The party primaries include five congressional races, five in the state Senate, and 53 in the Texas House. In other words, it's a slow to normal election year.

On the Republican side, three incumbents in Congress face challenges in their own primaries: Sam Johnson of Plano, Ron Paul of Surfside, and Tom DeLay of Sugar Land. Two Democrats in the congressional delegation have March challengers: Silvestre Reyes of El Paso, and Henry Cuellar of Laredo. There are no open seats in the Texas congressional delegation.

In the Senate, two incumbents face primary opponents: Democrat Frank Madla of San Antonio and Republican Bob Deuell of Greenville. Three seats are open in the Senate, with busy Republican primaries in each and a Democratic primary in only one — the SD-18 spot where Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria, is not seeking another term.

Remember the prediction — widespread in the Austin lobby — that 40 or 45 people would bail out of the House after the rough special sessions on school finance? That was the heat of the moment: Only 13 voluntarily quit. But there's still time to make new nameplates. In the House, you'll find action in 35 GOP primaries and 18 Democratic primaries.

In the Republican matches, 19 incumbents face challengers in March (in district order): Dan Flynn of Van, Betty Brown of Terrell, Leo Berman of Tyler, Tommy Merritt of Longview, Roy Blake Jr. of Nacogdoches, Jim Pitts of Waxahachie, Mike Krusee of Austin, Larry Phillips of Sherman, Scott Campbell of San Angelo, Carter Casteel of New Braunfels, Pat Haggerty of El Paso, Delwin Jones of Lubbock, David Swinford of Dumas, Kent Grusendorf of Arlington, Vicki Truitt of Keller, Charlie Geren of Fort Worth, Elvira Reyna of Mesquite, Fred Hill of Dallas, and Joe Crabb of Humble. You'll find GOP primaries in 16 other districts, some of them open seats, others bucking for a chance to challenge a Democratic incumbent in November.

Eleven House Democrats have primary opposition: Dora Olivo of Richmond, Armando "Mando" Martinez of Weslaco, Richard Raymond of Laredo, Juan Manuel Escobar of Kingsville, Chente Quintanilla of El Paso, Norma Chavez of El Paso, Joe Pickett of El Paso, Helen Giddings of Dallas, Jesse Jones of Dallas, Al Edwards of Houston, and Garnet Coleman of Houston. (Martinez's wife filed to run against him and county Democratic officials took her off the ballot, but she hasn't expended her appeals.) Add seven more primaries where candidates are after open seats or a shot at Republican incumbents in November.

Lucky It Wasn't a Write-In

The list of independents had a surprise or two. Some knucklehead in Carole Keeton Strayhorn's camp misspelled her name on her application to run as an independent candidate. Lawyer Roy Minton took the bullet on that one, telling the Austin American-Statesman he never promised her he could spell. Officials with the SOS say it apparently won't affect her eligibility. They're in the process of welding the left out letter back into "Strahorn."

The other surprise is the number of candidates who want to petition their way onto the November ballot. Strayhorn and Richard "Kinky" Friedman are the best known, but there are four other folks who want to get on the gubernatorial ballot as independents.

Three more want on the ballot for U.S. Senate, one each for lieutenant governor, commissioner of agriculture and Texas Supreme Court, and a total of ten candidates will make independent runs at various congressional gigs. One — Steve Stockman of Friendswood — is a former U.S. congressman. He wants to run as an independent in CD-22, where Tom DeLay is the incumbent. Six candidates are trying to get on the ballot in various state representative races.

Ballot Lists

Most of the ballot bickering should be over by the weekend (with isolated thundershowers in specific court locales throughout the state expected for a couple of weeks). The state and local parties turn their lists of candidates over to the Texas Secretary of State and the SOS then puts together the comprehensive lists for the state. Preliminary versions of those lists are already online and they'll be updated, we're told, as information and court rulings roll in:

www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/whatisontheballot.shtml.

Winning Without a Vote

It turns out you can win a primary, or at least cull the herd of candidates, with nothing but a law book and an opponent who missed some of the finer points in filing an application to run for office. State Rep. Terry Keel, an Austin Republican running for a spot on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, knocked both of his Republican primary opponents off the ballot, including the incumbent, because of errors in their campaign filings. Judges have to include petitions with signatures of people from each of the state's judicial regions. Judge Charles Holcomb filed the petitions, but Keel found that some of the signatures were invalid, and there were apparently enough clinkers to spoil the filing; the Texas GOP ruled that Holcomb is ineligible to run. Then Keel sued to knock Robert Francis out of the race. His infraction was that he didn't write the seat he was seeking in every spot where he should have. Though "Place 8" was included in some spots, it wasn't in all of them. The state party wouldn't disqualify, but a state district judge crossed him off the ballot when Keel sued.

