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.

Candidates Say the Darndest Things

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."

It's England

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, 47 percent.

Job Listings

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 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.

Political Notes

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.

Traveling Salesman

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 that wants to raise sales taxes. There's a group of lawmakers 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.

Political People and Their Moves

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.

Quotes of the Week

Adnan Pachachi, former foreign minister and current Parliament member in Iraq, quoted by The New York Times on politics there with words that could have come from a Texas legislator: "Everybody seems to be imprisoned in their own sectarian or political affiliations. They don't seem to be able to rise above these things."

Nathaniel Persily, a University of Pennsylvania law professor, talking to the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times about the Texas redistricting case: "We are at a defining moment. The court is going to decide when political parties go too far in rigging electoral districts for their own advantage."

Samuel Issacharoff of N.Y.U.'s law school, talking about the U.S. Supreme Court and Texas redistricting in The New Yorker: "I think that everybody knows this is a national scandal. Every Justice has at some point said the situation is deeply wrong. They may disagree about whether the courts can do anything about it, or about how to fix the problem, but not a single member of the Court is willing to say that this is how our democracy is supposed to work."

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, after a lawyer for Texas Democrats said the current congressional map was drawn by Republicans who's only goal was to win more seats in Congress, quoted by the Associated Press: "That's a surprise. Legislatures redraw the map all the time for political reasons."

David Sickey, a tribal councilman for the Louisiana Coushattas, telling The New York Times about his tribe's support of a casino ban in Texas: "When you have any kind of business enterprise, there is going to be competition, and Indians are no exception."

Democratic consultant David Butts, handicapping the statehouse primary contest between newcomers Jason Earle, son of Travis County's district attorney, and Valinda Bolton, in the Austin Chronicle: "So given the absence of any kind of information, voters gravitate to what they know. And in this case, they're going to know that he's an Earle and she's a woman."

The campaign slogan for elderly congressional candidate Sid Smith, as reported by the Associated Press: "At 95, who needs term limits?"

Texas Weekly: Volume 22, Issue 35, 6 March 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.

Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams says early voting looked like the 2002 primaries, and he's predicting 13 percent of the state's voters will show up for either the elephants or the donkeys this year.In 2002, 5 percent of the state's voters showed up for the GOP primary, and 8.4 percent voted for the Democrats. In raw numbers, that was 1,647,237 people. Williams' guesstimates are based on early turnout in the state's 15 biggest counties. Their unofficial chart:

Some of the last shots from the 2006 primary election campaigns.U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, closes with an email to supporters telling them to turn out because Democrats have been seen voting in Republican primaries. And phone bank robo-calls are going out with messages from DeLay himself, from Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert, from Galveston County Tax Assessor-Collector Cheryl Johnson, and from the state's top lawyer. To wit: "This is Attorney General Greg Abbott with an important reminder that Election Day is this coming Tuesday, March 7th. Congressman Tom DeLay has been attacked by liberal Democrats from across the country. Now it's time to show these Democrats we stand for our conservative congressman and will support Tom in this election. More than ever, we need a congressman who isn't afraid to take on the Democrats and fight for our conservative Texas values. I hope you will join me in supporting our friend, Tom DeLay. Please vote for him on Tuesday." • Van Taylor, trying for the Republican nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, got a visit from his friendly neighborhood governor. Rick Perry endorsed Taylor over fellow Republican Tucker Anderson. In a taped message Taylor stuck on his website (at www.vantaylor.com), Perry said he's the better candidate to take on Edwards in November. Public squabbling between the Republican candidates and between the county chairs of the GOP in that district, have gotten the incumbent's attention. Edwards campaign has been emailing news clips to political reporters with the snarkiest parts highlighted in bright yellow. • Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell closed the Austin part of his primary campaign with a Sunday rally featuring an endorsement from Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin. The two won't serve together, even if Bell wins: Barrientos isn't seeking reelection. • The loudest of the state's Senate primaries ends with Sen. Frank Madla, D-San Antonio, debating an empty chair on television and with Rep. Carlos Uresti's campaign advisors filing an ethics complaint against Madla. The TV debate was set up when Uresti said he'd joust anytime and anyplace. He backed out, but the show went on without him and Madla got an open forum. Meanwhile, the Uresti camp complained to the local DA that Madla's campaign accounting didn't include all of the money it should have. His numbers don't match those filed by Texans for Lawsuit Reform, according to the complaints. The PAC reported giving $655,707 while Madla reported receiving $36,772. Madla's camp says it's a timing issue and that the numbers will match when the report dates synchronize. Somebody out on the Internet sent a note to Uresti's campaign that was scribbled on the bottom of an email that appears to have come from Helen Madla. The email urges people to vote on "Tuesday, May 6th." The note scribbled at the bottom: "You should win your election Representative Uresti because Senator Madla's wife doesn't know when election day is." • Gov. Rick Perry hit three hot spots on election eve, making campaign visits to Reps. Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington, Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, and Elvira Reyna, R-Mesquite. All three incumbents face primary opposition. • Diane Patrick -- the Republican school board member challenging House Education Grusendorf, R-Arlington -- took a late hit from several local conservatives who disagreed with her votes on textbooks as a member of the State Board of Education in 1994. That's been one of Grusendorf's themes, and he's got reinforcements: Tarrant County GOP Chair Stephanie Klick, former Chair Steve Hollern, and former Christian Coalition Chair Scott Fisher held an election eve presser to take his side. Patrick ended last week with an ethics complaint against Grusendorf, accusing him of passing out anonymous handouts. Those handouts were put on tables at a candidate forum and were targeted at those textbook votes by Patrick. The flyer included pictures of naked men, according to the Patrick camp. Grusendorf denied having anything to do with them and suggested the Patrick campaign handed them out to generate a sympathetic backlash.

