left by Gonzalo Barrientos' decision not to seek another term. Republican Ben Bentzin, who challenged Barrientos in 2002, had already decided against a contest with Watson when a House seat opened up. Bentzin will run for that against three or four Democrats; Watson might get a cakewalk.

• Donna Howard, one of the Democrats who wants to represent Austin's HD-48, says she'll run in the special election to replace Rep. Todd Baxter, R-Austin, who resigned. The Democrats made some efforts to keep their numbers down in that special election — the better to fend off Republican Ben Bentzin. We won't know if that worked until they start signing up. Howard, Andy Brown, Kathy Rider and Kelly White have all expressed interest in running. Gov. Rick Perry hasn't called a special election yet.

• Analyzing legislative and congressional districts? You'll need numbers from the 2004 elections cranked by the Texas Legislative Service. They sent us files listing election results by congressional, Senate and House districts and you can download them in the Files section of our website.

Political People and Their Moves 

Joe Wisnoski is joining the Moak, Casey, and Associates consulting firm after 28 years in state government. He was most recently deputy associate commissioner of the Texas Education Agency and is generally recognized as a wizard on school finance and education statistics.

Former state legislator Steve Carriker is the new executive director of the Texas Association of Community Development Corporations. He's a veteran of both chambers; most recently, he'd been COO of the Corporation for the Development of Community Health Centers.

Kurt Meacham is leaving the Pink Building to try his hand at Democratic political consulting. Meacham, most recently with Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, will do research for the Texas Progress Council and other groups.

Luis Gonzalez, after four years as an analyst with the House Appropriations Committee, is joining Santos Alliances, a lobby firm just cross the street from the Capitol.

Joel Romo joined the American Heart Association and will be their new state director of public advocacy in Austin. He had been chief of staff to Rep. Vilma Luna, D-Corpus Christi.

Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds signed up with the U.S. Department of Education as regional representative for Texas and the four U.S. states adjacent to it. She worked on legislative issues for then-Gov. George W. Bush and has most recently been at the University of Texas Institute for Public School Initiatives.

Appointments: Gov. Rick Perry named Ida Clement Steen to the Texas A&M University System board of regents. She's a former teacher and a current bank director and lives in San Antonio. Perry picked Greg Wilkinson of Dallas to the board of regents for the Texas State University System. He's the CEO of Hill & Wilkinson, Ltd.

The Texas superintendent of the year is Susan Simpson of White Settlement ISD. She got the prize form the Texas Association of School Boards/Texas Association of School Administrators. 

Quotes of the Week 

Attorney Richard Keeton, arguing to remove Judge Bob Perkins from Tom DeLay's case: "A Democrat's going to think 'We got our guy in there,' and a Republican is going to think 'the Texas fix is in.'"

Charles Silver, a law professor at the University of Texas, quoted by the Associated Press on the judicial hopscotch in the DeLay case: "It says that the judges who we elect can't be trusted to apply the law neutrally in cases that in some way, shape or form bear on their political beliefs. If that's true, we really need to revamp the whole system.''

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Charles Soechting, talking about using Republicans as fundraising fodder, in court testimony: "Gov. Perry has been very good for us, as has Tom Craddick. President Bush has been an exceptional fundraiser for us. I don't mean that in a derogatory way."

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, on critics of his investigation of leaks about CIA worker Valerie Plame: "One day I read that I was a Republican hack, another day I read that I was a Democratic hack — and the only thing I did between those two nights was sleep."

GOP strategist Charles Black, talking about the "remarkably clean" Bush Administration with the Washington Post: "The amazing thing is that they went almost five years without having any kind of scandal."

María Asunción Arambúruzabála, the billionaire bride of U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza, quoted (from an email interview) in The Wall Street Journal on his political ambitions: "It wouldn't surprise me if someday I am 'living in the great state' campaigning by his side."

Rep. Frank Corte, R-San Antonio, in a Houston Chronicle story about Nevada public records stolen from Digimarc, a private company that's now working on Texas driver records, saying he's not concerned: "Really, I guess it depends on, who are you going to trust? If you don't trust government, you don't trust any of that stuff."

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, talking at a Kinky Friedman fundraiser and quoted by the Associated Press: "I don't want a Democrat in the board room and I don't want a Republican in the bedroom. Democrats can't do business... and all Republicans want to do is get in your bedroom and tell you what you should do in the privacy of your own home."

Missouri state Rep. Jeff Roorda, a St. Louis Cardinals fan, telling the Associated Press about his plan to improve officiating in baseball: "I think if they're not going to pay attention, they ought to at least pay taxes." 

