It's an odd election season, with little of real interest at the top of the ballots and blossoming competition in Republican primaries. State leaders don't seem to know what to do with themselves.

Gov. Rick Perry is talking smack about Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a Republican who's running as an independent and isn't even on the ballot yet.

The Speaker of the House is watching over a mess of races where people who've helped him and people who've put rocks in his shoes are fighting off challengers. He's helping both types with endorsements, but is keeping his purse strings tied and either hasn't tried or hasn't succeeded at calling off Republicans who are financing challengers to Republican incumbents. The Lite Guv has barely showed his head as Republicans battle for three seats in the Senate he leads.

Groups that were getting all the attention a couple of years ago aren't playing. Stars Over Texas, set up to defend Republican incumbents in the House, has been dormant. The Texas Trial Lawyers PAC is sitting on some money (over $250,000 on hand a couple of weeks ago, when 30-day reports were filed), but hasn't played big yet. The Texas Partnership (Democrats) and Texas for a Republican Majority are out of business.

The Texas Parent PAC hasn't had much money go through it, at least through the latest reports. Two new Republican PACs have been busy, almost entirely because San Antonio Dr. James Leininger opened his checkbook. We've reported on his contributions to the Texas Republican Legislative Campaign Committee and its five targeted races. He's also the financial fuel behind a PAC called The Future of Texas Alliance, giving that group $100,000. The group paid Noble Strategic Partners and reported that outfit — run by Bill Noble, a GOP consultant — used the money to do work for reelections of several House members: Reps. Leo Berman, Betty Brown, Scott Campbell, Rob Eissler, Dan Flynn, Larry Phillips, and David Swinford. Another contributor to the Future committee was the All Children Matter PAC, which spent more than $100,000 on polling that was given to the Future PAC, apparently to look at voter preference in the districts of some or all of those candidates. All Children Matter reported only one contribution in more than a year — less than $5,000 from Leininger.

House Speaker Tom Craddick has $3.1 million in his campaign account, but has no opponent. He also hasn't used any of that money on behalf of House allies who find themselves under attack in the March primaries. And though we've heard some candidates and consultants kvetching about it, he doesn't appear to be on the verge of unlocking that vault.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is quiet, too, in spite of a couple of noisy Senate primaries that feature, in one case, a candidate who's been nagging Dewhurst on the radio for years. Republican Dan Patrick is leading a four-person race to replace Sen. Jon Lindsay, R-Houston. He's been regularly critical of Dewhurst on his talk radio show for a long time, and we'd have guessed, incorrectly, that Dewhurst might take the opportunity to answer.

Craddick has lent his name to several candidates facing opposition in the primaries, including several who were on the other side of some emotional votes on school finance and education. He's campaigned for Kent Grusendorf, Carter Casteel, Charlie Geren, Roy Blake Jr., and Scott Campbell, to name a few. Dewhurst has been less involved, but lent his name to a fundraiser for Grusendorf, as did Perry.

The Watch List

This isn't a list of all the primaries, and it only includes races with incumbents. Why are these here? They're serious contests, we think, according to conversations with political types in Austin and in the districts, finance reports with the Texas Ethics Commission, and not a few direct reports of jangled candidate and challenger nerve endings. Some of these appear too close to call and some will probably wash out, though we're not going to make predictions. It's the list of races that seem to be getting the most attention, for all the usual reasons.

Democrats

CD-28 — Henry Cuellar, Laredo, and Ciro Rodriguez, San Antonio. This is a bitter rematch of two former colleagues in the Texas Legislature. Rodriguez got a kick-start when Cuellar schmoozed with President Bush at the State of the Union speech. Victor Morales of Little White Truck fame is in here, too, and could be a spoiler if it's close.

SD-19 — Frank Madla and Carlos Uresti, San Antonio. Madla's first race in years is, by most accounts, tight. Uresti is challenging him on health and human service issues and says the incumbent is too close to Republicans in power. Madla appears to be stronger in the western counties — the district reaches all the way to El Paso County — but Bexar County, the population center, is a tossup.

