Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams, admitting he's got political ambitions without saying (yet) just what they are, is leaving that appointed office at the end of the month.

Williams, a former baseball player and coach who became a successful car dealer and political fundraiser, was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry in late 2004, when Geoff Connor resigned to return to the private sector.

Perry hasn't announced who'll get the job next. The speculation list so far includes Robert Howden, a former Perry aide now working in the lobby; Phil Wilson, Perry's deputy chief of staff; U.S. Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Austin; and Brian Newby, the governor's general counsel.

[Editor's note: Perry picked Wilson. The story is here.]

Whoever gets the gig will be the ninth secretary since 1990. Williams says he's not leaving anything undone that he wanted to do at the agency, and touted his work on elections, economic development and base closings. "This is the best job I've ever had," he says, choosing from a list that includes professional baseball player (he didn't make the bigs, but played in the Atlanta Braves organization), college baseball coach, car dealer, and political fundraiser for what was at the time the most expensive presidential campaign in American history.

SOS is a semi-useful stepping stone for elected office, but it's not completely reliable. Tony Garza Jr., Ron Kirk, Bob Bullock and Mark White all went on to win elections (railroad commissioner, Dallas mayor, comptroller and lieutenant governor, attorney general and governor, respectively). Garza and Kirk still regularly appear on other people's speculative candidate lists. Others moved up without elections, like U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and the late U.S. District Judge John Hannah Jr. Two others tried to launch there and didn't: Republican George Strake Jr., who ran for Lite Guv; and Jack Rains, one of the three Republicans left in Claytie Williams' wake in the 1990 gubernatorial primary.

Williams didn't say what he'd like to do next, but he gave an intriguing answer when we asked how long he's had his next step in mind: "Probably since I was about seven years old." He said his dad told him to write down his goals and put the list in his baseball cap, and he did. "I still have it in my wallet," he said. Until our staff pick-pockets come back with the goods, we'll have to wonder what's next, but Williams is regularly on Republicans' lists of who might run for statewide offices like governor and U.S. senator. "I love public service and I want to continue that if I can," he said.

At least two candidates are nosing around in state Rep. Mike Krusee's HD-52.

Both have school board experience and both have worked for the state tax collector. Jesse Ancira Jr., a Democrat, was general counsel and then associate deputy comptroller; he left last year to join a consulting firm. He's a former FBI agent and Taylor school board president. Diana Maldonado is the current president of the Round Rock ISD board and has worked at the comptroller's office for more than 20 years.

Krusee, R-Round Rock, barely broke 50 percent in his last election, getting 50.44 percent against two relatively unknown candidates (Karen Felthauser, a Democrat, got 44.2 percent, and Lillian Simmons, a Libertarian, got 5.34 percent).

That's generally Republican turf, though statewide Democrats did slightly better in that district than they did on the whole. Bill Moody, a Democrat who ran for Texas Supreme Court and whose numbers are useful for this sort of palmistry, got 47.8 percent to Republican Don Willett's 52.2 percent in the district. Both candidates were relatively unknown, and that's a rough benchmark of party strength.

We haven't seen any names floated yet, but there's been some talk that Krusee's own GOP primary could produce competition, especially given his weak numbers in November.

Phil Wilson, the governor's deputy chief of staff, will be the new Texas Secretary of State, replacing Roger Williams in that post next month.

That makes him the state's chief election officer, the governor's liaison on Border and Mexican affairs, and the guy who decides which fork to use at state dinners (he's the state's chief protocol officer, in case it needs one).

Wilson's been Perry's front guy on economic development issues connected to the Emerging Technology and Enterprise funds. He was Perry's director of communications before getting his current job, and was former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm's state director before joining Perry.

The promotion leaves Perry with more staff decisions to make. His chief of staff, Deirdre Delisi, just had twins and is temporarily out of commission, at least for government purposes. Wilson was her number two.

Robert Cook, the executive director at the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, will retire August 31 after more than five years in that job. He joined the agency in 1965, left in 1979, and returned in 1990. No successor has been named, but some of the names getting batted around are interesting, including Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville, and Joseph Fitzsimmons, the current chairman of the TPW board.

Ed Owens is the conservator, now, at the Texas Youth Commission. He's been on loan to that agency from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and will take over now that Jay Kimbrough, brought in to trouble-shoot, has moved on to a new gig at Texas A&M.

Karen Ann Norris will be the new executive director of the Texas Association of Counties, replacing the late Sam Seale. She's been with TAC since 1984 and became assistant executive director six years later.

Joy Hughes Rauls, chief of staff and general counsel to Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, is leaving the Senate after four years to become a prosecutor, and Christy Rome, who's been a policy analyst on the Senate Education Committee for more than four years, is leaving to join the Austin ISD as director of government relations. Jennifer Ranson Rice — Shapiro's communications director — will add chief of staff to her current title.

The last of the convicted employees at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas — ERCOT — will spend up to 12 years in prison and pay fines of $800,000. Stephen Wallace was convicted, along with six others, in a contract fraud scheme at the agency.

Recovering: Texas Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley, after day surgery to remove a cancerous skin growth and a lymph node. It's her second cancer in 22 years and she says, via press release, that she came out with a clean bill of health and will be at work next week.

Deaths: Harry Hubbard, president of the Texas AFL-CIO from 1973 to 1989, and before that, its secretary and its legislative director. He started his labor career in the Hod Carriers Union in Freeport. Hubbard was 82.