It often happens in races for the Texas House and the Texas Senate: Losers spend more than winners in tight races. Not always, but often enough to make this exercise interesting.

One lopsided race on our list was in Austin, where Republican Bill Welch gathered $1.2 million for his contest against Democrat Valinda Bolton, who won with a war chest of $479,275. That's nearly a five-to-two financial advantage, but she's the one going to the Capitol in January. Another: Jim Landtroop, R-Plainview, had almost three times the resources of Democrat Joe Heflin of Crosbyton — $709,375 against $263,725 — but lost. And so did George Antuna, a San Antonio Republican whose race against Joe Farias, D-San Antonio, unraveled in spite of an almost three-to-one financial advantage.

We looked at 20 competitive races and in 13 of them, the candidate with the most resources lost. Money may be the mother's milk of politics, but mama can't win your race for you.

A couple of notes as you look at this chart. The state requires candidates to report how much they're bringing in during the last week of a campaign, but not how much they're spending. Those numbers won't be available until January. So we're assuming the candidates went all in — spending all of the dollars they raised and borrowed during the second half of the year. We also added in the cash on hand each candidate reported in their last filing prior to mid-year. To do otherwise would have ignored one of the biggest advantages of incumbency — the ability to raise money before your next race even starts.

We threw in Rep. Mike Krusee's contest against Democrat Karen Felthauser just to prove money isn't everything. Krusee, a Round Rock Republican, won and didn't spend nearly what he could have. But he barely broke 50 percent against a candidate who spent less than $1 for every vote she received.

Several races — assuming all the money got spent — cost more than $1.5 million when all was said and done. Antuna had more money per vote than anyone else here; Felthauser had the least. The most efficient winner, if you look at it like that, was Rep. Jim McReynolds, D-Lufkin, at $12.94 per vote. Rep. Tony Goolsby, R-Dallas, woke up early for a tough challenge and held on, but it took $44.13 per vote to do it. That was the most expensive win, on a per-vote basis, on the list. (To get a printable copy of the list by itself, click here or on the image below.)

Just Can't Stop Voting

The last two elections of the season (maybe) will be on December 12 and December 19. Early voting will start December 4 and the 11th, respectively.

Voters in CD-23, which reaches from San Antonio to El Paso, will choose between U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio, and former U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, in a runoff for that congressional seat on December 12. Bonilla got 48.6 percent of the votes in an eight-candidate field, while Rodriguez got 19.9 percent. The difference: 35,554 votes. Bonilla was in front in all but two counties and got more than 50 percent of the vote in 13 of them. Rodriguez' high-mark, in percentage terms, came in Maverick County, where he got 38 percent. Independent Craig Stephens got 2.7 percent of the vote; the six Democrats in the race got a combined 48.6 percent. The Democrats got 111 more votes together than the Republican got alone.

And in Pearland, voters will pick a successor a week later to state Rep. Glenda Dawson, a Republican who died in September but won reelection in November in HD-29. Candidates are still signing up for that one, and it could be decided next month, or in a runoff in January should one be required. Dawson, who died too late in the season for her name to be removed from the general election ballot, got 60.4 percent of the vote. Anthony Dinovo, a Democrat who plans to run in the special election, got the rest. Two Republicans are in so far, both of them from Pearland: Michael O'Day and Randy Weber.

Resistible Forces, Moveable Objects

State budgeteers will set a limit on state spending next week, even as they plot to spend far more than that limit.

The trouble — see last week's issue for the entire autopsy — is the state's roughly $11 billion tab for lowering local school property taxes.

Next week, the members of the Legislative Budget Board will choose from five estimates of personal income growth. Those cover average personal incomes in Texas over the next two years and range, roughly, from 13 percent to 17 percent. The bet here (based on what they've done their last two times at bat) is that the members of the LBB will choose the low estimate. That amount — just under 13 percent — would allow discretionary state spending to grow by $7 billion to $9 billion in the next budget.

See the trouble? School finance is $11 billion, meaning the Lege would probably bust the cap even without adding to the budget for increases in public school enrollment, health and human services caseloads, prisons, economic development, border security, and all that.

