Texas Weekly | Texas Weekly Vol: 24 Issue: 4

Just as state officeholders were racing to stock their election accounts by an end-of-month deadline, the state and federal courts got busy on the subject of campaign finance. The state's highest criminal court had good news for former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, while the nation's highest court had good news for corporations and unions and groups that campaign on so-called issue ads in the last week's before elections.

We'll start with the locals. Some of the indictments ofDeLay and two codefendants should be dropped, according to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, whose office obtained the indictments, plans to ask the court to rehear the issue.

The state's highest criminal court agreed, narrowly, with lower courts, saying some of the indictments against DeLay, Jim Ellis, and John Colyandro should be dropped. Those indictments allege conspiracy to break a law that wasn't in the state penal code at the time. Four of the nine judges on the court dissented, saying they didn't see the sense in saying conspiracy applies to some felonies and not to others. Judge Tom Price voted with the majority, but said the dissenters have a point and suggested he might side with them on a future case that makes the same points.

Earle plans to ask for a rehearing, saying the ruling isn't logical: "Criminal conspiracy means three things. It means a person intends to commit a felony. It means that the person agrees that he or his co-conspirators will engage in conduct that would constitute the crime. And it means one of them performs some act in pursuit of the crime. Under the rationale of today’s majority opinion, the Legislature has blessed these criminal conspiracies as long as the felony they agree to commit is not in the Penal Code."

DeLay commented on the case in his blog, comparing Earle to the prosecutor who wrongly went after Duke University's lacrosse players: "The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today ruled that I was wrongfully indicted by Ronnie Earle, the Mike Nifong of Texas, on laws that didn't even exist... [His] politically motivated indictments cost Republicans the leader of their choice, and my family hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees... [He] may think this case is about campaign finance, but in the end it will be a case about his own prosecutorial misconduct."

If the conspiracy charges fall, all three remain indicted on money laundering charges; Ellis and Colyandro face separate indictments on charges they made illegal campaign contributions. And once the Court of Criminal Appeals is done, the case will go back to the trial judge, Pat Priest, for the next round.

Rulings (there are several indictments against each of the three men, but the decisions roll all eight indictments into one package) are at these links: Judge Michael Keasler, opinion; Presiding Judge Sharon Keller, concurring; Judge Tom Price, concurring; Judge Cathy Cochran, dissenting.

One for the Money

One of the big arguments after the 2002 elections — sometimes in the center of the table and sometimes on the side — was about the corporate money behind efforts to put a Republican majority in the Texas House.

The U.S. Supreme Court's latest campaign finance ruling wasn't about the Texas election, or about the Texas law, exactly. But it's the latest snapshot of where the federal courts think campaign limits end and free speech begins, and it'll reverberate in elections here.

Corporate and union money can't be used to promote candidates (though political action committees affiliated in legally defined ways can), and some Democrats felt the Republicans stepped over the lines in the 2002 Texas races. The Republicans, you'll remember, figured they were on safe ground with ads that never used "magic words" urging people to vote for or against a particular candidate. In their reading, it's okay to say — in an ad purchased with corporate or union donations — that Joe Schmo voted for a foolish and unpopular thing or is against a smart, popular thing. And it's okay to do that in the days before an election, just so long as you don't tell people whether they should pull the lever for Mr. Schmo or for his opponent.

The use of corporate money for ads like that is the basis of some of the charges against former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and two former associates.

Again, state and federal campaign laws differ. But state laws often chase federal definitions and legal opinions; the "magic words" bit, for instance, comes from a footnote in a landmark federal case. And if the McCain Feingold limits on campaign finance are unconstitutional, then so are state laws that resemble them.

The federal law put another restriction on things, curtailing use of those "educational" or "issue" ads in the final weeks of campaigns. Now the Supremes say that's an unconstitutional restriction of free speech. If the ads are clearly advocating election of a particular candidate — or the defeat of one — they're still barred. But if there's any other "reasonable interpretation," the justices say the ads can run. The ads in question were run by Wisconsin Right to Life, criticizing U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold's opposition to the president's judicial appointees. They ran in the weeks before his reelection campaign — during a 30-day blackout period described in the law — and urged viewers to contact him. They didn't say how people should vote. The court said, in effect, that the group had the First Amendment right to run the ads.

How's it play back here? Ask a lawyer. But the Democrats were agitated about mailers from the Texas Association of Business, in particular, that blasted various Democrats and extolled the virtues of Republican challengers back in 2002. Some of that battle is still alive in Texas courts, and the Wisconsin Right to Life case hits on some of the same issues.

Moody Blues

To get a rough take on what lawmakers might be in "trouble districts," we looked at a statewide judicial race where both candidates had low name ID to see how each party did in each legislative and congressional district. Don Willett was the Republican; Bill Moody, the Democrat. We put them in a separate spot on the website so the newsletter wouldn't print 10 pages long; see them online here, or download a copy.

Road Warriors

The North Texas Tollway Authority — alias, the NTTA — beat a private sector conglomerate on expansion of State Highway 121 in Dallas-Fort Worth.

The state's Transportation Commission voted 4-1 to go with the recommendation of a local transportation board that sided with NTTA. That won kudos from two state senators who've been watching carefully (Transportation Committee Chairman John Carona, R-Dallas, and former transportation commissioner Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville). And it came on the heels of a letter from Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst urging the commissioners to abide by the earlier local decision in NTTA's favor.

The losing consortium didn't concede, issuing a statement after the meeting saying the NTTA proposal is "incomplete and lacks a firm financial commitment." Cintra/JPMorgan say they can do the project faster and with less financial risk. The commission's vote lets highway officials negotiate a final deal with NTTA. If that falls through, those officials could go with the Cintra deal or make other plans.

Cintra had an inside track on the road at one time, but lawmakers wanted to see if the local transportation folks could compete with the private sector, and reopened the bidding.

Pre-Season Politics

Freshman state Rep. Thomas Latham, a Sunnyvale Republican and a former cop, has trouble at home — with his own ilk. The Mesquite Police Association is calling him "an embarrassment to the badge" and withdrawing its support.

The group's president, Don Williams, says Latham didn't listen to the cops or other local officials — he named the mayor, the city manager, and the city council — on legislation that would have prevented a statewide police union from receiving state grant money, allowing that money to go to cities and police departments instead. (Some of this stems from a battle over HB 1200 between the Texas Municipal Police Association, or TMPA, and the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, or CLEAT. Latham voted with TMPA; the Mesquite folks preferred the CLEAT position.)

MPA was with Latham early, when he squeaked past incumbent Rep. Elvira Reyna, R-Mesquite, in the primary, and on into the general election. Williams says they're talking to "other highly qualified candidates," but didn't name anybody. Put Mesquite Mayor Mike Anderson on your list of possible candidates; he was out of town this week and not returning calls, but several folks we've talked to say he's thinking about running for the statehouse.

• Robert Talton, R-Pasadena, says he's still considering a run for Congress in CD-22, where U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, replaced Tom DeLay last year. Republicans want that seat back, and Talton — currently a state rep and a thorn in the side of GOP Speaker Tom Craddick — is calling around to see if he could raise the money for the race. So is Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, a special election winner who kept the seat warm until losing the general election to Lampson in November, and former Sugar Land Mayor Dean Hrbacek. Other names in the hat: Pete Olson, who worked for former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm and for then-Attorney General John Cornyn as chief of staff.

• Kill your Beverly Woolley rumors before they start this year: The Houston Republican is running for reelection to the Texas House. And she says in her announcement that she wants another crack at the eminent domain bill that passed this session and got vetoed by Gov. Rick Perry.

• Put former state Rep. Glen Maxey officially in the hunt for a Travis County job. The Austin Democrat wants to be Travis County's tax collector-assessor and says he'll run next year for that post. He'll face a four-term incumbent from his own party: Nelda Wells-Spears.

Data Crunch

Six of the 21 biggest cities in the U.S. are in Texas, according to the newest numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, and Houston, San Antonio and Dallas are all still in the top ten in positions four, seven, and nine, respectively. Austin's number 16. Fort Worth is the nation's 18th largest city, and El Paso is number 21. The Census folk also point out that seven of the country's ten biggest cities, and three of the top five, are in states that share a border with Mexico.

Since the 2000 census, McKinney has grown faster than any city of more than 100,000 in the U.S. — on a percentage basis. That city started the decade with 54,409 residents and now has an estimated 107,530. Denton, just down the road, has grown 32.9 percent since 2000, and four other Texas cities — Brownsville, Laredo, Grand Prairie and Fort Worth, each grew more than 20 percent. Two Texas spots on the big city list have lost population since 2000: Abilene, down 1 percent, and Beaumont, down 3.4 percent.

If you use sheer numbers instead of percentages, Houston grew by 172,936 from 2000 to 2006, more than any city but New York and Phoenix. San Antonio, with 136,738 new residents, is fifth nationally, and Fort Worth, with 112,048, ranks sixth. Two other Texas spots made the top 20 in raw growth: McKinney, at number 19, with 53,121 newbies, and Austin, in the 20th slot, with 50,266 new residents.

In the last year (they measure from July 2005 to July 2006), the Texas list-toppers are all in the Metroplex: McKinney, 11.1 percent; Grand Prairie, 6.6 percent; Denton, 5.1 percent; and Fort Worth, 4.8 percent. In raw numbers (with rank in parentheses), five of the ten fastest-growing cities in the nation were in Texas: San Antonio, 33,084 (2); Fort Worth, 30,201 (3); Houston, 26,554 (4); Austin, 18,630 (6); and Dallas, 16,676 (8).

• Texas is ignoring the national housing slump, which wouldn't matter here except that values are tied to property taxes and all that jazz. The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University passes along national numbers that show prices in Texas rose 6.9 percent during the first quarter, as against the 4.3 percent national average. Austin and San Antonio saw the biggest jumps among the state's big cities, with price increases of over 10 percent. Midland prices rose 21 percent; Odessa's by 16 percent.

• Texas, at 23.8 percent, had a higher percentage of uninsured citizens than any other state in 2006, according to the latest numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics. They estimate 43.6 million Americans were without health insurance in 2006, or about 14.6 percent of the population. About 9.3 percent of children (under age 18) were uninsured nationally, compared with 19 percent in Texas. The numbers were based on 100,000 interviews done by that agency, and include people who weren't insured at the time they were interviewed. Larger numbers, according to the survey, were uninsured at some time or another during the last 12 months, and a portion had gone without insurance for more than a year at the time the survey was done.