• That's a dramatic version of an election year ritual that is also affecting other races. In HD-87, Republican Anette Carlisle was initially pushed off the ballot by the state GOP for belonging to a school board that reimburses candidates for expenses. They say that's what the law calls a "lucrative" position and took her off the ballot. The legal provision keeps paid local officeholders from running against state officeholders — a provision that protects state legislators by reducing competition for legislative seats. It generally applies to salaries and wages and contract work; the state GOP says, in this case, that it also applies when an unpaid officeholder is reimbursed for expenses. The Texas Supreme Court overruled that and told the GOP to put her back on the ballot. They also indicated a written decision will follow, possibly explaining this for future cases. Carlisle is running against David Swinford, R-Dumas, who knocked an opponent off the ballot with the same law more than a decade ago. She quickly got lawyered up and she held an Amarillo press conference to blame the whole flap on the incumbent. Now it could be an issue in their race.

• Does serving on a local groundwater district prohibit you from running for the statehouse? Depends on who you ask. Brandon Creighton, running for the House seat now held by Rep. Ruben Hope Jr., R-Conroe, serves on the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District. His county GOP says he's eligible to run for the House, and that that's not a "lucrative" office that would keep him off the state ballot. He'll be on the March ballot against two other Republicans who want to replace Hope, who's running for a district judgeship this year. But a fellow board member, David Kleimann, had to go to court to fight the Republican Party of Texas, which said he's ineligible for state office for serving on that same board. Kleimann is in a four-way contest for the GOP nomination to succeed Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine. Staples is running for state agriculture commissioner.

• Lest you think this only happens to Republicans, we direct your attention to South Texas, where Jessica Reyes-Martinez  — the wife of Rep. Armando "Mando" Martinez, D-Weslaco — was disqualified for not listing her home address in the right place on her application. She won't face her estranged husband in the primary after all.

• That might have snagged Rep. Ismael "Kino" Flores, D-Palmview; he apparently filled out his application the same way Reyes-Martinez did. He would otherwise be unopposed in the primary, so the party would have to replace him on the ballot if he's kicked off. He could be the replacement, or someone else could be.

• Lauro Bustamante, hoping for a spot on the San Antonio-based 4th Court of Appeals, didn't get the right notarization on his petitions for that seat. He's out. And so is Jim Sharp, who didn't get his application properly notarized in his quest for a place on Houston's 1st Court of Appeals.

• And former Webb County Judge Mercurio Martinez Jr. is seeing his eligibility challenged for not including the district number in his HD-42 race on every page of his application. That challenge was leveled by Rep. Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, who gave up his run for Congress in December and decided to seek reelection. Martinez, who got in the race to replace Raymond, remained in it to challenge him.

Crossing Over

The Texas State Teachers Association is breaking with tradition to endorse Carole Keeton Strayhorn in the governor's race. That group, which generally supports Democrats, chose Strayhorn, an estranged Republican running as an independent, from a field that includes a Republican, an independent, and two Democrats in addition to the state comptroller.

The endorsement illustrates a trend that's vexing Texas Democrats and to a lesser extent, Texas Republicans. Strayhorn is getting financial support, for instance, from several trial lawyers and other financiers who typically back only Democrats. TSTA has been a regular supporter of Democrats. That leaves candidates in that party — at least in this race — looking for support from a smaller pool of sympathizers. Republicans loyal to Gov. Rick Perry would prefer that Strayhorn have no money or support at all. But they hope to make an issue of her appeal to Democrats among regular Republicans, discouraging them from supporting an independent candidate who is allied with their enemies.

Officials with the teacher group say they invited all of the candidates for interviews, but that Kinky Friedman and Rick Perry didn't chase their political action committee's endorsement. And though they didn't have anything bad to say about Democrats Chris Bell and Bob Gammage, they're going with Strayhorn.

Strayhorn started her career as a teacher, and her political career as a school board member. But as a Republican, she has embraced two ideas abhorred by teacher groups: publicly funded vouchers for private schools, and merit pay for teachers that would recognize and reward educators who do better work or are in higher demand.

The candidate says she was for vouchers "before the schools were in the shape they're in" but for now, says, "Vouchers are off the table — we've got to fix public education."