The exact numbers won't be available for a while. The LBB posted its meeting for next week but hasn't posted the five estimates it'll choose from. And the dollar amounts won't be firm until the comptroller lets loose her official estimate of revenues for the next two years. Comptroller-elect Susan Combs won't be sworn in until January; numbers you can use will follow that. The back-of-the-envelope numbers are in the $7 billion to $9 billion range. 

To make the tax swap fit, lawmakers will have to cut other spending or vote to break the spending limit. That's legal, but some think it's the sort of vote that could cause political trouble back home. On the other hand, some lawmakers think the property tax cut is more than enough cover for that spending vote.

Early estimates — these are from the number-crunchers out there and not the politicians — are that it would cost $4 billion to $8 billion more to keep doing the things the state does now and accommodate growth. And those same folks expect the state to start with as much as $15 billion that's not already committed for the next budget.

Budget Notes:

• Lawmakers ended the special session earlier this year with about $80 million in headroom in the current budget, but that's grown to $500 million or so because of vetoed spending that was tucked elsewhere in the budget.

• Not all of the new school spending is for tax relief. Budgeteers added $1.8 billion to $2.5 billion in new education spending to sweeten the pot for reluctant senators and representatives. That's part of the new spending this time, and a reason that some of the money folk think the spending cap could be in trouble even without school finance in the puzzle.

• Lawmakers will face a supplemental appropriations bill to approve spending in the current biennium that isn't in the current budget. But unlike big supplemental bills in recent sessions, the budgeteers think this one will be relatively small — under $60 million.

• The vote on the spending cap wouldn't be needed if last spring's school tax swap had been done in the form of a constitutional amendment, as the Senate originally proposed. But the House didn't have the two-thirds majority needed, which means the money raised by the new business tax can be used for local property tax relief. It doesn't require that, however. Future legislators aren't obligated to stick to this deal.

• This spending limit is just one of four in the state constitution. Lawmakers can't spend more than they have, a provision referred to as "pay as you go." Cash assistance to needy Texans can't exceed 1 percent of the budget. And debt service can't exceed 5 percent of the general revenue portion of the budget. None of those caps is under real pressure this time, though the first one will probably cause some alarm in a couple of months. Lawmakers aren't allowed to even file a budget bill that calls for more money than the comptroller says will be available. So that initial budget will assume the spending cap is in place and that state programs will have to be cut by some $2 billion to $4 billion.

• Look hard and you'll find some members trying to find a way around the vote on the cap. It's too late for a constitutional amendment to save them. And it's unlikely they'll find a way to define the tax swap money out of the state constitution's definition of discretionary spending. A higher cap on spending would work. But to fit the numbers above, the LBB would have to find an economist who thinks average personal income in the state will grow more than 29 percent over the next two years.

A Cautionary Tale

Outsourcing hasn't saved the state any money, according to the Austin-based Center for Public Policy Priorities. That group, which advocates for low and moderate income Texans and which fought privatization when it the Legislature considered it, now says it hasn't worked.

In a 60-page report available on their website, CPPP says the state hasn't yet saved money since it outsourced health and human services eligibility services, and says clients of the state programs in the mix have been slighted and denied benefits along the way. The report applauds some parts of the modernizing and outsourcing program but says the state put cost savings ahead of services. And it's critical of the state's contract with Accenture to set up and run the system, saying that contract doesn't adequately protect clients.

They end it with a couple of pages of recommendations, saying states should start with pilot programs before going full-tilt into privatization, plan carefully, and provide enough funding to make changes work.

Candid Cameras

Remember the rumor that San Antonio's James Leininger and/or other voucher supporters and lobbyists were in the House's back hall to push members to vote for a voucher bill in May 2005? There are security cameras back there, and the Texas Observer filed an open records request to look at the video to see whether anyone interesting was back there twisting arms.

The Department of Public Safety runs those cameras, and they claimed the tapes were protected by Homeland Security laws because releasing them would reveal too much about Capitol security. Attorney General Greg Abbott sided with the Observer, and DPS sued.