Political People and Their Moves

Donna White leaves Gov. Rick Perry after six years for a new job at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. She ran administration and constituent services for the Guv.

Appointments: Perry named Cecilia May Moreno of Laredo — the superintendent of the Carrizo Springs ISD — to the Texas Woman's University Board of Regents. She's a former city council member in Laredo and worked in that city's school district for 37 years. She's a TWU alum.

Perry named three regents for Stephen F. Austin State University. Carlos Amaral is president and CEO of Sequoia Network Services in Plano. James Dickerson Jr. is a retired attorney who lives in New Braunfels, and John "Bob" Garrett of Tyler is President and CEO of Fair Oil Co. and Fair Management Co. All three are alums.

Perry named Erin Berling of Coppell, Kenneth Mueller of Brenham and Richard Neider of Lubbock to the Texas Board of Orthotics and Prosthetics. Berling and Neider are reappointments. Mueller is a veterans services officer for Washington County.

Quotes of the Week

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, in a decision striking a ban on corporation- and union-sponsored political "issue" ads in the final weeks of campaigns: "Discussion of issues cannot be suppressed simply because the issues may also be pertinent in an election. Where the First Amendment is implicated, the tie goes to the speaker, not the censor."

Judge Cathy Cochran of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, dissenting from a decision that says the state's conspiracy statutes apply to some felonies, but not those in the state's Election Code: "Are some felonies more felonious than other felonies? More deserving of being deterred and punished before their actual commission? Or are felonies defined in the Penal Code especially heinous "felonies-on-steroids," while their brethren defined outside the Penal Code are puny, half-pint felonies unworthy of being the subject of the crime of conspiracy? I do not think so."

Jim Dorcy, a board member of the National Association of Retired Border Patrol officers, in a Houston Chronicle story about plans to hire 6,000 new agents by 2009: ''We're in unanimous agreement that it can't be done. They can't round them up, train them and get them on the line in that amount of time."

Texas Department of Transportation spokeswoman Gabriela Garcia, quoted in a Fort Worth Star-Telegram story on millions of dollars paid to losing highway bidders: "It's not a consolation prize. We're not just paying for paper. We take their proposals and, even though they're an unsuccessful proposer, we use pieces of it and incorporate those ideas into the final product."

Jeff Yu-Kuang Lin, a millionaire software programmer busted for opening a brothel in Richmond, quoted in the Houston Chronicle: "Money wasn't the motivation. I just wanted to experience something different."

Texas Weekly: Volume 24, Issue 4, 2 July 2007. Ross Ramsey, Editor. Copyright 2007 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.

Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn won't get a cakewalk in 2008, but neither will the Democrat who faces him a year from November.

State Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, will file papers starting his candidacy next week (they're calling this "exploratory," but don't follow the "maybe he will" with a "maybe he won't").

Noriega will be the second Democrat in the race and the poorest one. San Antonio lawyer Mikal Watts jumped into the race by looking at Cornyn's accounts, seeing $3.8 million there, and writing a personal check to match it.

Noriega can't self-finance, but he's betting on support from fellow legislators, on his military record in an election environment dominated by the war in Iraq, and on the strength of an Hispanic surname in a Democratic primary.

Promoted heavily by Texas bloggers for the last several weeks, Noriega is touting a letter signed by 49 fellow Democrats in the Texas House urging him to run and pledging their support for his campaign. His story includes a stint in Afghanistan — his wife subbed for him in the House while he was gone — that he hopes will capture voters' attention. He'll start his fundraising after he files next week and has hired political consultant James Aldrete and fundraiser Yaël Ouzillo to get things going. (Christian Archer is running Watts' campaign.)

He says he'll talk a lot about what he sees as a failure of leadership at the state and national level, "a difference between those that have walked the walk vs. people who read things and form opinions." He says it'll be a year-long job review on Cornyn and a job interview for him.

He has to get out of the primary first, though. The sharpest distinction so far between the primary opponents is on abortion; Watts opposes it except in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is in danger. Noriega says he wants to reduce the number of teen and unwanted pregnancies, but adds, "I don't believe it's in the government's lane to tell women what they can and can't do, when it comes to their health."

He calls Cornyn "a rubber stamp for this administration," and says, "the only time he's disagreed with them is when they've tried to work in a bipartisan way, like on immigration."

The Name Thing

Texas Democrats' fascination with Hispanic names on the statewide ballot took flight when Victor Morales came out of nowhere in 1996 and won a Democratic primary for U.S. Senate over two sitting congressmen — John Bryant and Jim Chapman — and Houston lawyer John Odam.

They all had more money Morales, but he had a little white truck that caught the media's attention and an Hispanic surname in a primary where a growing number of voters were Hispanic. It was also the last name of the well-known and then-popular attorney general, Dan Morales, but that often gets left out of the storytelling.

Consultants for Rick Noriega say Hispanics account for 42 percent of the Democratic primary vote. Combine that with Houston — Noriega's base — and they see a way to overtake Mikal Watts' financial advantage.

It's a hit-and-miss idea. In addition to the Morales story from 1996, there are other bits of recent lore. The idea of a rising Hispanic tide in Texas politics provided the rationale for the Tony Sanchez campaign for governor in 2002. He had money, too, and easily won the primary, but he got smoked in the general election.

The most recent field test was done last year, when a soft-spoken educator named Maria Luisa Alvarado won the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor in spite of a budget that wouldn't have covered one Saturday night pizza tab for a high school football team. There were three candidates in that Democratic primary, including two Hispanics. None of them were well-known in any meaningful way, but if you're buying this theory, here's the tidbit you want: Alvarado got 41.5 percent in the first round; Benjamin Grant got 36.1 percent, and Adrian De Leon got 22.4 percent. In the runoff, Alvarado got 57.6 percent.

But it's not always potent in Democratic primaries, and political hacks still argue about whether it helps or hurts a candidate in a general election, or has no effect. State Rep. Pete Patterson beat Ernesto De Leon in the 1998 primary for agriculture commissioner. Morales made it into a runoff for Senate again in 2002, but lost that round to former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk. De Leon lost again, to Tom Ramsay, in 2002.

Last year's primary example, Alvarado, got only 37.4 percent in the general election, a result mirrored by two Anglo male Democrats in the two races that followed hers on the ballot. And in a couple of statewide races in 2004 where the candidates weren't well known, surname apparently fell far behind party as a measure of how a candidate might do. Victor Carrillo, a Republican, got 55.5 percent in his first race for Texas Railroad Commission against a Democrat named Bob Scarborough. An Hispanic Democrat running for a spot on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, J.R. Molina, got 42.1 percent while losing to an Anglo Republican, Michael Keasler.

Block the Vote

Former state Sen. Drew Nixon, R-Carthage, was indicted on misdemeanor official oppression charges by a grand jury that said he illegally worked to keep two candidates for a water board off the ballot.

The Panola County grand jury's indictment says Nixon, working as the elections administrator for the Panola County Freshwater Supply District #1, refused to accept ballot applications from Dickie Jacks and Jon Kunkel, two former members of the water board who wanted to seek election.

Nixon, reached by phone, said the two wanted to run for positions that weren't on the ballot. The current board, he said, had changed its at-large elections to single-member district elections and the two men were seeking positions that weren't on the ballot in the 2006 election cycle. "I got caught in between two boards," he said. I support the single-member districts, though... we got a minority on the board for the first time after those came in."

Nixon went to the local sheriff's office to "surrender" after the indictments were issued; by afternoon, however, he was back in his office. He characterized the indictments as the result of a dispute over the change in the election process, and said he never thought of himself as the elections administrator: "We have served as their accounting firm."

There's another version. Attorney General Greg Abbott announced the two-count indictment, saying it began with an investigation by his office (Panola County District Attorney Danny Buck Davidson said his office "didn't have anything to do with it" and said Will Tatum, an attorney with the state, took the case to the grand jury). In the AG's telling of it, Nixon initially refused to take the ballot applications even though he was advised to take them by the Texas Secretary of State. Nixon and the AG agree that Nixon told the candidates they lived in the wrong precincts to be on the ballot. But the AG's office says Nixon ran out the clock on the two candidates, essentially protecting the board members he worked for by blocking their challengers' attempts to get on the ballot.

Nixon also says the election issue has gone to federal court and said the court has issued a bench decision in favor of the single member districts. State lawyers say that doesn't affect their case against the former senator.

He's charged with Class A misdemeanors, which carry penalties of up to a year in jail and up to $4,000 in fines. And he said he'll enter an innocent plea at the proper time.

Nixon gave up the seat in the 2000 elections, deciding not to run after a self-inflicted scandal: He propositioned a hooker who turned out to be a police officer and served his jail time on weekends when he wasn't working in the Senate. Awkward. He decided not to make the next election — Todd Staples, now the state's agriculture commissioner, replaced him — and he's been out of the state limelight since.

No, Thanks

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza won't be on the Texas ballot in 2010, and you could read his statement to say he won't get back into politics at all.

He's been mentioned in speculation here and elsewhere as a possible candidate for governor or U.S. Senate. He's even fueled some of it. But he's not running this time.

Garza, a former Cameron County Judge, Texas Secretary of State and Railroad Commissioner, could self-finance a race this time out. He married a billionaire heiress to a beer fortune — María Asunción Arambúruzabála — and the two have made coy references about his seeking office when his gig as ambassador is over.

His decision not to run, he said in a statement, was spurred by another round of stories about the possibility. "Why this statement now?" he said. "I have read the stories and known for some time that seeking the nomination in 2010 was not something I was going to do. I would prefer not to have that sort of speculation detracting in any way from the important work that is still to be done here in Mexico."

And he hinted that he'd like to get involved in public service again, but maybe not in politics: "Over the course of the past 20 years, I have seen many people whose names have never appeared on a ballot — and yet, they have served our state and their communities with a decency and quiet dignity that I admire. This is what I would like to do when my tenure as Ambassador is complete: be one of those Texans who stand outside the political arena but who continue to serve and make a positive difference in people's lives."

It's hard to run for governor if you're not standing in the political arena.

Hall Monitors

Gene Christensen's website says he "may" run for Congress, but his campaign manager says that's out of date and that his guy will be in the contest even if the incumbent — U.S. Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Rockwall — runs for reelection.