---

Texas Weekly: Volume 22, Issue 21, 7 November 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 runoff election will decide one of two open seats in the Texas House: Ana Hernandez and Laura Salinas finished first and second in a six-person pack to replace the late Joe Moreno, D-Houston. Turnout was skimpy, with 6,170 voters turning out. Hernandez got 2,624, or 42.5 percent, in the full but unofficial count. Salinas got 1,590 votes, or 25.7 percent. The runoff date won't be set until after the votes are canvassed, according to the Texas Secretary of State. Fresh proof that special elections don't draw crowds like regular elections do: Moreno won office last November with 93 percent of the 14,307 votes cast. The other empty seat wasn't on the ballot. November 1 was the first day out of office for Rep. Todd Baxter, R-Austin, who resigned to pursue unspecified opportunities elsewhere. Gov. Rick Perry hasn't called a special election for that post; the next non-emergency election date available for that contest is in May. 

Voters approved seven of the nine constitutional amendments on the ballot, giving overwhelming support to two civil rights measures: one that would allow courts to deny bail for some accused criminals, and one that would outlaw marriage between same-sex couples. The results, including the language voters were looking at when they voted: • Prop. 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." • Prop. 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." As a ballot measure, same-sex marriage, civil union and anything that looks like marriage between anything but a woman and a man is dead until two-thirds of the Legislature and a majority of voters say otherwise. The gay marriage amendment was approved by 1,712,823 voters, or 76.2 percent. The issue, which appears headed for the courts, drew the most voters of anything on the ballot; 2,248,076 people voted -- 119,597 more than voted on any of the other amendments. A telling statistic: By the time early voting was over, 505,429 people had already voted to add Proposition 2, the gay marriage amendment, to the Texas Constitution. That was only 29,917 votes short of what was ultimately needed for approval -- 535,345 people voted against the amendment in early and Election Day voting. The winners needed just under 30,000 of the 1.2 million votes they brought out on Tuesday. • Prop. 3: "The constitutional amendment clarifying that certain economic development programs do not constitute a debt." This measure had the smallest winning margin, at 51.8 percent. • Prop. 4: "The constitutional amendment authorizing the denial of bail to a criminal defendant who violates a condition of the defendant's release pending trial." The most popular measure on the ballot, both in raw numbers (1,805,343 votes) and percentage approval (84.8 percent). • Prop. 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." This finished with 62.6 percent approval. • Prop. 7: "The constitutional amendment authorizing line-of-credit advances under a reverse mortgage." 59.8 percent of the voters approved. • Prop. 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." Passed, with 61 percent. It also drew the lowest number of votes of any amendment -- 373,511 fewer than for the top vote getter, Prop. 2. Voters rejected two amendments to the constitution that would have uncapped interest rates on commercial loans and extended board members at regional mobility authorities: • Prop. 5: "The constitutional amendment allowing the legislature to define rates of interest for commercial loans." Got 43.4 percent approval, according to uncertified returns. • Prop. 9: "The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for a six-year term for a board member of a regional mobility authority." Got only 46.6 percent of the vote. 

Texans contributed $144,250 to No on 77, a group opposing California's redistricting efforts.  That measure, pushed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, was opposed by Democrats, and 59.5 percent of the Golden State's voters were against it on Election Day. Texans gave $2,767 to Reform Ohio Now, a liberal group that was pushing for a similar change in that state. Though the measures were slightly different, their intentions were similar, and voters in Ohio, like their counterparts in the Pacific Time Zone, rejected the change. In Ohio, 70 percent of the voters said No. We were peeking at those propositions because they were inspired by the mid-decade redistricting that made Texas politics so much fun during 2003 and 2004. If you just tuned in, the Lone Star state has become the poster child for redistricting reformers from both parties. The mid-decade plans drawn before the 2004 elections caught the attention of political cartographers across the U.S. In the Texas episode, Republicans first won the majority of seats in the Legislature and then used that majority to reopen congressional redistricting. Long story short: They flipped the color of the state's congressional delegation from blue to red. The case is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court (which is deciding whether to hear arguments), but the new majority is firmly in place now. The opposition to the California proposition ran one ad featuring a group of judges cutting and pasting their state into new political lines. At the end of the TV commercial, they unveil their work: A map of Texas that says "California" across it. In both states, the effort to depoliticize redistricting was driven by one set of partisans and opposed by the other. And both efforts were expensive, though the California libs spent more, at about $15 million, than the Ohio libs, who spent around $1.7 million.
  One interesting factlet from California was the number of Democrats from the Texas congressional delegation who contributed $1,000: U.S. Reps. Al Green, Gene Green, and Sheila Jackson Lee, all from Houston; Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas; Solomon Ortiz of Corpus Christi; Silvestre Reyes of El Paso; and Ruben Hinojosa of McAllen. None of the 88 Texas contributors to the Ohio group gave more than $100, and none are (or were) members of Congress. 