There's no official ruling yet, but state District Judge Stephen Yelenosky sent a letter to the lawyers on both sides telling them the tapes are public records and should be disclosed. It might reveal something about the security system, but the judge said the law doesn't make exception for that. "If the legislature intends to make otherwise public information secret because it was gathered through a means that reveals security information, it must do so explicitly," he wrote.

An official ruling — and a decision from DPS about whether to appeal — will follow.

Political People and Their Moves

Billy Hamilton, chief clerk for comptrollers Carole Keeton Strayhorn and John Sharp and one of the most respected people in state government, is leaving  that agency at the end of the month. Comptroller-elect Susan Combs, who'll take office in January, will start working on her transistion early next month. She hasn't said who she'll hire as deputy comptroller to replace Hamilton. Hamilton's on his way to the private sector after eight years at the agency. Hamilton held the post for the first seven years of Sharp's tenure in office — consulted in the private sector for a year — and was lured back by Strayhorn. He was a researcher and revenue estimator for then-Comptroller Bob Bullock, and worked for an accounting firm before coming back to work for Sharp. Hamilton says he'll do some consulting and some legislative work, as well as some projects in other states. He won't be haunting the halls where he's now the top manager — for the first year after they leave, agency employees have to keep their mitts off of anything they handled while on the state payroll. For Hamilton, that's just about everything the agency does. For similar reasons, he doesn't have any work lined up. He can't do that until he's off the payroll. Hamilton is nationally known for his work on performance reviews in Texas, California, and for the federal government, and for his work on tax policy, agency management, and related issues.

Rob Johnson will move into the office now occupied by Bruce Gibson, replacing the former legislator as chief of staff to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. Gibson, as we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, is moving back into the private sector, at least in part because that's a better vantage point to set up Dewhurst's expected 2010 race for governor. After he left the House, he worked as a lobbyist for a business group and then Reliant Energy before returning in 2003 to run Dewhurst's state operation. Johnson's been the deputy chief and Dewhurst's executive assistant since the lieutenant governor took office in 2003.

Agriculture Commissioner-elect Todd Staples says Drew DeBerry will be his deputy commissioner and Shannon Wickliffe Rusing will be the agency's chief of staff when Staples takes office in January. DeBerry is now the deputy chief of staff in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the former White House liaison to that agency. Back in the day, he was a legislative staffer here in Texas; he's an Olton native and a Texas Tech grad. Rusing is the chief of staff in Staple's Senate office now and will move over when he does. She's worked for him since 1995, and is a University of Texas grad.

Carleton Turner, the Texas Senate's Sergeant-at-Arms for the past two decades, is retiring at the end of the year. He started as an assistant in 1983 and became the jefe in 1986. Turner isn't sure what's next; right now, he's trying to grow grapes and probably savoring the idea that the Legislature is coming back in January and he won't have to babysit. That's one of a handful of jobs filled by the Senate itself; senators will elect his replacement when they convene next year.

Two doctors are in the running to head the Texas Departmnt of State Health Services: Philip Huang, who already works at the agency, and David Lakey, who's now at the UT Health Center in Tyler. Dr. Eduardo Sanchez left the agency earlier this year, and the search for a replacement is down to these two. Huang runs the agency's Bureau of Disease, Injury and Tobacco Prevention. Lakey is medical director of the Center for Pulmonary and Infectious Disease Control and the Public Health Laboratory at UT-Tyler.

Donovan Burton joins SAWS (San Antonio Water System) as legislative affairs manager. He'd been working for Rep. Frank Corte, R-San Antonio, and will remain in Austin for the new gig.

Sarah Wheat leaves NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, where she was executive director, for a new job as public affairs director at Planned Parenthood Texas Capital Region. NARAL is doing a search for a replacement.

Quotes of the Week

Kinky Friedman, reflecting on the elections in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "The people didn't really speak. They mumbled. That's the problem."

His campaign manager, Dean Barkley, in that same story: "If I had known the voter turnout was going to be what it was, I wouldn't have bothered to come down here. Let's face it, Texas voter turnout is pathetic."

U.S. Rep. Ken Marchant, R-Coppell, quoted in The Dallas Morning News about Democrats taking over Congress: "I'm apprehensive about it. I've never been in the minority in this kind of a partisan atmosphere. You don't get to carry bills. You don't get recognized in committee. You're not inconsequential, but you don't get handed the ball very much."