Christensen is president of a NASCAR truck team — Green Light Racing — and lives in Celina, in Collin County. He's the second Republican to show interest in a challenge. Former Frisco Mayor Kathi Seei said in April that she's in, Hall or no Hall.

The rap against the incumbent isn't his voting record; there's some prospective grave dancing at work. Hall's been in the U.S. House since 1980 (he also did ten years in the Texas Senate) and turned 84 earlier this year. Hall was a Democrat for years but switched after redistricting and won his last two elections as a Republican. He got 64.4 percent in November with both a Democrat and a Libertarian in the hunt. More to the point, two Republicans challenged him in the 2006 primary, and Hall got 77.2 percent of the vote. He went on to get 68.2 percent in the general election, with opponents from both the Libertarian and Democratic parties.

And he told The Dallas Morning News several weeks ago that he's healthy and raring to go: "I ran a mile and a half at 5:45 this morning. I run almost every morning. I do about 45 to 50 sit-ups every night."

De-Hyphenated

Troy Berman says he gets more questions about the hyphen than anything else right now. His boss is Shelley Sekula Gibbs, the former and would-be U.S. Rep. from CD-22.

She's dropped the hyphen, since it wasn't on the voting machines when she lost a write-in campaign for Congress last year. We chased it after someone pointed out the change, and you'll find her both hyphenated and not hyphenated on her own website. Officially, it's out.

With that out of the way, Berman goes on to talk about the contest. His candidate is the only Republican officially in — several others are looking at it — and she's locked up some big-time support. Her list: Bob Perry, President, Perry Homes; Don Jordan, CEO, Jordan Capital Management, Past Chairman, Reliant Energy; John Hamilton, Founder & CEO, Option 1 Realty; John O’Neill, Partner, Howrey LLP and author of Unfit for Command; Mike Richards, Former Texas Senator; Partner, Richards-Odem & Company; James "Jim" Baker, Chairman and President of Baker Communications and Sales Training America, Inc.; Clymer Wright, Founder, Citizens for Term Limits, Texas Finance Chairman, Ronald Reagan for President; Dan Wallrath, Founder, Wallrath Custom Homes; Trini Mendenhall Sosa, Co-Founder, Fiesta Mart; Michael C. Barrett, Partner, Barrett Burke Wilson Castle Daffin & Frappier, L.L.P., CEO, NDEx Entities; Erle Nye, Chairman Emeritus, TXU Corp; Jim Dannenbaum, President and CEO, Dannenbaum Engineering Corporation; Thomas Parr, Orthopedic Surgeon; Jack Calvin, President, Navasota Builders; and Wayne McDonnell, Director, Post Oak Bank.

Flotsam & Jetsam

A recent rule change at the Texas Lottery gives gambling opponents the heebie-jeebies. Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, wants Attorney General Greg Abbott to weigh in. Last year, she asked him about an "electronic pull-tab bingo" amendment that failed in the Legislature, and he answered that it was probably unconstitutional. The Lottery Commission's new rule allows pull-tab bingo in a way that she says would involve "the same substantive concept" as the unconstitutional amendment, and she goes on to say she believes it would allow the state to do by rule what that amendment would have done by law. So, she's asking: Can the lottery do that?

• The changes in the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, have already started, if you squint. The Legislature dropped (in most cases) a 90-day wait before someone becomes eligible for that insurance. And since the law takes effect on September 1, kids signing up now won't have to wait the full 90 days. The state's Health and Human Services Commission will extend coverage to 12 months for families that sign up this month and next. Other changes in the pipeline (assuming the feds keep their end of the program going): kids in the program have to renew their coverage annually instead of every six months; the asset limits on families double, allowed vehicle values for their families rise, and families are allowed to deduct child care expenses from income when qualifying their kids for the program. Legislators say those changes will allow about 127,000 more kids to qualify for CHIP.

• The Texas Supreme Court unanimously ruled against a woman who sued her pastor for disclosing her private confessions about an extramarital romance to the entire congregation. The nine justices said they had no legal right to jump into a church's internal affairs and overruled a lower appeals court. That lower court said Pastor C.L. "Buddy" Westbrook had been acting as a marital counselor and not as a pastor when he talked with Peggy Penley. And that court said she had the right to sue him for spilling the beans. The Supremes went the other way, saying the U.S. Constitution protects the church from outside interference.

Inside Man

Terry Keel isn't a temp anymore.

The former state rep, who filled in as House Parliamentarian during the turbulent final days of the legislative session, now has that title and job fulltime. He replaced Denise Davis, who resigned the post in a dispute over Speaker Tom Craddick's ruling that he didn't have to recognize a motion challenging his position and didn't have to honor an appeal of that ruling. As an advisor to Craddick, the new state employee was one of the authors of that ruling.

Keel, a former prosecutor and Travis County Sheriff, served five terms in the House before an unsuccessful bid for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

He's been practicing law since the election; Craddick aides say he'll be allowed to do some outside legal work, and when we asked, said Keel won't have to tell Craddick or anyone else who he's representing outside while he's got the state job (That's pretty normal for lawyers, and pretty weird for parliamentarians and other state workers, who need to avoid conflicts and appearances of conflicts).

Kate Huddleston, who started as a press aide to Craddick and became a policy analyst, has been appointed assistant parliamentarian, replacing Chris Griesel, who quit when Davis did.

Good Seats, One Mile High

Texas Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, will be one of the three co-chairs for next year's national Democratic Party convention in Denver.

She's the top official of the National Conference of State Legislatures and the chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus, and will join two other state-level politicos in that convention co-chair position. This is Title Purgatory. There's a permanent chair, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, and then there are co-chairs, including Van de Putte, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Franklin chairs the National Conference of Democratic Mayors, and Sebelius heads the Democratic Governors Association.

Those are actually nominations at this point, though you shouldn't hold your breath waiting for the outcome. Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean announced he'll nominate the four officials at the convention next summer.

Political People and Their Moves

Bryan Collier is the new number two guy at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He'll replace Ed Owens, who's now the conservator at the Texas Youth Commission. Collier has been with the prison system since 1985 and was most recently the director of the parole division.

Justin Furnace is the new chief of staff and legal counsel to Railroad Commissioner Victor Carrillo, replacing Kay Molina, who'll be the new general counsel at the state's Building and Procurement Commission. Furnace was most recently with the Abilene law firm of McCreary, Veselka, Bragg & Allen, and was once took an undergraduate course at Hardin-Simmons University from his new boss.

Appointments: Gov. Rick Perry named and renamed some regents to the Texas Tech University System. El Paso banker Rick Francis and Amarillo surgeon-turned-cowman Bob Stafford will remain on that panel. The new guys are John Field Scovell of Dallas and Jerry Turner of Blanco. Scovell, once a football star at Tech, is president and CEO of Woodbine Development Corp. Turner is a partner with Houston-based Vinson & Elkins. All four men are Tech alums.

The Guv named three regents for his alma mater, Texas A&M University System, including the father of a regent to the University of Texas System. J.L. Huffines, chairman of Huffines Auto Group in Dallas, is the father of James Huffines, who chairs the board of regents at UT. The elder Huffines is an A&M grad. Morris Foster of Houston, an executive with Exxon Mobil, and James Wilson of Sugar Land, chairman and CEO of an investment firm, round out Perry's list. Like Huffines, both men got their sheepskins in College Station.

Perry named Peter Holt of San Antonio — who's already on the board at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission — to be the chairman. Holt is CEO of a Caterpillar tractor dealership and one of the owners of the San Antonio Spurs.

Ooops: We put Cecilia May Moreno in Lubbock in an item last week and she's not from there. She's from Laredo. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Quotes of the Week

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, in an interview with the Associated Press: "I'm either going to run for re-election as lieutenant governor in 2010 or run for governor. I like being lieutenant governor... But being governor presents, provides an opportunity to talk to the Texas people, to lead on a broader stage with ideas and solutions for tomorrow."

Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, in a San Antonio Express-News story about the state's new "healthy marriage" law: "The thing that might be overlooked here is, Texans want lawmakers to focus on issues like good public schools, good jobs, safe streets. They don't want the government dictating how they talk to their husbands and wives and how much they exercise. It really does start to look like a nanny state or a busybody state."

Alfredo Maciel, a California tailor, quoted in The New York Times on the GOP and immigration policy: "I don't think Latinos are interested in joining the Republicans, and I don't think Republicans are interested in attracting them."

Sugar Land resident Tom Gargiulo, quoted in a Houston Chronicle about that city's new traffic camera program, which he opposes: "What are we going to do with all these cops if cameras are doing their jobs? I think we have cops to do that job, to give tickets out for red lights. Not cameras."

Texas Transportation Commissioner Ric Williamson, quoted in The Dallas Morning News after the panel voted on improvements to State Highway 121: "This has been at least a two-year odyssey, and our professionals on staff have been drug through the bad stuff at every turn. And it's often been criticism from the unseen hand or the unattributed quote. I've about had enough of that."

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, defending his support of earmarks for his district, in the Houston Chronicle: "I don't think they should take our money in the first place. But if they take it, I think we should ask for it back."

Texas Weekly: Volume 24, Issue 4, 9 July 2007. Ross Ramsey, Editor. Copyright 2007 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.

Disappointment, Confusion, Frustration, Concern. No, it's not a spelling list, it's a list of the emotions felt a few days ago when we learned that Governor Perry had vetoed the School Bus Idling bill. The bill, designed to protect Texas children from exposure to dangerous air pollutants, was widely supported by legislators in both chambers.

It didn't create an unfunded mandate, the bane of school districts' existence.

It didn't require new forms or detailed reporting or accounting.

It had no fiscal note, but in fact would have saved school districts money by reducing gas consumption.

The Governor's veto statement suggested he preferred the school bus idling policy be determined by individual school districts, that it be left to local control, and yet he approved several pieces of legislation that overrule the local control of school districts:

• Requiring school districts to place multiple birth siblings together in classrooms at parents request

• Requiring school districts to allow parents to designate alternate locations from which children may be transported to and from school

• Requiring end-of-course examinations for certain classes

• Requiring school districts to test students for steroid use

• And last session the Governor mandated a uniform school start date for all school districts.

Are you beginning to see my Confusion?

