Official results from the Texas Secretary of State: Democratic Party primary Republican Party primary

Bloggers are chronicling the continuing war over Democratic presidential delegates in Texas. They're also taking note of the impact of a certain Lake Jackson congressman at Republican conventions, runoffs for primary nominations and the hot seat recently occupied by the Texas House Speaker. And then, some miscellaneous posts.

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Donkey Doings

Barack Obama says he's won Texas; Hillary Clinton says maybe, maybe not, according to Postcards from the Lege, the Austin American-Statesman's blog. The numbers from Burnt Orange Report support Obama, but as Half-Empty muses, "The fat lady, however, doesn’t sing until the state convention this June. That’s the rule here in wild and woolly Texas. It’s not who you vote for, but who shows up... "

Those words rang true in Harris County's SD-6, where Obama no-shows swung the delegate total in favor of Clinton, according to Texas Observer Blog. They say the count was more proportional for Obama in Bexar County, but the convention was just as chaotic. Observer also says it was crazy in Tarrant County: here and here.

KVUE's Political Junkie live-blogged the Travis County convention, and Observer's take is here.

Postcards has the results from Hays County's convention, which earlier had "teetered on the verge of anarchy." Meanwhile, state Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, characterizes the event in Hidalgo County as "lengthy, historic and sometimes chaotic," in his A Capitol Blog. And Half-Empty says confusion reigned supreme in Fort Bend County, while a couple of commenters on Texas Kaos report on Kaufman and Wise Counties (once you're there, scroll down to the bottom of the page.)

Obama took off his shoe and crushed Clinton in Dallas's SD-16 and SD-23 conventions (and also in SD-2), reports Trail Blazers, the Dallas Morning News's blog. And Dos Centavos reports that Harris County's SD-14 event went "Smooooooth," while musings says many rules were broken during Fort Bend County's SD-17 convention. Also here.

Political Junkie turns her blog into a lonely hearts forum for Democrats who found amore at the conventions — then lost it. And Burnt Orange has an item on state "superdelegates."

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Republican r3VOLution

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram's blog PoliTex predicted partially cloudy skies with a strong possibility of Ron Paul supporters at GOP conventions. They were correct.

Party officials in SD-12 brokered a pre-convention peace treaty, ensuring that a significant number of delegates to the state convention will be flying the Paulistinian flag, PoliTex says. Folks in SD-10 didn't get the memo — latest word from PoliTex was they were still fighting it out. And Paul's r3VOLutionaries hijacked Travis County's SD-25 convention, but didn't muster quite enough support to take over SD-14, says Postcards.

Things were "relatively ho-hum" in Sugar Land's SD-17, says Texas Safety Forum. The most interesting development was the announcement by Austin Furse to run for state Sen. Kyle Janek's soon-to-be open seat. Here's more info from the county seat.

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Runoff Roundup

BurkaBlog analyzes the five GOP state House runoffs on April 8. Eye on Williamson takes a look at the GOP's HD-52, saying Bryan Daniel has more money, while Dee Hobbs has that hometown appeal.

Observer writes a story on the two Democrats still standing in the race for Railroad Commission. And Trail Blazers — paralleling our own covereage — says the GOP's HD-112 race has been so nasty that James Leininger is withdrawing his support for Randall Dunning. (Leinenger didn't say, however, that he's now backing opponent Angie Chen Button.)

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Gone Fishin'

Political Junkie scoped out TomCraddick's deposition for a lawsuit regarding an alleged "threaten" letter to a travel company. She has a screenshot here that is prime for opponent's campaign mailers. The raw, uncut footage is here. And commentary is here, here and here. Trail Blazers' take is here.

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Farrago

Rick Perry for Governor, in 2010? BurkaBlog moans.

Remember Mauricio Celis? TexParte Blog does.

Congratulations to il Duce Ross Ramsey for officially joining the M$M! via Burnt Orange.

An analysis of the pole tax smackdown, by Chronic, the Austin Chronicle's blog.

More maps of presidential primary results, by Greg's Opinion, here, here and here.

A take on the Bexar County needle exchange fight, by Grits for Breakfast.

Mike Falick's Blog won an award.

