Barnes, Thode, Bell, Williamson, Hammond, and Hebert

Texas politician-turned-lobbyist Ben Barnes, assessing the governor's race in an interview with Dallas Blog: "If Kinky weren’t in the race right now, Carole would be buying her inaugural gown."

Eric Thode, until this year the GOP Chairman in Tom DeLay's home county, quoted in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "Theoretically, a write-in candidate can be victorious. And theoretically, someone could swim from Manhattan to the U.K. The odds are very long."

Gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell, on the governor's task force on property appraisals: "I am all for property tax relief, but I am not for tying the hands of municipalities."

Texas Highway Commissioner Ric Williamson, quoted in the Houston Chronicle on objections to the Trans Texas Corridor: "For every 14,000 people who congregate and protest, there are 1.4 million in downtown Dallas and Fort Worth that recognize congestion on 35 is a problem and somebody's got to do something about it."

Bill Hammond of the Texas Association of Business, asked how he'd influence Republicans who don't support a program that would allow non-citizens to work for Texas employers: "I would say that the path to redemption is always open to those individuals. They can begin to walk the path of righteousness and virtue all the days of their lives starting right now, at this moment in time, and our hope is that they will."

Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert, who endorsed David Wallace in CD-22, then switched to Shelley Sekula-Gibbs when Wallace dropped out, in Fort Bend Now: "I reminded her that Abe Lincoln said don't change horses in the middle of a stream. However, this is a little different, because my horse just drowned."