Diesel school buses -- especially older ones -- emit a stew of toxins and sooty fine particles that aren't safe to breathe, especially by young children whose lungs are still developing. Pollution gets into the cabins of the buses as the bus idles outside schools and field trip locales. And that can lead not only to headaches, nausea, bronchitis, more frequent and more severe asthma attacks and delayed lung development but to other, more serious afflictions later in life, years after your child's last school bus ride.

Hence my Concern. Air pollution affects children more than adults because they inhale more pollutants per pound of body weight and have a more rapid rate of respiration, narrower airways and a reduced ability to metabolize, detoxify and excrete toxins.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, and Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, would have set standards limiting the amount of time a school bus can idle in school zones and at school related activities, thereby limiting the amount of pollutants released in and around students and school buildings.

While Texas PTA is disheartened by the Governor's veto, we do agree with him that educators should spend more time and money on after school programs and bilingual education. But where does that money come from? We believe the amount of money saved by school districts on school bus fuel and maintenance would help pay for some of these programs, while improving the air our children breathe inside and around Texas school buses.

The Bus Idling Bill was part of a package of bills Texas PTA supported in an effort to improve the quality of the air children breathe in and around school buses: Texas PTA also sought funding for a program to help school districts retrofit diesel bus engines to reduce toxic emissions. Thankfully that program will be funded, albeit at a very small amount.

Our Frustration comes from knowing that the bus idling bill was an easy fix, a free fix, a fix that would begin to address a significant health problem for the children of Texas.

And, of course, we're very Disappointed, disappointed that Governor Perry chose to veto a bill that stood to improve the quality of life for many Texas school children.

Disappointment, Confusion, Frustration, Concern, makes a great spelling list, but a really bad way to feel about a really good bill.

Casey Magnuson is the Environmental Chairman for the Texas PTA Board of Directors.

Texas Weekly's Soapbox is a venue for opinions, spins, alternate takes, and other interesting stuff sent in by readers and others. We moderate submissions to keep crazy people out, and anonymous commentary is ineligible. Readers can respond (through the moderator) to things posted here. Got something to submit? We're interested in everything from full-blown opinion pieces to short bits to observations or tidbits that have escaped us and the mass media. One rule: Your name goes on your words. Call or send an email: Ross Ramsey, Editor, Texas Weekly, 512/288-6598, ramsey@texasweekly.com.

Watching out for gambling... and kids... and for preachers.

• A recent rule change at the Texas Lottery gives gambling opponents the heebie-jeebies. Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, wants Attorney General Greg Abbott to weigh in. Last year, she asked him about an "electronic pull-tab bingo" amendment that failed in the Legislature, and he answered that it was probably unconstitutional. The Lottery Commission's new rule allows pull-tab bingo in a way that she says would involve "the same substantive concept" as the unconstitutional amendment, and she goes on to say she believes it would allow the state to do by rule what that amendment would have done by law. So, she's asking: Can the lottery do that?

To end the "War on Terror," bloggers are calling for a draft — of one man, State Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston — at the expense of current U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. They're also buzzing about Gov. Rick Perry's trip to the Middle East, Tom Delay's partial escape from indictment, and Democratic presidential hopefuls' campaigning in Texas. Plus, a few quick hits on Houston Astro Craig Biggio.

* * * * *

Draft Rick Noriega

Bloggers want Rick Noriega to run against John Cornyn for his seat in the U.S. Senate in 2008. Noriega hasn't committed yet, but he announced Sunday at the Mid-Cities Democrats picnic that he will launch an exploratory committee in about a week.

Here are photos from a Noriega visit to San Antonio. Right now attitudes in the blogosphere are split: Some love Noriega, like the folks at Texas Observer Blog and Half Empty. Some hate Cornyn, like the writers over at Dos Centavos, South Texas Chisme and The Texas Blue.

B and B thinks either Noriega or declared candidate Mikal Watts (a Corpus Christi lawyer, Democrat and blogger) would be an improvement over Cornyn. Burnt Orange Report thinks either one would beat Cornyn, too.

Texas Kaos wrestles with the question — maybe a little after the fact, no? — of whether the "new media" should push a candidate into an election. Texas Blue's also posted an interview with Noriega.

* * * * *

When the Cat's Away…

Bubbling to the surface of Billy Clyde's Political Hot Tub Party is a humorous analysis of each stop on Rick Perry's Mideast Tour 2007, along the way reminding us of the existence of Texas A&M University at Qatar. What he doesn't explain, though, is how one says "Hullabaloo, Caneck! Caneck!" in Arabic.

PinkDome wonders how Perry, if he's shooting for national office, is going to reconcile his overtly Christian platform with his new buddies in Zion.

The Observer, too, speculates that Perry's planning on branching out to the other 49 states in the Union, while Texas Politics, the Houston Chronicle's blog, speculates on where Perry derives his sense of fashion.

Finally, In the Pink Texas wins the Headline of the Week award starting its take on the trip: "It Had to be Jew."

* * * * *

Stop. Hammer time!

Off the Kuff blogs on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeal's reasoning behind its decision to clear Tom Delay of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Burnt Orange provides an analysis of Delay's current legal situation following his day in court. Here's an earlier post stating Burnt Orange's opinion on the decision. Also on Burnt Orange is a post by District 10 democratic hopeful Dan Grant.

Austinist bemoans the prohibition of ex post facto laws by Article One of the U.S. Constitution (Sections 9 and 10). Houstoned, meanwhile, takes the opportunity to post — ex post facto — Delay's epic mug shot.

* * * * *

Barack the Casbah, Edwards Calling

Burnt Orange wonders why rock star presidential candidate Barack Obama is passing on the Young Democrats of America convention in Big D. Obama's popular in San Antonio, though, judging by photos posted by Walker Report here, here and here.

Someone who has RSVPed for the YDA meeting, though, is former Sen. John Edwards, who was a big hit with bloggers Dos Centavos and Half Empty during a one-night-stand in Houston. Half Empty takes issue with the Houston Chronicle's coverage of the event. Texas Kaos couldn't make it to the Bayou City, but instead spent the evening talking about Edwards at a bar in Austin.

There's love in the air for the candidate's wife Elizabeth Edwards and middle fingers in the air for Ann Coulter, who seems determined to keep herself on television no matter what it takes. If you want to buy a t-shirt inspired by the fiasco, click here.

* * * * *

Hit Parade

Off the Kuff, Brains and Eggs and blogHOUSTON each take time out to congratulate Craig Biggio upon achieving 3,000 career hits. As of Sunday, the Houston Astros catcher, second baseman and/or outfielder is also a mere 3 plunks away from becoming the career leader in getting hit by pitches. The current holder of that ignominious record is turn-of-the-20th-century player Hughie Jennings, nickname Ee-Yah.

Tom Kirkendall of Houston's Clear Thinkers posts a "best of Biggio blogs" blog, then turns his attention toward the future of the hapless Astros, which, sadly, is still the best baseball team in the state.

This edition of Out There was compiled and written by Patrick Brendel, who is temporarily situated in sunny Kermit, Texas. We cherry-pick the state's political blogs each week, looking for news, info, gossip, and new jokes. The opinions here belong (mostly) to the bloggers, and we're including their links so you can hunt them down if you wish. Our blogroll — the list of Texas blogs we watch — is on our links page, and if you know of a Texas political blog that ought to be on it, just shoot us a note. Please send comments, suggestions, gripes or retorts to Texas Weekly editor Ross Ramsey.

In the course of reporting on Terry Keel's elevation to House Parliamentarian, we asked aides to House Speaker Tom Craddick whether Keel, a former Republican House member from Austin, would be allowed to keep his private law practice open now that he's an officer of the House. The short answer: Yup, Keel can practice law on the side. The longer answer came to us in an email from Alexis DeLee, the speaker's press secretary.

She sent us this description of Keel's duties:

Mr. Keel's relationship with his law firm is the same as it was when he was an elected member of the House. Any work he does in his private practice will be done on his own time.

General Interim Duties

The parliamentarian is responsible for assisting the interim committees on procedural matters, including any rules issues, and on other projects as directed by the Speaker.

The parliamentarian works with the chief clerk during the interim to retrieve any bills or resolutions for archival purposes and to address issues as they pertain to the rules and/or procedure. This includes resolving outstanding points of order, entering rulings and ensuring the accuracy of details. Software program updates are also reviewed for proper applicability to the rules.

The parliamentarian works with the journal clerk in the interim on the entry of information into the printed journal, including rulings. At the request of the parliamentarian, the journal clerk will work on various interim research projects.

The parliamentarian works closely with the committee coordinator on interim committee matters and in the training of new committee clerks and the in-service training of committee clerks.

In the event that any joint interim committees need to be created by proclamation, the parliamentarian coordinates with the Senate the drafting of the required proclamations. The parliamentarian also advises joint committees on proper procedure and works closely with the Senate parliamentarian on various interim matters.

Specific Duties Leading Into the 81st Session

The parliamentarian works with the committee coordinator to prepare the committee clerk orientation and training, including updating and revising the committee clerk training manual.

The parliamentarian is responsible for assembling a House working rules group for input on proposed rules changes to the House rules.

The parliamentarian organizes and coordinates the New Member Orientation for newly elected House members.

The Office of the Parliamentarian reviews all pre-filed legislation.

Rick Noriega, about to be an official U.S. Senate hopeful, dominates the blogosphere again, but this week he's sharing headlines with fellow Democratic candidate Mikal Watts. Bloggers also celebrated a diluvial Independence Day while deploring George W. Bush's commuting the prison sentence of Irve Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr. Finally, a potpourri composed of garbage, trashy movies and how the criminal justice system deals with the refuse of society.

* * * * *

Democrats' ABCs: Anyone But Cornyn

Burnt Orange Report juxtaposes Watts', Noriega's and John Cornyn's stances on the war, the environment, and abortion and reminds readers of the existence of a third Democratic challenger to Cornyn, Dallas Lawyer Emil Reichstadt. Burnt Orange blogger Sarah White, meanwhile, offers Watts "$5 to calm down and stop throwing your money around."

Dos Centavos applauds Noriega's recent coverage in the M$M (that's "mainstream media" and predicts, "This is going to be a people's campaign."

Brains and Eggs takes issue with what he calls the "defeatist attitude of the Texas Democratic Party's elders" demonstrated by political consultant Matt Angle in a Houston Chronicle article. He also throws around the four-letter word "DINO" and claims that Watts has donated money to Republicans Greg Abbott and David Dewhurst. (A search under Watts' moniker on the Texas Ethics Commission's website campaign finance report database didn't flip those stones.