Departing state Rep. Peggy Hamric, R-Houston, quoted in an Austin American-Statesman story on the biennial race for better digs — like hers — at the state Capitol: "You want to feel appreciated, but you know everyone is waiting for you to leave so they can get your office."

Flower Mound resident Jack Stuffleram, quoted by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram from a hearing on property taxes: "Elected officials would rather drink hemlock than raise tax rates. When appraisals go up, they can get more tax revenue and get off the hook by saying they didn't raise the tax rate."

Dallas County Judge-elect Jim Foster, telling the Dallas Observer he almost didn't run for the job: "I was hoping we could find another person. I thought it was a crime to leave that office uncontested."

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Texas Weekly: Volume 23, Issue 23, 27 November 2006. Ross Ramsey, Editor. 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 (512) 302-5703 or email biz@texasweekly.com. For news, email ramsey@texasweekly.com, or call (512) 288-6598.

We'll have to wait a month or more to see how state legislative leaders handle a budget that's bound to grow 30 percent or more.

The really, really condensed version: School tax fixes from last spring will likely force lawmakers to spend money faster than is allowed under a constitutional cap on growth.

They can vote to bust the cap. They can cut spending they think is necessary. Or they can put the choices off until January while their employees try to find them a fast car out of here.

The Legislative Budget Board, given those options, chose Door Number Three. They'll wait until January to vote on the allowed rate of growth and on the dollar value of the part of the budget that's limited. That panel, headed by House Speaker Tom Craddick and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, is also hoping there's a way to ease the pain of a vote by a conservative Legislature to spend money faster than personal incomes in the state are rising.

That's a characterization built on incomplete information. Without the state spending money to lower local school taxes, lawmakers wouldn't be in much danger of busting the cap.

With that tax swap, there's almost no way for them to avoid it. But that's politically unpalatable to some members, and so the ten folks on the LBB are trying to find a way to sugar-coat the bitter pill.

Two points of interest. The part of the budget that's subject to the cap now stands at $55.5 billion (that's a moving target, so if and when you see a new number in a few months, don't squawk at us). They've got five estimates of how much personal income will grow over the next two years, ranging from 13.1 percent to 17 percent. The lower number would put the cap on discretionary general revenue spending at $62.8 billion; the larger one would put it at $65 billion.

The increased costs of doing what the state does now are estimated by various budgeteers at $4 billion to $8 billion. The school tax swap will cost around $11 billion in the next budget, according to some estimators we trust.

Scribble it on the chalkboard. The spending cap, depending on the growth rate, would allow $7.3 billion to $9.5 billion in new spending. School finance is $11 billion — well above the high estimate — and growth in public school enrollments, welfare and health programs, prisons, and other existing services, would add $4 billion to $8 billion. If lawmakers decided not to make cuts, and if this back-of-the-envelope figuring is in the ballpark, the Texas Lege is on the way to spending $15 billion to $19 billion more than it currently spends in discretionary funds, an increase of up to 34 percent.

They can safely and honestly blame the school deal, and say the spending cap was sacrificed to lower local taxes. Some members are comfortable with that. Some aren't.

There's an addendum to this: Some number-crunchers think the "sweeteners" included in the school tax package last spring would be enough to bust the cap if they're included with the normal growth in the budget. Add those things — teacher pay, etc. —to the $4 billion to $8 billion expected (by some) for normal growth in enrollments and caseloads and such. It's as much as $3.9 billion, and it's part of what got the school mess solved last year, but it might be considered outside the easy formulation of "we busted the cap to cut property taxes." One suggestion we've heard would be to split the budget, voting for a normal growth package, then voting on a second spending bill that included the busted cap and the school finance stuff. It might turn out to be easier to vote it all together: Incumbents could attribute the growth to the tax cut, and challengers would be burdened with doing the math for voters with short attention spans. The LBB will wait until January to see if there's an easy out, or at least an easier one.