Gov. Rick Perry's tax committee -- chaired by Democrat John Sharp -- is taking some hits from Democrats who say some regular folks should have been sprinkled in among the CEOs and other high-flyers. Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, and Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, both say the governor should have included some homeowners along with all the business folk. More quietly, some business lobbyists have noted the absence of some big taxpayers among the industries represented on the panel. Car dealers, at odds with Perry, are out. Manufacturing, commercial real estate, the Internet end of the technology business, and utilities will all be relying on allies instead of their own guys. Shapleigh, who's been all over Texas evangelizing for a personal income tax to support state services, says Perry and Sharp -- by taking that tax out of consideration -- killed chances for significant reform. He's predicting the Sharp panel will produce more of what lawmakers have already seen: new business taxes and higher taxes on consumption. The panel is in a hurry; they'll have their first meeting on Monday, November 21, in the bowels of the Pink Building (the appropriations room). That first deal will likely be a dog-and-pony show, but by most accounts, they're getting to work quickly. They'll need to have recommendations ready for a possible special session sometime after the March primaries. Follow-up: The list of tax task force members we ran last week was unofficial and as we said at the time, incomplete. Add these names to those: Prentice Gary, managing partner of Carleton Residential Properties in Dallas; and Victor Leal of Canyon, owner of a chain of four family restaurants in the Panhandle. And make one amendment to last week's list: Howard Wolf is no longer an attorney from Houston, though that was once true. He retired from Fulbright and Jaworski and now has a solo practice in Austin. He also serves on a couple of boards: Stewart & Stevenson Services, and Simmons & Co. International. Robert Howden, a former aide to Gov. Rick Perry who has done freelance lobbying, worked for the Texas Association of Automobile Dealers and the Texas office of the National Federation of Independent Business, will be the staff director for what's been officially dubbed the "Texas Tax Reform Commission." Howden's unhappy parting with the car dealers is a part of the saga that explains why they don't have any members on the task force; another factor was their support for Sharp over Perry in the 1998 race for lieutenant governor. The policy chops on the task force will be provided by Karey Barton and James LeBas, two former comptroller employees brought in for their subject matter expertise. LeBas, now the CFO for the Texas Water Development Board, was chief revenue estimator for Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn. Barton, most recently a tax consultant, was director of state tax policy for Strayhorn and for two of her predecessors, Sharp and the late Bob Bullock.  