Cross-tabs of primary results by state representative district, from Off the Kuff.

An interview with Dwight Fullingim, a Democrat running for Congress in District 19, by Texas Blue.

Bloggers love... John Cornyn?

Videos from the U.S. Senate race, via Texas Politics, the Houston Chronicle's blog.

A money fight in an El Paso state House race, from Vaqueros & Wonkeros, the El Paso Times's blog.

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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.

Things you'll find on the final page of the Macias lawsuit: A former judge's email address, and a House staffer.

We take you now to Runoff Land, where a handful of candidates are still smacking each other for a chance at their party's nomination.

• Fred Roberts is after Ken Legler for using his Social Security number in a mailer. The Legler gang says it was a mistake, but Roberts says he's filing criminal complaints and civil suits as a result. He says it'll lead to identity theft. The risk in bringing it up: Roberts is bringing attention to Legler's mailer, which attacked him for unsettled federal tax debts. That's a GOP runoff, in HD-144. Late money for Roberts came from the Texas Parent PAC, $10,000. Legler got runoff help from Houston builder Bob Perry, $25,000; Beer distributor John Nau III, $10,000; Dallas billionaire Robert Rowling, $10,000; and Empower Texans PAC, $6,901.

• Ralph Sheffield, with third-party help, took a swing at Martha Tyroch for her spending during a Washington, D.C., trip she took while on the Temple City Council. The details: She upgraded to a $450 per night room at the Mayflower Hotel and had a $30, seven-block cab fare on her expense report. The allegations didn't come from the Sheffield camp, but from Austin-based Texans for Fiscal Responsibility. The two Republicans are in a runoff in HD-55. The only late money in that race was a $10,000 check to Sheffield from Dr. James Leininger of San Antonio, who's also one of the biggest backers of TFR. Tyroch's biggest helpers are the Texas Association of Realtors PAC, which gave $33,541 since the primary election.

• Tryon Lewis hasn't been able to get a debate scheduled with Rep. Buddy West in HD-81. "We have a number of differences," says Lewis, a former district judge currently in private practice as an attorney in Odessa. "Mainly public education, the gross margins tax and immigration." Lewis says his opponent voted for the 2006 gross margin tax (which pays for cuts in school property taxes). He thinks it should be "eliminated or strongly changed." He hasn't proposed an alternative. Lewis isn't a fan of the TAKS test, but says West sponsors it. He also criticizes his opponent's position on giving drivers licenses and in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. He says he hasn't attacked anything about West but his voting record. We called West — he's not available for interviews, according to aides. Jesse Gore and Randy Rives — the other two primary candidates – are backing West. Notable: West's post-primary contributors include a half-dozen of his House colleagues: Byron Cook, $500; Delwin Jones, $1,000; Edmund Kuempel, $2,000; Tommy Merritt, $1,000; Jim Pitts, $10,000; and Allan Ritter, $2,500.

• The HD-112 race — a remarkably hard-fought race to succeed Fred Hill in the House — has a mess of interesting money floating around. Since the primaries cut the field from three to two, Angie Button got money from Sen. John Carona, $5,000; Texas Instruments Chairman Thomas Engibous, $10,000; Hyperion CEO Albert Huddleston, $5,000; Diodes Inc. CEO Keh-Shew Lu, $10,000; former Texas Republican Party Chair Fred Meyer, $2,500; and finally, a $150,000 loan from the candidate herself, bringing her total loan balance to $310,000. Randy Dunning's purse isn't as large. He got $5,000 from Bob Perry, $10,000 from the Texas Home School Coalition PAC, and $7,569 from Empower Texans PAC (which makes in-kind expenditures instead of giving money).

• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsed Pete Olson over Shelley Sekula Gibbs in the CD-22 runoff.

• The Houston Chronicle, following its sister paper in San Antonio, is dropping distribution in Austin and other spots outside of the main service area. Both papers are owned by the Hearst Corp. By this time next week, neither will be available in racks in the state capital nor for home delivery. Get thee to the Internet; both are free online, at chron.com and at mysanantonio.com.

With less than a week to go, the candidates in HD-52 are finally arguing about something.