The tragic loss of former senator Frank Madla, D-San Antonio, his granddaughter, and his mother-in-law left the Capitol in shock after Thanksgiving. Bloggers, who for the most part were hard on Madla during the last year of his legislative career and his life, have been respectful of his passing. But bloggers, being bloggers, have found new targets for the next legislative session.

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Frank Madla

A touching collection of memories is on the San Antonio Express-News website.

Dos Centavos remembered, "A few years ago, as I worked from here to stop the name change of Southwest Texas State University, it was Senator Madla that at the very least discussed my concerns with me, while others looked away."

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Round Two

The runoff election for CD-23 between Republican U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla and Democrat Ciro Rodriquez has been set for Saturday, December 12.

Phillip Martin of Burnt Orange Report notes the date, December 12, is the same day of a major event for Hispanic Catholics. Martin said, "What extent will having the runoff on the same day as the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe have on the election? It's hard to say — possibly none. But in a district that's heavily Hispanic, it'd be wrong not to recognize the coinciding dates."

Paul Burka at Texas Monthly's Burkablog agrees the date gives Rep. Bonilla a big advantage, but for secular reasons. "By choosing the earliest possible date for the run-off," Burka said, "Perry narrows the window for Rodriguez (and, more to the point, the national Democratic party) to try to overcome Bonilla's sizeable advantage in fundraising and name identification. Fewer than three weeks remain to produce TV spots and mailers to reach voters."

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Legislative Odds

Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast analyzes the number of bills filed per chamber and how many pass in each. "In my experience, a bill's passage often depends more on the legislative skill of the bill author than the content of the legislation — certainly that's true of the originally filed language. Some members know how to pass bills. Many don't. It's a lot of work to get a piece of legislation that's worth a damn all the way through the process. It's much easier to pass a piece of compromised junk, which is mostly why the laws are written the way they are."

Henson also tells us we should appreciate the House Research Organization.

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Rules are Meant to be Broken?

Vince Leibowitz at Capitol Annex is worried senators will vote to rid themselves of the 2/3rds vote rule required to bring legislation up for consideration on the floor. "So, will the 80th be the last hurrah for the two-thirds rule? We've already seen what can happen when the rule is suspended, a la the '03 Redistricting debacle. Only 16 Republican senators are needed to vote to eliminate the rule. I'm not sure that, given the political climate and the fact that some of those Republicans may finally face heavy opposition next cycle, there are 16 votes to be had for such a partisan issue."

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Ethically Speaking

The Texas Ethics Commission ruling that it's okay to report a monetary contribution as "check" without reporting the amount of the check set off some blog reaction.

John Cobarruvius at Bay Area Houston, who's been pouring over officeholder's expense reports the past few months joked, "The TEC is now looking for the ethically challenged legislature to come to their senses and file a bill to correct the problem."

Burnt Orange Report's Cody Yocom said, "This is certainly an issue that has earned addressing. Regardless of party affiliation, it has been shown time and again that the people do care about full disclosure of political contributions and donations, perhaps more than even whom the donations are from. Keep your eyes peeled for this issue to come up in the spring. How it is handled may make a world of difference in 2008.

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Dan-A-Palooza

Bloggers on the left and right are champing at the bit, waiting for Senator-elect/conservative talk radio show host Dan Patrick, R-Houston, to be sworn in.

Lone Star Times predicts a future "smack down" between Patrick and the rest of the Legislature, using a Pink Dome-doctored photo of Patrick promoting sterilization (because he had a vasectomy performed during a radio broadcast).

On Eileen Smith's In The Pink Texas, it's hard to find a quote that's not slanderous or sacriligeous, but we found this one: "There has been talk of Patrick (mostly conversations with God going on in his head) running for Governor, which would most likely put him up against Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Democrat Carole Keeton Goeb Strayhorn." (Reporter's Note: Dan Patrick's original surname is Goeb and the running blog joke of adding extra married names to Carole Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn still cracks me up).

Smith was quick to point out this week that bloggers — at least those in California — can't be sued for slander.

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A Rose By Any Other Name

Musings, following up on the Houston Press, gives us a sampling of spellings voters used on the voting machines while voting for Shelley Sekula-Gibbs. "I know that state law says that voter intent is all that matters when making a decision on whether a write-in spelling counts or not, but good grief. Shelley could have conducted her voter education campaign on the e-slate in a completely different way, with commercials showing voters spinning and clicking anything that came to mind with a 'S' or 'G'. 'Just Dial In Whatever The Hell You Want' should have been on every piece of Shelley campaign literature."