Democrat Barbara Ann Radnofsky's Election Day agenda includes taking her mother to the polls and inviting reporters for a five-mile run in the middle of the afternoon. That's apparently the U.S. Senate candidate's daily regimen. • Martin Rogoff, one of the GOP precinct chairs whose name was on a letter endorsing Senate candidate Dan Patrick, pulled his name and says he'll be voting for Rep. Joe Nixon in that Houston-area contest. Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale sent out an email critical of Patrick and his campaign; Van Arsdale said he'd been attacked for his support of Nixon. Rogoff says now he's with Van Arsdale and didn't get a look at the endorsement letter that had his name on it. He says he doesn't "want to be associated with the tactics of the precinct chairs that are viciously supporting Dan." Nixon's camp, meanwhile, says Patrick listed the support of 117 GOP precinct chairs in a recent mailer and adds that 29 of them aren't actually precinct chairs. • First Lady Anita Perry opens a get-out-the-vote email with a sure indication that the people in the Governor's Mansion are not worried about their own hides: " While there aren't any high profile statewide contests that are grabbing headlines, there are still many races that are critical to the future of our great state." Her husband, Gov. Rick Perry, has three primary opponents.

The Texas Parent PAC, formed as a foil to state legislators who have resisted higher spending on schools while pushing state-level reforms in public education, endorsed a slate of candidates from both parties in their first outing as a political group. You can use this to score their efforts.The group endorsed all five Republican incumbents challenged by candidates financed by Dr. James Leininger of San Antonio, a voucher advocate whose views the TPP opposes: Reps. Roy Blake Jr. of Nacogdoches, Carter Casteel of New Braunfels, Charlie Geren of Fort Worth, Delwin Jones of Lubbock, and Tommy Merritt of Longview. The group endorsed four Republicans in open-seat contests: Jimmie Don Aycock of Killen in HD-54; Anne Lakusta of Flower Mound in HD-63; Drew Mouton of Big Spring in HD-85; and Vicky Rudy of Montgomery in HD-16. Their pick in the open SD-3 was Republican Bob Reeves of Center. The group targeted six incumbent Republicans: Betty Brown of Terrell in HD-4; Larry Phillips of Sherman in HD-62; Scott Campbell of San Angelo in HD-71; David Swinford of Amarillo in HD-87; Kent Grusendorf of Arlington in HD-94; and Elvira Reyna of Mesquite in HD-101. No incumbent Democrats were on their hit list, but they endorsed several who were challenged in their primaries, including Dora Olivo of Missouri City in HD-27; Richard Raymond of Laredo in HD-42; Juan Escobar of Kingsville in HD-43; Chente Quintanilla of Tornillo in HD-75; Norma Chavez of El Paso in HD-76; Joe Pickett of El Paso in HD-79; Helen Giddings of Dallas in HD-109; Jesse Jones of Dallas in HD-110; Kevin Bailey of Houston, in HD-140, and Garnet Coleman of Houston in HD-147.

