State election officials have asked for an investigation of voting in a Republican House race that was decided by just 38 votes.

More than 200 people complained about the GOP primary in HD-73, according to a spokesman for the Texas Secretary of State. Lawyers there, concerned about allegations that people were counting ballots before the polls closed, turned the matter over to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for investigation.

In unofficial returns, former New Braunfels Mayor Doug Miller defeated freshman Rep. Nathan Macias, R-Bulverde, by 38 votes out of 29,324 cast. An official count confirmed that number, setting the table for a recount.

The post-election debate centers on Box 5 in Gillespie County. Officials there ran short of ballots, so they made copies, let voters use those, and then did a hand-count of the results. It took until the wee hours of the morning to get a full count, and some of Macias' supporters aren't happy with the process or the result.

They've raised questions about the extra ballots, the slow count, the fact that Miller's sister-in-law was initially among the vote-counters (they started the counting over again after asking her to move along), and about whether some of the officials involved were more friendly to the challenger than to the incumbent. Miller's folk say that Macias supporters were also among the counters and that the results were the same no matter who was counting.

What's gone to Abbott are allegations that some of the counters were tabulating votes before the polls closed. That's illegal whether it helps a particular candidate or not, though the complaints in this case came from the loser's side.

Macias lost in early voting, but pulled to almost even on Election Day.

In Gillespie County, Miller won by 1,131 votes. He won 63.6 percent in early voting there and 60 percent when all the votes were counted.

But Macias won in the other three counties in the district, by 28 votes in Bandera County, by 820 in Comal County, and by 245 in Kendall County. (They split the counties in early voting, with Bandera and Kendall favoring Macias, and Comal and Gillespie favoring Miller.)

Since Gillespie's votes were the last ones counted, at least some Macias followers hit the sack that night thinking their guy had won a close race.

The investigation is separate from the counting going on now. Macias has asked for (and will have to pay for) a recount. If that falls short, his camp could go to court to contest the election. And if the AG turns something up, the results could be questioned on that basis.

Chicken Nuggets

The leading tort reform group in Texas gave $20,000 to a candidate whose law firm was suing Oklahoma poultry producers on a contingency contract with that state's Democratic attorney general.

Former state Rep. Bill Keffer, R-Dallas — defeated in 2006 but in a rematch this year with Rep. Allen Vaught, D-Dallas — received $20,000 from Texans for Lawsuit Reform in December, as the two candidates geared up for the elections. He also got a $5,000 donation from Houston developer Richard Weekley, one of TLR's leading lights.

At the time, Miller Keffer Bullock Pedigo was one of three firms under contract with Oklahoma AG W.A. Drew Edmondson to sue poultry firms in the Illinois River watershed. Edmondson contends the tons of waste from those operations pollute the water. He signed up the three firms in July 2004 to handle the case and agreed to pay them one third of what they win. He also agreed to pay expenses, but capped what the firms can make — fees plus expenses — at 50% of what they win in court.

Keffer says the lawsuit is being handled by his partners, and that the Miller Keffer firm is actually more a "marketing partnership" than a traditional law firm.

He's not financially involved in the lawsuit, he says: "I'm not involved in it... I don't have any financial interest in it." Keffer said he's not on the hook for expenses incurred by the firm, and won't get a check if the lawyers win the lawsuit for the state. A spokesman for the Oklahoma AG says Keffer wasn't one of the lawyers with whom they worked. And the issue was never raised in this or past races when Keffer won the support of tort reformers in his bids for state office.

As of January, his name is out of the deal altogether. In January, the state broke off its arrangement with Randy Miller, one of Keffer's partners. Another, Louis Bullock, took over the business. And Keffer's name is no longer tied to the deal in any way; Bullock, a partner in another law firm, is doing the business under that banner now.

Edmondson's spokesman gave no reason for the breakup, saying that was a matter of attorney-client privilege. Keffer shared a copy of the disengagement letter.

The defendants sued unsuccessfully in federal court last year to throw out the law firms (that group Tyson Poultry, Tyson Chicken, Cobb-Vantress, Simmons Foods, Willow Brook Foods, Cal-Maine Foods, Cal-Maine Farms, George’s, George’s Farms, and Peterson Farms). They say the AG violated both the U.S. and Oklahoma constitutions by hiring firms on a contingent fee basis (that's the same arrangement Texas used to sue big tobacco companies in the 1990s, and it brought controversy here, too).

The suit against the chicken interest got national attention: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Tort Reform Association filed briefs supporting the poultry interests and saying the private lawyers shouldn't be doing state business.