Both Dee Hobbs and Bryan Daniel have capitalized on their positive, clean campaigning. They debate the issues, shake hands and make jokes. But on Mar. 25, Daniel sent out a mail piece showing the Texas State Rifle Association's rating of the candidates — "A" for Daniel and "hostile toward 2nd Amendment issues" for Hobbs. Then, Hobbs responded with an e-mail defending what he said was an A rating for himself, too. A letter from TSRA dated Mar. 19 proves that. Wait, there's more. On the 27th, Daniel sent out another mail piece with a side-by-side comparison of the candidates on issues and endorsements. It mainly shows how Daniel's got big conservative PACs — like Texas Right to Life and Texans for Fiscal Responsibility — on his side and Hobbs doesn't. It also repeats TSRA grade of "hostile." So, Hobbs sent another retort.

Alice Tripp, the legislative director for TSRA PAC, says the NRA mails the candidate questionnaire in January to every state candidate and asks for it to be returned to TSRA Feb. 4.

"Daniel and 99.9 percent of the other candidates got it in immediately," Tripp says. "That cutoff date is to build a sense of urgency."

Tripp says she wanted to get the info on the Web site by Feb. 19, on the 14, she noticed the one from Hobbs was missing. Apparently, he was the only Republican that hadn't returned the questionnaire. She couldn't get a hold of him, so she had to give him a rating of "?" which on their legend equals "should be considered hostile to 2nd Amendment issues."

"I didn't assign him that title," Tripp says. "He took it on himself."

Hobbs and Tripp e-mailed some and eventually, he got the questionnaire in on the 19. The same day, Tripp sent Hobbs a letter saying his answers gave him an "A" rating. But, she didn't change the voter's guide on the TSRA PAC site right away. She didn't change it until the early morning hours of the 28th — there's a footnote explaining Hobbs' tardiness there, too.

Daniel says when he sent both mail pieces, the voter's guide still showed "?" next to Hobbs. Anyone could find that info by checking the site. He checked it again after sending the mail pieces on the 27th and found an "A" next to his opponent's name and says he called the post office and tried to stop it. Too late.

So what does Hobbs have to say about all this? He says his questionnaire didn't come on time and as soon as he got it, he sent it in. That would be just before Mar. 19.

"His mail piece makes people think I'm hostile to every Republican issue out there," Hobbs says. "You start talking to Texans about taking their guns away and they're going to ask questions. Even people who don't have guns will fight for the right for their neighbor to have one."

Daniel says he doesn't think the conflict will be beneficial or harmful for either candidate — and he's frustrated that the site changed before voters received his mail piece.

"I'm in an unenviable position," he says. "Some voters think he just submitted the questionnaire for political gain, others think that he's hiding something, but that's not for me to decide. I didn't make a personal judgment here."

— by Karie Meltzer

Keel v. Fero... (Alleged) high-living officeholders... Back to court for a controversial workers' comp case... Tax watchers... and a new CFO at TRS

House Parliamentarian Terry Keel filed a criminal complaint against political consultant Kelly Fero. At issue: An online posting accusing Keel of helping Democrat Mindy Montford in the runoff for Travis County District Attorney. Keel says the website that posted that belongs to Fero, who's on Rosemary Lehmberg's campaign payroll and who — in Keel's view — was "laundering" news he could then use to boost Lehmberg's chances against Montford in next week's election. The posting quotes Keel talking to an unnamed group and saying Montford's race was more important to him at the moment than a House race where his sister-in-law is challenging an incumbent Democrat. He says, in an affidavit attached to his complaint, that the report is false and that he didn't attend a meeting or say those things.

Fero's lawyer, Buck Wood of Austin, called the complaint frivolous and said the statements on the blog weren't — in legal terms — campaign communications. There's no violation of state election laws, he said. "You can say anything you want on your blog. This is not an ad." And he suggested Keel wouldn't have filed a complaint if the election wasn't coming up next week. "This all about Tuesday," Wood said.

Fero called Keel "one of Travis County's most litigious Republicans," and pooh-poohed the complaint. "Terry Keel carries his law license like a bludgeon, whether he's trying to bully a judicial opponent off the ballot or punish a Democrat who caught him trying to effect a Democratic runoff," Fero said.