But if you look under the Good Government PAC that's based in Corpus Christi and that gets most — but not all — of its money from Watts and his law firm, you'll hit paydirt. That PAC, which has the same Corpus address as several law firms, including The Watts Law Firm, gave $40k to Dewhurst over the last few years, and $15k to Abbott, along with significant money for former Appropriations Chairman Talmadge Heflin, R-Houston, Regulated Industries Chair Phil King, R-Weatherford, Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, and former Rep. Toby Goodman, R-Arlington, who lost a hard-fought defense against the Democrats last year. Just for fun, here's the Federal database, too.)

The Texas Observer Blog explains the connection between Noriega and Republican Bob "Lorenzo il Magnifico" Perry, and the rationale behind it. Here's a hint: Perry apparently doesn't like Watts.

On June 19, the Rio Grande Guardian reported that Hidalgo County Democratic Party Chairman Juan Maldonado suggested that Noriega leave the Senate seat to Watts and instead run for the Railroad Commission or for the State Senate when Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, retires. "If it's so great, why don't you run for it?" responds Off the Kuff. Gallegos later says in the Guardian, "I think Juan Maldonaldo is full of the Christmas turkey" and that he plans to run for re-election.

Half Empty suggests that Watts might be better suited to challenge Ken Law for Chief Justice of the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin (doesn't matter that Watts now resides in San Antonio). He also says that if Watts runs for Cornyn's seat, the incumbent could focus his campaign against Watts' money, rather than on Watts himself.

Musings has a copy of Noriega's Independence Day speech. Off the Kuff has a copy of an endorsement of Noriega by State Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine.

Walker Report notes that Watts's campaign manager is Christian Archer, the man behind Phil Hardberger's two successful runs for mayor of San Antonio. Archer's done work for Watts — and for the Good Government PAC — in previous elections.

* * * * *

Don't Rain on My Parade

Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, has photos of Fourth of July in the Valley in his A Capitol Blog. Dos Centavos went to the parade in Kingwood and also has pictures of a very soggy Houston.

Texas Kaos waxes reminiscently about Fourth of July in North Carolina, and Burnt Orange waxes angrily about a certain phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Texas Observer marked the holiday by posting Texas Democrats' presidential endorsements, while Common Sense celebrated with a salute to Jimi Hendrix.

* * * * *

The Name is "Irve"

Bloggers... disagree... with... President... George W. Bush's... decision... to... commute... Scooter... Libby's... prison... sentence.

In the Pink posts the transcript of a press conference between White House Press Secretary Tony Snow and journalists, some from Texas. Musings has a copy of the $250,400 check Libby cut to pay his fine.

* * * * *

Coda

Shouldn't paper go in the recycle bin? In the Pink reports that somehow a 189-page document/tome from the Department of Homeland Security wound up in a dumpster behind KXAN-TV in Austin, at least that's what KXAN claims. Contents of said document: "Preliminary plans for the expansion of a U.S.-Mexico border crossing station in El Paso."

Houstoned blogs about a case of taken identity. An excerpt: "Houstonian Syvette Wimberly... was recently made aware that a girl she went to high school with in Kingwood is now a porn star performing under Wimberly's name." Try explaining that to your pastor.

Elsewhere, Grits for Breakfast, who gives his take on how to reduce county jail overcrowding, profiles the Geo Group, Texas' largest private prison contractor, and wonders how it is that nearly everyone on the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles seems to be a former cop or prosecutor.

Grits cites a Northwestern University study saying that juries get it wrong 13% of the time, with the tendency to wrongly convict rather than wrongly acquit. (This was shocking to this writer/compiler, who recently covered a West Texas murder trial where the jury returned a guilty verdict in about five minutes.)

Finally, Grits wins the "Headline of the Week" award in a post on how the system dealt with Lil Kim, Paris Hilton and Scooter Libby, titled, "Ain't That Tuff Enuff?"

This edition of Out There was compiled and written by Patrick Brendel, who is temporarily situated in sunny Kermit, Texas. We cherry-pick the state's political blogs each week, looking for news, info, gossip, and new jokes. The opinions here belong (mostly) to the bloggers, and we're including their links so you can hunt them down if you wish. Our blogroll — the list of Texas blogs we watch — is on our links page, and if you know of a Texas political blog that ought to be on it, just shoot us a note. Please send comments, suggestions, gripes or retorts to Texas Weekly editor Ross Ramsey.

Mikal Watts personally gave more than $500,000 to political candidates and committees over the last half-decade.

The biggest chunks went to three political action committees: The Good Government PAC, $125,000; the Texas Trial Lawyers Association PAC, $111,700; and the Save Texas Courts PAC, $75,000. That last one was set up to oppose a constitutional amendment limiting lawsuits by former Supreme Court Justice Deborah Hankinson, a Republican. The TTLA PAC is a long-running operation that gets money from lawyers all over the state for political candidates. But the Good Government PAC is closely associated with Watts, and it's the source of charges that he has supported Republican candidates as well as Democrats.

He's given smaller amounts to several candidates, including his favorite candidate, by a mile: Sandra Watts, a state district judge to whom he's contributed $104,751. She's also his mom.

The Good Government PAC gets most of its money from Watts and from his law firm, and shares their business address in Corpus Christi.

Since 2004, the Goo-Goo PAC (FDR and others called good government advocates "goo-goos") gave $40,000 to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, $15,000 to Attorney General Greg Abbott, and $5,000 each to Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson and state Rep. Phil King of Weatherford, according to campaign finance records at the Texas Ethics commission. It supported former Reps. Talmadge Heflin of Houston and Toby Goodman of Arlington in their unsuccessful reelection bids. But most of its money went to Democrats (or against Republicans): for Juan Garcia against Gene Seaman in last year's fight over a Corpus Christi statehouse seat, for Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin (then in a race for attorney general); for Chris Bell against Rick Perry (and Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman) in last year's gubernatorial election. And they were a drag on former Rep. Jaime Capelo, D-Corpus Christi, helping knock off the incumbent in a 2004 primary. It's also a contributor to other PACs, giving $100,000 to the Austin-based HillCo PAC run by lobbyist Buddy Jones and his associates.

On the federal front, contributions amounts are limited, but Watts has been busy for the last several years, according to records with the Federal Election Commission. He's a contributor to several presidential campaigns — John Edwards, now and four years ago, to John Kerry, after he'd put Edwards on his ticket in 2004, and to Joe Biden, last year. Watts also gave to Edwards' 2002 campaign for U.S. Senate. Barrack Obama, now a presidential candidate, got a donation from Watts for his 2004 Senate race.

He's given to U.S. Sens. and Senate candidates Ron Kirk, D-Dallas; Barbara Boxer, D-California; Tom Harkin, D-Iowa; Jon Tester, D-Montana; Robert Menendez, D-New Jersey; Tom Daschle, D-North Dakota; Harry Reid, D-Nevada; Tony Knowles, D-Alaska; and Ken Salazar, D-Colorado.

Watts contributed to U.S. Reps., former Reps. and House candidates Chet Edwards, D-Waco; Ted Poe, R-Humble; Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi; Richard Raymond, D-Laredo; Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo; Ron Chapman, D-Dallas; Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin; Martin Frost, D-Dallas; and Nick Lampson, D-Stafford. Poe, a former Houston judge, was the only Republican we spotted on Watts' federal giving list.

A California company has pulled together a database that tries to do for charities what campaign finance databases do for politics, and there's some interesting overlap.

NOZA pulls together public information from charities around the U.S. and makes it searchable, so you can find out, for instance, who in Texas gave money to a particular charity and about how much they gave. It's not completely hard data: The numbers depend on what the charities reveal about themselves and their donors. But if someone gives, and the organization lists them as a donor — often done, and often with dollar ranges — they end up in the database.

Craig Harris, a former nonprofit exec, set the website up to help other nonprofits get information that could help them raise money. if you give to one outfit and end up in the database, other similar outfits will know you're out there and can hit you up for contributions to their causes.

That opens a potential tie to politics and political giving, an avenue the company's now pursuing. If someone gives to a particular charities or charities and hasn't been active politically, it's possible to make an educated guess about their politics and their finances.

It's not a new idea — back in the day, Karl Rove, for instance, had direct mail businesses in politics and in fine arts, and found some useful overlaps there. And corporate America has been using cross-indexing like this for years. But it hasn't been this easy to access.

About a third of the database doesn't have dollar values attached, usually because the charities listed their donors without numbers. But that's potentially useful, too, since it links names to causes and to other gifts that might have bucks enumerated.

Harris says he's still aimed mainly at the nonprofit business, but says political campaigns and candidates are starting to poke into the data. So, he says, are reporters, who want to know more about contributors and about the candidates themselves, and who they give to. Check it out: www.nozasearch.com.

• While we're at it, there's a new website that's basically in existence to collect dirt on presidential candidates. You click on a candidate to find out what's going on with them, and you can click on another link to add to the muck. Sheesh: www.oppodepot.com.

The state's biggest phone companies and their competitors are fighting over a fund that subsidizes companies that provide phone service where it would otherwise be unaffordable. AT&T, the biggest, says the Universal Service Fund doesn't cover its costs. Competitors say the company gets at least twice what it should.

And the Public Utility Commission is getting ready to referee, hoping to refresh the formulas for the USF before the Legislature comes back for a regular session in January 2009.

AT&T says it's not paid enough for high-cost services the state requires it to provide; the companies on the other side say their customers are being taxed to help Ma Bell remain in a dominant position.

There's a pile of money at stake: About $425 million was disbursed last year to the phone companies in the biggest program within the USF, according to a recent PUC report. The fund is financed with a fee on your phone bill, and all of the phone companies have to take part. The money is supposed to subsidize high-cost customers who otherwise wouldn't get phones. An easy example: It costs a fortune, on a per-customer basis, to build and operate phone service in those long mostly uninhabited parts of West Texas. But the big phone companies agreed to do it if they could use money from high-profit areas to cover the costs. With competition coming into play, that subsidy turned into the USF; the notion was that the profitable areas would have lots of companies competing, and their customers, the state decided, should pay into a kitty to keep the phones running in unprofitable areas.

