Tom Craddick is the talk of the blogosphere again this week. Bloggers are also discussing Democrats and writing about Republicans, while a criminal justice blogger gives his two cents on Eldorado. And then there are the usual posts that didn't fit into categories.

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There's Something About Tom

State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, has asked a committee to investigate whether Speaker Craddick has a "ghost worker" of his own in House Parliamentarian Terry Keel, according to PoliTex, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's blog.

Burnt Orange Report sends out an APB: "Please feel free to send us any pictures you have of Terry Keel or any Craddick staffer not doing their job during the hours of 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. (typical work hours)." Eye on Williamson has a take, too.

On a semi-related note, Gov. Rick Perry is raising money for Keel's sister-in-law Donna Keel, who's running for the House District 47 seat, reports Postcards from the Lege, the Austin American-Statesman's blog. And Chronic, the AustinChronicle's blog, sums up the "legal kerfuffle" surrounding former Midland city council member's Bill Dingus's bid to challenge Craddick in November. (Another, Off the Kuff, also uses the unlikely word "kerfuffle" this week.)

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Blue Streak

Democratic state party chair and superdelegate Boyd Richie says he won't commit to a presidential candidate until after the state convention ends June 8, reports Tex Parte Blog. Burnt Orange has been designated Texas' official blog, granting them credentials to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. And Barack Obama's Texas campaign coordinator is taking a job with the Travis County Democratic Party, according to Postcards.

Capitol Annex goes over the challenges to the Democratic county and state conventions. Here are some of the challenges in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, by Texas Politics, the Houston Chronicle's blog.

State Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, is holding his third Strama Campaign Academy from June 23 to July 25, says the show’s manager in Burnt Orange. Meanwhile, Texas Blue pens a hagiography of Democrat Wendy Davis, who's challenging Republican Kim Brimer for his Fort Worth state Senate seat.

Election Law Blog has LULAC's complaint against the Texas Democratic Party's primacaucus system, via VoteLaw.com. That earned LULAC one of Kaos's Cheese Tray Awards," presented to the biggest whiners in politics.

Blue interviews Karl-Thomas Musselman, Rick Noriega's online coordinator and also a writer for Burnt Orange. Texas Kaos notifies readers that Noriega was on Blog Talk Radio. And mean rachel attended a party thrown by Travis County Democrats.

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Red Dawn

U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, got caught on camera sticking his foot in his mouth. Kuff saw it first, and Blue has video.

The pair of polls showing a tight race between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Noriega could help Cornyn raise money, says KVUE's Political Junkie. Meanwhile, Half Empty has some fun with a questionnaire mailed to him from the Republican National Committee.

PoliTex reports that Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich will headline the Texas GOP convention in June. Austin Political Report takes a moment to provide sordid details about Gingrich's personal life.

ABC News has people covering Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Cornyn as potential running mates for John McCain, but nobody for Perry, according to Texas Politics. And here's the view from PoliTex.

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True Grits

Grits for Breakfast does not agree with the state's raid of the Yearning For Zion ranch in Eldorado. He says authorities have been using "phony statistics on pregnant teens." He has a post on FLDS members speaking out on the Internets.

Grits says the state ignored evidence showing that the initial call for help was a hoax. "I'm now fairly convinced Texas will never see any successful criminal prosecutions from the Great Eldorado Polygamist Roundup. They've just screwed it up too badly," he says.

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Salmagundi

Texas Libertarians have 174 candidates on the November ballot, a new record, says Chronic. And Vaqueros & Wonkeros, the El Paso Times'sblog, brings readers up-to-date on the state House contest between incumbent Dee Margo and Democrat Joe Moody.

BurkaBlog writes about Attorney General Greg Abbott's ruling against the Lege's needle exchange program. "People will die and medical costs will rise as a result." Meanwhile, Junkie's got a photo of Texas Secretary of State Phil Wilson ringing the closing bell at NASDAQ.

To nobody's surprise, Burnt Orange doesn't agree with a recent state Supreme Court ruling in favor of big-spending Republican Bob Perry. And Annex says Texas isn't caring for its dams.

In The Pink Texas's Pink Lady turned 36. Burnt Orange has a tribute post.