HD-42 — Richard Raymond and three challengers, Laredo. Three Democrats got into this race when Raymond decided to run for Congress, but they wouldn't leave when he abandoned the federal contest and came back. Former Webb County Judge Mercurio Martinez appears to be the lead challenger in both name ID and money raised.

HD-76 — Norma Chavez v. Marty Reyes, El Paso. Chavez, a Democratic committee chair in a Republican House, was an activist first and knows how to get voters worked up. Reyes, an Ysleta ISD trustee, is sister-in-law to U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso.

HD-110 — Jesse Jones and Barbara Mallory Caraway, Dallas. Jones has had only one primary opponent in the last dozen years, and Caraway is a former city council member well known (for better and for worse) in the district. It's on our list of sleepers.

HD-140 — Kevin Bailey and John Reyes, Houston. Bailey, who chairs the General Investigating and Ethics Committee in the House, has a potential demographic problem; he's running against a guy with a well-known political name in a district that's predominantly Hispanic. Reyes is kin to Ben Reyes, a former legislator and city council member.

HD-146 — Al Edwards and two challengers, Houston. Edwards, a relatively early Democratic supporter of House Speaker Tom Craddick, is another chairman in the Republican House and has a target painted on his back because of it. Al Bennett and Boris Miles are on the ballot against him in a district marked by very low turnout.

Republicans

CD-22 — Tom DeLay, Sugar Land, and three challengers. The former House Majority Leader is on everybody's endangered species list, but he'll have more money to fuel his defense and most eyes are on the general election, where former U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson will be waiting, rather than the primary.

HD-4 — Rep. Betty Brown, Terrell, and Wade Gent, Forney. Her term limits pledge — which was actually in a race she lost two years before getting her seat in the House — has run out. Gent, a lawyer with offices in Fort Worth, is the son of a well-known Kaufman County Judge. And he's making an issue of her school finance and tax votes.

HD-6 — Leo Berman and Gus Ramirez, Tyler. Berman also pledged to limit his time in Austin and is now renegotiating that deal with voters. Ramirez, a restaurant owner, is a former Tyler city council member and Smith County commissioner.

HD-7 — Tommy Merritt and Mark Williams, Longview. Merritt is a perennial target of social conservatives in the GOP. He lost a special election race for state Senate, but has beat back challengers for his House spot. He's one of five candidates targeted by Dr. James Leininger, a Republican financier and school voucher advocate from San Antonio; more than 90 percent of Williams' money has come from a group that is, in turn, almost entirely funded by Leininger.

HD-9 — Roy Blake Jr., Nacogdoches, and Wayne Christian, Center. Another race targeted by Leininger's Texas Republican Legislative Campaign Committee. Blake's father was a state senator and the name ID probably helped him win two years ago, when Christian gave up the spot for an unsuccessful congressional bid. Leininger's money is actually an issue in the race, and Blake has an endorsement from Craddick and is getting help from the likes of state Sen. Todd Staples, Ag Commissioner Susan Combs and Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who's cutting radio spots on his behalf.

HD-62 — Larry Phillips, Sherman, and Charlie Williams, Van Alstyne. Phillips' challenger is a former teacher, school board member, principal, coach... guess what the subject of the election is.

HD-72 — Scott Campbell, San Angelo, is trying to fend off Drew Darby and Kevin Housley. The incumbent provided challengers with some issues to talk about — a traffic stop and an incident at a massage parlor (his allies spun that into "day spa" in no time at all), but Craddick has visited and lent his support.

HD-73 — Carter Casteel, New Braunfels, and Nathan Macias, Bulverde. Casteel has turned Leininger's support for Macias into the main issue in the race and has ardently pursued and paraded support from Craddick, Patterson, Combs, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and others to defend her seat. She was one of the ringleaders in shooting vouchers down during 2005. If she wins, it's a sign that you can buck management and thrive. If she loses, it'll be a sign that bucking management is hazardous to political health.