Reminded of her previous support, Strayhorn left the door to that issue ajar: "That was five years ago, and when I talked about vouchers I said, you know, philosophically, I wouldn't have a problem with that for disadvantaged kids. But let me tell you what: That's before we had five years of this administration that is absolutely, totally dismantling our public school system day by day. We've got to educate all of our kids and keep them healthy. This state is abdicating its responsibilities in education, welfare. Where's a kid in East Texas or West Texas gonna take a voucher? We have got to fix our public school system and we've got to do it now."

She deflected a question about merit pay by saying she has "always" wanted an across-the-board pay raise for all teachers, and that low pay is causing high turnover and contributing to high dropout rates in public schools.

Donna New Haschke, TSTA's president, says her group won't be involved in Strayhorn's attempt to get 45,000+ signatures on petitions to put her on the ballot. TSTA is pushing its 65,000 members to vote in the primaries, she says, and her group will be supporting a list of candidates that'll be revealed in a week or so, when the parties have finalized their ballots. Anyone who votes in a primary for either party will be ineligible to sign petitions for Strayhorn or Friedman this spring. New Haschke says the PAC abandoned Democrats for Strayhorn because they think she's got a better chance of beating Perry. "She is right on our issues, on every single one of them. We couldn't find a stronger advocate."

Choosing Bell

A group of well-known Democratic women endorsed gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell, saying in a letter that "both of the top Democrats running for governor say they're pro-choice, but only one of them has faithfully stood by us in our political fights." That's a shot at Bob Gammage, a former legislator and judge who's running against Bell in March, along with Felix Alvarado and Rashad Jafer. Bell and Gammage have held elective office; the other two haven't.

In a letter being sent by the Bell campaign to Democrats all over the state, the 12 women said that when Gammage was in Congress, he "was on the anti-choice side of just about every vote on reproductive rights." They list a dozen votes they characterize as "anti-choice," including a vote for the so-called Hyde Amendment that banned Medicaid funding for abortions except when the life of the mother was in peril. The other votes on their list revolve around that funding ban.

A spokesman for Gammage said the former congressman, when in the Texas Legislature, sponsored pro-choice legislation before the Roe vs. Wade decision legalized that practice, and said the vote on the Hyde Amendment put Gammage in league with Dick Gephardt and Al Gore, both of whom kept the support of women's groups in spite of that position. "Bob Gammage was pro-choice before there was a choice," said Jeremy Warren. "This was not a vote on a woman's right to choose, but on whether taxpayers should pay for it."

The list includes people well known in Texas Democratic and abortion rights circles: Liz Carpenter, Heather Paffe, Peggy Romberg, and Sarah Weddington of Austin; Karen Ostrum George, Sissy Farenthold, Rita Lucido, and Ginni Mithoff of Houston; Molly Beth Malcolm of Texarkana; Susan Hays of Dallas; Beth Shapiro of Lubbock; and Claudia Stravato of Amarillo.

In their letter (a copy of which, along with citations of the Gammage votes they didn't like, is on Bell's website at www.chrisbell.com), they acknowledge that Gammage's votes were taken a long time ago; the votes they're decrying were taken in 1977 and 1978. But they say those are the most recent votes available, and say Bell, in contrast, got perfect ratings from Planned Parenthood and NARAL when he was in Congress in 2003 and 2004.

DeLay Denied

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, asked to toss the case against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, left it intact, without comment. That sends the matter back to Judge Pat Priest, who put the whole matter on hold while it was being considered by the state's top criminal court.

DeLay had asked the Court of Criminal Appeals to either dismiss the money-laundering charges against him or to order a speedy trial; the idea was to get the whole business finished before Congress votes on leadership at the end of the month. But his weekend announcement that he was giving up his bid to stay in leadership took the wind out of the thing. The court won't speed things up, but he's no longer in the hurry he was in before. The date that looms now is March 7 — the date of the GOP primary, in which DeLay faces three Republican challengers. Still pending — at the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals — is a lower court's decision to drop conspiracy charges against DeLay. Travis County prosecutors appealed that decision.

Political Notes

Texas senators almost never endorse opponents of other Texas senators, especially when the challengers and the incumbents and the endorsers are from the same political party. But Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, endorsed Carlos Uresti in the Democratic primary against Sen. Frank Madla, D-San Antonio. Madla's district stretches well over 500 miles to El Paso County; the two have tussled over water and other issues there. Shapleigh called Madla "a rubber stamp for the failed leadership in Austin" and said he's too close to the Republicans who are in power.