• Ralph Sheffield redoubled his last-minute hit on Martha Tyroch in HD-55, producing a former city employee to back his charges of "lavish spending" at taxpayer expense. Michelle Garcia, quoted in an email from Sheffield, accused Tyroch of misusing a city credit card while a member of the city council and said she regularly upgraded air and hotel reservations made by Garcia for city business. Sheffield and Tyroch are in a runoff on Tuesday.

• The Texas Supreme Court will rehear Entergy v. Summers, a case that prompted an outcry from labor and other interests when the court decided it last year. It's a workers' compensation case that turns on whether a company can avoid premise liability by labeling itself a general contractor. A worker hurt on Entergy property sued but was tossed because the company was acting as a general contractor, and paying workers' compensation premiums. The court didn't set a date for the rehearing.

• There's a new business margins tax in effect and with it, a new committee to watch. Comptroller Susan Combs will chair the new Business Tax Advisory Committee. Four lawmakers are on board: Sens. Steve Ogden and Kirk Watson, and Reps. Warren Chisum and Myra Crownover. They'll be joined by a couple of non-government tax wizards: Dale Craymer of the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association, and Donna Rutter, a CPA. And by "taxpayer members," listed here with the industry they're representing: David Gilliland, Joe Mack Hilliard,and Mike Luther, services; Dan Hagan, transportation; Lynn Chilton, finance; Judy Lindquist, retail; Judy Kilgore, construction; A.J. Brune III, oil and gas; Gary Trudgeon and Emily Parrino, manufacturing; David White, communications; Sharon Aston, utilities; Eric Donaldson, trucking; and Andy Ellard, manufacturing.

• Ken Welch is leaving the Health and Human Services Commission this month to be the new chief financial officer for the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. He headed fiscal management at the comptroller's office before that.

After coming up short in the official recount, state Rep. Nathan Macias, R-Bulverde, is going to court to try to keep his seat. A copy of the lawsuit is posted here. One point of attack: He contends a "fairly large" number of people voted in both the Republican and Democratic primaries. Macias lost the election by 38 votes in the initial count. The recount closed that to 17. He won the seat two years ago by a similarly narrow margin. His opponent then, Rep. Carter Casteel, elected not to go to court. The winner, for the moment, is Doug Miller, former Mayor of New Braunfels. Macias' lawyers — Rene Diaz and Trey Trainor — say Miller benefitted from some votes that shouldn't have been counted, and that Macias suffered because election officials didn't count some votes they should have counted. They contend the number of questionable votes was greater than Miller's margin of victory. And they're asking the court to either figure out the real result or order a new election. Miller says he was "saddened" by the lawsuit and compared Macias' effort to Al Gore's push for a Florida recount in 2000: "You hope the guy would do the right thing and allow the voice of the people to be heard."

A sharp-eyed reader spotted this one; the new Showtime series State of the Union starts with a shot that has the state's top leaders — Rick Perry, David Dewhurst, and Tom Craddick — smack dab in the middle of a political crowd.

As long as you don't have a direct conflict of interest, you can apparently work for the state and have a private law practice at the same time.House staffer Trey Trainor is working off hours as an attorney on an election law case — an arrangement that's unusual, but apparently legal. Trainor is one of two lawyers representing Rep. Nathan Macias, R-Bulverde. Macias is suing to overturn the primary election that ousted him after one term by 17 votes (look here for that story). Trainor is also the clerk of the House Committee on Regulated Industries and a top aide to its chairman, Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford. He admits it's an unusual circumstance, but says he checked state law and the House's own rules before signing on with the lead lawyer in the case, former Judge Rene Diaz. He's not representing anyone with business before the House or the committee, and the rules of the House say you can have a second job if you've got your employer's approval. King, he says, approved. And, he adds, he's not working on the case on House time. He says he's done legal work for his family while on the state payroll. And he's listed with the Republican National Lawyer's Association in the "hire a Republican lawyer" section. Trainor says he's involved because of what he knows about election law after working for a year for then-Secretary of State Roger Williams. "I have a unique perspective," he says. Doug Miller, who won the primary — at least so far — says Trainor's involvement surprised him. "He was on the recount team, too," Miller said. "It amazes me... like a Republican governor giving $20,000 in a Republican primary. What's going on here?" Gov. Rick Perry contributed that amount to Macias.