Keffer says he was never financially involved in the lawsuit, though the Dallas Republican's name was on the law firm's flag and thus in the contracts with the state. He said he didn't know much about it; in fact, he didn't even know his firm was no longer involved until a reporter started asking about the case. And he says the issue has never come up in his conversations with TLR and other tort reformers.

A spokeswoman for TLR confirms that, saying the group "did know know about that poultry lawsuit, and we are looking into it."

All Behind Them Now

Ray McMurrey, the Corpus Christi teacher who ran for U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary, says he'll back Rick Noriega in the November election against Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. Noriega finished first in that race with just enough votes to avoid a runoff with the Gene Kelly who doesn't dance in the movies. McMurrey was third, and he finished an endorsement note with a link to the winner's fundraising site on the Internet.

• Republican Pete Olson picked up endorsements from 13 members of the Texas congressional delegation in his runoff fight against former U.S. Rep. Shelley Sekula Gibbs in CD-22. Gibbs had that gig for a few months after Tom DeLay left office, then lost to Nick Lampson. She and Olson are vying for a shot at Lampson in November. Olson snagged some of her former colleagues, including U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (his former boss), and U.S. Reps. Michael Conaway, John Culberson, Louie Gohmert, Kay Granger, Jeb Hensarling, Sam Johnson, Kenny Marchant, Michael McCaul, Randy Neugebauer, Pete Sessions, Lamar Smith and Mac Thornberry. That bunch lent their names to a fundraising effort. Olson also picked up endorsements from Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert and Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace (who once considered running for the congressional seat). One more note from CD-22: Olson fired up a new website whacking Gibbs for her votes on the Houston City Council. It's at www.ShelleySaysAnything.com.

• Rep. Buddy West, R-Odessa, picked up endorsements from the two losers in the four-candidate GOP primary in HD-81. West came in second to former state District Judge Tryon Lewis. Randy Rives and Jesse Gore now both say they're throwing their support to the incumbent. Gore told the local paper he was painting over his signs so that GORE would now read GO WEST.

• In the HD-52 race to replace Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, Candidates Three and Four endorsed Candidate One in the runoff. Both John Gordon and Vivian Sullivan say they’ll support Dee Hobbs over Bryan Daniel in the April race. Hobbs, Daniel, and Gordon finished within a few hundred votes of each other in the primary.

• In HD-55, Ralph Sheffield picked up an endorsement from John Alaniz. He already had Mike Pearce's nod. There's only one other candidate left, and she — Martha Tyroch — is in the runoff with Sheffield. That's the seat now held by Rep. Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple.

• Randy Dunning, a former Garland City Council member trying to win Rep. Fred Hill's seat, won endorsements from a pack of conservative legislators that includes Sen. Bob Deuell of Greenville and Reps. Betty Brown of Terrell, Dan Flynn of Van, Bryan Hughes of Mineola, Jim Jackson of Carrollton, Jodie Laubenberg of Parker, Phil King of Weatherford, Tan Parker of Flower Mound, and Ken Paxton of McKinney. Dunning's in a runoff with Angie Chen Button for the GOP nomination in HD-112.

• The Travis County District Attorney race — of interest here because that "local" office is the one that prosecutes miscreants in state politics and government — is in runoff mode. The incumbent, Ronnie Earle, isn't seeking reelection. Four candidates — all assistants in his office — ran in the first round. The survivors are Earle's first assistant, Rosemary Lehmberg, and Mindy Montford, a prosecutor who's also the daughter of former legislator and Texas Tech Chancellor John Montford, who's now an AT&T exec. Lehmberg has Earle's endorsement, and just got a nod from Gary Cobb, who finished third.

Political Notes

That political committee formed by gambling interests to play in state elections got the attention of Austin lawyer Bill Crocker (who's also the Republican National Committeeman from Texas).

He filed a complaint with Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle about Texans for Economic Development PAC and its use of corporate money. You might remember this from a few weeks ago: The operators of TEDPAC refiled their campaign finance reports to show a separation between their corporate and non-corporate funds, so as to avoid tripping laws that prevent corporations and unions from messing in elections for state office. Crocker didn't buy that explanation, and asked Earle's office to investigate. That office got the letter but hasn't made any comment on it.

• Watching the race for Speaker of the House? Speaker Tom Craddick hosted a fundraiser for three March 4 primary winners: Mike Anderson of Mesquite, Dee Margo of El Paso, and Randy Weber of Pearland.