• Some of the state's top lobbyists and public affairs types have agreed to work together — sometimes — and to pitch some business together. The Texas Capitol Group would be better characterized as a friendly conspiracy than a company, since everybody in the mix will keep their own business and clients alongside the new deal. The players include lobbyists Mike Toomey, Bill Messer, Walter Fisher, Lara Keel, and Billy Phenix, and public affairs consultants Rossanna Salazar, Ray Sullivan, Wayne Fleenor, Jennifer Harris and Mona Taylor. They've got a website up and running at www.texascapitolgrp.com. The agreement to work together puts the group in competition for projects that often go to other firms, like Public Strategies Inc., and Hillco Partners.

• Rep. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen, endorsed Democrat Chris Bell in the gubernatorial primary. Rep. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, gets the endorsement of Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs in his bid to succeed Sen. Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria, and another from Sen. Kyle Janek, R-Houston. Todd Staples, who's running for ag commissioner, got the endorsement of the Texas Association of Builders political action committee.

• James McCutcheon, the only Democrat in the HD-56 contest against Rep. Charles "Doc" Anderson, R-Waco, is off the ballot: His filing fee didn't clear the bank. That leaves Anderson — who at one point was on most lists of vulnerable incumbents — with no opposition in either the GOP primary or the general election.

• Wayne Christian, trying to win his old House seat back from Rep. Roy Blake Jr., R- Nacogdoches, says he has started his television campaign for that contest. Christian gave up the seat to run for Congress; Blake ran for the open spot two years ago. Van Wilson, a homebuilder challenging Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock, in HD-83, is also launching TV ads this week.

• We missed a race on the statewide judicial ballot last week: Judge Tom Price of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is running for presiding judge of that court against his colleague, the incumbent, Sharon Keller, in the GOP primary. He's not up for election until 2008, so he'll be on the court even if he loses. She has to win to remain on the court.

• The newest member of the Texas Legislature — Ana Hernandez, D-Houston — will be on the Border and International Affairs Committee and the Juvenile Justice and Family Issues Committee. House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, gave her the same assignments as the late Joe Moreno, her former boss and the guy she replaced.

• Most Texans support embryonic stem cell research, according to a poll commissioned by Texans for the Advancement of Medical Research, which is promoting that sort of research. The group's pollsters found 55 percent of Texans support the work, and say 57 percent think research in therapeutic cloning should go forward. That poll also found 64 percent of Texans would be willing to pay $1 per week in additional taxes to support medical research, and that slightly more than half would be willing to add $1 to the price of each prescription for that purpose. You can pick it apart in detail on their website, at www.txamr.org.

Political People and Their Moves

Gov. Rick Perry appointed Rick Williams, a Nederland lawyer and the head of that city's economic development corporation, to the 279th District Court, replacing the late Tom Mulvaney. Williams already filed to run for that, as a Republican; he'll face Democrat Randy Shelton at the ballot box in November.

The governor named Nancy Thomas of Dallas to the 160th District Court. She's a private practice lawyer now, but used to be an associate judge in Dallas County's district courts.

Mark Sanders doesn't work for the State of Texas anymore — he quit last week to work full-time on Carole Keeton Strayhorn's campaign for governor. That's been expected for a while; he says he's been burning vacation time up to now. Gov. Perry's spokesman, Robert Black, left state employ to work full-time for that campaign a few weeks ago. Along the way, each campaign accused the other of using people on the state payroll to do campaign work. Will Holford, still at the comptroller's office, moves into a new title: special assistant for communications.

Cecile Richards will be the next president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the national arm of that group. Richards, daughter of former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, founded the Texas Freedom Network and worked in a variety of campaigns and organizations in Texas before moving to Washington. She worked for U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and most recently headed America Votes. She'll take over at Planned Parenthood in mid-February.

Raif Calvert starts later this month in the lobby shop at the Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas. Calvert has been working for the Texas Medical Association for the last few years; before that, he worked for Texas Attorneys General Greg Abbott and John Cornyn.

Sabrina Midkiff got promoted to chief lobbyist, er, governmental relations officer, for the UT Health Science Center in Houston. She's been on fulltime staff there for almost a year.

John Donisi, an Austin lawyer and lobster, moved to Drenner & Golden Stuart Wolff from Bickerstaff, Heath. He'll be working on local stuff in Austin and also on state issues at the Capitol.

Political consultant Colin Strother is moving back to Austin from Laredo. He'll keep working for U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and for Texas House candidate Mercurio Martinez Jr., but will also join Rindy Miller Media as veep.

If you heard the rumor that Matt Welch is leaving Texans for Lawsuit Reform, there's a nuance: He'll leave their payroll in April but will stay on as a consultant, still based in Austin.