Capitol Crowd's "Person of the Week" is Texas Tomorrow Fund II director Kevin Deiters. State Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, is going to Israel as part of a White House delegation, reports Postcards. And Mike Falick posted his testimony before the House Higher and Public Education Finance Select Committee on his Mike Falick's Blog.

Headline of the Week award goes to Annex for a post titled, "A $200,000 Bounty For A Write In Opponent To Sheila Jackson Lee?"

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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.

Rep. Byron Cook, one of the first House members accused of giving full-time benefits to part-time employees, named a House subcommittee "to clarify the state’s employment laws and House Rules for both employees of the House Civil Practices Committee as well as all House Capitol, District and Committee staff employees..."Cook, chairman of the House Committee on Civil Practices, pegged the investigation to differences over a memo on the scandal from Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston. He says it's accurate, but says aides to House Speaker Tom Craddick have called it incorrect. The subcommittee he named will find out what's right and what's wrong and go from there. Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, will chair that group, joined by Reps. Jerry Madden, R-Garland, Richard Raymond, D-Laredo, and Robert Talton, R-Pasadena. Craddick has asked Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, to investigate the issue. Phillips heads the House Committee on General Investigating & Ethics. Some members of Cook's committee wanted to leave it there, but he wouldn't recognize their challenges, instead forming his new subcommittee and then moving on to other business. Cook started his committee's meeting with a statement:

A matter has also recently arisen that not only encompasses our committee, but the entire House of Representatives which I want to address. Beginning post session 2007, there have been formal and informal inquiries by Speaker’s office regarding the employment status of certain House employees. Though I firmly believe the agenda behind these inquiries is political and in my case, in retaliation to my challenging the Speaker on an appropriation he was holding up regarding state funding for the Texas State Railroad in my district, I also feel the ethical and legal questions posed as to the benefit status of state employees must receive fair scrutiny rather than witch-hunts in the press. I am particularly disappointed that the Speaker's office has engaged in a wholesale effort to mislead members of the press, a few of whom have bought into a biased, one-sided version of events. As time goes on, additional media scrutiny has demonstrated that the long-standing tradition in the House of using on-call employees, particularly those with certain professional skills and expertise, is practiced as much by those who support the Speaker as by those who oppose him. Compounding these press articles’ false and discriminatory portrayal of this issue, Speaker’s office and our own House Administration Committee have made conflicting statements with little regard for their effect on the process and the self-esteem of the men and women who are serving our legislature in a dedicated, hard working and ethical manner. I also firmly believe that all House members take their oath to serve the laws of the state and rules of the House seriously, and that for the Speaker to imply otherwise without assuming his accountability is shocking as he himself is ultimately responsible for approval of House employee practices including on-call employees, here again, a common practice in the House for many years. Representative Jessica Farrar has written a memo to her democratic colleagues that outlines the laws and House Rules for legislative employees. I thought her memo did a thorough job of explaining an employee’s status especially the on-call employees who serve both our committees and district offices. The Speaker’s office said the memo is “filled with inaccuracies,” therefore, I believe it is necessary that I appoint a subcommittee to clarify the state’s employment laws and House Rules for both employees of the House Civil Practices Committee as well as all House Capitol, District and Committee staff employees… as the laws and House rules should be the same. The subcommittee will consist of Representative Strama as Chair; with Representative Madden, Talton and Raymond serving as members. I will ask the subcommittee to prepare a report in a timely manner and respond back to this Committee and our entire House Membership.

And Farrar's memo is attached.

The first broadside of the state's general elections -- an attack on Corpus Christi Democrats in the Legislature -- is in the mail.The Nueces County GOP send the mailers hitting two state representatives they're trying to knock off. The ads, below, swing at Juan Garcia III and Abel Herrero for taking campaign contributions from Mauricio Celis, who has since been accused of impersonating a lawyer and other crimes. The two Democrats have returned money they got from Celis in the current election cycle, and in Garcia's case, all of the money he's received from Celis.

How the House and Senate voted on final passage of the business margins tax bill in special session two years ago.