Wonkette found, by far, the most outrageous write-in name that we're too embarrassed to re-write. Some voter wasn't, though — you can click on the link and read it yourself. And the original story from the Houston Press is here.

A more serious-minded blogger — Evan at Rick Perry vs. The World — starts the speculation on which Republicans will run against Shelley Sekula-Gibbs in the next GOP primary for CD-22. "Paul Bettencourt has already announced, via a Kristen Mack Houston Chronicle column, that he's planning on running. He's hoping to scare other candidates off, so that he gets her one-on-one. Bettencourt is definitely popular among the Harris County activists, and polls pretty well in Harris as well." He continued: "Certainly (Sen.) Kyle Janek would have to take a strong look at running. He was up for re-election to the state Senate in '06, so he chose to pass on this year. But he is the one candidate who can probably unite the regional factions, as a guy who lives in Houston, was born and raised in Galveston, and represents half of Fort Bend County right now. He can also certainly raise the money. There are rumors that he's waiting for Dr. (Ron) Paul to retire in CD-14, however."

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And To All a Good Night…

With all the real and faux terrorist threats our friends in D.C. have had to battle, it's good to see they haven't lost their sense of humor.

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Robyn Hadley cherry-picks the state's political blogs each week, looking for news, info, gossip, and new jokes. Robyn, a veteran of both journalism and the state Capitol, is the owner of Capitol Crowd, a networking site for people who work in and around state government. The opinions she quotes belong to the bloggers, and we're including their links so you can hunt them down if you wish. Please send comments, suggestions, gripes or retorts to Robyn at robyn@capitolcrowd.com, or to Texas Weekly editor Ross Ramsey, at ramsey@texasweekly.com.

Rosary, followed by Mass
Thursday, November 30, 2006, 9:30 a.m.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church
13715 Riggs
Helotes, TX

Burial Services
Friday, December 1, 2006, 1 p.m.
Texas State Cemetery
909 Navasota
Austin, TX

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Senator Frank Madla Scholarship Fund, c/o Frank Madla III, P.O. Box 1087, Helotes, TX, 78023; or Cordi Marian Sisters, 1162 FM 471, San Antonio, Texas, 78253.

Texas law says officeholders have to report gifts they receive, but not the value of those gifts, according to the state's Ethics Commission. That includes checks: They have to be reported, but the amount does not.

The ethics folks say they're not necessarily in favor of that weird form of disclosure, but say they're following the law passed a few years ago by the legislators to whom it applies.

Here's a sign of just how weird this is: Officeholders have to report the receipt of gifts of more than $250, meaning they have to know the values they're not required to report. As Charles Dickens' Mr. Bumble said: "If the law supposes that. . . the law is a ass — a idiot."

The ethics commissioners don't necessarily agree or disagree with that assessment, but they're recommending a change in the law. And at least four legislators have already filed bills that would require disclosure of the amounts on checks along with the receipt of the check as a gift.

Not everybody reads the law as they do. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who's got the job of prosecuting public officials who stray from the straight and narrow, wrote the commissioners before the vote to say their interpretation "would render it perfectly legal to repot the gift of 'a wheelbarrow' without reporting that the wheelbarrow was full of cash."

This started, you'll recall, when Houston builder Bob Perry gave two checks totaling $100,000 to Bill Ceverha, who was on the Employee Retirement System's board at the time. Ceverha had just lost a civil suit stemming from his job as treasurer for a political action committee that helped Republicans in 2002 House races. Democrats who lost sued over the PAC's conduct and Ceverha, as treasurer, was on the hook for damages. The lawsuit accused the PAC of failing to disclose $600,000 in corporate contributions.

He reported receiving two checks from Perry, but not the amounts. The two disclosed the amounts voluntarily when the issue arose in public, but Democrats and some of Austin's good government types squawked to the ethics commission for a formal ruling.