HD-78 — Pat Haggerty and Lorraine O'Donnell, El Paso. The incumbent is one of three Haggerty brothers on the ballot, and he's generally more controversial with Republicans outside El Paso than those within. But some prominent El Pasoans are backing O'Donnell and Haggerty's in a tough contest.

HD-83 — Delwin Jones, Van Wilson, and Frank Morrison, Lubbock. Jones is number four on Leininger's list, if you're counting by district number. His big sin with a lot of Republicans is that he supported a Democrat from the district next door, House Speaker Pete Laney. Wilson is a developer who's hooked up to the San Antonio pipeline; Morrison is a former council member. Jones, like some others similarly situated, is running against his challenger's chief supporter.

HD-87 — David Swinford, Dumas, and Anette Carlisle, Amarillo. Swinford, chairman of the House State Affairs Committee, is one of several candidates targeted by the new Texas Parent PAC, started by education activists who don't like the direction the Lege has taken on school finance and education issues. But that's not the big issue in the race; the big deal is Swinford's ill-fated attempt to get Carlisle knocked off the ballot for being on the Amarillo school board.

HD-94 — Kent Grusendorf and Dianne Patrick, Arlington. If efforts to knock him off are successful, Grusendorf will be this year's Talmadge Heflin. Heflin, the House Appropriations Chairman and a close Craddick ally, lost narrowly in a true upset in 2004 (he's signed up for a rematch) after leading the Legislature through a bloody budget fight. Grusendorf pushed the education reforms that divided folks sharply into Yups and Nopes, and the Texas Parent PAC helped recruit Patrick to challenge him. Like Grusendorf, she's a former member of the State Board of Education, and she's also a trustee in the Arlington ISD. It is a close race.

HD-97 — Anna Mowery, Fort Worth, and Robert Aaron Higgins, Benbrook. Another sleeper that's on our radar but not, frankly, on most others. Higgins isn't running a rich campaign, but he's got more money than you see from average file-em-and-forget-em candidates.

HD-99 — Charlie Geren, Chris Hatley and Colby Brown, Fort Worth. If Carter Casteel was Batman last year, Geren was Robin, standing with her to rout Grusendorf and Craddick on vouchers with Leininger reportedly in the lobby behind the House chamber cadging votes. The doctor from San Antonio is, through TRLCC, Hatley's biggest supporter. Bob Perry, the Houston homebuilder who's regularly on Republican balance sheets, is contributing to Hatley, too.

Do You Still Call Them Voters If They Don't Vote?

Early voting is underway, but if you don't make it to the polls, you'll be among the vast majority of registered voters in Texas. Neither of the state's political parties has turned out more than 10 percent of the registered voters since 1994, when 11.5 percent showed up for the Democratic primary.

In 1990 and 1992, when the primaries featured interesting, high profile and competitive races, both parties broke that mark. (The Republicans had four major gubernatorial candidates in 1990 and the Democrats had three; new political maps and a noisy presidential race marked the 1992 season.) Since then, the combined primary turnout for the two major parties has remained — with one exception — under 15 percent of the full turnout. As a rough rule of thumb, turnout in Texas triples in November when compared to the party primaries, but the numbers expand and contract with voter interest. In 2004, a presidential election year, 7.4 million Texans voted in November, but only 1.5 million bothered with the primaries. That's about a 1:5 ratio. In 2002, general election turnout was lower and primary turnout was higher; the March number was 36 percent of the November number.

 

Voters will see only two races of real interest at the statewide level in March. On the Democratic side, Chris Bell and Bob Gammage are after the nomination. And on the Republican side, former Supreme Court Justice Steve Smith, who knocked off a Rick Perry appointee to get on the bench the first time, is out to do it again. Don Willett, Perry's appointee, is trying to win a term in his own right.