Remember in the comics how -- whenever they ran out of ideas -- they'd throw Superman or some other hero into an alternate parallel universe? That memory came instantly to mind when we saw the results of two polls done for the Texas Credit Union League. They hired a Republican pollster to talk to primary voters of the red persuasion and a Democratic pollster to talk to the blues. They found two distinctly different parallel worlds. But first, the news: Republican voters, asked how they'd vote in a primary held today, picked Rick Perry 61 percent of the time, and Carole Keeton Strayhorn 26 percent of the time. Asked how they feel about the two, 79 percent had a somewhat favorable or very favorable impression of Perry, and 50 percent had very or somewhat favorable impressions of Strayhorn. The negatives on Perry's ledger add up to 18 percent with GOP primary voters; Strayhorn's total 25 percent. Put another way, Perry's chum-to-chump ratio is 4-to-1; Strayhorn's is 2-to-1. Democratic voters, asked how they'd vote in a primary held today, picked Chris Bell 28 percent of the time and Felix Alvarado 15 percent of the time. Most -- 57 percent -- told the pollsters they're undecided. Democrats aren't fond of the governor or of President George W. Bush -- not surprising, since those are Republicans -- but they give another prominent Republican, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, good marks, with 53 percent saying they have a favorable impression of her and 43 percent saying their impression is unfavorable. The Republican firm of Voter/Consumer Research talked to 400 Texas GOP primary voters October 24-26 and say their margin of error is +/- 4.9 percent. The Democratic pollsters, Hamilton Beattie & Staff, did the same thing: 403 voters, same dates, same margin of error. The sponsors let us post the polls on the website. Download them from our Files section, at www.texasweekly.com/documents. No password is required in that section. They didn't ask about general election horse races, but the pollsters found big differences between each party's voters. Lookit: • Ask Republicans about the direction of the state and 58 percent say it's going in the right direction; 27 percent disagree. Their top issues at the moment, starting at the top of the list: illegal immigration, moral values, education, taxes, health care, the budget deficit, abortion, jobs, political scandals, and growth & congestion. There's a notable drop in interest on the items in that list below taxes. Ask the GOP voters about their top priorities for the Guv and the Legislature and you get this: stopping illegal immigration, improving our schools, reducing property taxes, strengthening families and improving moral values, cutting government spending, and campaign finance reform. • 64 percent of Texas Democrats -- out of power in every branch of state government and in their federal congressional delegation to boot -- think the state's going the wrong way; 23 percent disagree. Their issues, starting with the highest ranked: education, health care and prescription drug costs, taxes, the budget deficit, illegal immigration, crime and drugs, jobs, the environment, and growth & congestion. The drop in interest in this group was after drug costs. • Republicans have a marginally good impression of the Legislature: 54 percent have very or somewhat favorable impressions of the people in the statehouse. Those numbers improve if you ask how the Republicans in the Lege are doing instead of just talking generically about the Legislature. Slightly more than half (51%) think their own lawmakers deserve reelection and a third want to give someone else a chance. Democrats do the same thing, giving good numbers to Democrats in the statehouse and lower numbers to the opposition. 42 percent say they'd vote for their incumbent and 27 percent say they'd vote for a challenger. • Democratic voters told the pollsters they're more interested in results than fights. Only 15 percent listed fighting with the Republican leadership in Austin as one of their top priorities. That ranked behind getting things done, working on public education problems, restoring ethics in government and being bipartisan and getting along with Republicans. • Ask GOP primary voters about public education and 54 percent say they aren't willing to pay higher taxes for improvements. Another 39 percent say they would be willing. But if they could "do only one of the following," 53 percent said they'd prevent deep cuts in education and 40 percent say they'd want a lawmaker to prevent all tax increases. Half the Democrats -- 49 percent -- say education funding should come from closing loopholes in corporate taxes. After that, 16 percent say wasteful spending should be cut, 13 percent say some form of gambling should be considered, and one in ten say the state should have an income tax. Income taxes finished at 10 percent -- ahead of the 8 percent who said higher sales taxes should be in the mix. Almost three in five Democrats say the state should spend more on public schools; 39 percent say the spending levels are right and that schools should be more accountable about what they spend. • State funding for protecting borders against terrorism (actually a federal chore) is too low, according to 72 percent of Republican voters. Almost half -- 48 percent -- say funding for public education is too low, but only 16 percent say the state is spending too little on higher education. Two-thirds are happy with current spending on roads and public transportation and 43 percent thing spending on state health care programs is about right. One in five thinks the state is spending too much on colleges and universities, 17 percent think health care spending is too high, and one in ten wants to cut back on public education spending. • Who do Republicans trust for news? Cable TV, followed by talk radio, broadcast TV, local newspapers, friends and family and the Internet, in that order. Pollster Jan van Lohuizen says the respondents mean Fox News when they say "cable TV" and said that, with only 11 percent saying they trust their local papers, the ink-stained wretches of the world should shiver. Who do the Democrats rely on for news about politics? In order: broadcast news, cable news, and local newspapers. 

Add Ray Allen, R-Grand Prairie, to the list of House members not coming back. That total is, at this writing, up to 13 and a maybe, and candidates don't have to finally commit until the first days of the New Year. Allen, who heads the House Committee on County Affairs and used to chair the Corrections Committee, was one of several Republican chairs targeted by Democrats in the 2004 elections. He was also one of the survivors, beating Democrat Katy Hubener by 1,841 votes. He was likely to be on the hit list again but decided not to run for reelection in HD-106. He's finishing his seventh term in the House. So you don't have to look it up, here's the current list of members who won't be here for the next regular session, starting with Republicans: Allen, Todd Baxter of Austin, Bob Griggs of North Richland Hills, Peggy Hamric of Houston, Ruben Hope Jr. of Conroe, Bob Hunter of Abilene, Suzanna Gratia Hupp of Lampasas, Terry Keel of Austin, Joe Nixon of Houston. The Democrats: the late Joe Moreno of Houston, Richard Raymond of Laredo, Jim Solis of Harlingen. Count Carlos Uresti of San Antonio, who has said he's considering either a bid for Senate or for reelection, as a maybe. 

Hardeman County Commissioner Johnny Akers pleaded guilty to short-stopping ballots in the 2004 primary and general elections in which he was elected. He told some voters there he'd help them out by picking up their ballots and delivering them to the proper folks. That's illegal. Ed Strayhorn, husband of Texas Comptroller and gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn, had some kind of "incident" or seizure while on a hunting trip with friends in South Texas and was taken to Valley Baptist Hospital in Harlingen. He's now at home and a spokesman said he's fine and that the doctors are still poking and prodding to find out what happened.