The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court, saying Texas doesn't have to negotiate with the Kickapoo Indians, who want to open a casino.The Texas tribe asked the state to negotiate in 1994. The state refused, and the tribe went another route, asking federal authorities to use another procedure that would bring the state to the table. The state responded with a lawsuit, lost in lower court, and won, now, at the New Orleans-based appeals court.

Bloggers are busy with rumors on the Republicans' race to reclaim Tom DeLay's former congressional seat, now held by Democrat Nick Lampson. They also took shots at other contests around the state, Kay Bailey Hutchison and God. Wrapping it up: A motion picture pastiche.

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.22-Caliber

Half-Empty describes the six GOP "vultures" vying for the U.S. Congressional District 22 seat now belonging to Lampson, formerly held by DeLay.

Burnt Orange Report says state Rep. Robert Talton should secure the GOP nomination easily, based on his opposition to House Speaker Tom Craddick, Sheila Sekula Gibbs' "crazy" behavior, and the absence of several local big-name Republicans, adding that Republican Ken Legler will seek the HD144 seat vacated by Talton. Professors-R-Squared says an HD-144 race "does bear watching."

Off the Kuff muses that incumbent Lampson could choose to attack Talton "from the right on some things" if he faces the attorney in November, while Texas Kaos says Talton would be a great "whipping boy" for District 22 voters looking to repudiate "Republican rightwingers."

Texas Observer blog posts that the statehouse will be a quieter place after Talton's departure, that Talton won't be afraid to beat up on his GOP opponents, and that Lampson will benefit from this, no matter who wins the primary. Texas Politics, the Houston Chronicle's blog, reports that Allen Blakemore will run Talton's campaign.

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It Doesn't Hurt to Ask...

Half-Empty drafts an open letter to Mikal Watts, warning the Democratic senatorial candidate about the dangers of being Tony Sanchez, then asking the Corpus Christi attorney for $10,000.

Burnt Orange has an update on the status of the Rick Noriega Express.

McBlogger calls out San Antonio Current editor Elaine Wolff, a purported Noriega basher, for failing to disclose that her husband donated $2,300 to Watts.

Melissa Noriega, a Houston city councilwoman, is stumping in her husband's stead while Noriega is doing his two weeks of training for the National Guard, says Texas Politics.

Responding to news that freshman state Rep. Mike O'Day, R-Pearland, is resigning, Kuff posts that O'Day could contend for the title of shortest-tenured Texas House member, and that January runoff loser Randy Weber, a Republican, would be a shoo-in to replace O'Day. Not so fast! posts Texas Safety Forum, referring to rumors circulating that O'Day will serve out the rest of his term.

Burnt Orange reports that Tarrant County Democratic Chair Art Brender is not running (yet) for the State Senate District 10 seat, held by Republican Kim Brimer, leaving Wendy Davis as the sole Democratic challenger.

Meanwhile, Capitol Annex is chewing over old news, that Democrat Diana Maldonado, a Round Rock school board member, will challenge Republican Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, for the House District 52 spot.

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Going West

Texas Politics follows U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison on her West Texas road trip, where she encountered barbs at Texas Tech, one question in Lubbock and the Lions Club in Lamesa. Kuff isn't receptive to Hutchison's assertion that she doesn't enjoy financial stability, and Greg's Opinion is that Texas Politics pandered too much to Hutchison.

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Two Little Words

Capitol Annex gives some background on the Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act, concluding that this will end up in court. Chronic, the Austin Chronicle's blog, reaches the same conclusion, without the background. Texas Observer says the law was written by one Kelly Coghlan, "a lawyer who makes a living suing school districts for curtailing students' religious expression," (and concludes this will end up in court).

Texas Blue takes issue with what they see as a McCarthy-esque insertion of the phrase "under God" into the state's pledge, and wonders why Texas has a state pledge in the first place.

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Now Showing

American Graffiti: Grits for Breakfast continues his examination of the practice of spray painting public structures, here, here and here.

Dangerous Minds: Having trouble with students? Mike Falick's Blog has a number you should call.

Dirty Dancing: Houstoned makes the case for a Patrick Swayze High School in Houston.

Double Impact: starring Cap Metro, which is planning to raise bus fares 100 percent in 2008, via Austinist.

Fantasy Island: Diebold! Diebold! scream Chronic and Kaos. The ATM maker is spinning off its electronic voting division under the moniker Premier Electronic Solutions.