The formulas were last set in 1999, based on numbers from 1997. The biggest recipient, AT&T (formerly SBC, formerly Southwestern Bell, etc.) serves the greatest number of high-cost areas. And they're paid based on what those ten-year-old financial models say they should get. But some areas that were rural ten years ago are suburban now, and profitable for the phone companies (three smaller companies also get USF money for high-cost areas they serve). And more companies are competing for various businesses, including old-fashioned land lines, wireless phones, television, and on and on and on.

A coalition of those competitors has been pressing for a change in the formulas for several years, and now hope the PUC will get something new in place by this time next year. That's a group that includes the Texas Cable and Telecommunications Association, Time Warner Telecom, and Sprint/Nextel, among others. They don't want to kill the USF, but they fear AT&T and others are getting more money than they need to serve those high-cost areas, and want to make sure the USF money going to those companies isn't being used to competitive advantage. The companies getting the money don't have to prove they spent it in high-cost areas and don't have to detail their expenses in order to get reimbursed. The opposition wants to make sure they get the money they need and no more, and that they use it for the purposes intended.

On the other side, AT&T, Verizon, Windstream, and Embarq, say they've got the disadvantage of being the "providers of last resort," and as such, have no choice but to make sure everyone in the state has access to phone service. AT&T — the 300-pound gorilla here — contends the USF reimbursements don't cover the costs of the services they provide. A spokesman says flatly that they're under-compensated for the services they're required to provide in high-cost areas. And they contend the cable companies and others want to hobble the phone company so it'll be a weaker competitor.

The PUC's been at this for a while, but the case is expected to really get going in September, and the agency could have a decision as early as next spring, according to their current timetables.

Reports aren't due yet, but some campaigns are trumpeting their fundraising results...

Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams hasn't filed his mid-year reports yet, but aides say he raised $322,000 in ten days, an amount they think is a record for a Railroad Commissioner. Williams, like other state officeholders, was barred from raising money while the Legislature was in session and while Gov. Rick Perry was in the 20-day window for approving and vetoing bills after the session ended. Williams is also set to announce endorsements from "four-fifths" of the members of the State Republican Executive Committee (he's the state GOP's former general counsel) and from 100 of his party's county chairmen. Here's a weird bit of trivia: He might draw opposition in next year's election from Dale Henry, who ran as a Republican against Victor Carrillo and as a Democrat against Elizabeth Ames Jones in the last two election cycles. That would apparently make Henry the only guy to run against every sitting member of a Texas Railroad Commission.

• Dan Grant, a Democrat challenging U.S. Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Austin in CD-10, says he raised $72,700 in the last month. No report yet (it's not due) from the incumbent. Grant worked as a civilian setting up new government operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq and consulted for the John Kerry presidential campaign; he poses himself as a "foreign policy expert."

• Another early announcement: Joe Jaworski, a Galveston Democrat challenging state Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, in SD-11, says he'll report more than $250,000 in his campaign accounts at mid-year. That total includes $214,495 he says he raised during the last six months (non-officeholders aren't barred from raising money during legislative sessions, as incumbents are).

• Texans for Public Justice reports, based on info at the Texas Ethics Commission, that House Speaker Tom Craddick had nearly $4.2 million in the bank at the beginning of the year and was sitting on nearly that much during last year's election cycle. But he didn't spend much, contributing less than $200,000 to the political action committees that were defending his supporters in their reelection bids last year, TPJ says in their report.

You'd think legislators would want to hog credit for state employee pay raises. You'd be wrong.

They put a small increase in pay in the budget, but made it contingent on the comptroller saying the money was there to pay for the thing. Everybody knew the money was there; the state has more than $7 billion in uncommitted money in the treasury. Anyhow, Comptroller Susan Combs officially says the money is there for a raise when the budget starts in September. State employees will get a two percent hike then and another two percent hike a year later. Law enforcement officers will get bigger increases. The total tab for that is $402.4 million during the next budget cycle. On a micro level, someone making $40,000 a year now will be making $41,616 two years hence.

• Quico Canseco, a Republican challenging U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, in CD-23, picked up endorsements from car dealer Red McCombs and from Ken Mercer, the former House member who's now on the State Board of Education.

• Department of Corrections: We got our trucks mixed up last week, putting former Texas Senate candidate Victor Morales in a red one instead of a white one. Shoot, and we even rode in it a couple of times. The red truck that got stuck in our head belonged to Fred Thompson, who drove it around when he was running for U.S. Senate from Tennessee.

Check out this YouTube video, in which the governor of this fair state corresponds with a TV comic about honorary citizenship...

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza won't be on the Texas ballot in 2010, and you could read his statement to say he won't get back into politics at all.

He's been mentioned in speculation here and elsewhere as a possible candidate for governor or U.S. Senate. He's even fueled some of it. But he's not running this time.

It's hard to run for governor if you're not standing in the political arena.

His statement to the press:

For Immediate Release July 3, 2007 Statement from Ambassador Tony Garza regarding recent speculation on 2010 governor’s race: “Last week’s round of stories mentioning me among the ‘possibilities’ of those seeking the Republication nomination for the office of Governor of Texas in 2010 was flattering, but off the mark. “I love Texas and have enjoyed serving it both at home and abroad. But the fact is, I’m not running. “Why this statement now? I have read the stories and known for some time that seeking the nomination in 2010 was not something I was going to do. I would prefer not to have that sort of speculation detracting in any way from the important work that is still to be done here in Mexico. “I intend to continue serving as Ambassador to Mexico as long as the President has confidence in my abilities and doing so furthers this most important, and indeed unique, bilateral relationship. “The immense satisfaction that I have felt as Cameron County Judge, the Secretary of State of Texas, Railroad Commissioner of Texas, and now U.S. Ambassador to Mexico is something that I feel only service brings. “Over the course of the past 20 years, I have seen many people whose names have never appeared on a ballot – and yet, they have served our state and their communities with a decency and quiet dignity that I admire. This is what I would like to do when my tenure as Ambassador is complete: be one of those Texans who stand outside the political arena but who continue to serve and make a positive difference in people’s lives.”

He's charged with Class A misdemeanors, which carry penalties of up to a year in jail and up to $4,000 in fines. And he said he'll enter an innocent plea at the proper time.

Texas Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, will be one of the three co-chairs for next year's national Democratic Party convention in Denver.

Troy Berman says he gets more questions about the hyphen than anything else right now. His boss is Shelley Sekula Gibbs, the former and would-be U.S. Rep. from CD-22. She's dropped the hyphen, since it wasn't on the voting machines when she lost a write-in campaign for Congress last year. We chased it after someone pointed out the change, and you'll find her both hyphenated and not hyphenated on her own website. Officially, it's out.

Her list: Bob Perry, President, Perry Homes; Don Jordan, CEO, Jordan Capital Management, Past Chairman, Reliant Energy; John Hamilton, Founder & CEO, Option 1 Realty; John O’Neill, Partner, Howrey LLP and author of Unfit for Command; Mike Richards, Former Texas Senator; Partner, Richards-Odem & Company; James "Jim" Baker, Chairman and President of Baker Communications and Sales Training America, Inc.; Clymer Wright, Founder, Citizens for Term Limits, Texas Finance Chairman, Ronald Reagan for President; Dan Wallrath, Founder, Wallrath Custom Homes; Trini Mendenhall Sosa, Co-Founder, Fiesta Mart; Michael C. Barrett, Partner, Barrett Burke Wilson Castle Daffin & Frappier, L.L.P., CEO, NDEx Entities; Erle Nye, Chairman Emeritus, TXU Corp; Jim Dannenbaum, President and CEO, Dannenbaum Engineering Corporation; Thomas Parr, Orthopedic Surgeon; Jack Calvin, President, Navasota Builders; and Wayne McDonnell, Director, Post Oak Bank.

Christensen is president of a NASCAR truck team — Green Light Racing — and lives in Celina, in Collin County.

He's the second Republican to show interest in a challenge. Former Frisco Mayor Kathi Seei said in April that she's in, Hall or no Hall.

The rap against the incumbent isn't his voting record; there's some prospective grave-dancing at work. Hall's been in the U.S. House since 1980 (he also did ten years in the Texas Senate) and turned 84 earlier this year. Hall was a Democrat for years but switched after redistricting and won his last two elections as a Republican. He got 64.4 percent in November with both a Democrat and a Libertarian in the hunt. More to the point, two Republicans challenged him in the 2006 primary, and Hall got 77.2 percent of the vote. He went on to get 68.2 percent in the general election, with opponents from both the Libertarian and Democratic parties.

Terry Keel isn't a temp anymore.

Keel, a former prosecutor and Travis County Sheriff, served five terms in the House before an unsuccessful bid for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Kate Huddleston, who started as a press aide to Craddick and became a policy analyst, has been appointed assistant parliamentarian, replacing Chris Griesel, who quit when Davis did.

Ooops: We put Cecilia May Moreno in Lubbock in an item last week and she's not from there. She's from Laredo. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn won't get a cakewalk in 2008, but neither will the Democrat who faces him a year from November.

State Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, will file papers starting his candidacy next week (they're calling this "exploratory," but don't follow the "maybe he will" with a "maybe he won't").

He calls Cornyn "a rubber stamp for this administration," and says, "the only time he's disagreed with them is when they've tried to work in a bipartisan way, like on immigration."

Former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice, Attorney General and Texas Secretary of State John Hill died Monday morning.See stories in: Houston Chronicle Austin American-Statesman The Dallas Morning News And his biography can be found here: Texas Politics (University of Texas) And the official family obituary follows:

John L. Hill Jr. was born October 9, 1923 in Breckenridge, Texas.

His childhood was spent in Kilgore, Texas, where he received his early education.

He was National Debate Champion while at Kilgore University.

He attended the University of Texas as an undergraduate, where he was active in campus politics, Sigma Alpha Epsilon social fraternity, and was a member of the Texas Cowboys honorary service organization, where he served as Foreman (the president of that group.) He was also elected to the Friar Society, the oldest honorary society at the University of Texas.

He served in the United States Navy during World War II, serving in the Pacific. His rank was First Lieutenant.

After the War, he returned to the University Of Texas School Of Law, where he graduated in 1947. He received many awards during law school.

Judge Hill practiced law for over 60 years. He was an associate with the firm Helm and Jones, and then was a founding partner of Hill Brown Kronzer and Abraham, where he practiced for approximately 15 years. He was then a solo practitioner for several years.