Quotes of the Week

U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, in a letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert: "I am writing to inform you of my decision to permanently step aside as majority leader, and of my belief that the best interests of the conference would be served by the election of a new leader as soon as possible. The job of majority leader and the mandate of the Republican majority are too important to be hamstrung, even for a few months, by personal distractions."

U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, in The New York Times: "Rightly or wrongly, Mr. DeLay is seen as the public face of Washington, and it is not healthy right now. We need a course correction."

Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick, quoted by the Houston Chronicle from a speech to the Texas Public Policy Foundation: "If we don't start looking at the reforms that change the districts as well as just money, you and I might as well put our heads in the sand."

District Judge John Dietz, quoted in The Dallas Morning News after one judicial candidate knocked another off the ballot for technical errors in his application: "That is not something that is dirty or vile. That is just politics."

From Mark Sanders, in a press release after Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams decided spelling Strayhorn as Strahorn wasn't a fatal mistake: "As the Press Secretar_  for Carole Keeton Stra_horn, I wanted to sa_, 'With a correct spelling of her actual signature, we are extremel_ pleased that the Secretar_  of State has determined that the leaving off the '_' on one part of the form will not affect Carole Keeton Stra_horn's candidac_  for Governor of the State of Texas.'"

---

Texas Weekly: Volume 22, Issue 28, 16 January 2006. Ross Ramsey, Editor. George Phenix, Publisher. Copyright 2006 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.

Democrat Donna Howard came just 73 votes of winning a special election for an Austin seat in the Texas House, surprising Republican Ben Bentzin and two others and setting up a runoff election for Valentine's Day or thereabouts.Howard got 6,705 votes in the HD-48 special election. Bentzin was second with 5,124 votes. Kathy Rider, another Democrat, got 1,416, and Libertarian Ben Easton won the support of 310 voters. In (rounded) percentages, that's Howard with 49.5 percent, Bentzin with 37.8 percent, Rider with 10.5 percent, and Easton with 2.3 percent. The winner will replace Todd Baxter, a Republican who quit the House in November to take a job as a cable television lobbyist. Baxter won a squeaker in 2002, convincing Democrats that the seat was winnable. The timing of his resignation -- and of Gov. Rick Perry's pick of a January date for a special election -- seemed to favor the GOP. So did the fact that Bentzin's camp was able to talk other Republicans out of the race, hoping to consolidate conservative votes while Democrats were splitting the support of their voters in the district among more than one candidate. It didn't turn out that way. Howard and Bentzin fought it out in mailboxes and on TV, while Rider and Easton lagged behind. Bentzin spent more and got a late visit and renewed endorsement from Perry, but Howard's voters turned out in strength on Election Day. She lost the early voting to the Republican, getting 40 percent to his 46 percent, but she got almost 55 percent of the Election Day vote and almost won outright; 73 more votes would have put her over the top. Bentzin got only 34 percent of the Election Day vote. What looked like a Republican advantage now appears to be a Democratic one; to overcome Howard, Bentzin will have to fish in Democratic waters, convincing voters who supported Howard and Rider in the first round to trade in their blue jerseys for red ones. Between them, the two Democrats got 60 percent of the votes cast. Bentzin's campaign will apparently press on with a runoff. One strategy would be to skip that contest with its long odds and hope for a better showing in November, when he'll be the sole Republican seeking a full term in the seat. Instead, they'll try to flip the special election result in the runoff. Travis County's Elections department has the official (uncanvassed) account:
www.co.travis.tx.us/county_clerk/election/results.asp.

Terry Keel hasn't vanquished all those pesky judges just yet. Keel, a Republican state representative from Austin who's running for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, knocked Charles Holcomb and Robert Francis out of his primary because of questions about their election applications. Now, the Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear both cases.The Texas Supreme Court will hear arguments on both cases next week. Keel knocked Holcomb, the incumbent, out of the race by successfully questioning the validity of signatures on the petition that accompanied the judge's election filing. After those names were struck, Holcomb didn't have the required number of signatures and lower courts took him off the ballot. The high court initially went along with that ruling, but pulled the case back and decided to hear arguments. Then Keel questioned Francis' filing, saying the Dallas Republican hadn't noted which seat on the court he was seeking in all of the places on the application where that was supposed to be noted. If the Supremes leave it be, Keel will be unopposed in the primary. If they put one or both of the other candidates back on the ballot, there'll be a little something extra to talk about in the March primaries.