A quick rundown of the results of last night's party primaries.Voter turnout stunk. With some counts still out, it appears the Republicans attracted 675,239 voters, or 5.3 percent of those registered, and the Democrats attracted 522,129, or 4.1 percent. • Nobody in the state's congressional delegation got beat. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, has a comfortable lead over former U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, with some ballots still left to count. And former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, got 62 percent in the GOP primary, living to face Democrat Nick Lampson in November in a race of national interest. Van Taylor, the richer of the two Republicans seeking to challenge U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, and the one with the Iraq war on his resume, won that primary. • Six incumbent state legislators -- a senator and five House members -- lost their bids for reelection. Frank Madla, D-San Antonio, in incomplete returns, appears to have fallen to Rep. Carlos Uresti. Diane Patrick, R-Arlington, beat House Public Education Chairman Kent Grusendorf in a race seen in Austin as a referendum on leadership plans for education. Truth be told, it's also a story about an incumbent going unchallenged for a long time and then getting up too slowly when serious competition finally arrived; your previous case study, two years ago, was House Appropriations Chairman Talmadge Heflin, R-Houston. Two more incumbents from the Dallas area are out, though by possibly recountable margins: Jesse Jones, D-Dallas, lost to Barbara Caraway, and Elvira Reyna, R-Mesquite, lost to Thomas Latham. • Two of the so-called Leininger Five -- Roy Blake Jr. of Nacogdoches and Carter Casteel of New Braunfels -- lost to Republican challengers. Former Rep. Wayne Christian, R-Center, beat Blake with plenty of room to spare. Nathan Macias of Bulverde had a 45-vote margin, out of more than 20,000 votes, in the Election Night count; that'll likely lead to a recount. Three others -- Charlie Geren of Fort Worth, Delwin Jones of Lubbock, and Tommy Merritt of Longview -- won handily. • There'll be a runoff for U.S. Senate, between Barbara Ann Radnofsky, who got 43.4%, and Gene Kelly, who got 37.4%. • Chris Bell is the Democrats' nominee for governor, getting 63.7% of the vote and putting Bob Gammage to bed. Gov. Rick Perry got 84 percent against three no-names. • There will be a runoff for lite Guv between Maria Luisa Alvarado (39.9%) and Ben Z. Grant (38.7 percent). Grant, with less than 40 percent of the vote, had the only non-Hispanic name in that contest. On the GOP side, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst got 78 percent against Tom Kelly, a political unknown. • In HD-38, Eddie Lucio III will join his dad in the Lege. Lucio the elder is in the Senate; the younger won a seat in the House last night. • They're still counting votes in Laredo's HD-42 and with a couple of boxes still out, Richard Raymond is 26 votes from an outright win over three challengers. • In HD-146, Rep. Al Edwards, D-Houston, was forced into a runoff against Borris Miles. • And in HD-72, Rep. Scott Campbell, R-San Angelo, will face a runoff with Drew Darby, who finished first in a three-way race there. • A couple of other Republican House members with stiff challenges both won, but in HD-78, where El Paso Rep. Pat Haggerty beat Lorraine O'Donnell by 96 votes, expect a recount. Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, was in trouble a few weeks ago, but pulled it out, getting 57.5% against Anette Carlisle. • Courts: Justice Don Willett had a three percentage point win over former Justice Steve Smith for the Texas Supreme Court. Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, beat back a challenge from Tom Price, who'll remain in his seat on that court. And Charles Holcomb and Terry Keel will run for Holcomb's spot on that court; Robert Francis of Dallas is out of that one. • Republican voters put three folks running in open seats on trajectories for the Texas Senate. In SD-3, former highway commissioner Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, got 54% in a four-man field. In SD-7, radio talk show host Dan Patrick, R-Houston, got 69% in a four-way that included two state reps and a Houston city councilman. And in SD-18, Rep. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, got 55% in his primary.

A chart is worth (well over) a million bucks....