The absence of high-profile fights is potentially good news for independent candidates like Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman, who need the signatures of registered voters who skip primaries. Voting for either party in March takes voters off the list of those eligible to support independents; if the numbers this year are like those in, say, 1998 — a gubernatorial election year without much excitement at the tops of primary ballots — the pool of potential petition signers will include 75 to 80 percent of the people who do care enough to vote in November. If you only count Texans who vote in November but not in March, that pool has 2.5 million to 3 million voters. Look at the difference between the number of people who play in March and the number of people who are registered — you're talking about 9.5 million to 10 million who'd be eligible to sign a petition. The two each need about 45,540 valid signatures to win a place on the ballot.

Four Out of Five Lawyers

The State Bar of Texas polled its members to see what the people who know most about judicial candidates think. The results include unhappy surprises for a couple of incumbents.

The state's lawyers (at least those who answered the poll) like four of the Texas Supreme Court incumbents on the ballot over their challengers. But the latest addition to the court — Rick Perry appointee Don Willett — came in behind Democrat Bill Moody of El Paso in the bar's tally. The good news for Willett is that the lawyers liked him better than the other Republican in the race, former Justice Steve Smith.

In the race for presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the attorneys like Sharon Keller. Tom Price, who's on that court and challenging Keller for the middle seat, finished third behind J.R. Molina, the Democrat who'll face the GOP nominee.

One hot race for that court wasn't included in the poll because the list of candidates wasn't ready when the lawyers were listing their preferences. State Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, is running against two judges — incumbent Charles Holcomb and trial judge Robert Francis — for a spot on the court. Keel knocked them both off the ballot for irregularities in their applications, but the Texas Supreme Court let them back on after a hearing.

The lawyers weighed in on races for various courts of appeal around the state. The poll is nonscientific; lawyers decide for themselves whether to play, and in some cases, they don't know the judges involved any better than anyone else. The results came from 7,739 attorneys surveyed online and 7,021 who did it on paper. You can see full results at www.texasbar.com/pollresults.

On Deck

Don't throw out your old crayons just yet. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next week (March 1) on congressional districts drawn by Texas legislators, and the pile of briefs in that case would fill your average SUV.

If you're inclined to pore through the papers, the law school at Ohio State University is keeping up with the filings: www.moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/henderson.php.

The people challenging the political maps (several suits were combined for the appeals) say the Texas map is unconstitutionally political, that it violates the federal Voting Rights Act provisions that make each vote count equally, and that the Legislature shouldn't be allowed to revise legislative districts in mid-decade.

The first complaint was addressed in a Pennsylvania case where eight of the justices split evenly and the ninth said the Pennsylvania map was legal. That justice — Kennedy — left the door open for the Texas case, saying it would be possible to draw a map so politically biased it would be unconstitutional. The two other arguments are related. Legislatures have to redo political lines every decade, when the feds produce a new census. They aren't required to do it any other time, raising the question of whether they're allowed to do it any other time. If they are allowed, Democrats in Texas say another census should have been done first. Drawing political lines with old census numbers means fast-growing areas won't get their due in the new maps, and that slow- and no-growth areas will get more than their share. That, they argue, violates the "one-person, one-vote" provisions of federal law.

The state's position is easy: The plans are constitutional, just as lower appellate courts have said. Nothing untoward happened in the making of the maps, by the state's reckoning.

The court usually issues rulings in late June and early July, so Texas politicians ought to get their answer sometime after a special session on school finance, sometime before the general elections, and while most Texans are more concerned with summer pursuits. Some possible outcomes (with no probability attached):

• The court upholds the congressional lines and everybody goes home. Congressional elections proceed. A win for Republicans, who are trying to maintain control of Congress in President George W. Bush's final mid-term elections.