HD-106, where Ray Allen has resigned to make way for a special election, is a Republican district, at least on paper. But Democrats think it's a swing seat.Allen beat back a challenge from Democrat Katy Hubener in 2004, getting 52.6 percent of the vote. Republicans will tell you he was a weakened candidate that year and that a normal Republican would do better; Democrats will say having George W. Bush at the top of the ballot boosted him and that the absence will hurt the next guy. Other Republicans on the ticket did better than Allen did, getting 55 percent (Judge Mike Keasler) to 59.4 percent (the aforementioned president). The Democrats are calling it a possible swing district, but it's not as close as the seat opened by Todd Baxter's resignation in Austin. Baxter won by less than 150 votes, and Bush got only 53 percent against John Kerry.

If you didn't get to the Texas Public Policy Foundation's conference in Austin, and either wanted to go or found out you missed something, you can listen to some of the speakers and panels on their website.They've posted the talks by House Speaker Tom Craddick, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, tax reformer John Sharp, and others and plan to put up digital audio files of other sessions in the next few days. Their website is www.texaspolicy.com. Click on "Multimedia."

Put Flores back on. Kleimann's fight is over. Creighton can exhale.• It looks like state Rep. Ismael "Kino" Flores, D-Palmview, will stay on the ballot. The notarization on his application for office didn't specify the district he was running in, and a staffer to Flores says they've been assured by the Secretary of State's office that he's okay and will be on the ballot. • David Kleimann won a TRO a week ago putting him back on the ballot; now the judge in that case has gone the rest of the way, ordering the GOP to put his name before Republican voters in March. Kleimann is one of four candidates looking to succeed Todd Staples, R-Palestine, in the Texas Senate. He was on the board of a local groundwater district that reimburses members for expenses, and state party leaders took him off the ballot for it. They contended his was a "lucrative position" under the law that protects state legislators from competition from local officeholders who are compensated for their work. A ruling in the other direction could have been bad news for Brandon Creighton, a Republican running for a Texas House seat now held by Ruben Hope Jr., R-Conroe. Creighton was one of Kleimann's colleagues on that water board.

If money is the mother's milk of politics, Democrats at the top of the Texas ballot are the runts of the litter.The two Democrats running for governor -- Chris Bell and Bob Gammage -- came in fourth and fifth in fundraising during the last six months of 2005. Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, was in front, and two candidates trying to get on the ballot as independents -- Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Richard "Kinky" Friedman -- came in second and third. Perry, who faces three non-famous Republicans in the March primary, won't have any urgent need for money until later in the year. Strayhorn and Friedman need 45,540 signatures each to get on the ballot, and will have to gather them from registered voters after the primaries and runoffs are over and before May 12. They need to finance that. And Bell and Gammage walk into the March Democratic primary without much money and without much celebrity. Bell was a congressman and city councilman from Houston but hasn't run statewide before and isn't widely known outside of political circles in Texas. Gammage held a number of state and federal offices, including statewide positions in the courts. But he hasn't been on the ballot since 1990. In political terms, that's three presidents and four governors ago. Toss in a rule of thumb -- a week of significant television advertising time in Texas costs at least $500,000 -- and you see the obstacles. • Perry raised $4,665,778, spent $1,766,780, and ended with $11,530,875 in the bank. Perry got a $100,000 contribution from Alice Walton of Mineral Wells, and $50,000 each from ACC Capital Holdings PAC, Texas DENPAC (dentists), Big City Capital LLC (gambling), Robert Gillikin of Dallas, and John Speer of Houston. James Pitcock (contractor) gave $35,000. Johnny Baker, a real estate investor in Houston, gave 33,333, and Perry got $30,000 each from HOMEPAC (builders) and Houston restaurateur Tilman Fertitta. The governor got 34 donations of $25,000. • Strayhorn raised $2,429,916, spent $1,258,238, and ended with $8,118,673 in the bank. She got $100,000 each from George Ryan, a Dallas tax consultant, his firm's political action committee, Dallas dentist Dr. David Alameel, and lawyers Walter Umphrey of Beaumont and John Eddy Williams of Houston. Four of Ryan & Co's. executives each gave $50,000, bringing the total from that gang to $400,000 in the last six months of 2005. Strayhorn got $75,000 from Coastal Development LLC. She received $50,000 contributions from attorneys Mike Gallagher and Mark Lanier of Houston. She got $30,000 from Terry Gilmore, a San Marcos investor. Thirteen more contributors each gave $25,000. Strayhorn's report is sprinkled with people who ordinarily show up in the Democratic column. A few examples: Bernard Rapoport of Waco gave $5,000. Greg LaMantia of L&F Distributors in McAllen let her fly around in his plane. Ben Barnes gave $10,000. • Friedman raised $1,517,999, spent $1,059,186, and ended with $271,340 in the bank. He also had $110,000 in outstanding loans. • Bell raised $356,422, spent $195,052, and ended with $165,444 in the bank. Robert Turner, a real estate funds manager, gave $52,500. Stephen Sellers, who heads an investment firm in Houston, gave $10,000. Robert Ayres, retired, of Austin, gave $12,500. Dr. Andrew Kant of Houston gave $9,500. • Gammage raised $67,109, spent $11,723, and ended with $52,940 in the bank. He had $2,964 in loans. His contributors included Arthur Gochman, retired, of Katy, who gave $50,000, and attorney and former state Sen. Ted Lyons of Dallas, who loaned him a plane.