Texas House candidate Ken Legler owns properties in Harris and Galveston counties, but don't buy the line that he's got homestead exemptions on both of them. Local tax officials say it ain't so, in spite of what they've posted on the Internet.Texas law only allows one homestead exemption per taxpayer. Former Rep. Gene Seaman, R-Corpus Christi, lost a reelection bid two years ago with a similar issue playing a role; he had exemptions on properties in Travis and Nueces counties, and blamed his wife for the mistake. Legler's foes thought they caught him making the same mistake, but it's a bogus claim. The websites for the appraisal districts in Galveston and in Harris counties indicate Legler has homestead exemptions in both places. But the Galveston website is out of date. It's got the old owner listed (though Barbara Legler shows up on a tax payment) and says there's a homestead exemption. Officials with the Galveston Central Appraisal District say they're in the process of updating it, and say the Leglers don't have and haven't applied for a homestead exemption there. The Harris County exemption is apparently the only one they've got. Legler's daughter goes to Friendswood High School, which is in neither the school district nor the House district where Legler is running for office. But he's got a house in both places. Points of interest on the web pages below: 1-Owners' names in Harris County 2-The homestead exemption in Harris County 3-Tax payment in Galveston County 4-The outdated homestead exemption in Galveston County 5-The outdated ownership info in Galveston County

Glenn Shankle will leave the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, where he's the executive director, as soon as a replacement is named. He told the board this week and they'll start a search to replace him. He's held the post since mid-2004 and worked for the agency for a decade before that. In fact, he retired once before and returned, joining zillions of other long-term state employees allowed by the Legislature to collect retirement checks and paychecks at the same time. Before he joined the environmental agency, Shankle worked in the Texas Senate and for the Comptroller of Public Accounts.

One loop in the race for Travis County District Attorney works like this:

1. An anonymously authored political website posts "news" that House Parliamentarian Terry Keel is helping candidate Mindy Montford.

2. The other candidate — Rosemary Lehmberg — sends out mailers (see below) repeating that and other bits from blogs, a statewide political journal, and the local paper.

That's not an unusual two-step in the political ecosystem. But there's potentially a dirty trick in this example. It turns out that political consultant Kelly Fero, who's working for Lehmberg in this race, is the anonymous blogger on that first website (credit the first report on that to the Austin American-Statesman). He apparently wrote the bit about Keel, and still vouches for it (though he didn't sign it at the time).

Keel, who works for House Speaker Tom Craddick, says he hasn't played any role in any of the DA campaigns. He's not saying explicitly what he'll do, but expect legal action that hits on libel, slander, campaign finance, and political ethics.

Keel's involvement in the race would be a big deal, if true. He's a former first assistant to DA Ronnie Earle (as Lehmberg is now). Earle has been in Craddick's political business since the 2002 election that put Craddick in power, so Keel, who's generally been a defender and friend of Earle's, might have a motive to get involved.

Whatever his motive, he researched the Austin Political Report, called the registrars in Bryan/College Station, found out Fero was the owner, and called foul. He's not commenting further at this point because of "pending litigation."

So be agnostic about this for a minute. The election is Tuesday, and chances are good that voters will go to the polls either suspecting Montford of getting help from Republicans, or suspecting Lehmberg of paying for laundered news she could use in her political mailers to slime the opposition.

Who's the trickster? We'll know sometime after Election Day. And if there is a crime under all of this, the prosecutor in charge would be... the candidate who wins next week.

Glenn Shankle will leave the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, where he's the executive director, as soon as his replacement is named (they want someone new in place before the start of the legislative session in January 2009). He told the board this week and they'll start a search to replace him. One name in the hat is Shankle's number two, Mark Vickery. Shankle held the post since mid-2004 and worked for the agency for a decade before that. In fact, he retired once before and returned, joining zillions of other long-term state employees allowed by the Legislature to collect retirement checks and paychecks at the same time. Before he joined the environmental agency, Shankle worked in the Texas Senate and for the Comptroller of Public Accounts.