• Musical chairs: Rep. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, is the new vice chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources. Rep. Robert Puente, the chairman, retired. Craddick moved the vice-chairman, Rep. Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton, R-Mauriceville, into that spot, and Creighton into Hamilton's spot.

Labor Relations

Tom Pauken, a Dallas mediation attorney and the former chairman of the Texas Republican Party, will join the Texas Workforce Commission as chairman in the "public member" slot (one from business, one from labor, one from the public).

Texas Labor immediately blasted that appointment, saying Gov. Rick Perry's pick "will continue the agency’s bias toward management and away from workers." Becky Moeller, president of the Texas AFL-CIO, pointed to the GOP platform when Pauken was chairman and its call to abolish minimum wages and prevailing wage laws. She says the unions will oppose it when the appointment goes to the Senate. Pauken disavowed those bits of the GOP platform, calling himself a "supporter of the labor movement" and saying he's never taken a position opposing minimum wages.

" I don't know what they're talking about..." he said. "I hope we can work together. I'm baffled that they would not call or ask about my positions before saying these things."

Pauken, who headed ACTION during the Reagan Administration, says he wants TWC to specialize in helping veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, like the other agency did for veterans of the Vietnam conflict.

Political People and Their Moves

Diane Rath is resigning from the Texas Workforce Commission this month, after 12 years there. TWC's chair is waiting for Senate confirmation to a federal appointment; George W. Bush, who as governor first put her at workforce, appointed her last July to an assistant secretary post at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed:

• Carin Barth of Houston and Tom Clowe of Waco to the Texas Public Safety Commission and put Allan Polunsky of San Antonio in the chairman's seat. Polunsky, an attorney, was on the Texas Board of Criminal Justice for 13 years. Barth is president and co-founder of LB Capital, an investment firm. Clowe, until recently a member of the state's lottery commission, is a nursing home investor and ranch land developer. There's still one empty slot on that panel, but it's got four members for the first time, and two female members for the first time. Polunsky dispatched Clowe to work on possible reorganization of the Department of Public Safety, Barth to dig into the agency's budget, and tapped Commissioner Elizabeth Anderson to take the commission's spot on the Texas Racing Commission and to take a look at the agency's intelligence database projects and information technology. (Coastal Alert: Polunsky asked the agency staff what it would take to move the regional office now in Corpus Christi to San Antonio.)

• Fernando Reyes Jr. of San Antonio to the Texas Lottery Commission. He's the president of Reyes Industries and Reyes Automotive Group, and Perry put him on that panel until early 2011.

• Steven Weinberg of Colleyville to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. He's the retired associate director of the Peace Corps, and has degrees in medicine and law. He'll replace Gail Madden of Dallas.

• Travis Bryan III of Bryan, the former Brazos County District Attorney, to preside in the 272nd District Court. He'll have to run in the next election for a full term, and was already on the ballot (alone). Bryan was most recently a criminal defense lawyer. He'll replace Rick Davis, who gave up the robes to run for district attorney.

• To the newly created Cancer Prevention and Research Institute Oversight Committee, watching the state dole out $3 billion in grants approved by voters in November: Malcolm Gillis, former president of Rice University and now a professor there; Jeanne Phillips, an exec at Hunt Consolidated in Dallas; and Scott Sanders of Austin, owner and CEO of River City Sportswear.

• Carol Becker of Aledo, Joyce McCown Odom of San Antonio, and Norberto Salinas of Mission to the Texas Funeral Services Commission. Becker is a retired counselor; McCown is a retired Delta Airlines flight attendant; and Salinas, former mayor of Mission, is president of S&F Developers and Builders.

• Malcolm Beckendorff of Katy to the Texas Facilities Commission. Beckendorff is an exec with Costello and a former city councilman.

Two appointments buried (until now) in the heaps of candidate press releases around here: The Guv named Janiece Longoria to the Board of Regents at the University of Texas. She's a Houston attorney (Ogden, Gibson, Broocks & Longoria) and a Port of Houston Authority Commissioner. She got both of her degrees —undergrad and law — at UT Austin. She replaced Robert Estrada of Fort Worth. Perry also named James Herring of Amarillo to the middle seat at the Texas Water Development Board, and named two new members to that panel: Joe Crutcher of Palestine and Ed Vaughn of Boerne to that board. The new chairman is president and CEO of Friona Industries, a cattle-feeding company. Crutcher is co-chairman of East Texas National Bank, and Vaughan is an attorney.

Deborah Fulton takes over as head of the legal division at the Texas Legislative Council. She's been around TLC for 17 years, and replaces Mark Brown, who left the agency earlier this year.