Out for Justice: Judge Susan Criss lists the blogs she peruses, via Grits.

Rodger Dodger: Rove improperly used his status as a student to avoid the Vietnam War draft, accuses Rhetoric & Rhythm. Oh, and he cheats on his taxes, too.

Fatal Attraction: "Why the Press Loved Karl Rove," by Burnt Orange.

Last Tango in Paris: Houstoned writes about a growing gang in Houston.

Madame Butterfly: Houstoned sits down with Maestro Willie Anthony Waters.

March of the Penguins: UTSA researchers going to Antarctica, says Walker's Report.

Moby-Dick: This oracle predicts your personality based on your Starbuck's preference, courtesy of Professors-R-Squared.

This edition of Out There was compiled and written by Patrick Brendel, who hails from Victoria and finds Austin's climate pleasantly arid. 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.

That will be the first name on the ballot in the Texas GOP's presidential straw poll in Fort Worth.

A number of the candidates — apparently more interested in the state's donors than in its voters — are skipping the Texas contest. The party is selling it as a chance for Texas Republicans to have some influence on a primary contest that's likely to decided before the real Texas primary in March.

The full ballot order: Ray McKinney, Sam Brownback, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Ron Paul, Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, Duncan Hunter, Mike Huckabee, John Cox, Hugh Cort, and Tom Tancredo.

At least three — Romney, McCain, and Giuliani — don't have the Texas event on their calendars. At least five — Paul, Hunter, Cort, McKinney, and Huckabee — do plan to come. That straw poll is scheduled for the Saturday before Labor Day.

The Texas House's head Democrat — Jim Dunnam of Waco — isn't making a legal argument in the battle over the powers of the speaker, but he's making a political one.

He didn't write a brief on the questions over the powers of the speaker. Dunnam, who heads the Democratic Caucus in the lower chamber, instead wrote a letter (in our Files section, along with all of the other briefs and papers that go with this opinion request) saying he has questions about conflicts that could taint any answer from Attorney General Greg Abbott.

He laid those out in a memo to other House members, saying Abbott and House Speaker Tom Craddick are funded, in large measure, "by the exact same sources." And Dunnam questioned the "fairness of the forum" where the questions are being handled. He says the two Republicans have received at least 1,416 contributions of $2,500 or more from people who've given each of them at least that much money. That includes 150 donors who've given at least $12,500 each to Abbott and to Craddick. It's another way to say the same group funds many or most of the top officeholders in the GOP, much as a different group backed most of the Democrats who used to occupy those offices. Dunnam didn't compare donations to other Republican state officials in that memo, but he questioned whether Abbott can be fair under the circumstances.

"Given the fact that Abbott and Craddick rely on the same group of Republican moneymen, corporate political action committees, and Austin lobbyists to fund their political careers, one must ask how realistic it is to think that any opinion from Abbott on the scope of Craddick's powers will be anything but favorable to his close ally," Dunnam wrote.

Abbott, you'll remember, has been asked for his official (and non-binding) opinion about the powers of the speaker and of members of the House who want to challenge his rulings and/or his post. The AG is collecting briefs. If he decides to rule, he has until December to do so. And Craddick or any other speaker candidate could defuse the question by recommending the House change its rules to clarify two questions in particular: Whether members can overrule the speaker when he refuses to recognize someone, and whether and how a speaker can be deposed or replaced during a session.

• One argument from Team Craddick is that the state constitution says members of the House should elect a speaker at the beginning of a legislative session. And the Speaker's lawyers say that's evidence that the framers didn't want races for that position to take place during the middle or end of a legislative session.

Hit your rewind button. Remember the argument the state made for mid-decade redistricting? Federal law says the states should draw legislative districts each decade with the new numbers from the latest census. Craddick and other Republican lawmakers — and ultimately, the state government — told the courts that since there is no prohibition against mid-decade redistricting, it's allowed.

Now Craddick's foes are making the same argument. Since there's no law against mid-session races for speaker, they contend, they're allowed.

The courts decided mid-decade redistricting is, in fact, legal. The questions over Speaker battles aren't being contested in court. And Abbott's ruling, if he makes one, isn't legally binding.

Dave Carney, who came to Texas as a political consultant to Gov. Rick Perry (and whose main office is still in New Hampshire) will consult Republican House incumbents through the Stars Over Texas PAC. He's played on the periphery; a third-party operation called Americans for Job Security ran ads attacking Rep. Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, a couple of election cycles back. Merritt was running for a state Senate seat at the time (it was a special election and didn't cost him his House seat), and Carney said then that the ads were an attack on taxes Merritt supported and not on Merritt himself. That's the election that put Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, in the Senate.