House final vote on HB 3 — the business margins tax bill, on 4/25/06:

 

AYES – 81 (10 Democrats, 71 Republicans)

• Democrats: Kevin Bailey, Robby Cook, Donna Howard, Vilma Luna, Jim McReynolds, Joe Pickett, Chente Quintanilla, Patrick Rose, Mark Strama, Michael Villarreal.

• Republicans: Charles "Doc" Anderson, Leo Berman, Roy Blake, Dennis Bonnen, Dan Branch, Betty Brown, Fred Brown, Bill Callegari, Scott Campbell, Warren Chisum, Byron Cook, Frank Corte, Joe Crabb, Tom Craddick, Myra Crownover, John Davis, Glenda Dawson, Dianne White Delisi, Mary Denny, Joe Driver, Rob Eissler, Kirk England, Dan Flynn, Dan Gattis, Charlie Geren, Toby Goodman, Tony Goolsby, Bob Griggs, Kent Grusendorf, Pat Haggerty, Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton, Peggy Hamric, Rick Hardcastle, Glenn Hegar, Fred Hill, Ruben Hope, Bob Hunter, Suzanne Gratia Hupp, Carl Isett, Jim Jackson, Terry Keel, Jim Keffer, Phil King, Lois Kolkhorst, Mike Krusee, Edmund Kuempel, Jerry Madden, Brian McCall, Tommy Merritt, Sid Miller, Geanie Morrison, Anna Mowery, Joe Nixon, Rob Orr, John Otto, Larry Phillips, Jim Pitts, Elvira Reyna, Gene Seaman, Todd Smith, Wayne Smith, Burt Solomons, Joe Straus III, David Swinford [initially recorded absent, but said his machine failed to register his vote], Larry Taylor, Vickie Truitt, Corbin Van Arsdale, Buddy West, Martha Wong, Beverly Woolley, Bill Zedler.

NAYS – 68 (53 Democrats, 15 Republicans)

• Democrats: Alma Allen, Rafael Anchia, Lon Burnam, Joaquin Castro, Norma Chavez, Garnet Coleman, Yvonne Davis, Joe Deshotel, Dawnna Dukes, Jim Dunnam, Harold Dutton, Al Edwards, Craig Eiland, Juan Escobar, David Farabee, Jessica Farrar, Kino Flores, Steven Frost, Pete Gallego, Helen Giddings, Veronica Gonzales, Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles, Ryan Guillen, Ana Hernandez, Abel Herrero, Scott Hochberg, Terri Hodge, Mark Homer, Chuck Hopson, Jesse Jones, Tracy King, Pete Laney, David McQuade Leibowitz, Armando Martinez, Trey Martinez Fischer, Ruth Jones McClendon, Jose Menendez, Paul Moreno, Elliot Naishtat, Rick Noriega, Rene Oliveira, Doro Olivo, Aaron Pena, Robert Puente, Richard Raymond, Allan Ritter, Eddie Rodriguez, Jim Solis, Senfronia Thompson, Sylvester Turner, Carlos Uresti, Mark Veasey, Hubert Vo.

• Republicans: Dwayne Bohac, Carter Casteel, Keith Elkins, Linda Harper Brown, Will Hartnett, Harvey Hilderbran, Charlie Howard, Bryan Hughes, Delwin Jones, Bill Keffer, Jodi Laubenberg, Ken Paxton, Debbie Riddle, John Smithee, Robert Talton.

ABSENT – 1

• Roberto Alonzo, Democrat.

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Senate final vote on HB 3, the business margins tax bill, on 2 May 2006

 

AYES – 16 (2 Democrats, 14 Republicans)

• Democrats: Ken Armbrister, Frank Madla.

• Republicans: Kip Averitt, Kim Brimer, John Carona, Bob Deuell, Robert Duncan, Craig Estes, Troy Fraser, Chris Harris, Jane Nelson, Steve Ogden, Kel Seliger, Florence Shapiro, Jeff Wentworth, Tommy Williams.

NAYS – 14 (10 Democrats, 4 Republicans)

• Democrats: Gonzalo Barrientos, Rodney Ellis, Mario Gallegos, Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, Eddie Lucio, Eliot Shapleigh, Leticia Van de Putte, Royce West, John Whitmire, Judith Zaffirini.

