Bloggers haven't tired of typing about the Presidential race yet. They're also interested in news from the court system, Gov. Rick Perry's latest road appointments and a few campaign contests. And at the end, unsorted entries.

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Taking President

Houstoned notes, with disgust and disdain, that Lake Jackson congressman Ron Paul is still in the presidential hunt. And PoliTex notices that Paul's new book is number one on Amazon.com's list of bestsellers.

Superdelegate John Patrick, the vice president of the Texas AFL-CIO, is going for Barack Obama, according to Burnt Orange Report. Meanwhile, Texas Politics, the Houston Chronicle's blog, says Hillary Clinton picked up a superdelegate of her own, McAllen lawyer Jaime Gonzalez Jr. "That brings to 13 the number of superdelegates Clinton holds from Texas. Barack Obama has 10. And a dozen are now uncommitted." PoliTex has more.

Burnt Orange, who wants Texas Democrats to set aside their Clinton-Obama divisions during the state convention, has a video summing up the Democratic Primary in seven minutes. And KVUE's Political Junkie has a Google Map that breaks down the county-by-county results for each state's presidential primary.

PoliTex, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's blog, has audio clips of Pres. Lyndon Johnson from 1968. And here and here are articles about the tapes.

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Court-craft

This is from BurkaBlog: "The Texas Supreme Court has ruled on a longstanding case involving homebuilder Bob Perry. Do you think the court (a) ruled for Bob Perry (b) ruled against Bob Perry (c) that this is a stupid question because we all know the answer?"

Muckraker has a video clip from Fox 7 Austin news about the arrest of state Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, for driving while intoxicated. More gloating here from muckraker and here from WilcoWise. Chronic, the Austin Chronicle's blog, defuses some of the irony by noting that Krusee's committee version of 2003's HB3588 didn't include the stiffer penalties for drunk drivers that eventually passed.

BurkaBlog says Krusee's arrest might jeopardize an anticipated appointment to the Texas Highway Commission, while mcblogger takes the opportunity to bash DWI laws.

Tex Parte Blog weighs in on Francisca Medina's indictment, the latest Dallas County DNA exoneration and the newest East Texas U.S. Attorney. Meanwhile, Burnt Orangegives word of a new newsletter, The Justice Newsladder, and Chronic reports that Austin police officers won't take advantage of a state "cite-and-release" law.

Chronic says Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson has broken federal gun laws, while Grits for Breakfast wonders if the government is so keen on seizing FLDS assets, why didn't it do the same for the Catholic Church?Grits says authorities are probably inflating the number of pregnant underage girls. And Texas Politics says underage girls account for five percent of all Texas births each year, and that unmarried mothers account for 36 percent of births.

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Road Crew

State Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, doesn't openly disapprove of Deirdre Delisi's appointment to the Texas Transportation Commission, according to Chronic, who says fellow appointee William Meadows might have the tougher time getting approved by the Lege. Texas Politics has quotes from the two appointees.

BurkaBlog says any idea that Delisi will convincePerry to back off his private tolling strategy is "a lovely fairy tale, but it isn’t Perry’s style. Or Delisi’s."

Mcblogger says the appointments comprise a two-word message to the Lege, that isn't suitable for reproduction here. And state Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, calls Delisi "a rubber stamp" for Perry, via Vaqueros & Wonkeros, the El Paso Times's blog.

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On the Trail

Off the Kuff takes a look at a Swing State Project entry that puts two Texas Democrats in the top 75 of the most competitive House races in the country (no Texas Republicans made the list, which is drawn up on the basis of campaign cash on hand). Burnt Orange says "it's a good time to be a Democrat in Texas."

Eye on Williamson says an Austin American-Statesman article on "full-time" Lege employees only includes opponents of House SpeakerTom Craddick.

Here's video of a speech by Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Rick Noriega on April 11, via Half-Empty. Meanwhile, mcblogger floats a rumor that the Farm Bureau intends to support Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary, and Vaqueros & Wonkeros relays fundraising mailers from the two House District 78 candidates.

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Leftovers

Political Junkie gives news of the debut of a Wednesday afternoon radio show Texas Politics Today.

The Capitol Crowd has an entry on people who've switched jobs, an item on Isaac Albarado's unique desk and a baby announcement.

Texas Blue goes "On the Record" with Janelle Rath, chair of the Bandera County Democratic Party, and with Tillman Chaplin, chair of the Erath County Democratic Party.

Texas Kaos went to a Texas Solar Forum.

Texas Observer Blog has a piece on the border wall.

Vaqueros & Wonkeros has pictures from an immigration rally.

Mean rachel gives Republicans props for redirecting visitors to www.txdemocrats.com to www.texasgop.org.

And PoliSci@UST has an Olympic Torch Game.

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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.

Budgeting starts with a twist this year, with officials telling agencies to begin with current spending and to add in a two percent pay raise for state employees. Then? Show how they'd cut ten percent from that.The letter from the governor's office and the Legislative Budget Board is a bit different this time, and the politics are weird. They've recently started by telling agencies to come with in pre-cut budgets. That lets lawmakers add to the bare bones, looking like 181 tooth fairies in the process. This time, they're telling the agencies to come in with full budgets that the Legislature can then cut. That'll make them as popular as an orphanage manager in a Charles Dickens novel. Pair this with what House Speaker Tom Craddick said last week about having $15 billion in available funds, and the next budget might be relatively painless to write. Comptroller Susan Combs raised a flag about that $15 billion, saying it's more like $10.7 billion. They're looking at the same number, but at different times in the budget. It's $10.7 as of last year, but Craddick thinks it'll hit $15 billion by the time the next budget starts. Agencies have to submit budget requests in July and August. This week's letter, below, is the first step:

State Sen. Florence Shapiro is getting ready to set up an exploratory committee to run for the U.S. Senate in anticipation of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's resignation or retirement, sources said this afternoon.Shapiro, a Republican, has been in the state Senate since 1993 and was a Plano city council member and Mayor before seeking state office. She wasn't immediately available for comment. Hutchison hasn't gone anywhere yet. But she's talked about running for governor in 2010 and has told supporters that leaving the federal office early is one option she's considering. An early declaration from Shapiro would accomplish a couple of things: It allows her to start raising federal campaign money and puts her at the top of the speculation list of possible successors to Hutchison, at least for now. It carries some risk, too. Hutchison and her supporters might take it as presumptuous, for what that's worth. If Hutchison does step down early, and Gov. Rick Perry appoints a successor, his choice will amount to either an endorsment for or against Shapiro. The state Republican Party convention is about a month away, so she'll get some feedback from the regulars pretty soon. As for campaign finance, Shapiro ended last year with $853,580 in her state account. But state law is more lenient than federal law, and not all of that money would transfer to a federal race (Hutchison, who'd be going from the stricter system to the more lenient one, could move all of the $8,520,717 in her federal account to a state race).

It's the kind of Special Deals for Politicians saga that can taint the whole institution: Texas lawmakers are accused of lying about their employees to obtain benefits to which those workers would not otherwise be entitled.

Some of the employees are former lawmakers; some are just favored staffers. The full-time designation qualifies workers for free health insurance that costs part-time employees hundreds of dollars each month. As it turns out, former state officeholders and state employees who want to pad their retirement benefits don't have to work full-time; a part-timer can get a full year's credit toward retirement with a minimal work load.

Political consultants — the kind of kids who grew up throwing spitballs from the back rows of their classrooms — will boil it down to something simple and sinister, and it won't be about the struggles over who's the speaker of the House. It'll be about padding benefits for former lawmakers and other employees who don't actually do the full-time work required of everyone else who gets those bennies.

The flap started with stories in the Austin American-Statesman, which pointed to three cases where current lawmakers were designating part-timers as full-timers, thus enabling those workers to qualify for health insurance usually reserved for people who put in 40 hours a week. The salaries were low, but the potential benefits were high. And in Austin, it's turned into a game of political tag centered on insider concerns, excuses, questions, and accusations.

• From the accused: "Everybody does it, and has for years. Why is this coming up now?"

• From foes of the Speaker: "All three legislators named in the first stories — Reps. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, and Craig Eiland, D-Galveston — have been vociferous critics of House Speaker Tom Craddick. Who fingered them?"

• From some insiders, some outsiders, and sooner or later, from investigators and auditors: "The personnel papers that made those and similar schemes possible were approved by each House member and turned into Craddick's House Administration Chairman, Rep. Tony Goolsby, R-Dallas. Who in that food chain is to blame?"

• From Craddick's office: "We didn't know this was going on, and want to stop it from happening again."

• From his foes: "How is it possible that management didn't know? Goolsby himself hired short-term employees — lobbyists, even — in a way that qualified them for state benefits."

While the accusation and recrimination machine is churning, open record requests from political people and reporters are flying; this will involve the whole Legislature before it's over. Craddick has asked the House General Investigating & Ethics Committee to look into it, as well as the State Auditor's Office. Travis County prosecutors have inquired with state officials about the workers, the falsified work forms, and so on.

In the case of state pension benefits, it turns out that someone who wants to game the system doesn't have to lie. They just have to read the free handbook from the Employees Retirement System and follow the instructions.

For former legislators who served for at least eight years, each additional year on the state payroll is currently worth $2,875 annually, once they start collecting their pensions.

Those pensions are based on years of service multiplied by 2.3 percent of a state judge's salary, which is currently $125,000. Former lawmakers can start collecting their pensions at age 60 if they served for at least eight years in elected office, and at age 50 if they served for at least 12 years. (They have options as to how they get their benefits, but those are the basics.) A 65-year-old former lawmaker with 16 years in the Legislature, for instance, would be eligible for an annual pension of $46,000. If she worked for a state agency for two years on top of that, the annual benefit would increase to $51,750.

The regs say the beneficiary gets credit for a month as soon as that paycheck is recorded and the retirement benefit deducted from it. If our imaginary former lawmaker is on the books for $200 monthly, and allowed the $12 deduction for retirement each month, the benefits would accumulate. As long as she's on the payroll when the monthly checks are cut, she gets the pension bennies for that month.

She doesn't even have to work full-time.

Two new polls — one done on the Internet and the other on behalf of Democratic bloggers — say the Texas race for U.S. Senate is closer than you thought. Both have U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, only four percentage points ahead of Democrat Rick Noriega.

The Research 2000 poll, done for the Daily Kos, has Cornyn at 48 percent and Noriega at 44 percent, with a 4 percent margin of error. That was a phone poll done last week. A Rasmussen online poll released earlier in the week had Cornyn at 47 and Noriega at 43; it had a 4.5 percent margin of error.

Most polls up to this point have reported a double-digit gap between the candidates, with Noriega stuck in the low 30s, and these new surveys don't reveal any changes that might underlie the new numbers. A recurring sour spot for Cornyn: Few recent polls show him getting more than 50 percent of the vote. That's not fatal, but it's a sign of potential trouble.

The results? Noriega immediately began touting the results in his fundraising messages. Cornyn's camp said the polls are flawed and that their guy still enjoys a sizable lead.