• The court rules that mid-decade redistricting is unconstitutional. Put the old map, drawn after the 2000 census (by a federal court, no less), in place and reopen the elections already underway. A win for Democrats, both in Texas and in Washington; reverting to the old configuration could replace four to six Texas Republicans with Democrats.

• The court rules that mid-decade is okay, but not without a census to ensure equal representation. Reset the lines and decide whether to do a census and a remap. A temporary loss for Republicans, but with permission for a do-over.

• The court rules that the Texas case was too motivated by politics. This one, at best, would confuse all of the animals in the political zoo. Pennsylvania's map-making was legal, and if Texas redistricting isn't, then the court will be describing, in some way, that Republicans could still draw a map so long as they're a little more like Pennsylvania (in a legal sense) and a little less Texan. This is fuzzy territory, and it's also what made some legal scholars squint at the Pennsylvania case. Remember the court's decision on porn, when they said "you know it when you see it?" The same sort of standard, without the titillation, applies here. The Texas case gives the court an opportunity to clarify the confusion, if they can muster five votes for a definition.

Political Notes

Chris Bell got the endorsement of four of the state's biggest newspapers: Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Antonio. And he picked up the endorsement of former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk.

Not all was sweetness and light, though: Bell was more than a week late with the personal financial statement candidates are required to file with the state. That blunder left him open to a shot from his Democratic primary opponent, Bob Gammage, whose campaign took the opportunity to question Bell's bona fides on campaign ethics. Bell counters with an endorsement from Richard Morrison, who challenged Tom DeLay in 2004. Morrison defended Bell, who filed the original ethics complaints against DeLay in Congress, and blasted Gammage for the criticism.

• Donna Howard will be sworn in on March 2 — that's Texas Independence Day for you new folks. The Austin Democrat's win in what had been a Republican seat makes the partisan numbers in the House 85-64 in favor of the Republicans. The 150th spot belonged to Republican Ray Allen, R-Grand Prairie, who resigned. He'll be replaced in a special election next week. Howard plans to start with a meeting that'll bring the six superintendents in her district together with Democrat John Sharp, who's been working on an increase in state business taxes and other taxes to pay for cuts in local school property taxes. Howard complained during her campaign that the state is paying only 36 percent of the costs of its public school system. Sharp's exercise — ordered up by Gov. Rick Perry — would change that if the Legislature is willing to approved $6 billion in new taxes to pay for the local cuts.

• A mailer attacking Rep. Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, features on one side a partial view of a math test. Written over the problems there is a big red "F" with a circle around it. Mark Williams, the challenger, is attacking Merritt's voting record, and you're welcome to grade that as you please, but the answers on the math test in the picture are 100 percent correct.

• Department of Corrections: We squib-kicked a reference to the John Tower—Bob Krueger race for U.S. Senate last week. It took place in 1978. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Political People and Their Moves

Ector County District Attorney John Smith is putting on the robes; Gov. Rick Perry appointed him to the 161st District Court in Odessa.

Perry named three new trustees to the Texas County and District Retirement System that oversees pension and other benefits for local governments. Nueces County Commissioner H.C. "Chuck" Cazalas of Corpus Christi, Dallas County Treasurer Lisa Hembry, and Brazos County Tax Collector and Chief Appraiser Gerald "Buddy" Winn of Bryan will join that board.

The Guv named Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Elizabeth Ames Jones to the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.

Former U.S. Rep. Pete Geren of Fort Worth won Senate confirmation to be Under Secretary of the Army — the highest civilian job under Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Carol Dinkins won Senate confirmation to chair the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, created on the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. She's an attorney with Vinson & Elkins in Houston.

George Scott Christian signed on as a partner with the Cantey & Hanger law firm, but will keep the public affairs business he took over from his dad. The law firm is starting up a public and regulatory law section; Christian will head that.

Hilda Bustos is leaving the San Antonio Water System, or SAWS, after eight years to be the new assistant manager of external affairs at Toyota.