Gamboa, Perry, Wentworth, Leininger, and DeLayLULAC's Ramiro "Gambi" Gamboa, quoted in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times on the state's decision not to fund operations at the already-built Irma Rangel Pharmacy school: "It's plain as day. They've given us a brand new Mercedes without the tires and motors, they've given us a Whataburger without the burger." Gov. Rick Perry, quoted by the Associated Press on his excitement on the eve of the primaries: "I've been doing this for 22 years. This is just another day at the office for me, and as will Tuesday be and then there will be Wednesday.? Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, on Dr. James Leininger's big spending on politics, in the San Antonio Express-News: "There are so many wealthy people who are interested in politics. That's just life. Those with money can by a Maserati, and those of us who don't have the kind of money have to buy a lesser car. That's just the way it works." Leininger, in the same paper, saying his detractors are doubling his net worth when they call him a billionaire: "They're trying to paint me as this evil billionaire trying to buy the Legislature. I'm only half-evil." U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, running an auction to raise money for the Harris County Republican Party and quoted by the Houston Chronicle: "I'm like a cemetery -- I'll take anything!"

The state's senior U.S. senator is finding out the hard way that the Internet is unforgiving of typos.In an email to supporters of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, her staff urges them to vote for her in a Parade Magazine feature on eight women to watch in advance of the 2008 elections. The address to do that is www.thewhitehouseproject.org. But the Hutchison gang directed their followers to a slightly different address, apparently by accident: www.whitehouseproject.org. The first one is a website devoted to the idea of putting a woman in the White House. The second one steals some of the same words but is all about dating and music and ads that range from starting a blog to finding all kinds of sex partners.

For all their talk about education "reform," there is little in the legislative leadership's reform proposals that would actually help most Texas children learn or make better use of education tax dollars. Instead, the leadership focuses mostly on punishing the "worst" schools, ignoring the need for higher standards for all students. Most Texas children attend schools that are good, but not great. Real reform must help these schools get better. And real accountability should control costs, not increase them.
Testing to Encourage Achievement Let's start with our tests. The TAKS measures only one level of difficulty for each grade, so once a student achieves at the required level, doing better doesn't improve TAKS ratings. If TAKS were a high jump competition, each time you cleared the bar, you would go back and jump again without raising the bar. Real reform encourages all kids to do their best, not just "good enough." Tests like the SAT cover a broad range of aptitude to recognize true achievement. Our tests should do the same. And, while we're at it, if we really want the most education for our money, we must stop wasting valuable class time teaching kids test-taking tricks and gimmicks that are worthless after testing day. Better Teachers in the Classroom We all agree we need more qualified teachers in our classrooms. If you want to become a lawyer, the state helps pay for your training. Not so if you're a college graduate and want to become certified as a teacher. If we're serious about wanting qualified professionals to become teachers, we should make them the same deal we make prospective lawyers. Many school districts now use local funds to help prospective teachers pay for training. But the Governor's "65% reform" would penalize districts that pay for teacher training because it's not money spent "in the classroom," even though a well-trained teacher is exactly who we need in the classroom. In his State of the Union address, President Bush highlighted deficiencies in science and math education. One ill-fated "reform" lowered teacher training requirements to lure engineers to teach math and science. It didn't work. Most engineers aren't interested in teaching K-12, and many who try burn out quickly when faced with classroom challenges for relatively low pay. Instead of lowering training standards to make engineers into teachers, we should help successful teachers improve their math and science skills. They may not be able to teach calculus, but a properly-trained successful teacher could motivate kids and provide a strong math-science foundation. Then our top math and science teachers could take those kids the next mile. Making Tax Dollars Accountable In the name of accountability, school districts spend millions on computers that fill out state financial reports. The leadership's "reform" plan would force districts to make costly changes to these reports, supposedly to make it easier for citizens to spot suspicious expenditures. Meanwhile, the state continues to throw the reports in a drawer. Fortunately, there are dedicated taxpayers who have time to read reports and attend board meetings. But it's not their job to manage the schools, and we shouldn't rely on them to be our only watchdogs. Last year, H. Ross Perot recommended using "tiger teams" of state auditors to carefully review district spending nearly as it happens. They'd look for anything out of line and provide warnings to school board members and the public, to stop wasteful practices early. And, if the state insists on collecting data a certain way, it should provide standard accounting software, so school districts could stop wasting time and money on software changes that have nothing to do with educating kids. Raising the Bar for Success Unfortunately, other items on the leadership's agenda also miss the mark. One "reform" would force local school boards to hold their elections on the same day as statewide partisan elections. This has everything to do with partisan politics and nothing to do with learning, but it's a "line-in-the-sand" item for the leadership. And a proposal to have the state set the beginning and ending dates for the school year simply slaps the "reform" label on removing local community control. In this spring's special session, the legislature should discuss common sense reforms that help all children learn and help us get the most out of our tax dollars. Absent that discussion, a leadership agenda that claims to be "reform" will fail our children. Hochberg, D-Houston, serves on the House Public Education Committee. He can be reached at www.scotthochberg.com.

