Rep. Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, will head the Sunset Advisory Commission for the next two years.

He was on the panel before, but left it when he took leave of the Lege to serve in the Gulf War (he's in the Navy Reserve). House Speaker Tom Craddick appointed him, also naming Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, to that panel.

And Craddick reappointed Ike Sugg of San Angelo as a citizen member of Sunset.

It's the House's turn to name the chairman; until September 1, it was Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth. Isett has the gig until September 2009. Reps. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, and Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, are coming off the commission, to be replaced by Isett and Harper-Brown.

Three others are coming off, too, but Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst hasn't named their replacements: Howard Wolf, a public member, and Sens. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, and John Whitmire, D-Houston.

They've got some hot potatoes on their review agenda as they enter the next legislative session: the Texas Department of Transportation and the Texas Youth Commission lead the list, with their toll roads and their scandals, respectively, followed in no particular order by the Texas Department of Agriculture, the Texas Department of Insurance, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Office of State-Federal Relations.

The state's top criminal judge has inspired a parody website and a complaint from a group of lawyers that's dead serious.

Texas voters reelected Sharon Keller last year for another six-year term as presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. That panel's got the same juice as the Texas Supreme Court, only on the criminal side of the law. And it's become a lightning rod since Keller told lawyers for Michael Richards last month that she wouldn't keep the office open past five o'clock to receive their legal briefs.

With no legal papers in the works, Richards was executed that evening.

Keller apparently did that without asking her fellow judges, who contributed some of the most damning quotes in the news accounts that followed.

Keller has also inspired a parody website — SharonKiller.com— which includes links to, among other things, a parody MySpace page.

And something more serious, too: Now a group of prominent and not-so prominent defense lawyers is after her hide, sending a letter to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct that says her actions violated the judicial canons by denying a condemned man an appeal to which he was entitled.

"Judge Keller's actions denied Michael Richard two constitutional rights, access to the courts and due process, which led to his execution. Her actions also brought the integrity of the Texas judiciary and of her court into disrepute and was a source of scandal to the citizens of the state," they wrote.

The complaint was filed by the Texas Civil Rights Project; in their press release announcing it, they said it was signed by a group that includes former State Bar President Broadus Spivey, Houston criminal defense attorney Dick Deguerin, University of Houston law professor Mike Olivas, former appellate judge Michol O’Connor, legal ethics author Chuck Herring, Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, Southern Methodist Law School clinical supervisor Eliot Shavin, and former Nueces County Attorney Mike Westergren.

The last time that agency tangled with an appellate judge — Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht — he fought them in court and won.

It's not time to file, officially, for the Texas primaries. But the campaign treasurer reports are steadily coming in...

This week's new campaign treasurer filings with the Texas Ethics Commission include Samuel "Sam" Murphey and Michael Pearce in HD-55 — where Rep. Dianne White Delisi is hanging up her running shoes. Murphey's a Democrat from Harker Heights and worked as a district guy for U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco. Pearce, a Republican, is a former teacher and now sells instruction programs.

Charles "Chuck" Randolph, a Democrat, filed a report showing his interest in HD-61, where the incumbent is Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford.

B. Allen Fletcher, chairman of the Greater Tomball Chamber of Commerce, is looking at HD-130, where Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale, R-Tomball, is the current House member.

And Houston City Council member Carol Alvarado put in a treasurer report for HD-145, Rep. Rick Noriega's seat.

Refugio County Commissioner Raymond Villarreal plead guilty to tampering with government records during the March 2006 primary elections. He'll resign, spend 90 days in jail, pay a $1,500 fine and spend five years on probation, according to the attorney general's office.

Nick Dauster is the new director of government affairs at the Texas Department of State Health Services, moving up into a spot opened by Kirk Cole's promotion earlier in the year. Dauster's been at DSHS for several years, and worked in the Pink Building before that.

Dustin Lanier is leaving the Department of Information Resources to run the Council on Competitive Government.

Ray Martinez is closing his consulting shop and will be the new director of government relations at Rice University. He'll remain in Austin and shuttle between there, Houston, and Washington, D.C.

Gov. Rick Perry's latest round of appointments includes these hookups:

• San Antonio attorney Rolando Pablos of to the Texas Racing Commission. His company specializes in business development and international trade promotion.

• Richard Earl McElreath of Amarillo and Norman Parrish of The Woodlands to the State Pension Review Board. McElreath is a consultant with A.G. Edwards and Sons. Parrish is a retired consulting actuary.

• Tony Gilman of Austin to the Health Professions Council. His day job: executive officer of the Texas Health Care Policy Council and Perry's liaison to the state's health profession licensing boards.

• Irene Armendariz, an exec with Superior HealthPlan in El Paso, and Burnet County Judge Donna Klaeger of Horseshoe Bay to the Texas Commission on Jail Standards.

• Tracye McDaniel of Houston to the Texas Economic Development Corp. She's with the Houston Partnership now, but used to toil in the state's economic development office.

Retiring: Dr. Kern Wildenthal, the president of the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, in September 2008. That'll end a 22-year tenure at the helm.