Dr. Kenneth Shine will take over as interim chancellor of the University of Texas System. He's currently the vice chancellor for health affairs and will fill in until the Board of Regents names a permanent replacement for Mark Yudof, who's leaving to run the University of California System.

Tom Krampitz is leaving the Texas Motor Speedway, where he's been general counsel and head of government affairs for six years, to hang his own shingle in Fort Worth. He's the former head of the District and County Attorneys Association in Austin; he'll specialize in transportation and economic development.

State Sens. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio and Kirk Watson of Austin will co-chair the Texas Democratic Party's state convention in Austin in June. Keeping score? She's for Clinton. He's for Obama.

Ken Anderson, appointments director for Gov. Rick Perry for the last six years, is moving on. That job goes to his deputy, Theresa Spears, who's worked for several years in Perry's political office with grassroots groups and issues. From her new perch, she'll handle Perry's appointments, the latest of which include:

• Luke Inman of Wellington as district attorney for the five-county 100th judicial district. He's a private attorney and will replace Stuart Messer of Memphis, who left the job when Perry appointed him to a judgeship.

• Ten new members to the Brazos River Authority Board and named Christopher DeCluitt of Waco to chair that panel. The newbies include Patricia Bailon, a retired political consultant from Belton; Richard Ball, co-owner of Wes-Tex Vending Co. in Mineral Wells; Grady Barr, president of Double Barr Corp. in Abilene; F. LeRoy Bell, president of Compass Financial Strategies in Tuscola; Peter Bennis, CEO of First State Bank Texas in Cleburne; Zach Brady, a Lubbock attorney; John Brieden, a Brenham insurance agent; John Sloan, president of First Texas Bank Round Rock; Scott Smith, a consultant with A.G. Edwards & Sons in Cedar Park; and Salvatore Zaccagnino, an associate at LPL Financial Services in Caldwell.

• Seven new members to the Office of Rural Community Affairs and put Wallace Klussman, a rancher and retired Texas A&M University professor, in the chairman's spot. The new members are David Alders of Nacogdoches, president of Carrizo Creek Corp. and manager of Alders' Enterprises; Woodrow Anderson, owner of Anderson Farms in Colorado City; Bedias Mayor Mackie Bobo, an education consultant; Charles Butts, CEO of Medical Arts Hospital in Lamesa; Remelle Farrar of Crowell, director of the Knox County Visioning Team and the Texas Prairie Rivers Region; Joaquin Rodriguez, an Eagle Pass attorney; Linda Saenz, who owns a realty company in Carrizo Springs; and Patrick Wallace of Athens, an administrator at East Texas Medical Center there.

• John Eckstrum of Montgomery to run the Texas Real Estate Commission, and named Avis Wukasch of Georgetown to an open spot on that board. Both are real estate brokers.

• William Berry James of Palestine to the Upper Neches River Municipal Water Authority Board of Directors. He's an orthodontist. And he'll replace Joe Crutcher of Palestine.

• Douglas Saunders, who owns an eponymous company in Amarillo, to the Oil Field Cleanup Fund Advisory Committee.

• Lewis McMahan of Dallas to the Texas Water Development Board in place of William Meadows of Fort Worth. McMahan is a retired veep at Texas Instruments.

• Named David Duree of Odessa the chairman of the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy and added Stephen Peña of Georgetown to that panel. Both men are CPAs.

Maybe he did something bad in a previous life: Chris Lippincott is the new head of media relations for the Texas Department of Transportation. He joined that agency after a stint with the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault and until now was in the federal legislative affairs section.

Nora Belcher, until recently the deputy director of the governor's budget staff, left the Pink Building for Strategic Partnerships, where she'll be a senior consultant.

Republican consultant David Weeks — founder of Austin-based Weeks & Co. — is this year's "outstanding alumnus" of the College of Communications at the University of Texas.

Deaths: Darshoel "D" Willis, who for years was the clerk to the House Committee on Business and Industry, of cancer. He was 33.