Following the lack of consensus during the 79th Legislative Session and the Supreme Court decision, in the West Orange-Cove II case, that the State has an unconstitutional state property tax, Governor Rick Perry created a 24-member commission to make tax recommendations. Governor Perry appointed former Comptroller John Sharp to chair the committee whose objective is to develop a constitutional school finance funding system.The Texas Solicitor General, Ted Cruz, outlined five ways to address the Court's ruling. Among these ways is to buy down the property tax rate. According to Chairman Sharp, cutting school property taxes by one-third (from approximately $1.50 per $100 to $1.00) should satisfy the court. Reducing school property taxes by a third would require around $5.5 billion in state funding. One way to raise this revenue is by reforming the state franchise tax. Currently, the franchise tax provides $1.9 billion in revenue to the State. However, as the tax applies only to corporations, a significant number of businesses are not liable for this tax. One proposal under consideration would replace the existing franchise tax with an "alternative margins tax." This tax would allow businesses (both corporations and partnerships) to deduct either their total cost of goods sold or total employee compensation from gross receipts. The first computation would be similar to a value-added tax base (gross profit), while the second would be a tax on non-compensation costs plus net profit. Firms would be able to select the base that minimizes their tax liability. Using data from the IRS for corporations and partnerships for tax year 2002, and data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the estimated tax base for Texas businesses is $511.1 billion. Applying a uniform one percent rate would result in tax receipts of $5.1 billion. As the "alternative margins tax" would replace the franchise tax, which produced over $1.9 billion in FY2002, the net benefit to the State would be $3.2 billion, or enough to reduce school property taxes by 30 cents. While the "new" franchise tax would increase revenue by 250 percent, as shown in the table below, the distribution of the tax by industry under the "new" franchise tax would change markedly. With the "alternative margins tax," the proportion of tax paid by insurance and real estate, and services would increase substantially. All other industries would experience a decline in the proportion of tax paid.

For those just tuning in, that would mean a Republican state comptroller running as an independent has one of the state's prominent Democratic consultants among her advisors.Aides to Carole Keeton Strayhorn aides say consultant George Shipley isn't on the payroll yet, but they expect him to be helping the campaign. Shipley has been an advisor to a long list of Democrats over the years, including Ann Richards, Bob Bullock, Dan Morales, Henry Cisneros and Judith Zaffirini. In recent years, he's been working with the five lawyers who won a huge settlement for the state from the tobacco industry.

Lamb moves, Blifford takes HAC, Robbins gets to keep the big desk, and some appointments get handed out.Caasi Lamb is moving from the House Appropriations Committee, where she was director, to Speaker Tom Craddick's office as a policy analyst for corrections, business and industry and government reform. Andrew Blifford will take over the House committee's budget staff. He's worked for Appropriations Chair Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, for the last three-and-a-half years, most recently as legislative director. Take the "interim" off the executive director title on Pat Sweeney Robbins' desk. The board of the Associated Republicans of Texas elected her to replace Norm Newton, who's held the job since 1975. Newbie state Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, will get spots on the House Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Culture, Recreation and Tourism. House Speaker Tom Craddick assigned those after she was sworn in last week, and the assignments will hold until after the November elections, when committees are rebuilt. Alan Johnson, a Harlingen banker and a retired U.S. Army captain, will join the Veteran's Land Board. The appointment was Gov. Rick Perry's; the chairman of the VLB is Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson. Johnson is replacing the late Mike Ussery of Amarillo.
Three appointments and a reappointment to the Texas Board of Professional Land Surveying: Nedra Foster, president of Shine and Associates in Silsbee; Paul Kwan, president of Landtech Consultants in Houston; Anthony Trevino Jr., a Laredo attorney; and Douglas William Turner of League City, also with Landtech.

