Campaign finance reports have started trickling in (good results often get announced before the filing deadline, so as to avoid being obliterated by other news from other campaigns). Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn says her reports will show she raised $1.5 million in the last ten days of June, bringing her cash on hand to $7 million. Details, like who gave and how much, won't be available until she has filed her full report. Meanwhile, Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs, who's running for the spot currently occupied by Strayhorn, raised $838,421, bringing her piggy bank's balance to $2.4 million. She also offered no details. The reports -- and the ones you'll see after the filing deadline passes -- reflect fundraising between the end of the legislative fundraising blackout on June 19 and the end of the month. Federal candidates and state candidates who weren't in state office during the legislative session aren't subject to the blackout.
• Jimmy Evans, son of former state Rep. Charlie Evans of Fort Worth, says he'll run for the House. He's looking at an open seat in Austin, where Rep. Terry Keel, a Republican, is preparing a race for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Evans, also a Republican, ran for the House in 1996 in his father's old district but lost to Todd Smith, R-Euless, who still holds that seat. Evans is one of several people talking about HD-47, but he'll be the first we know of to file his paperwork and actually get into the contest.
• Gina Benavides, a McAllen lawyer, says she'll run for the 13th Court of Appeals, a Corpus Christi-based appeals court that hears cases from 20 counties in that part of the state. Benavides will be running against an incumbent, Errlinda Castillo, in the Democratic primary.
• Gov. Rick Perry went on The O'Reilly Factor to defend the state's laws on child abuse after the host of that show, on a crusade to make all 50 states bring their penalties for child abduction and battery to the level of the toughest states. In the midst of all the interruptions that pass for conversation on television, Perry said he'd encourage the Legislature to look into it when they're back in session. They're in session now and will be for another week, as Carole Keeton Strayhorn quickly pointed out. 'Tis the season.
• Department of Corrections: The chart on close races in our last edition originally referred to 2002 elections when it should have said 2004... In some editions last week, we mistakenly put Rep. Terry Keel and Judge Robert Francis into the race for 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin. The two are running for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Sorry, sorry, sorry.