• Gov. Rick Perry has a fundraiser at the Four Seasons in Austin coming up after Labor Day. He says he might run again and that's an early chance to see if his backers believe it. Speaker Tom Craddick, trying to put together a House that has at least 76 strong supporters in it, will have an Austin funder in mid-October. The Texas Association of Realtors is hosting that shindig.

• Republican Bill Welch, we're told, is making calls in anticipation of a possible rematch with Rep. Valinda Bolton, D-Austin, who beat him last November. He also lost a House race years ago, by a handful of votes, to fellow Republican Susan Combs, now the state comptroller.

• The sales tax holiday is over, and lawmakers want to expand it. Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, and Comptroller Susan Combs want to raise the price limit for tax-free goods to $150 from $100, and to expand the list of eligible items. The current three-day break from sales taxes includes clothes and backpacks and such, and costs the state about $52 million. Combs says the proposed expansion would add $17.4 million in sales tax cuts. Ellis says he'll try to win legislative approval for the changes in 2009.

• Rep. Rob Orr, R-Burleson, will take over as chairman of the House's Land & Resource Management Committee. Rep. Anna Mowery, R-Fort Worth, had that job but is resigning this month. Orr, who's in his second term, was been vice chairman when House Speaker Tom Craddick moved him up.

The political season traditionally cranks up after Labor Day. Who's got money?We pulled the numbers from campaign reports filed with the Texas Ethics Commission and ranked officeholders and candidates by how much they had in their accounts at mid-year. The first chart ranks everyone, followed by statewides, senators, representatives, former officeholders, and political action committees. We cut everything below $100,000 to keep the sizes manageable. Notes: Two of the million-dollar babies — Steve Wolens and Ken Armbrister — are out of office and could run for something else or give their money to candidates (that's true for all of the former officeholders, but those two have a lot of dough). Only three statewide officials broke into the top 10, and Attorney General Greg Abbott swamps everyone in terms of cash on hand. The only Texas politician with more money (we're not counting presidents) is Kay Bailey Hutchison, who had $7.7 million on hand at mid-year. There were four state senators in the top 10. Only two current House members — Speaker Tom Craddick and Rep. Burt Solomons, R-Carrollton, ranked in the top 20. We left PACs on their own list, but the richest of them — Texans for Lawsuit Reform — would have ranked tenth among the candidates and officeholders. Finally, there's a list of federal officeholders and wanna-bes. Hutchison's first, followed by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, who's actually on the ballot next year, followed by the U.S. Reps who have to run every two years. Again, we trimmed everyone with less than $100,000 off the list. And the congressional list, like the state one, has some former officeholders on it. A note here: Federal campaign contributions have tighter rules than state contributions. But a federal account can usually be converted to a state race if the candidate is interested. Click on any chart to download a printable file of the full set.

Austin Judge Joe Hart let the corporations off the hook, but will let a lawsuit proceed against conservatives who ran third-party campaigns against legislative Democrats in 2002.The ruling is the newest turn in a lawsuit filed after the 2002 elections. A group of legislative Democrats sued after the elections, saying they'd been opposed by third-party political action committees that were illegally funded by corporations. Corporations and labor unions can't legally contribute to political campaigns. The people running those PACs contended their ads were aimed not at candidates, but at voter education, and were therefore legal. In his ruling, Hart released the corporations that provided the money, but will allow the lawsuit to go to trial against the people who were running the third-party effort. That means the Texas Association of Business, which coordinated the effort leading up to the 2004 elections, is still on the hook, as are lobbyist Mike Toomey, who helped, and some of TAB's officers. Andy Taylor, a lawyer for TAB, said the trade group played by the rules: "As we have stated all along, TAB fully complied with both the spirit and the letter of all of the election laws during the 2002 state election cycle." Hart said in his ruling that the corporations in the case aren't part of a political committee and should be cut loose. But he said there are questions about the others and about whether they were engaged in campaigns for and against particular candidates or were trying only to communicate with voters about particular issues and tell them where the candidates stood. It's a fine line. Attorneys for the advertisers say they didn't use any of the "magic words" that mark the ground between issues and express advocacy for a candidate: phrases like "vote for" or "vote against" and so on. That was enough to get the corporations off, but Hart said everyone else will have to argue in court.