• Republicans: Kevin Eltife, Mike Jackson, Kyle Janek, Todd Staples.

ABSENT – 1

• Jon Lindsay, Republican

Tax Day may now be just a memory for many Texans, but there is an even bigger tax day looming for Texas businesses — Franchise Tax Day. While businesses are cutting checks, some for the first time, many have raised a question about an issue concerning the vitality of this state. Will the state of Texas cut its own checks if the new tax exceeds the initial forecast?

Economists and tax experts predict the state will rake in the money, far exceeding the state’s revenue expectations. If their predictions are correct, after reducing property taxes, the surplus should immediately be refunded to those footing the bill: Texas businesses.

Paying taxes is important. Although we may not like it, everyone must pay their fair share for taxes to work effectively and efficiently.

However, when the actual tax revenue exceeds what lawmakers predicted in the state budget, we have to question if the state should keep the extra dollars to fund frivolous government projects or if the money should be given back to businesses.

Last session, state budget officials projected an $11.9 billion total — roughly $6.1 billion in new revenue — would be raised in 2008-2009 through a revamped franchise tax. The new revenue was allocated solely for property tax relief, which in the end helps all Texans. Whether you own property or rent, both your company and personal checkbook will feel the relief.

Property tax is not the only mandate pinching our wallets though; we have the flexibility for more. Once tax relief has been distributed to property owners, the state should consider tax relief options for Texas business owners. Otherwise, we will suffer the same economic fate of most other states.

Recent reports have consistently indicated all year that while the national economy has been sinking, Texas has kept its head above water. Our low unemployment rates and healthy trade environment alone are helping fuel our surge.

The simple fact is you cannot have economic prosperity without business. When a business is unencumbered by harsh regulations, employers have more flexibility to give back to their local communities. Whether hiring additional workers and reducing the unemployment rate or developing new locations that increase consumers’ access to more goods and services, a healthy business environment is absolutely necessary for a state on the move.

Last year, Forbes Magazine ranked Texas in the top five best states to do business. With an endorsement like that, is it surprising that our economy is surging, while other states are in a financial slump?

Texas isn’t in the lead by luck; we’re ahead because state leaders like Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Speaker Tom Craddick understand that Texas business is the fuel that keeps the Texas economy moving.

For that reason, the only sensible option for a surplus is for state leaders to give it back proportionately to the businesses footing the bill. Those additional funds won’t be wasted, but will be used to provide more good paying jobs and to strengthen our economy for years to come.

Bill Hammond is president of the Texas Association of Business. Founded in 1922, the Texas Association of Business is a broad-based, bipartisan organization representing more than 140,000 small and large Texas employers and 200 local chambers of commerce.

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

On the eve of House committee hearings on so-called Ghost Employees — people getting full-time state benefits for part-time work — three Democrats say the hearings should be open to the public and should include consideration of new rules governing the people who work for legislators in the lower chamber.

But the head of the House Committee on General Investigating & Ethics — Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman — says he'll hold the hearing in closed-to-the-public executive session.

Phillip's committee has two pieces of business. First, there's the issue of whether anyone in the House has been doing anything that's against House rules or state law. Second, Phillips says the committee will look at changes in the rules and possibly, the law, so it's clear how lawmakers should act in the future.

"If there are things that are happening that don't make sense or aren't appropriate, that needs to stop," he says. "I don't think it's that complicated."

Phillips says the emphasis is "looking at the future, and at what we are going to do so that the public will have confidence." But it's not all about the rules and how they should be changed; an executive session wouldn't be needed for that. He says the closed session is necessary "because we'll be looking at personnel matters."

"The public expects us to take care of and be good stewards of tax dollars..." he says. "This question is clearly within the purview of this committee, and it's incumbent on the House to maker sure the public has confidence in what we do."

That's as close as he comes to saying they'll look at specific allegations about sketchy employment practices.