Talmadge Heflin is leaving the Republican Party of Texas, where he was executive director, for a fulltime gig with the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Eric Opiela, a former Capitol aide and one-time House candidate, will replace Heflin at the state GOP. Heflin, meanwhile, will become director of the Center for Fiscal Policy at TPPF. The former House Appropriations chairman has been working with the foundation for a little more than two years.

House Speaker Tom Craddick named Kay Alexander of Abilene to the Commission on State Emergency Communications. She's with the American Heart Association.

K.C. Jones is the new political director of the GOP's Texas Victory 2008. Jones, a Midland native, was most recently attached to the Rudy Giuliani campaign for president.

Lindsey Hughes, who worked for retiring Rep. Mike Krusee, left the Pink Building to take a job with former Rep. Paul Sadler at the newly formed Wind Coalition.

Out: Todd Gallaher, chief of staff to Sen. Robert Deuell, R-Greenville, after The Dallas Morning News caught him posing as one of its reporters, and for attacking a Corpus Christi sheriff candidate under what appeared to be an email address for Rep. Juan Garcia, D-Corpus Christi. Gallaher resigned after the paper raised questions and said it appeared he used state computers for the candidate attack.

Deaths: Joe Wagner, former doorkeeper of the Texas House of Representatives. He was 100.

Quotes of the Week

Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, talking to the Houston Chronicle about his party's delegate system: "It's time to end the Texas two-step — the music is over. Is it necessary to the democratic process, or to the candidates themselves, for these people to have to come back later in the evening after they have voted?"

Harris County Democratic Party Chairman Gerry Birnberg, quoted in the Houston Chronicle on 1,091 people who voted in both primaries there, and another 884 who voted early and again on Election Day in the Democratic primary: "[They] took literally the admonition that they should 'vote twice.' It's also a criminal offense."

Dr. Steven Weinberg, telling the Fort Worth Star-Telegram he was caught off guard when Gov. Rick Perry offered him a spot on the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission: "I told them that I, personally, don't drink."

Duval County Attorney Ricardo Carrillo, quoted by the Associated Press, describing the past electoral success of Sheriff Santiago Barrera Jr., whose 20-year tenure ended with a primary election loss last week: "He's a great politician and a terrible sheriff."

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, introducing Vagina Monologues writer Eve Ensler, taped by 99.5 FM: "How am I gonna stand up and say, I'm a vagina-friendly Mayor to these cameras after 'Chocolate City' and some of the other stuff that I've done. But you know what? I said, I'm in."

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Texas Weekly: Volume 25, Issue 11, 17 March 2008. Ross Ramsey, Editor. Copyright 2008 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.

The Democratic caucuses in Texas are looking more and more like a scene for a battle between lawyers for the Party and the presidential campaigns.The Clinton campaign's attempt to stall the delegate counting from the Texas caucuses failed; the Texas Democratic Party plans to go forward as planned. The Democrats say they'll hold their county and senatorial district conventions at the end of the month and tally the delegate voting that took place in Democratic precinct caucuses on Election Night. The caucuses could produce more votes for Barack Obama — who lost the popular vote in the Texas primary — than for Hillary Clinton, who won. Her campaign — questioning the security of the ballots — wants to verify signatures on the precinct vote sheets before counting. "As you are no doubt aware, there are significant questions about whether the precinct conventions were conducted in accordance with the Party’s Delegate Selection Plan and Rules," they wrote, over the signature of former Texas Land Commissioner Garry Mauro. "On the night of the caucus itself we brought many instances of these irregularities to the attention of the State Party. The campaign received in excess of 2,000 complaints of rules violations, indicating widespread violations of the Party’s rules..." Clinton's folks complain in the letter that the TDP is leaving it to the campaigns to verify the signatures themselves, but leaving them far too little time to complete the job. In their reply, signed by TDP General Counsel Chad Dunn, the Democrats say only precinct chairs have the legal right to qualify voters. The job's already done, and the proper spot for appeals, they say, is to the credentials folks at the party's convention. They also contend they don't have the legal right to move the conventions set for the end of the month; those dates are locked in by state law.

Bloggers are still pre-analyzing the pending results from the Democratic presidential primary-caucus. They're also discussing the U.S. Senate contest, state House developments and the top Harris County prosecutor. And at the end, a rodeo.

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Caucus-sure

Hillary Clinton is asking the Texas Democratic Party to postpone county caucuses until the March 4 count is settled to her liking. The Dallas Morning News's Trail Blazers says, "Why are they doing this? Because they are losing." Texas Observer Blog writes: "For now, it looks like what was a historic night for Texas Democrats could well end up as a nasty court battle."