Always active in politics, he was appointed Secretary of State of the State of Texas by Governor John Connally. He served in that office from March 12, 1966 until January 1968. While in that office, he instituted many reforms, including installing the Uniform Commercial Code and the many recording and informational policies and procedures which accompanied that code in its day to day application and use by lenders, borrowers, and others.

He returned to the private practice of law from 1968 until the end of 1972. In November of 1972 he was elected Attorney General of Texas, taking office on January 1, 1973. He served thereafter until January 1979. He revolutionized that office, particularly with the institutionalization of the opinion process, open records, and open meetings law.

He organized the environmental protections division, the consumer protection division, and was the first Attorney General to open regional offices around the state so that the office was more accessible to the public.

He then joined a firm titled Hughes and Hill, with offices in Dallas and Austin.

He was a leading trial lawyer for the firm, with many interesting cases including assisting EDS with international issues concerning personnel and assets in Iran during times of international crises involving that country

In 1984, he was elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, ably serving in that office until January 1988. He resigned to campaign for changes in the manner of electing or selecting judges to sit in the state judicial system.

He then practiced at the law firm which became Locke Liddell & Sapp. He retired from that firm in 2005. He then became a shareholder in the law firm known as Winstead, serving as a senior member of the Appellate Section.

Considered one of the best trial lawyers in the country, he was a member of the fellows of

The American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, the International Society of Barristers, and the American Board of Trial Advocates. He was a member of the American Judicature Society, serving as president of the Texas Chapter.

He was a member of the Order of the Coif Legal Society. He served as President of Texans for Judicial Excellence.

He received many awards throughout his distinguished legal career, including the Leon Green Award for Outstanding Service to the Legal Profession, the America Judicature Society Herbert Hawley Award, the Freedom of the Press Award, the Marc Gold Award for Outstanding Service to the Mentally Retarded, the Karen H. Susman Jurisprudence Award, and the Lola Wright Foundation Award for Legal Ethics.

In 1991, Judge Hill was being named Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Texas. In 1997 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the University Of Texas School Of Law.

Along with family and friends, he established the John L. Hill Trial Advocacy Center at the University of Texas School of Law. Dedicated on April 2, 2004, the Center oversees the practical training of UT Law students in trial and appellate advocacy. The Center houses the John L. Hill Teaching Courtroom, as well as three additional teaching courtrooms named in honor of other distinguished UT Law Alumni.

With his friend Ernest Stromberger, he recently completed a book about his service as Attorney General of Texas. That book is slated for publication in the fall of this year.

John Hill had many interests, including golf, hunting, and fishing. He was a great friend, who worked hard at being a friend. The stories and humorous things he has done through the years remain a source of delight to those who knew him.

He loved spending time with family and friends at the Double LL Ranch in Dripping Springs, Texas. He particularly enjoyed driving visitors around the ranch, pointing out interesting trees, creeks, hill-top views, animals, and other things he observed. His entertaining and pithy comments were legendary.

Judge Hill was a very active member of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Houston. He served in many capacities, including service on the Board of Stewards and the St. Luke’s United Methodist Church Foundation.

John L. Hill and Elizabeth Graham were married in Olney, Texas on April 4, 1946. They recently celebrated their 61st wedding anniversary. Their loving devotion to each other was beautiful to behold and experience.

Judge Hill was preceded in death by his parents, John L Hill Sr. and Jessie Hoover Hill. He was also preceded in death by his sister, Laverne Collum.

He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth Graham Hill of Houston. He is also survived by his children and their spouses, Melinda Hill Perrin and husband Michael W. Perrin, J. Graham Hill and wife Lindy M. Hill, Judge Martha Hill Jamison and her husband Bruce K. Jamison, all of Houston.

He is survived by one niece, Chris Collum Burkett and husband Harold of Grapevine, Texas.

He is survived by grandchildren, Elizabeth Perrin Eades and husband Jonathan, Carter Perrin and wife Elizabeth, Hunter Perrin and wife Mary Bonner, John Graham Hill, Jr. and fiancée Maria Alsen, Anne Taylor Hill, Peter Charles Hill, Randolph Bolton Hill, Matthew Thomas Clark, Meredith Virginia Clark, Samuel Luke Jamison. He is also survived by four great-grandchildren, Gracelin May Perrin, Eliza Eve Perrin, Oliver Michael Eades, and Elizabeth Graham Eades.

Pallbearers will be his grandchildren

Mikal Watts threw a bunch of his own money into his Senate bid, but his fundraising brought in $1.1 million from other people's bank accounts.

The San Antonio Democrat says he raised that much in the first 30 days after forming his Senate committee, and said the campaign reached the end of June with $4.9 million on hand (the rest came from the candidate himself. His campaign said $400,000 of the money came from online contributions.

The Republican incumbent, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, hasn't released his mid-year financial report, and aides aren't saying much about what'll be in that document. But a spokesman, David Beckwith, said his boss will be in the lead: "If [Watts] wants to keep up with us, he's gonna have to write another check."

Separately, Watts has started staffing up, adding Jason Stanford of Austin to the juggernaut to do research and also some speechwriting, and Kim Devlin, who'll handle communications. Sherry Boyles, a one-time Democratic candidate for Texas Railroad Commissioner and former head of Annie's List, is handling some of Watts' fundraising.

Texan John Weaver still has a favorite in the GOP race for president, but not a job...Weaver — who's been on the John McCain bandwagon as long as anyone, most recently as the presidential candidate's chief strategist — resigned from the campaign, along with Terry Nelson, McCain's campaign manager. Both men said nice things on the way out the door. Weaver's a longtime political op from Texas who worked for former U.S. Rep. Tom Loeffler of San Antonio and former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm of College Station, among others. In recent years, he's done work for some Democrats, too, as well as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Americal Trial Lawyers Association.

The former First Lady died at home of natural causes Wednesday afternoon, surrounded by her family and friends. She was 94.The popular Texan — she was christened Claudia Alta Taylor — lived for more than three decades after the death of her husband, President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1973. She was noted for her conservation and highway beautification efforts, a legacy Texans enjoy every day. She is survived by her daughters, Lynda Bird Robb (Charles), and Luci Baines Johnson (Ian Turpin), and by seven grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Johnson will be buried on Sunday in Stonewall at the Johnson family cemetery. Her body will lie in repose for the public at the LBJ Library and Museum in Austin from 1:15 pm Friday until 11 am Saturday, followed by a private funeral service. A ceremonial funeral cortege will take her from Austin to Stonewall, where a private graveside service will follow. Several newspapers published detailed obituaries: The New York Times Washington Post Austin American-Statesman The Dallas Morning News Fort Worth Star-Telegram Houston Chronicle San Antonio Express-News or see a long list of articles here. And the family issued an official obituary:

Wife, mother, grandmother, conservationist, businesswoman, philanthropist, First Lady.

Lady Bird Johnson, who held claim to all of those titles and more, died at her home in Austin at 4:18 p.m. Central Daylight Time on July 11, 2007. She was 94. She was preceded in death by her husband, President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who died in 1973.

All her life, Mrs. Johnson brought beauty to her sprawling family, to the Texas Hill Country she loved, and to the nation that loved her.

She inspired the passage of the Beautification Act of 1965 — a bill her husband called a "gift" to his wife — which cemented environmentalism as a top priority in the United States. Married for four decades to one of the most powerful men in the world, Mrs. Johnson juggled extraordinarily demanding jobs as her husband's closest advisor as he rose from Congressman to Senator to Vice President to President and as mother to daughters Lynda Bird and Luci Baines. After her husband's death, she spent the next three and a half decades solidifying all that she had laid in place during their marriage.

Today, Lady Bird Johnson's legacy lives on in the millions of blooms planted in the nation's capital, in the sweeping banks of wildflowers lining U.S. highways, in the charm of Austin's revitalized Town Lake. An equally lasting legacy is her extraordinary family — Lynda Johnson Robb and her husband Charles; Luci Baines Johnson and her husband Ian Turpin; six granddaughters and one grandson; and 10 great-grandchildren (with an 11th great-grandchild expected in August, 2007).

Mrs. Johnson was born Claudia Alta Taylor in the East Texas town of Karnack on December 22, 1912. Her father, Thomas Jefferson Taylor, was owner of a general store. Her mother, Minnie Pattillo Taylor, died when Claudia was five years old, leaving the little girl and her two older brothers, Tommy and Tony, in the care of their father and their Aunt Effie. Legend has it that a nursemaid said Claudia was "as purty as a lady bird"; the sweet nickname suited her and stuck for life.

Mrs. Johnson graduated from Marshall High School in 1928 and attended Saint Mary's Episcopal School for Girls in Dallas from 1928 to 1930. She then entered The University of Texas at Austin, graduating in 1933 with a Bachelor of Arts in History and with honors in 1934, with a Bachelor of Journalism.

She met the tall, ambitious man whom she would marry when he was a Congressional secretary visiting Austin on official business. Lyndon Baines Johnson courted Lady Bird Taylor with all the single-minded energy he would later bring to elected office. They were engaged just seven weeks after their first date and married in November 1934. Mrs. Johnson recalled that "sometimes Lyndon simply [took] your breath away." Her life with Lyndon Johnson was one of such achievement in politics, business and philanthropy it left those around them breathless, too.

Mrs. Johnson was independently a successful businesswoman. In 1943, Mrs. Johnson bought a failing low-power daytime-only Austin radio station with an inheritance from her mother. Armed with her journalism degree and a tireless work ethic, she took a hands-on ownership role, selling advertising, hiring staff, and even cleaning floors. Over time, her Austin broadcasting company grew to include an AM and FM radio station and a television station, all bearing the same call letters: KTBC. The family later expanded the LBJ holdings to stations in Waco and Corpus Christi and a cable television system. After selling the television station in 1972 and the cable system in the early '90s, the family grew their radio interests in Austin to include six stations. Mrs. Johnson stayed actively involved in the LBJ Holding Company well into her eighties.

Lady Bird Johnson is probably best known for her support of her husband's career. When Lyndon Johnson volunteered for the U.S. Navy in World War II, Mrs. Johnson ran his Congressional office, serving constituents' needs in every way except voting. Her support for her husband's political career continued throughout his years in government. She campaigned actively for his race for the Congress, Senate, vice presidency and presidency. In 1960, she covered 35,000 miles for the Kennedy/Johnson ticket, and in 1964, she campaigned independently on a whistle-stop train throughout the South for the Johnson/Humphrey ticket. President Johnson paid her the highest of compliments, saying he thought that the voters "would happily have supported her over me."