We told you the Associated Republicans of Texas hadn't named a new executive director to replace Norm Newton, but we left out a bit. Pat Sweeney Robbins will take the interim job.

After five years in Washington, D.C., Laura Lawlor is back in Austin and has hung out a consulting shingle. She was a legislative aide who worked on policy for then-Gov. George W. Bush and went federal when he did, most recently as deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She's planning to work on state and federal issues.

Carole Barusch is leaving AARP's Texas office — she's the communications director — for a community development job with the City of Austin.

Deaths: Bill Tryon Jr., the sort of political consultant who gives you hope for others in that business, after a three-year battle with cancer. He was 42. Tryon once fired a candidate/client who lied to him about personal problems that later turned up in the campaign, and he started a consultancy in 1999 that never lost a race.

Quotes of the Week

Mickey Blum, a pollster for The Dallas Morning News, on what she's finding in surveys on the Texas governor's race: "You have Democrats nobody ever heard of, a Republican incumbent getting only a third of the vote, weird independents doing about as well as Democrats. I guess it's Texas being Texas."

Kinky Freidman, in the Dallas Business Journal: "I'm not going to meet any lobbyists when I'm governor, following (former Minnesota Gov.) Jesse Ventura's lead... Because every time a bell rings, another lobbyist gets his wings. And I'm going to stop that."

Democratic House candidate Tom Malin, quoted in The Dallas Morning News about public revelations that he once worked as a prostitute: "I don't regret my past, nor do I wish to shut the door on my past. I think anyone who has made mistakes in their lives can be a viable member of community and society."

Private investigator Tony Cordova of McAllen, in a San Antonio Express-News story about $46,000 owed him by former U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio: "I just want to get paid."

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Texas Weekly: Volume 22, Issue 34, 27 February 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.

Kirk England beat Democrat Katy Hubener and Libertarian Gene Freeman and will take the place of former Rep. Ray Allen, R-Grand Prairie.England lost the election day voting by 151 votes, but came out of early voting with a 499-vote margin. That was plenty, and the Republican newcomer to politics is on his way to the statehouse. The three will meet in the November general election with the winner getting a full term in the House. England pulled in 52.9 percent of the 5,274 votes cast. In percentage terms, that's close to what Allen got against Hubener two years ago, when he won 52.6 percent of 35,815 votes cast. Hubener ended up with 46.2 percent of the vote. In 2004, running in the general election against Allen, she got 47.4 percent of the vote. Final campaign finance numbers (spending, especially) aren't in, but Hubener reported raising $110,142 for the special election and spending $81,245. England raised $147,138 and spent $91,383. Those numbers include the reports filed eight days before the election and the beginning of year reports before that, along with telegram reports on late contributions. Late spending isn't in there. But based on those numbers and the unofficial vote totals, Hubener spent $33.32 per vote, and England spent $32.77 per vote. One oddment from the election numbers: England won 259 of the 358 early mail-in ballots. That's 72 percent. He got 58 percent of the early in-person vote. On Election Day, he got 47 percent.