Railroad Commission Chair Elizabeth Ames Jones entered the final weekend with endorsements from every non-judicial statewide official except for Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn.An aide to Jones says they didn't ask for the comptroller's blessing. Strayhorn, the top vote getter of any GOP candidate four years ago, is running as an independent against Gov. Rick Perry, who appointed Jones to the RRC. Strayhorn wouldn't have endorsed Jones if she'd been asked, as it turns out. Doing so, in the view of Strayhorn's attorneys, would have put her independent candidacy at risk. Like the voters who sign their petitions, independent candidates disqualify themselves if they vote in primaries. But for the candidates, it goes further. Strayhorn's camp interprets the law to say she can't take part in any activities of a political party: endorsing their candidates, voting in their primaries, going to their functions, you name it. Jones did her a favor by not asking for her support.

Five senators and at least 17 House members will be in office for a special session this spring knowing they won't return for a regular session next January. Another three House members are in primary runoffs and will know on April 12th whether voters want them around after the end of the year.With the exceptions of two House members who hope to be in the Senate next year, those legislators will be voting as if their political futures don't depend on it. They've got nothing to lose, feeding speculation about the prospects for a tax bill and about the political stability of Speaker Tom Craddick, who's expected to seek another term in the House's top job when the Lege convenes next January. Five are leaving the upper chamber: Sens. Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria; Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin; Jon Lindsay, R-Houston; Frank Madla, D-San Antonio; and Todd Staples, R-Palestine. In the House, the Dead Members Walking include Reps. Roy Blake Jr., R-Nacogdoches; Carter Casteel, New Braunfels; Mary Denny, R-Aubrey; Bob Griggs, R-North Richland Hills; Kent Grusendorf, R-Arlington; Peggy Hamric, R-Houston; Glenn Hegar Jr., R-Katy; Ruben Hope Jr., R-Conroe; Bob Hunter, R-Abilene; Suzanna Gratia Hupp, R-Lampasas; Jesse Jones, D-Dallas; Terry Keel, R-Austin; Pete Laney, D-Hale Center; Joe Nixon, R-Houston; Elvira Reyna, R-Mesquite; Jim Solis, D-Harlingen; Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio. Put asterisks next to Hegar and Uresti; they won primaries for Senate seats and might be back in bigger offices. A few House incumbents have runoff elections ahead of them and will find out next month whether they're dead or alive, politically speaking: Reps. Scott Campbell, R-San Angelo; Al Edwards, D-Houston; and Richard Raymond, D-Laredo. Three members will serve in the special session for the first time, getting their first bite at school finance: Kirk England, R-Grand Prairie; Ana Hernandez, D-Houston; and Donna Howard, D-Austin. All three won special elections to replace members who died or resigned. And then there's a group that won't be named until November: Members who will find out in the general election that they are currently serving their last term in the Legislature. But they'll be voting and behaving in a special session as if they're coming back; the free agents are the people who'll know during the special session that their days of political risk -- and perhaps, caution -- are behind them.

Legislators seeking higher offices got mixed results on Election Day.Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine, didn't have an opponent in the GOP primary for agriculture commissioner; he's okay so far. Rep. Terry Keel, an Austin Republican who was the only other lawmaker seeking statewide office, will be in a runoff against incumbent Judge Charles Holcomb for the GOP nomination to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Houston Republican Reps. Peggy Hamric and Joe Nixon finished second and third in a race for state Senate. Reps. Glenn Hegar Jr., R-Katy, and Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, won their primaries for state Senate and move to the next round. Uresti beat Sen. Frank Madla; Hegar was running for Ken Armbrister's spot since the Victoria Democrat didn't seek another term. Rep. Ruben Hope Jr., R-Conroe, decided he'd rather be a state district judge than serve a fifth term in the House. Now he's headed for a runoff. He got 32 percent of the vote in a six-person race for the 258th District Court. He'll face Cara Wood, who got 25 percent, on April 11. The last-place finisher in that field is a former House member: Keith Valigura.

Sen. Mario Gallegos released the following statement today: "I have been increasingly aware and concerned that I have a disease. I am an alcoholic.""Through this disease, I have injured my health and caused pain to my family. For the sake of those whom I represent in the Texas Legislature, my family, and for my own well-being, under the guidance of my physician I recently quit drinking and am currently enrolled in a one month residential treatment program to help get me on the right track toward a healthier lifestyle. "I am in contact with my legislative staff so that I may remain abreast of the issues and responsive to my constituents. I plan to continue my legislative duties and will devote my full energies to representing the people of the 6th Senatorial district as we move into an expected special session on public education funding. "I am proud to represent the people of my Senate district, and I want them to be proud of me. I ask for your support and prayers as I battle this disease."