Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace has decided to be the mayor of Sugar Land. Half a week after local and state GOP officials met and endorsed Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs as their favorite write-in candidate for congress, Wallace announced he'll get out of the way.

Sekula-Gibbs won a straw poll of party officials who met privately last week to build a following for a single write-in candidate in CD-22, where U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay's departure left his party without a candidate on the ballot.

Wallace had registered as a write-in with the Texas Secretary of State. Sekula-Gibbs had not. But Wallace and his backers were against the closed gathering to select a favored candidate. Sekula-Gibbs campaigned for the backing, and she emerged the winner.

Now Wallace has folded. In pulling out, he said he'd been encouraged to stay in the race by supporters, but said his campaign advisors agreed that having more than one write-in candidate in the contest would doom all the Republicans trying to beat Democrat Nick Lampson, who's got the advantage of having his name on the ballot.

And he quoted Texas GOP Chairwoman Tina Benkiser as saying she has a "commitment from Washington" of $3 million for a GOP write-in candidate, so long as there's only one Republican in the contest. Benkiser's press release on the subject lauded his decision without mentioning the financial promise. Candidates can file through the end of the week; it'll be clear then whether Sekula-Gibbs is the only Republican in the contest.

Lukin Gilliland Jr., a San Antonio businessman who's been a busy Democratic activist and donor for years, is jumping into the CD-23 race, saying he'll challenge U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio, and that he's "seeding" the effort with $500,000 of his own money.

Gilliland (and, possibly, his dad, who's also a Lukin) has contributed nearly $30,000 to candidates for state office so far this decade, according to records on file with the Texas Ethics Commission. Most were Democrats, but the Gillilands broke ranks for a couple of San Antonio candidates: Supreme Court Justice Paul Green and state Rep. Joe Straus.

State records aren't always clear about whether Senior or Junior is doing the giving. Federal records, which are free to browse through at www.PoliticalMoneyLine.com, usually make the distinction. On the federal level, his dad has contributed to several Texas and San Antonio Republicans, including George W. Bush, John Cornyn, Lamar Smith, and one Henry Bonilla. Gilliland the Younger has contributed at least twice to then-U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, another San Antonio Democrat who has also said he'll challenge Bonilla this year.

Gilliland would be the third Democrat in the race — former U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez and El Paso retiree Rick Bolanos have already signed up. Others are potentially in the wings. This is gonna be interesting. State Rep. Robert Puente, D-San Antonio, is signing on as Gilliland's treasurer. Rep. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, won the Democratic nomination for state Senate in March; his brother Albert has been talking about a run. So has former Mayor Ed Garza. Give it till the end of the day Friday and it'll all sort out. Gilliland hired the Austin-based Fero Hewitt Global as his general consultant.

Sidebar: Add Republican Grant Rostig of Dale to the pack in CD-25, another newly drawn district where the incumbent is Democrat Lloyd Doggett of Austin. And the Libertarians will have some candidates in the congressional races, too. Barbara Cunningham will be in the Austin race; she's replacing Rostig, who was on the ballot as a Libertarian but filed in the special as a Republican. James Arthur Strohm will run in CD-21, where Republican Lamar Smith of San Antonio is the incumbent. Democrats John Courage and Gene Kelly are also in that race.

Texas Health Commissioner Eduardo Sanchez will become director of the Institute for Health Policy at the UT School of Public Health in Houston in October. He'd already announced his departure from the Department of State Health Services; now he's got a destination.

Ann Erben (you might know her as Ann Quirk) signed on as staff director for the tax force on appraisals. She's done government time in the comptroller's office under Carole Keeton Strayhorn, as a legislative staffer, and has done a fair amount of political consulting on the Republican side for years. Plus she's an old pal of Tom Pauken, who's running the panel at Gov. Rick Perry's request. They're still getting organized; we're told more staff names will follow.

Former SBC exec Jan Newton is the newest board member at ERCOT — the agency that manages most of the Texas part of the electricity grid.

Jenny Young leaves the Texas Dental Association to join the Texas A&M System to head governmental affairs for the Health Science Center. She was at the Texas Medical Association before joining the dentists.

Speaking of which, Yvonne Barton left TMA to join Abbott Laboratories, where she'll work on government affairs in five states and Puerto Rico. She's replacing Daryl Dorcy, who got promoted to Abbott's national headquarters in Chicago, overseeing all of the company's regional lobbyists.

Chris Bell's gubernatorial campaign adds Heather Beckel Guntert as press secretary and Rowland Garza as state "Latino outreach director," and parts ways with political consultant Bob Doyle. Guntert worked in the Clinton White House and for Texas Democrats in the 1990s; Garza most recently worked for Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine.

The governor appointed Daniel Dierschke of Austin to the Farm and Ranch Lands Conservation Council, a panel that advises Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson. Dierschke's a farmer and cattleman.

Deaths: Retired Maj. Gen. Kathryn George Frost, wife of former U.S. Rep. Martin Frost of Dallas, of breast cancer. Frost was the highest-ranking female in the U.S. Army when she retired last year. She was 57.