• The Texas Public Employees Association's PAC endorsed Frank Denton of Conroe in the four-way race for state Senate in SD-3. The group says there are 20,000 state employees in that district, working in prisons, a state school, a state hospital and elsewhere. • The Texas Farm Bureau took the first step toward endorsing Jimmy Don Aycock, R-Killeen, in the HD-54 race to succeed Suzanna Gratia Hupp, R-Lampasas. He got a unanimous vote from the local farm bureau folks, and that goes to the bureau's PAC board for a last look later this month. • The Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC endorsed Republican Don Willett for Texas Supreme Court. He's a Perry appointee up for election for the first time, and faces former Justice Steven Wayne Smith in the March primary. • Rep. Carter Casteel, R-New Braunfels, got an endorsement from House Speaker Tom Craddick, even though the two were on opposite sides of several hard-fought education votes. She's got a March challenger. • Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, gets endorsements from other Republican officeholders in that area, including Sen. Kel Seliger and Rep. John Smithee of Amarillo, and Warren Chisum of Pampa.

Sen. Jon Lindsay, R-Houston, endorsed Rep. Peggy Hamric to succeed him, saying she would be the first female Republican from Harris County to win a spot in the state Legislature's upper chamber.Lindsay, who was Harris County judge for 20 years before coming to the Senate in 1997, had said he wouldn't name a favorite in the contest to succeed him. Hamric and three men -- city council member Mark Ellis, Rep. Joe Nixon, and radio personality Dan Patrick -- all want the job. For Lindsay, Hamric is "clearly the best candidate." Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, endorsed Dan Patrick in that race. She says that's the first time she's endorsed a Republican in a contested primary for the Legislature.

The Washington, D.C.-based Club for Growth endorsed U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Laredo -- the first Democrat ever endorsed by that outfit.Their stated goals (from the "about the club" section on their website): Making the Bush tax cuts permanent, death tax repeal, cutting and limiting government spending, social Security reform with personal retirement accounts, expanding free trade, legal reform to end abusive lawsuits, replacing the current tax code, school choice, and regulatory reform and deregulation. Cuellar is in a rematch with former U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio. That endorsement might be as useful to Rodriguez as Cuellar; the challenger has been accusing the incumbent of being closer to Republicans than the district's voters.

You'll usually see Texas Labor making political decisions and such early in the year, but the AFL-CIO's COPE convention this year is in May.That means the biggest worker organization in the state will be making decisions about endorsements while lawmakers are in town -- and after it's clear whether two independent candidates can get on the gubernatorial ballot. The executive committee has heard from four candidates -- Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who's running as an independent, and Democrats Felix Alvarado, Chris Bell, and Bob Gammage. A spokesman says they didn't make any decisions after those sessions last week. One rumor came out of those sessions: Did Strayhorn promise to stop calling herself a Republican? A spokesman says no, but adds that her latest commercials don't identify her as a Republican. Her first commercials said she was a Republican running as an independent. Now, she's an "independent Texan."

Felix Alvarado's filing check bounced back to the Texas Democratic Party, and he's apparently off the March ballot for governor.Alavarado, a Fort Worth educator, was the only Hispanic in the race for the top state job on the ballot. Democratic Party Chairman Charles Soechting said Alvarado's bank returned the check and, "if that holds, it would take him off the ballot." Soechting left open the possibility of a bank error, so file this under "developing situations." That's good news for the other Democrats on the ticket, particularly the two with some campaign money: Chris Bell and Bob Gammage. But it's blockbuster news for Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman, who have to gather signatures after the primaries and before May 12. If there's no runoff in either party's gubernatorial contest, they can start collecting signatures on March 8 -- the day after the primary. If nobody gets more than 50 percent of the vote -- which is much more likely with a Hispanic candidate on the Democratic Party's ballot than without -- the signature collection would be on hold until after the April runoff.