Lady Bird Johnson stood by her husband on the fateful November day in 1963 when Lyndon Johnson became the 36th President of the United States after the assassination of John Kennedy. Her official White House biography notes that her gracious personality and Texas hospitality did much to heal the pain of those dark days. She created a First Lady's Committee for a More Beautiful Capital and then expanded her program to include the entire nation. She was also highly involved in the President's War on Poverty, focusing in particular on Project Head Start for preschool children.

While President Johnson was still in office, Mrs. Johnson played a key role in the plans to build the LBJ Library and Museum and the LBJ School of Public Affairs in Austin, Texas. The Library is in the process of building the Lady Bird Johnson Center, consisting of educational classrooms and outdoor landscaping. After the Johnsons' White House years ended in 1969, Mrs. Johnson authored A White House Diary, a memoir that drew on her considerable skills as a writer and historian. "I was keenly aware that I had a unique opportunity, a front row seat, on an unfolding story and nobody else was going to see it from quite the vantage point that I saw it." She also co-authored Wildflowers Across America with Carlton Lees.

In December 1972, President and Mrs. Johnson gave the LBJ Ranch house and surrounding property to the people of the United States as a national historic site.

On her 70th birthday in 1982, Mrs. Johnson founded the National Wildflower Research Center, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to the preservation and re-establishment of native plants in natural and planned landscapes. She donated funding and 60 acres of land in Austin to establish the organization. In December 1997, the property was renamed the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in honor of Mrs. Johnson's 85th birthday. In 2006, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center became a part of The University of Texas at Austin, guaranteeing its permanent place in the national landscape — and ensuring that Lady Bird Johnson's name will live on in the hearts of Americans.

Statements from public officials poured in: Gov. Rick Perry: "Lady Bird Johnson embodied all that is beautiful and good about the great state of Texas. She inspired generations of Americans with her graceful strength, unwavering commitment to family and keen sense of social justice. Her unflagging efforts to beautify our highways and byways are a lasting legacy, through which our state will forever bear the unmistakable signature of a genuine Texan. We are proud to have known her and, like all Texans, are the better for it. Anita and I offer our sincere condolences and prayers to the Johnson family and friends." By Perry's order, state flags will fly at half-staff until sunset on Monday. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn: "Today, Texas mourns the loss of one of her finest citizens. A devoted wife, loving mother, successful businesswoman and a tireless public servant — Lady Bird Johnson’s distinguished legacy will be cherished for generations to come. She was a pioneer in defining the modern role of the First Lady, offering advice, ideas and support for causes that enabled every citizen of our land. Spurred by her love for this country and the environment, she devoted herself to preserving and enhancing our nation’s natural beauty. From the wildflowers that canvass the Texas countryside to the trees and rich vegetation that line our nation’s highways, Lady Bird Johnson’s imprint on our state and country will continue to live on as a source of pride for all Americans. My prayers go out to the Johnson family as they grieve the loss of this remarkable Texan and inspiring woman." Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst: "Like every Texan, I'm saddened by the passing of Lady Bird Johnson. I remember Lady Bird for her graciousness, her love of Texas, her efforts to beautify our great state, and her help in healing the nation after the assassination of President Kennedy. Texas has lost one of its brightest stars, but her light and her legacy will live on for generations to come." Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick: "I was so sorry to hear about the death of Lady Bird Johnson. She was a spirited woman who was deeply devoted to her husband, her children and grandchildren. Her contributions to wildflower conservation in Texas will be cherished for generations to come. Nadine and I will keep the Johnson family in our thoughts and prayers during this difficult time." Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott: "Lady Bird Johnson's lasting impact on the beauty and strength of this state is unmatched. In one of America's darkest hours, the First Lady served our country with grace and dignity. Lady Bird's beauty and what she stood for will far outlive our generation. Cecilia and I wish to extend the Johnson family our profound sympathies and wish them well as they remember a life well-lived." Texas Comptroller Susan Combs: "I'm deeply saddened by the passing away of Lady Bird Johnson. She was a great woman who led by example in her dedication to her family and country. And I share the gratitude of fellow Texans for Lady Bird's legacy in making our state a wonderful place to live." Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples: "Lady Bird Johnson was born in the beauty of the Pineywoods of East Texas. She made it her life’s mission to share that beauty with all of America. Her legacy will live on every spring as the wildflowers bloom across our grand country, reminding us of her grace and charm. The former first lady was thrust into the spotlight during one of the darkest times in our nation’s history. Mrs. Johnson helped our country heal after the death of a president and now we morn her passing but celebrate her life."

Who's in, who's out, and some timing issues...

Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, was all set to announce his bid for U.S. Senate, but will delay that event until Monday out of respect for Lady Bird Johnson (and, he didn't say, for the simple fact that all of the political press will be busy this weekend with that funeral). He'll jump into the Democratic primary against San Antonio lawyer Mikal Watts next week. The winner of that primary — next March — will likely face the incumbent, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a San Antonio Republican.

• Debra Coffey, a Fort Worth Republican, got the drop on everyone in HD-97, filing papers designating a treasurer and saying she'll be a candidate in the race to succeed Rep. Anna Mowery, R-Fort Worth, who's decided not to seek another term. Her husband is Tarrant County Criminal Court Judge Daryl Coffey. And the two have a funny distinction on their resumes: They were named Kentucky Tree Farmers of the Year in 2003 for their 2,100-acre tree farm there. Former Rep. Bob Leonard Jr. is looking hard at a return to the Texas House. If he jumps, and if he's successful, he'd be succeeding his successor. A Leonard confederate tells us that Mowery — then a Republican activist — was one of the people who got Leonard to run in the first place, back in 1978. He served ten years and decided to bow out; Mowery has been in that spot since 1988. That district is full of tire-kickers and the ballots are far from settled. City Councilman Chuck Silcox has also been mentioned as a candidate.

• The other state rep (only two so far) widely expected not to run — Buddy West, R-Odessa — is now making noises about coming back. He ended the session telling members that this might have been his last rodeo. But he told the Odessa American that his health has improved and he might just give it another go. Meanwhile, Randy Rives, an Ector County ISD board member, is looking (and raising money for a run). Democrat John Wilkins, a former head football coach at Permian High School, is looking. Another possible candidate, if West doesn't run, is Shirley West. That's the incumbent's wife.

• Take Jesse Ancira off the list of candidates who'll challenge Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, in HD-52. Ancira, a former deputy state comptroller and former FBI agent, says he'll keep the door open for future contests, but won't play this time out. He hasn't decided who he'll support and says he's heard of five or six Democrats who are considering the race.

Rick Dunham, who ditched Texas state politics to cover national politics two decades ago, will be the new Washington bureau chief of the Houston Chronicle. Dunham is currently with Business Week's Washington bureau and served as president of the National Press Club. Before that, he worked for the late Dallas Times Herald (where he mentored our editor). We're biased: Good hire.

President George W. Bush nominated Diane Rath of San Antonio to be assistant secretary of health and human services, proposing to move her to Washington, D.C., from the spot on the board of the Texas Workforce Commission that he gave her when he was governor. Bush named her to the Texas post in 1996 and made her the chairman two years later. Gov. Rick Perry reappointed her to the spot in 2001.

Maverick County Judge Jose Aranda Jr. of Eagle Pass joins the Stat Community Development Review Committee as a Gov. Rick Perry appointee. That panel reviews federal block grants for cities and counties.

Chris Cronn is taking a leave from the governor's legislative operation to work for Texans to Cure Cancer, the temporary outfit that'll try to persuade voters to approve $3 billion in bonds to support ten years of intensive cancer research in Texas. He hopes to return after the elections in November.

Mark Epstein joins the Austin offices of MGT of America, a public sector management and policy consulting firm. he was at Maximus Inc. until now and is a "revenue enhancement" and program management expert.

Bruce Anthony Toler was shot in the leg and then charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon after allegedly trying to steal copper wire from the unfinished home of state Rep. Borris Miles, D-Houston. Miles told police he interrupted Toler and other man, dodged a knife thrown by Toler and shot him in the leg. The other thief ran away.

Quotes of the Week

Dewhurst, Miller, Maciel, Gargiulo, Williamson, and Paul

Scarborough, Rancich, Seaton, Moldea, and Vitter

Vision America head Rick Scarborough, at a Christian political rally in East Texas, quoted by the Lufkin Daily News: "Even if we don't have a president we can vote for without holding our nose, we can impact county, city (and) school board... raising up God-fearing leaders at the local level."

West Texas pecan grower Tony Rancich, quoted in The Dallas Morning News on efforts to build fences on the Texas-Mexico border: "My grandfather had a vision for the border, and it wasn't a place guarded by fences where everyone is armed to the teeth, shooting it up. This isn't the Wild, Wild West. This is home."

Bryan resident Cindy Seaton of Bryan, quoted in the Bryan-College Station Eagle on her opposition to a proposed Hooters restaurant: "I'm mostly worried about the college girls. They're the ones that are going to be working there and putting their bodies on the line. It's going to set a precedent for them that they can use their bodies here to get through college. That's just not the way that our society needs to work, and I just don't agree with that."

Dan Moldea, who's in league with Hustler owner Larry Flynt and is also working on a book with Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called "D.C. Madam," telling the Washington Post he outed U.S. Rep. David Vitter, R-Louisiana, for hypocrisy and not for hiring the escort service: "If someone hasn't been shooting off his mouth, we'll throw him back in the river."

Wendy Vitter, the congressman's wife, joking in a 2000 interview with Newhouse News Service that she'd be less forgiving about dalliances than the spouses of former U.S. Rep. Bob Livingston and former President Bill Clinton: "I'm a lot more like Lorena Bobbitt than Hillary. If he does something like that, I'm walking away with one thing, and it's not alimony, trust me."

Volume 24, Issue 4, 02 July 2007

Campaign Finance, to Start the Season

One for the Money

Moody Blues

Road Warriors

Pre-Season Politics

Data Crunch

Political People and Their Moves

Quotes of the Week

Suiting Up Early

The Name Thing

Block the Vote

No, Thanks

Hall Monitors

De-Hyphenated

Flotsam & Jetsam

Inside Man

Good Seats, One Mile High

Political People and Their Moves

Quotes of the Week

The Week in the Rearview Mirror

Political People and their Moves

Quotes of the Week