Burnt Orange Report says that following through on Clinton's request would mean breaking the law, and posts the letter from the Clinton camp, spurring a lively discussion in the comments section. Meanwhile, Texas Kaos's refinish69 pens a note to Clinton: Dear Hillary, I don't like you anymore.

KVUE's Political Junkie has a photo essay on the Democratic presidential campaigns in Texas, while PoliTex, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's blog has YouTube videos of caucuses around the state.

Off the Kuff looks at cross-tabs for the Democratic primary in Harris County, concluding that whether a person supported Clinton or Obama did not affect down-ballot turnout. Meanwhile, Republican pollster Mike Baselice throws cold water on assertions that Republicans crossed over to vote blue, says Postcards from the Lege, the Austin American-Statesman's blog.

Walker Report has photos from the Bexar County Democratic Party's canvassing of the primary vote. John McCain supporter and San Antonio pastor-televangelist John Hagee says he loves Catholics so much that he married one, according to Trail Blazers. And Texas "superdelegate" Bob Slagle is very ill with cancer, reports Texas Politics, the Houston Chronicle's blog.

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Is It Possible?

The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee might be taking a look at Rick Noriega's challenge to incumbent John Cornyn, from the appearance of this YouTube video posted at Burnt Orange. More information from Half Emptyhere.

Burnt Orange's favorite former Democratic Senate candidate, Ray McMurrey, endorses Noriega here. (No word yet from Gene Kelly.) Chronic chips in its two cents in this post here. And PoliTex reports on the BFFs here. Meanwhile, Noriega has swapped out Austin fundraising consultant Kim Taylor for Washingtonian Jennifer Treat, reports Postcards.

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Craddick and Friends

Political Junkie sums up the state of all things Tom Craddick in a pair of posts here and here. Texas Politics has an interesting item concerning EmpowerTexans, posited as a purportedly pro-Craddick political committee, and an imbroglio over a commercial posted on YouTube concerning the GOP race to replace retiring state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple. (One wonders, though, whether a YouTube video could have any noticeable effect on voter behavior in a state House runoff).

Eye on Williamson takes a peek at the race to replace Mike Krusee in House District 52. It's a four-parter: 1) Democrat Diana Maldonado received a lot more votes than the Republicans did; 2) The two remaining Republicans, Bryan Daniel and Dee Hobbs are against the Trans Texas Corridor but not necessarily toll roads; 3) The two pachyderms favor lower taxes, school vouchers and tough immigration enforcement; and, 4) Maldonado, who's been on the school board, does not like school vouchers.

Fresh off his defeat of incumbent Pat Haggerty, El Paso's Dee Margo has started fundraising for his November date with Democrat Joe Moody, according to the El Paso Times's blog Vaqueros & Wonkeros. Meanwhile, Dos Centavos relays a letter from Democrat Joe Montemayor in HD-127. He'll face Republican incumbent Joe Crabb.

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D.A. = Don't Ask

Tex Parte Blog reports on the legal proceedings in regard to former Harris County D.A. Chuck Rosenthal. (Apparently he's going with the "I don't remember" defense.) Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center blogs on interim D.A. Ken Magidson here. And here, a writer who doesn't give such a flattering portrayal of Magidson.

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Barrel Racing

Burnt Orange clowns Republican state senate staffer Todd Gallaher, who got caught doing impersonations on the job. (More from Kaoshere.)

Burnt Orange prods readers for their opinions on which candidates they should endorse in runoffs.

For the tenderfeet, Kuff has a primer on Harris County Democratic runoffs.

Capitol Annex rounds up Congressional scorecards from three organizations that generally don't like Republicans.

Capitol Crowd's "Best in Show" for the past couple of weeks: Staffer Reshma Charles and analyst Mark Shewmaker.

PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon) and other kinds of alcohol are way more popular among young Texans than are illicit drugs, according to Grits.

Half Empty thinks that U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, who'll be facing a Republican in the fall, is trying to brand himself as a GOP-friendly Democrat with his recent support for a Republican-driven border security bill. (Dos-Centavos calls him "bigoted.")

Cintra/Zachry has worked out the entry fee that will go to TxDOT in order to start building the TTC, according to muckraker, who's also got the all-around summary for the history of State Highway 130. More from Texas Politics here.

Texas Blue interviews Dr. Ludwig Otto, who has cowboyed-up to run as a Democrat for Congressional District 6.

He's a beaver, not a bronco, but Buc-ee has his own blog, via Texas Safety Forum.