Rep. Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington, is in the last week of the toughest race of his political life, and he sounds remarkably like a man who has taken himself hostage. "We will pass legislation to fix school finance this spring or I'll resign," he told a group in Arlington, and then repeated for us and other newsies in a press release.His own announcement calls that "a rare and bold move," and he says the Texas Supreme Court's ruling on the case -- which wasn't available to lawmakers who failed to solve the puzzle last year -- will make the difference. His whole quote: "For the last 19 years, I have dedicated my career to improving the lives of Texas children and today I am reaffirming my commitment and resolve to get the job done. "I am confident in my ability and the ability of the Republican leadership in the House and Senate to find common sense solutions, build on the bipartisan Sharp Commission's recommendations, and send a bill to Governor Perry he can sign with pride.? Play out the possibilities, just for sport: The winner of next week's HD-94 Republican primary between Grusendorf and Diane Patrick will face Democrat David Pillow in November. That's a Republican district, but if Grusendorf's the winner and school finance doesn't fly, Pillow could win the political lottery. • Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, is spending at least as much time running against one opponent's financiers than against the opponent. And he's gone negative on the money man, in a story in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "Dr. [James] Leininger is a desperate old man, a rich old man, who wants to buy his way. He wants people to whore for him, and I won't do it. District 99 is not for sale. I think next week, the voters will show Dr. Leininger that." Geren happily repeated the line a few days later, when he learned that several Republican colleagues in the House -- Linda Harper-Brown of Irving, Bill Keffer of Dallas, Jodie Laubenberg of Parker Bill Zedler of Arlington, and Mary Denny of Denton -- were endorsing Hatley. "I'd a whole lot rather have the endorsements of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, House Speaker Tom Craddick, [former Lt. Gov.] Bill Ratliff, [Sens.] Chris Harris and Kim Brimer than a bunch of sophomores... and Mary Denny, who's not even running again." He singled out Zedler who, according to Geren, had said he wasn't getting involved in Hatley's race: "He's lying just like they are." As for Leininger, Geren said, "he's just digging himself a hole." • Van Taylor, a veteran who wants the GOP nomination to run against U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, took the gloves off after his opponent, Tucker Anderson, sent out mail pieces quoting a woman who said Taylor's long-windedness reminded her of a U.S. senator from Massachusetts. That, in Taylor's judgment, opened the door for negative campaigning: "When my opponent called me John Kerry, I had to defend myself. It's an affront, it's low, it's dirty and it's wrong."

Back in the middle 1980s, a Dallas savings and loan tycoon who gave a lot to Texas Democrats said it was usually better to be the second- or third-biggest political giver in any given election cycle, since the guy giving the most took the shots in the papers. But sometimes, the guy you think is giving the most money is actually in second place.Dr. James Leininger of San Antonio (along with his wife, Cecilia Leininger) has been taking the shots in the papers, but look over his shoulder: Homebuilder Bob Perry of Houston (along with his wife, Doylene Perry) has given $588,000 so far this year, according to the Texas Ethics Commission. And since July, when the fundraising for the current political cycle was already well underway, he's given $2.3 million. Add a little more: If you count the money the Perrys (no kin to the governor) have poured into Texas politics since the regular legislative session ended last May, you'll get $3,176,779.50. (The significance of that DATE: most state officeholders are barred from raising money during regular legislative sessions, and they end their six-month fast with a powerful hunger for campaign cash.) Leininger, by way of comparison, has contributed $2,897,817.89 over that same period. Leininger's contributions this cycle have been concentrated, with $1.8 million going to the Texas Republican Legislative Campaign Committee and another $495,000 going to the Future of Texas Alliance. The rest went to a variety of candidates and causes and committees, including $106,600 to Gov. Rick Perry, $100,000 each to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and to Texans for Marriage, $65,000 to the Texas Republican Party, and $50,000 to Attorney General Greg Abbott. Perry has a longer list of beneficiaries, including $401,000 to Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC; $320,529 to Abbott; $210,000 to Dewhurst; $205,000 to Gov. Perry; $100,000 to Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams (who's not on the ballot); $200,000 each to Ag Commissioner Susan Combs, who's running for comptroller, and Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones (who is on the ballot); $195,000 to Hillco PAC; $185,000 to Rep. Joe Nixon, R-Houston, who's running for state Senate; $150,000 to Texans for Marriage; $95,000 to the Texas Republican Party; and $80,000 to Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson. Unlike Leininger, Perry has some Democrats on the list of people he has supported in this cycle, including Reps. Ana Hernandez of Houston, $25,000; Norma Chavez of El Paso, $10,000; Allan Ritter of Nederland, $7,000; Harold Dutton of Houston, $1,000; Ismael "Kino" Flores of Palmview; Armando "Mando" Martinez of Weslaco, $1,000; Jose Menendez of San Antonio, $1,000; Sylvester Turner of Houston, $15,000; Mike Villarreal of San Antonio, $1,000; Sens. Rodney Ellis of Houston, $12,500; Frank Madla of San Antonio; Mario Gallegos of Houston, $11,000; Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa of McAllen, $2,500; Eddie Lucio Jr., $15,000; Eddie Lucio III (running for the House), $10,000; and John Whitmire of Houston, $20,000. The two big donors aren't always on the same side. Leininger is the money behind Wayne Christian's effort to regain his old House seat against Roy Blake Jr.; Perry's with Blake. But Leininger has four other Republican primary races (in particular) in his gunsights, and Perry's with him in three of those, supporting Van Wilson against Rep. Delwin Jones in Lubbock; Mark Williams against Rep. Tommy Merritt in Longview; and Chris Hatley against Charlie Geren in Fort Worth.

