Rep. Mary Denny, R-Aubrey, announced she won't run for reelection next year, but will serve out her current term.  Denny chairs the House Elections Committee and has been a member since 1993. She was chairman of Denton County's Republican Party before that. In a written statement, Denny said she is concerned about her husband's health and wants to spend more time with him.
  Two Republicans were already planning to run, even with Denny in the race. Ricky Grunden, who lives in Krum and works in Denton as a financial adviser, hasn't run for office before. Anne Lakusta of Flower Mound is a former member of the Lewisville ISD board. No Democrats have surfaced yet. 

Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, sent a letter to Bill Ceverha (and to the press and others) asking the former legislator and lobbyist to resign from his position at the Employee Retirement System of Texas. Ceverha, the former treasurer for Texans for a Republican Majority, lost a civil suit stemming from TRMPAC's activities in the 2004 election and cited the judgments against him when he declared personal bankruptcy a few weeks ago. Gallego, in his letter, says Ceverha ought to quit the pension board in light of his own financial problems, among other things. Ceverha called the letter "silly" and said he and the other members of the ERS board don't make investment decisions. He was confirmed by the Texas Senate with votes from senators of both political parties, he said, pointing out that the vote came after the civil trial on TRMPAC. Ceverha said he owed some $850,000 in legal and court fees, and that combined with pending litigation on related issues pushed him to seek bankruptcy protection. He called Gallego a "highly partisan individual" and said "he's hanging more of my laundry out in public," but he said he has no intention of resigning. And he reiterated that his personal finances have no bearing on the state gig. "We don't make investment decisions, and it's silly to think that we do," he said. Gallego's letter, in full: November 28, 2005

Mr. Bill Ceverha, Board Member
Employees Retirement System of Texas
18th and Brazos Streets
P. O. Box 13207
Austin, Texas 78711-3207 Dear Mr. Ceverha: I write to ask that you immediately resign your position as a board member for the Employees Retirement System of Texas. This would be in the best interests of all current and retired state of Texas employees. As a trustee of the Employees Retirement System, you have fiduciary responsibility for the management of a $19.9 billion portfolio. Yet, you have now declared personal bankruptcy. It is unreasonable to ask Texans to trust their financial futures to a man who has shown himself unable to manage his own fiscal affairs - and admitted it in a court proceeding. Your credibility as a board member has been irreparably damaged. You have squandered the confidence of both current and retired state employees. After all, how can these employees be confident that you will protect their retirement and health benefits when you have proven to be ineffective and incompetent in governing your own personal finances? There are more than 64,000 retired state employees and more than 132,000 active state employees participating in the Employee Retirement System of Texas. A number of these Texans reside in the district I represent. As a fiduciary for all of these individuals, you would best do your duty by resigning your position. In addition to the fact that you have declared personal bankruptcy, I note also that you served as treasurer for an organization under criminal indictment. As the treasurer of Tom DeLay's political action committee (TRMPAC), you were responsible for many of the activities found by a Travis County Grand Jury to violate state law. Again, how can Texans rest assured that you will protect their health care and retirement funds when you have shown such blatant disregard for the law? Finally, a state district judge ruled in a civil case that you violated Texas' campaign finance and elections laws while acting as the treasurer for Mr. DeLay's indicted political action committee (TRMPAC). The judge issued a $196,000 judgment against you; the first judgment against any single individual regarding the same allegations that resulted in the criminal indictments of Tom DeLay, three of his top lieutenants, his political action committee (TRMPAC), and the Texas Association of Business. Felony indictments against an organization in whose governance you participated. A personal judgment for violating state law taken against you in an amount nine times the average income of most Texans. A personal bankruptcy. These are not the mistakes of youth. And, though one mistake might be overlooked, three strikes always makes an out. Texas asks its public servants to lead by example. Clearly, this behavior is not the type Texas seeks. Your behavior makes it impossible for you to continue in the fiduciary governance of a $19.9 billion portfolio. I ask that you put Texas' interests ahead of your own and resign your position as a trustee of the Employees Retirement System of Texas. Sincerely, Pete P. Gallego 

Rep. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, will give up his House seat to challenge Sen. Frank Madla of San Antonio in the March Democratic primary.Uresti has been openly considering such a race for weeks. He plans to concentrate on two of Madla's votes -- one in favor of a health and human services consolidation that downsized Childrens' Health Insurance and other programs, and one in favor of a tax bill during this year's school finance battles that Uresti and many other Democrats said was easy on the wealthy and hard on the poor. Uresti has been a legislator since 1997. Madla took a seat in the House in 1973 and joined the Senate in 1993. Uresti has a big fundraiser/party every year at a VFW hall in his district and plans to make the formal announcement there. He says he's hired Democratic political consultant Kelly Fero of Austin to run the race. Uresti did some polling before making up his mind and says he and the incumbent are within five percentage points in San Antonio and that the numbers get better when voters are "educated" about things like those two votes. HD-19 could be a hot pocket in a relatively calm political year. Most statewide races are -- at the moment -- uncontested. And most legislative and congressional seats in Texas, thanks to the twin obstacles of incumbency and redistricting, aren't competitive. But with a Senate race, a House contest to replace Uresti, and a three-way race in CD-28, voters might have a lot of people banging on their doors. We don't have names yet for the Uresti race -- they'll surface when he's official. In that other contest, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, is being challenged by former U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, and state Rep. Richard Raymond, D-Laredo. Those three districts share big chunks of Bexar County.

Austin political consultant John Colyandro is off the hook in a federal civil case stemming from the 2002 elections.Democrats Kirk Watson and Mike Head sued Colyandro and the Law Enforcement Alliance of America for allegedly funneling corporate money into the campaign chests of their Republican opponents. But U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel released Colyandro from the suit saying he found "no actionable or unlawful conduct." LEAA is still in it, though. Watson, who ran for attorney general against Greg Abbott, and Head, who ran for a Texas House seat, contend the LEAA worked on behalf of their opponents without disclosing the identities of donors, and that the group used corporate money illegally in that effort.

Walker, Harle, Ward, Baril, and ToddBrian Keith Walker, a Republican attorney from Panola County who used to be an assistant sergeant-at-arms in the Texas Senate, is running for the Texas House seat currently occupied by Rep. Chuck Hopson, D-Jacksonville. Walker will have to win a primary first: Mike Alberts, who lost narrowly to Hopson in 2004, has already declared. Judge Sid Harle of San Antonio is joining the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. He was appointed to that judge-judging panel by the Texas Supreme Court. Kathy Ward, a former high school teacher who had been vice chair of the Collin County GOP, is the new chairman. Rick Neudorff resigned to run for Collin County Judge. James Baril is leaving government -- he's an aide to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn -- for the Texas office of Fleishman Hillard. Saved by a helmet, and recovering: Former Austin Mayor Bruce Todd, who went over the handlebars of his bike on a rural road during the Thanksgiving break.