They got it in the commission's last meeting of the year. Commissioners said officeholders don't have to include amounts when they report getting checks as gifts.

A quick note: The commission didn't get to whether checks are legal gifts in particular situations and didn't talk directly — at least in public — about Ceverha's case. If you were wondering, it's still illegal, for instance, to stuff lawmakers' pockets with cash.

How the parties have fared in the Texas House and Senate over the last 20 legislative sessions.Republicans gained one seat in the Senate in this year's elections, while Democrats gained six seats in the House. The Red team remains in control, after rising from near insignificance at this point in 1969. Two notes: We're counting HD-29 as a Republican seat until and unless a Democrat wins it. Rep. Glenda Dawson, R-Pearland, died in September but won reelection in November. A special election to replace her is set for later this month. Second, you'll notice we're only counting 149 members in the House in 1969; Rep. John Poerner of Medina served that year as an independent (the last member to do so) before becoming a Democrat. (Click here or on either chart to download a copy in .pdf format.)

Outsiders ought to be careful when they tinker with the internal politicking in the Texas House. And the state representative who asked the Texas Ethics Commission to say that says she hopes it will have a "chilling effect" on lobsters and others who are meddling in the race for Speaker.

Before the Thanksgiving break — when rumors of a challenge to House Speaker Tom Craddick were more active — Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, asked the TEC about lobbyists she said were pressuring members to support "a named Speaker candidate." In her letter, she asked whether promising committee positions for support — or retribution for supporting other candidates — would constitute legislative bribery.

She also asked whether that sort of thing should be reported to the authorities and whether evidence — voice mails and emails — should be reported.

In its opinion, the commission says it would depend on the facts of a particular case. But the opinion says the conduct she described "is intended to influence a member in casting a vote for or against a speaker of the House of Representatives." That's potentially out of bounds, but the commission stopped there. Their opinion letter says outsiders should "exercise caution in these matters." As for reporting it, there's no legal obligation to do so.

"It affirmed what I thought — 'Yeah, this is a big no-no,' " Farrar says. She's not sure what, if anything, she'll do next, but she says the exercise of asking for and getting an opinion has apparently put a stop to what alarmed her in the first place.

Muffed election dates and on to the races. . .

In some editions last week, we merged two election dates. The special election runoff in CD-23 between Republican U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla and Democratic former U.S. Ciro Rodriguez will be on December 12. The special election to replace state the late Rep. Glenda Dawson, R-Pearland, will be on December 19 (and a runoff could follow, if nobody breaks 50 percent). We implied the elections were on the same date. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Now to election business. The state's routine request for federal review of its special congressional election runoff date has run into a hitch because that's also an important feast day for Catholics. And the League of United Latin American Citizens — LULAC — has filed papers with the U.S. Department of Justice saying another date would be more appropriate. DOJ has no deadline for a decision.

Early voting — barring something from the feds — will start on Monday and run through Friday of next week. The election would be on the following Tuesday, meaning nobody gets a chance to vote during either of the two weekends between now and the election. Who benefits from that, if anyone? We honestly can't say, but some Democrats wanted a Saturday election date, so there's a clue.

One last thing there. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, endorsed former U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, in the runoff. That's significant in two ways. They ran a bitter race against each other two years ago. And Cuellar's bipartisanship has rankled Democrats here and in Washington, D.C., who don't think he's loyal to the party. In this contest, he's sticking with the donkeys.

Early voting will be early after all. . . DSHS gets a new boss. . . and U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes will chair House Intelligence.

Early voting in the CD-23 runoff can start this weekend in counties that want to do that. The state and MALDEF — the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund — agreed to give the locals the option to start on Saturday instead of on Monday, and then filed a friendly suit in court to get it all ratified by a judge. Bexar County wanted to open early. The state said no. The county pressed on, and now this. Early voting will continue through Friday in all of the counties in that San Antonio-to-El Paso district; counties that don't want to open the polls this weekend can wait until Monday. The actual election will be held on December 12. Both campaigns involved — that of U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio, and former U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio — had said they favored the weekend voting.