Behind all the election noise, that business about taxes and school finance is still rumbling along, and it's not a smooth ride. There is nothing like the prospect of a tax vote in an election year to get lawmakers and taxpayers twitching.The state has a surplus, and some lawmakers want to use that $4.3 billion as a temporary fix for school finance -- a solution that would make for a short and sweet special session this spring followed by a regular session next year that starts with the need for a $6 billion tax bill. That idea is appealing to legislators who face opponents in November because it means they wouldn't have to make any politically hazardous votes on taxes between now and then. It also would make for a quick session -- and after two special sessions last summer, lawmakers don't relish the thought of a dragged-out fight in Austin. Former Comptroller John Sharp, enlisted by the governor to come up with a state tax that would replace part of those local property taxes, is trying to keep the tax fix alive. He and Gov. Rick Perry have been visiting with small groups of legislators, and Sharp is trying to enlist the support of business groups and trade associations. We caught him at the Texas Motor Transport Association's meeting, but we've asked around, and it's pretty much the same version other groups are getting. If you listen carefully to his pitch, you can detect some of the political trouble spots that have come up in the sessions with lawmakers and tax policy types. The state has to pay a bigger share of public school costs to lower pressure on local school property taxes, so districts can lower those rates and the Texas Supreme Court will settle down. The current rig, the court says, is unconstitutional. Perry and other state leaders want to broaden the state's tax on businesses and to lower local property taxes by the same amount, so they can fix this and still say, with straight faces, they didn't raise taxes. That'll be true, on average. But it also means some Texas businesses will be paying a new tax with no obvious benefit to anyone but state government: Current taxpayers would get a break at the expense of new taxpayers. The legislators who have to vote on the thing want to know that those new taxpayers won't have a bad reaction.

Sharp wants to replace the state franchise tax with a tax on business receipts. Companies would take their gross receipts, deduct their choice of Cost of Goods Sold or Payroll and Benefits, and then pay a one percent tax on what's left. That's the gist of it; the actual mileage will vary as they fiddle with definitions and such. The pitch from Sharp and the tax reform panel he's heading starts with the things that can't be done. Bigger homestead exemptions wouldn't satisfy the court. Wiping out property tax exemptions already on the books would hurt economic development. Raising sales taxes would put the state on the high end of consumption taxes among the states and could hurt bidness. Though he's not saying it would be on the agenda this spring (he's not saying otherwise, either), Sharp says the state needs to make increases in property taxes more difficult so that local governments can't hide rate increases behind increases in property values. Waiting until the regular session, he warns, would put all the bargaining chips back on the table; school finance would get lost in a fight between lawmakers who want more money for schools, he says, and those who want education reform first. That's his argument for a spring fix, when the governor can limit what's on the agenda for consideration. Catch the trouble spots? There's a faction on his committee that wants to raise sales taxes. There's a group that wants to put a permanent fix off for a year. There's a group that wants property tax reform. There's a group that wants homestead exemptions. And there are groups that don't want to do anything with taxes unless they can get education reform or more money for schools -- or both -- in the bargain.

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.