And Headline of the Week, because it fits in with our theme, is from Observer for a story on a showdown between a law dog and a south Texas newspaper, titled: "Sheriff Tramples First Amendment."

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This edition of Out There was compiled and written by Patrick Brendel, who hails from Victoria but is spending the spring in the mid-Atlantic region. 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.

The state GOP says Rep. Hubert Vo, D-Houston, accepted and didn't report corporate contributions to his campaign; they've complained to the Texas Ethics Commission and to Harris County prosecutors.

Vo's campaign manager says the contributions were not from a corporation and were properly reported. The party's complain says Vo held a fundraiser at Lot 8 Salon and that he accepted in-kind contributions in the form of supplies for that party. The complaint also says the business offered coupons to people who came to the fundraiser. Candidates in Texas races can't take corporate or union money, and the coupon stuff has prompted complaints against Vo before. Karen Looper, with his campaign, said the complaint has no merit: " Hubert Vo paid for the event in question. No in-kind contribution was made, none was reported, and our campaign report is true and accurate." Vo will face Republican Greg Meyers of Houston in the November election.

• Randy Dunning picks up an endorsement from former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Flower Mound. Dunning's not running for Congress, but for the Texas House; he's in an HD-112 runoff with Angie Chen Button. One shot against her: She gave money in past election years to Democratic House incumbents from Dallas.

She's shooting back with endorsements from eight Republicans who served on the Garland City Council with her opponent. And her camp is sending reporters and others a press release, with footnotes, detailing odd votes and behavior from Dunning. Among other things, she says he's against public education, has likened DWI stops to "Nazi Gestapo tactics," and voted for two tax increases while he was on the council.

• You can say the same thing about contributions, as it turns out, about House Speaker Tom Craddick. He gave $250,000 to a political action committee that in turn gave money to Democratic incumbents in primaries this year. And his lawyers have U-turned — as reported by the Austin American-Statesman — on earlier statements that he wasn't in on the final destination of that money. His daughter and campaign advisor, Christi Craddick, wrote a letter directing the TexasJOBS PAC to dish some of the money to Reps. Kevin Bailey, Dawnna Dukes, Kino Flores, and Aaron Peña. All four are Democrats who've supported Craddick for Speaker. Bailey, Flores and Peña each got $50,000; Dukes refused the money. On Election Day, Bailey was the lone loser from that group.

• And that leads nicely to this: Four rivals of House Speaker Tom Craddick went to Odessa to endorse Rep. Buddy West, who's in a GOP runoff against former state District Judge Tryon Lewis. Reps. Delwin Jones, Jim Keffer, Edmund Kuempel and Jim Pitts all traveled to the Permian Basin for a campaign appearance. Lewis has said he'll support Craddick for another term as speaker.

• Mindy Montford, running for Travis County District Attorney, got a nod from Rick Reed, who finished fourth in Round One. That race featured four assistant DAs running for the top job, currently occupied by Ronnie Earle, who decided not to seek another term. Montford finished second and now has Reed's help. Rosemary Lehmberg, who finished first, earlier got the endorsement of third-place finisher Gary Cobb. That DA is just like everyone else's, but with a little something extra: It's the first stop for prosecutions against misbehaving public officials and political scoundrels.

• Congressional candidate Pete Olson picked up an endorsement from the Eagle Forum PAC. He's in a runoff with former U.S. Rep. Shelley Sekula Gibbs in CD-22.

• The authors of the new (and so far, the only) biography of the late Bob Bullock will be and center at a panel discussion at the LBJ School next week. That'll feature the writers — Dave McNeely and Jim Henderson — and a mess of luminaries: Former Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby, former House Speaker Gib Lewis, and current state Sen. Rodney Ellis. They'll talk about Bullock and his impact, and probably tell some stories. A signing of Bob Bullock: God Bless Texas will follow.

Round Two of the Texas Democratic primaries comes a week from Saturday, in senatorial district and county conventions.

That's the next step in their delegate selection process. They'll collect and tally the results of the precinct conventions that were held in polling places on Election Night and send that stuff to the Texas Democratic Party. The results won't be final, though, until they're accepted at the party's state convention in Austin in June.

The places aren't all picked (they'll be posted on the party's website), but here's the breakdown: The conventions will take place at the county level in counties where the state senator serves more than one county. In counties that have more than one senator, the conventions can be held (it's not required) in senatorial districts. Those multi-senator counties are Bexar, Brazoria, Chambers, Collin, Dallas, Denton, El Paso, Galveston, Fort Bend, Harris, Hidalgo, Jefferson, Montgomery, Smith, Tarrant, and Travis. The other 238 counties will have county conventions.

