Former state Rep. Glen Maxey of Austin will run for chairman of the Texas Democratic Party.He's been kicking tires up to this point, but says in a letter to supporters and potential supporters that he's decided he'll be one of the candidates at the state party's convention in June in Fort Worth. Maxey, whose day job is political and policy consulting, is one of the Democratic Party's best organizers, but he hasn't been a prominent fundraiser. This is where we'd usually insert some of the arguments against him, but he did it for us (hitting on a couple of points we'd been hearing from Democrats who aren't wild about his candidacy) in his announcement letter: "I'm an openly gay man. I'm not rich. I'm not good-looking. And I hate cocktail parties." Maxey says he'd build up county chapters of the party, bring more young people in, and fortify the Democrats' thin infrastructure in Texas. Charles Soechting, the current chairman, won't seek reelection. At least two others have said they'll probably run: Boyd Richie of Graham, and Charlie Urbina Jones of San Antonio. They are both attorneys. • Republicans haven't firmed up a contest for chairman yet, but Tina Benkiser, the current occupant of the Texas GOP's corner office, has said she'll seek reelection. Gina Parker of Waco, who lost to Benkiser last time, has been raising her profile, and former Dallas County GOP Chairman Nate Crain, who's been critical of the current team, is considering a challenge when the state party convenes in San Antonio, also in June.

House Speaker Tom Craddick named Reps. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, Joe Crabb of Humble, Tracy O. King, D-Uvalde, and Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, to the committee spots left open when Rep. Todd Baxter, R-Austin, resigned. Anchia got Local & Consent Calendars. Crabb will take a spot on the Electric Utility Restructuring oversight panel. King will be on the Edwards Aquifer Legislative Oversight Committee. Straus joins the Regulated Industries Committee. Baxter's replacement, Democrat Donna Howard, has been sworn in, but hasn't been assigned committees yet. And all of this is temporary; the speaker reworks the committees after the November elections. Gov. Rick Perry appointed Ted Houghton Jr. of El Paso, Joe Krier of San Antonio and William Madden of Dallas to the Study Commission on Transportation Financing. Houghton is on the Texas Transportation Commission and is a benefits and estate planning consultant. Krier heads the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. And Madden is president of Madden Securities Corp. The Guv named three people to the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission: El Paso attorney Rene Ordoñez; Brown County Judge Ray West; and Lea Wright, president of Windshield Sales & Service in Amarillo. The state board that regulates physician assistants has some new members and some reappointees. Timothy Webb of Houston is getting another term and will be chairman of the Texas Physician Assistant Board. Margaret Bentley of DeSoto and Dwight Deter of El Paso were reappointed by the governor. Dr. Michael Allen Mitchell of Henrietta and Pamela Welch-Sinclair of Mount Vernon are new to the panel. Perry named Sridhar Natarajan, Lubbock County's chief medical examiner, to the Texas Forensic Science Commission. Dennis Burleson of Mission is Perry's pick to chair the Hidalgo County Regional Mobility Authority. He's with A.G. Edwards & Sons. Perry wants Brian Glenn Flood to stay on as inspector general for health and human services. That's a one-year term. Jim Reaves is joining the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association as director of governmental and regulatory affairs. His old boss, Rep. Gene Seaman, R-Corpus Christi, hired Noelle Lambert in Reaves' place. Steven Polunsky is leaving the Texas Department of Transportation, where he was a policy wonk, to join the Senate Transportation & Homeland Security Committee chaired by Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, elected Michehl Gent to its board as one of two independent members. He's the former president and CEO of one of ERCOT's kin: the North American Electric Reliability Council. Rebecca Lightsey joins Texas Appleseed as executive director, replacing Annette LoVoi, who's now the president of the Texas Appleseed Fund and also is doing some work with the national affiliate. Appleseed works on justice policy with help from volunteer lawyers.

Threats of lawsuits, official campaign finance complaints, help from above, and a filibuster when the Legislature isn't in session.Gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn is kicking sand at Secretary of State Roger Williams and talking about suing the state in a dispute over when she can start collecting signatures for her independent bid for office. Her position -- verified but then retracted by a lawyer with Williams' office -- is that she can start collecting signatures after the polls close on Election Day. The folks at SOS say she can't do that until the next day. Strayhorn wanted to start grabbing signatures while party candidates are waiting to find out who won and lost. She also wanted to punch the state -- and Williams, an appointee of Gov. Rick Perry -- for making it difficult to get on the ballot as an independent. The laws governing this are rigged against independent candidates and have been for years. To run for governor, Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman each have to collect 45,540 signatures. The signers have to be registered voters who don't vote in the primary or in any runoffs. They have to sign a particular sort of form while a specifically qualified person watches, and the whole operation has to be done between next week and May 11. There's more to it, but you get the idea. Williams has said it'll take his office two months to verify the signatures -- making sure they're from registered voters who didn't vote -- and that's getting squawks from both of the independent camps. • Help from others: Delwin Jones gets some mileage out of TV spots featuring Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, talking on his behalf (and against outside money in the race). Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, is getting similar help from U.S. Rep. and former Fort Worth Mayor Kay Granger, who's endorsing him over Chris Hatley and Colby Brown. Tommy Merritt, another on the list of five incumbent Republicans challenged by Leininger-backed candidates, is relying on help from home. His wife appears on his commercials, decrying the ugly campaign against him. And Merritt topped it by filing a libel-and-slander suit to try to either slow his opponent's attacks or turn voters his way. Gov. Rick Perry did some traveling a week before the election to try to boost incumbents in challenge races. He did pressers with Reps. Betty Brown, R-Terrell, Scott Campbell, R-San Angelo, Dan Flynn, R-Van, Charlie Howard, R-Sugar Lane, and Larry Phillips, R-Sherman. • Democrat David Van Os, who's running for attorney general, plans to "filibuster for independence" for 24 hours at the state Capitol. He's invited other Democratic candidates to help him talk, starting at 6pm Friday (March 3). • The Texas Freedom Network says the state's most active conservative PAC might be operating illegally. The group complained to state election officials that the Texas Republican Legislative Campaign Committee has fewer than ten contributors -- the minimum number required for a political action committee to operate in state elections. That PAC is funded almost entirely by Dr. James Leininger of San Antonio. He's a proponent of using public money for private school vouchers; TFN is on the other side of that fight. They've also complained that another committee -- the All Children Matter PAC -- didn't properly report its fundraising and spending. That PAC is spending money it never reported raising or having available to spend, as we noted here last week.