Put former Webb County Judge Mercurio Martinez Jr. back on the ballot. He'll run against Rep. Richard Raymond, also of Laredo, in the Democratic primary.Raymond announced for Congress in a bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, and Martinez declared his candidacy for what looked to be an open seat. But when Raymond backed out of the federal race, Martinez stayed in. Raymond challenged his application to run, saying he'd filled it out incorrectly by not properly listing HD-42 as the district he was running in. But a state district judge ruled that Martinez is eligible and ought to be listed as a Democratic primary candidate. That makes four. In addition to Martinez and Raymond, Sergio Mora and Jose "Rudy" Ochoa, both of them from Laredo, want the nomination.

Rep. Ray Allen, R-Grand Prairie, isn't answering questions about whether he'll serve out his term in HD-106, and other folks in political circles in that part of the state tell us they expect a special election for his seat next month.Allen already said he won't seek reelection after this term. And when we asked about this rumor, he said he's not ready to answer yes or no. Read into that whatever you wish. Two Republicans -- Kirk England and Edward Smith -- are after their party's nomination. Katy Hubener, who unsuccessfully challenged Allen two years ago, is the lone Democrat in the race. England is the management favorite, with endorsements from Allen, state Sen. Chris Harris, U.S. Reps. Joe Barton and Kenny Marchant, and a gang of local officeholders that includes Grand Prairie Mayor Charles England, the father of the candidate.

Rep. Ray Allen, R-Grand Prairie, is quitting early and will hang out a lobby shingle in Austin.Allen registered to vote in Austin this afternoon, which has the effect of making him ineligible for the seat he occupies in the House. His resignation letter to Gov. Rick Perry says he'll serve until midnight tomorrow. Allen says he simply can't afford to go through another special session of the Legislature, with its disruptions on his business time. Quitting now, he says, leaves time for a special election and, if necessary, a runoff election to replace him before a special session on education and public school finance. "My district will be better off electing a member now... it just seems like the right thing to do," he says. Allen has been in the House for 13 years, so he's eligible for legislative retirement. And he's over 50 years old, which means he can start collecting retirement checks from the state right away (lawmakers with 12 or more years can collect retirement after age 50; those with more than eight years in the Lege but less than 12 have to wait until they're 60 years old to draw checks). He's endorsed Kirk England, son of Grand Prairie's mayor and son-in-law of Bill Arnold, the Democrat who preceded Allen in the House. Katy Hubener, a Democrat who lost to Allen in 2004, and Edward Smith, a Republican, have also signed up for the November elections. The date for a special election to replace Allen will be set by Gov. Rick Perry, probably for next month.

Flynn, Jackson, Mechler, Vasquez, Jones, Moore, Norcross, Shannon, Scott, Campos, and HolfordRep. Dan Flynn, R-Van, will join the Texas Sunset Commission. House Speaker Tom Craddick named him to the spot held by Rep. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy. Hegar's running for state Senate, and Craddick's announcement said he gave up the sunset spot to concentrate on that election. Gov. Rick Perry named Charles Lewis Jackson of Houston, Tom Mechler of Claude, and Leopoldo Vasquez III of Houston to the Texas Board of Criminal Justice. Jackson is pastor at Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church. Mechler is an engineer and president of Makar Production Co. Vasquez is CFO of Cadeco Industries, a coffee processing firm. Perry's former general counsel, Bill Jones, is moving to Vinson & Elkins from his current perch at Locke Liddell. V&E is adding to its administrative law and lobby teams and he'll work there. Jones is currently vice chairman of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents. V&E also said its forming an "alliance" with the Texas Capitol Group, working together on some accounts.

Billy Moore, Rob Norcross, and Mike Shannon are joining ViaNovo -- the public affairs consulting firm started by a group of Austin consultants who left Public Strategies Inc. Moore and Shannon, in fact, are leaving PSI for the new gig. Moore will remain in Washington, D.C. Norcross will open a Dallas office for the firm, and Shannon, who worked on the both Bush-Cheney campaigns and also in the White House, will work out of the Austin office. The directors at Equality Texas (formerly the Lesbian/Gay Rights Lobby of Texas) hired Paul Scott as their new executive director. Scott has been the head of the Resource Center of Dallas for the past three years. He'll be on board in March. Dya Campos is leaving Austin-Based Hillco Partners to be the new director of public affairs for HEB Grocery in San Antonio. Department of Corrections: Will Holford, who got a promotion at the comptroller's office (special assistant for communications), spells his first name with two Ls and not just one, like we had it last week. Sorry, sorry, sorry.