In their letter to all members of the House, three Democrats — Reps. Garnet Coleman of Houston, Jim Dunnam of Waco, and Craig Eiland of Galveston — wrote that the meeting should be open to the public. They say no one has pointed to a violation of law or House rules, and say the closed session cloaks the politics underlying the scandal. They've accused House Speaker Tom Craddick of stirring up the trouble; his aides deny that, and Craddick's been quoted as saying he was surprised by the allegations.

The three Democrats suggested some rule changes that would prevent part-timers from getting full-time benefits, bar non-elected officials from receiving "elected-class" benefits, allowing members to hire "on-call" employees, requiring monthly accounting of employee overtime, vacation, and sick leave, and preventing full-time employees from holding outside jobs.

A House committee looking at so-called Ghost Workers abruptly stopped, citing a criminal investigation by Travis County prosecutors.Rep. Larry Phillips, the Sherman Republican who chairs the General Investigating and Ethics Committee, had planned to look into reports that some House members have been listing part-time employees as full-timers, a cheat that gives those workers free health insurance. His aim was to look at what's been going on, and to consider changes in law and House rules that would clear up the practice in the future. But Phillips backed down, saying he's talked to people from the Travis County District Attorney's office and that he doesn't want to do anything in his committee that gets in the way of their investigation. He said he's not closing the door on a future investigation by his committee, though: "The public wants to make sure there's a thorough investigation." Another House panel has announced, but hasn't started, it's own investigation. That panel was created by Rep. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, who himself has been accused of giving full-time benefits to an employee who currently lives in Denver, Colorado, and commutes to Texas.

When it comes to 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.

This bit from the Texas Government Code is in play at the moment. Local prosecutors working on the Ghost Employee case want legislative committees to avoid accidental distribution of Get Out of Jail Free cards to people who know things about the payroll flap. They're briefing them on this:

301.025. REFUSAL TO TESTIFY. (a) A witness called by either house or by a legislative committee does not have a privilege to refuse to testify to a fact or produce a document on the ground that the testimony or document may tend to disgrace the person or otherwise make the person infamous.

(b) The legislature may require a person to testify or produce a document concerning a matter under inquiry before either house or a legislative committee even if the person claims that the testimony or document may incriminate him.

(c) If a person testifies or produces a document while claiming that the testimony or document may incriminate him, the person may not be indicted or prosecuted for any transaction, matter, or thing about which the person truthfully testified or produced evidence.

(d) A witness has a right to counsel when testifying before the legislature or a legislative committee.

State Auditor John Keel says he has not been asked to look at the House employment mess and isn't conducting an audit of the payroll system there.

The State Auditor's Office has been mentioned in some stories (here and elsewhere) as a possible investigator, along with Travis County prosecutors, various House committees, and the Attorney General.

Keel says they haven't seen any such requests, on paper or otherwise. They're not involved.

One problem with an audit of legislative records is that some possibly critical pieces of paper just don't exist. It's a faith-based accounting system. Lawmakers sign up their employees and say whether they're full or part time and what their pay should be. But the House doesn't require time sheets or any other proof of the hours that were actually worked. That makes it more difficult to prove that someone worked, say, 40 hours a week. Ultimately, it's an honor system.

That sort of hole in the paper trail can make it hard to tell the difference between a cheater and someone who follows the rules.

In political terms, that's a mess: How do representatives seeking reelection prove their House employees really work the hours for which they're paid?

While legislators battle over what's fair to them, a lot of their employees get hosed. Texas lawmakers already get far more than full-time work from many of their employees, and they're largely exempted from laws guaranteeing overtime pay and comp time for the long hours their staffs put in during legislative sessions and when interim committees are cranking out reports. If you did a proper accounting of the time the non-elected people actually work in the Pink Building, you'd have to bring sacks of money for overtime, or get used to empty halls after sessions, when staffers traded hours off for extra hours worked. As it stands, overtime for legislative staffers is rare. And whether employees get any time off for the extra hours is, like the time sheets and everything else, up to the individual legislators.

A Carrollton legislator wants the names of former legislators now working as regular state employees and adding time to the top-drawer retirement accounts set up for all of the state's elected officials.

Rep. Jim Jackson, a Republican, asked the Employees Retirement System for "records of all former state elected officials, past and present, who after leaving office were listed as full-time employees with any state agency that makes them eligible to participate in the employee class of ERS."