The conventions are open to everyone, but the people selected at the precinct conventions do the voting. And depending on who shows up and who doesn't, the results could be different on March 29 than what they appeared to be on March 4. Delegates elected next Saturday go on to the state convention.

The number separating Republicans Doug Miller and Nathan Macias is now 29 (The vote canvass in HD-73 added six votes to Miller's total and 15 to Macias'). That difference comes out to just about one vote in a thousand.

Now they'll start the recount requested by the incumbent, Macias, who won in a squeaker two years ago and is trying not to lose in another. There are four counties and all sorts of voting methods from paper to electronic to optical scanning to local mixes. The count will go this way: Bandera County on Monday, Kendall and Comal on Tuesday, and Gillespie — where most of the complaints started — on Wednesday. The winner will face Democrat Daniel Boone and Libertarian Saannon Beckett McCracken in November.

Nothing like a proposal to cut $262.8 million from a state program to get negotiations going.

The Public Utility Commission staff recommended that 66 percent cut to the state's Universal Service Fund (we first wrote about the case last summer), which was set up ten years ago to subsidize phone service in high cost areas of the state (like rural areas were customers are far apart and expensive to reach with wire lines).

The USF has a couple of parts; the staff would cut the fund used to reimburse four large companies for their costs in those areas, to $132.1 million annually from $394.9 million. The money comes from a 4.4 percent tax on every phone bill in the state. The biggest beneficiary — AT&T — has been the loudest advocate for leaving the fund alone. The amount each company gets now is a trade secret redacted from the PUC's public filings. The staff recommendation would pay them only $3.3 million a year, and a spokesman for the company referred to that as a 98 percent cut (do the math, and they're getting about $165 million a year now). In the staff proposal, AT&T would go from being the biggest beneficiary of the fund to the smallest. The PUC's been hearing from a handful of lawmakers, too, who take the phone company's side and say they don't want the fund cut.

AT&T's competitors — the loudest are cable and telecom affiliates of Time Warner — say the USF provides AT&T in particular with more money than it needs to serve those high-cost areas. AT&T's starting position was that it actually needed more than it was getting and that the high-cost areas were financial losers for the company.

The three-member PUC is scheduled to hear the case next month. But the staff recommendation — issued while we and maybe you were distracted by the elections — prompted a round of negotiations that could change what goes to the commission. As we went to press, everyone involved in the case — with the exception of AT&T — was working feverishly on a settlement that would lower the amounts paid each year to the four big companies (the others are Verizon, Windstream Valor, and Embarq). AT&T is asking the commission to throw the talks to a mediator.

The question now — we're reading between the lines — is how much will be cut from the fund overall, and how much will be cut from whatever is paid to each of those four companies to provide service in high-cost areas. The staff proposal that whacks AT&T's annual cut would give Verizon $15.4 million, Windstream $100.2 million, and Embarq $13.1 million.

The commission could look at that request for a mediator within the week. And next month (assuming there's no delay), the commissioners will take a crack at the whole case, or whatever is left to decide after the current negotiations end.

Have you heard the one about Carole Keeton Strayhorn considering a run for mayor of Austin?She says, sort of, that it ain't so. Or that it could be. Actually, we didn't get a Yes or No answer. Strayhorn is a former state comptroller, Railroad Commissioner, Insurance Commissioner, mayor, school board president and congressional and gubernatorial candidate. She admits she still watches the City Council on public access TV from time to time, but says she hasn't given any thought to running for mayor. But she gets asked, in emails from friends and supporters, and has conjured a standard response: "When I became mayor 32 years ago, I was the first woman mayor in Austin and the youngest woman mayor [of a major city] in the United States. If I won it back, I would be the second woman mayor of Austin, and the oldest woman mayor in the U.S. I haven't looked up the age thing, but I don't think anyone would want to fight about it." Strayhorn is busy raising money and support for her new Our Texas Grandchildren foundation, a non-profit geared to help foster children in the state. She and two others — Jim Stinson of Houston and Joyce Covington of Brenham — are the only directors so far. She's also signed up two state senators for what will be a larger "statewide leadership advisory council" — John Carona, R-Dallas, and Rodney Ellis, D-Houston. That charity is her answer when people ask what she's up to. "This is my pro bono ad infinitum," she says.