• Dr. David Lakey of Tyler will be the new chief at the Texas Department of State Health Services. Lakey is now the chief of infectious disease and medical director of the Center for Pulmonary and Infectious Disease Control at the UT Health Center in Tyler. He's replacing Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, who resigned after five years at the head of the agency. Sanchez is now director of the Institute for Health Policy at the UT School of Public Health in Houston. Health and Human Services Commissioner Albert Hawkins hired Lakey after getting an okay from Gov. Rick Perry. Lakey will start January 2. And Dr. Charles Bell, who's been acting commissioner at DSHS, will return to his post as Hawkins' deputy.

• U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, will chair the House Intelligence Committee when the new Congress convenes next year. Reyes, a career Border Patrol official, is the third-ranking Democrat on that panel, but he had the support of Speaker-presumptive Nancy Pelosi, D-California.

John Gorman will join the growing crowd running for Glenda Dawson's spot in the Texas House. He's been active in Republican politics for years at the local level and was campaign treasurer for Jerry Patterson's 1992 Senate campaign (Patterson's now the state's land commissioner).

Dawson, a Republican state representative from Pearland, died in September  too late to be removed from the ballot — but won reelection in the November elections. The special election to replace her in HD-29 will be held on December 19. Three other candidates signed up, including Democrat Anthony DiNovo, a doctor who lost to Dawson a few weeks ago, and Republicans Mike O'Day and Randy Weber. All four hopefuls, like Dawson, are from Pearland.

Monday was the deadline for candidate filings.

The Republican Party of Texas has a new public face. Hans Klingler, a longtime political op on the GOP side, will be the state party's new political director and spokesman. The political half of the job had been handled by a couple of people — Jeff Fisher and Kevin Lindley, both of whom remain with the party. The communications bit belonged to Gretchen Essell, who's leaving.

Mary Camp is the new director of the Legislative Reference Library, taking the spot left when Dale Propp retired earlier this year. Camp has been the assistant director for two years and worked in a variety of jobs in the Capitol before that, including stints with former Sen. Bill Sarpalius and former House Speaker Billy Clayton.

After two years as acting director of the Legislative Budget Board, John O'Brien is free of the first half of that title. The LBB voted unanimously to make him the director. He's the replacement for John Keel, who retired from LBB two years ago after a decade in the top post, then came out of retirement a few weeks later to become the State Auditor. O'Brien started with LBB in 1989 and became deputy director in 2002.

Becky Young, executive assistant to House Speaker Tom Craddick since he took that office, is leaving before the session begins. She hasn't said what's next. Young worked for Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, before joining Craddick.

Jesse Ancira Jr., associate deputy comptroller, says he'll leave the agency at the end of the year. Ancira, the number three official at the state comptroller's office, has been there for eight years and says he'll choose from a handful of private sector opportunities. He'll stick around for the month of December, as Comptroller-elect Susan Combs and her transition team move into the agency. Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn gives up the reins in January.

Billy Atkins, who's been the bingo boss at the Texas Lottery Commission for 14 years, resigned from the agency this week. He worked in the Pink Building before becoming, officially, the charitable bingo operations director, including stints as an aide in both the House and Senate. 

Michael Quinn Sullivan, who's been the public voice of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, is leaving after five years. They'll announce a replacement next week — that's apparently in the final stages — and he'll announce where he's going.

Deaths: Former state Sen. Frank Madla Jr., D-San Antonio, who died in a house fire with his granddaughter and mother-in-law. Madla, a former schoolteacher, was a quiet but effective lawmaker who became one of the Legislature's experts on water issues and pushed to get a major college campus to San Antonio's South side. Madla was elected to the House in 1973 and to the Senate 20 years later. He lost a reelection bid in the March Democratic primary and resigned last summer. He was 69.

Former legislator Temple Dickson, D-Sweetwater, after years of trouble with lung cancer. Dickson served in the House for three terms, took a 16-year break, then won a seat in the Texas Senate, where he served for four years. He was 72.

Dudley Harrison, a former state representative from Sanderson, after a long struggle with cancer. He was a rancher, car dealer and quarryman before serving eight years in the House and then ten years as Terrell County Judge. He was 77.

Former state Rep. Frates Slick Seeligson Sr., a lawyer, rancher and four-term legislator from San Antonio. He was 83.