He also asked for salary information and whether they've transferred time earned as regular employees to their elected class accounts.

Jackson said in his letter that "the preferential treatment of former members of the elected class is unnerving," a reference to the state law that allows them to transfer their work time into the more lucrative elected class accounts.

He wrote that he was particularly incensed about "on-call" employees, who don't have set hours but get time on the state payroll that adds to their retirement benefits.

We recently looked at the state pension plan's brochures, and an employee's full- or part-time status has nothing to do with whether and how they accrue time for pensions. To get credit for a month's work, you need only be on the payroll on the particular day in that month when the checks are cut, and allow the pension deduction to come out of your check.

The difference between elected class and employee class, for most people, is in the base salary that's used to compute benefits. For state employees, that base is the average of their three highest-salary years. For elected officials, it's keyed to the pay of state district judges, currently $125,000.

State employees who make more than that actually do better than retired officeholders. But most make much less, and also have to wait longer or work longer to collect the benefits. Officeholders can retire at age 60 if they served for eight years, and at age 50 if they served for 12 or more. State employees can retire when their combined age and years of employment reach 80.

Here's a quick and almost certainly incomplete list of former elected state officials who currently (or recently) have been on the state payroll as regular full- or part-time employees. From statewide office: Former Railroad Commissioner Charles Matthews. From the state Senate: Ken Armbrister, Chet Brooks, and Kent Hance. From the House: Ben Campbell, Terry Keel, Mike McKinney, Terral Smith, Miguel Wise, and Zeb Zbranek.

Matthews was the only one in that bunch who's elected state position was a full-time job. Texas legislators are part-timers, and get better benefits than the full-timers who work for them. One more note: Former county officials, like Jackson, can transfer their county time into the state system, or vice-versa.

The state didn't have the right to remove children from a West Texas religious community, the state's 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin ruled. The judges said the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services didn't have evidence that the 460+ kids were in imminent danger. The case was filed on behalf of 48 FLDS mothers by Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, a non-profit outfit. State officials are deciding whether to appeal the court's opinion, which is available here.

• The state's latest round of eight-liner raids hit a big political contributor. Gordon Graves, the head honcho of Aces Wild, has given $587,825 to Texas statewide officeholders in the last eight years, including $125,500 to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, $113,500 to Gov. Rick Perry, $43,000 to Attorney General Greg Abbott (who's office claimed credit for the raids), and $18,375 to Comptroller Susan Combs.

• The Howzitgoin Department: Overall crime in Texas rose in 2007, but violent crime was down. According to the Department of Public Safety, the number of crimes per 100,000 population rose 0.7 percent from 2006 to 2007. Property crime rose 1 percent; violent crime fell 1.2 percent. Details: Murder, up 2.2 percent; rape, up 0.3 percent; robbery, up 4 percent; aggravated assault, down 1.4 percent; burglary, up 5.8 percent; larceny-theft, up 2.2 percent; motor vehicle theft, down 1.8 percent. The report's available online here.

• New media: U.S. Sen. John Cornyn picked up several endorsements in the state's Border counties, and he's posted little videos of some of them on his website.

• Democrat Chris Turner turned a tax-holiday tout into a towel-snap, encouraging Arlington voters to take advantage of the sales tax holiday on energy efficient appliances and noting that Republican Rep. Bill Zedler voted against the break. Zedler, Turner says, voted against it as a stand-alone measure, but for it when it was wrapped into another bill.

• The state GOP's number one House target — Rep. Juan Garcia, D-Corpus Christi — wrote a $17,000 campaign check to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Club in January. That's the same amount his campaign received from the Mauricio Celis, and Garcia aides say it undermines a GOP attack on their guy. The Nueces County GOP sent out mailers attacking Garcia (and Rep. Abel Herrero) for taking money from Celis. The Republicans say Garcia also got money from a PAC to which Celis contributed. The Garcia reply? None of Celis' contributions were in that PAC when it was giving to the candidate; it had already been contributed elsewhere. Garcia's challenger is former Rep. Todd Hunter, who served as a Democrat but is running as a Republican.