Rick Noriega starts his general election run with a new campaign manager and a new fundraiser.Mark Bell, a top staffer to former House Speaker Pete Laney, will run the campaign. Bell says the campaign will bring fundraising in-house, with former Ann Richards staffer Jennifer Treat handling those duties. Treat lives in Washington, D.C. and will work from there. Bell replaces former state Rep. Sue Schechter, who'll still have a "major part" in Noriega's challenge to Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.

Rick Noriega starts his general election run with a new campaign manager and a new fundraiser. Mark Bell, a top staffer to former House Speaker Pete Laney, will run the campaign. Bell says the campaign will bring fundraising in-house, with former Ann Richards staffer Jennifer Treat handling those duties. Treat lives in Washington, D.C. and will work from there. Bell, who ran Laney's campaigns and was involved in a mess of races with the Texas Partnership while Laney was Speaker, replaces former state Rep. Sue Schechter, who'll still have a "major part" in Noriega's challenge to Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed federal prosecutor Kenneth Magidson to fill in as interim Harris County District Attorney. Chuck Rosenthal resigned from that post and won't be replaced until the elections produce a successor. Magidson's an assistant U.S. Attorney and a one-time assistant DA in Harris County.

Perry named Stuart Messer of Memphis to the 100th District Court, replacing Judge David McCoy. Messer was district attorney for the five-county district that's also covered by that court.

Perry put Carl Settles in charge of the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists and named four new members to that panel: Timothy Branaman, a Dallas psychologist and associate professor at Argosy University; Jo Ann Campbell, a psychologist with the Abilene ISD; Angela Downs, an Irving attorney and program manager with Mothers Against Drunk Driving; and Lou Ann Mock, a school psychologist and an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine.

The Guv named Conrado de la Garza, president and owner of Bahnman Realty of Harlingen, to the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. And he named Keely Appleton of Fort Worth and Richard Battle of Lakeway to the Texas Judicial Council. Appleton is a board member at Cook Children's Hospital; Battle is vice president of KeyTrak.

Edward Foster Jr. of Hurst joins the Texas Skill Standards Board. Perry found him in the Mansfield ISD, where he's director of career and technical education.

House Speaker Tom Craddick named Dr. Joseph Bailes of The Woodlands, Dee Kelly of Fort Worth, and Cindy Brinker Simmons of Dallas to the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute Oversight Committee, which will oversee the $3 billion in cancer bonds approved by voters last year. Bailes is an oncologist. Kelly's a Fort Worth lawyer and political player. And Simmons is a writer and the president of Levenson & Brinker Public Relations.

Ann Erben returns to state employment, this time at the Texas Workforce Commission as executive assistant to Tom Pauken, the newly named chairman of TWC.

Energy Future Holdings — you know it as the former TXU Corp. — formed a "sustainable energy advisory board" that'll be chaired by former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William Reilly. He's a member of the EFH board and the chairman emeritus of the World Wildlife Fund. The panel will include Texas Secretary of State Phil Wilson; Sam Jones, the former president and CEO of ERCOT; Karen Johnson, president and CEO of United Ways of Texas and former president of Entergy; Jim Marston, regional director of Environmental Defense; Ralph Cavanagh with the Natural Resources Defense Council; Reginald Gates, president and COO of the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce; and Steven Specker, president and CEO of the Electric Power Research Institute.

Going, Going... University of Texas System Chancellor Mark Yudof is the University of California System's top choice for chancellor. He's been at UT since 2002, and before that, headed the University of Minnesota System (and before that, was provost and law school dean at UT Austin). The head of the California search committee didn't name a specific salary figure, but in a statement, said this of Yudof: "He is expensive." The deal isn't yet final.

Gone... Austin American-Statesman Editor Rich Oppel Sr., after 13 years at the helm. He'll be replaced by the paper's managing editor, Fred Zipp.

Former Rep. Toby Goodman, R-Arlington, was fined $10,000 by the Texas Ethics Commission for using campaign funds to pay rent to his wife for a house in Cedar Hill, where the couple stayed while Goodman was doing legislative work in Austin.

That's allowed if the officeholder doesn't own the property, if the rent is at market rates, and if there's no benefit to the officeholder. But in Goodman's case, the commission said the rent was higher than market. And while Goodman's wife was the sole owner of the house, he and she were both on the mortgage. Because of that, he was a beneficiary of the payments. And because the rent was higher than other houses nearby, "there is credible evidence that the payments constituted a conversion of political contributions to personal use."

When this came up during the 2006 election cycle, Goodman said he was relying on a TEC advisory opinion answering questions from Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth. The agency said it's legal to rent from a spouse if the officeholder has no interest in the property and doesn't stand to benefit. Several lawmakers, including Brimer, had such arrangements at the time.