Make 'em laugh and nudge them to the polling place — that's how some Texas bloggers are approaching this election season. But they aren't necessarily trying to find converts to their causes.

Anyone who's cruised the blogs knows not all the writers are trying for the same goal. Some work to raise money for a cause or candidate. Some are issue-based, covering a specific topic such as the criminal justice system or the environment. Others have a particular political bent and try to engage readers in discussion.

Eileen Smith, Austin blogger with "In the Pink" and Texas Monthly's "Poll Dancing" says she fits into the last category. Her "Pink" blog is obviously left (if you've read the blog, you know she's a big fan of Hillary Clinton), but she said she's different from activist blogs she calls "screechy." Instead of preaching, she uses humor to get her readers thinking.

She said her blog is a valuable forum for readers to discuss issues. But she's not convinced she'll sway many undecided Texans to support Democrats this year.

"For all the talk about how mainstream media or the blogs influence the voters, I don't really know how true it is," she said. "People can find so much information, I think people just find the information they want and make up their own minds."

Besides, most people who visit particular blogs do it because they like the ideas the writers espouse.

"In my opinion it turns into this big echo chamber," she said. "So we're all supporting blank candidate, we think blank candidate is great, and everyone's like, I agree."

John Rost, an Arlington maintenance supervisor, said he sees some preaching-to-the-choir happening on conservative blogs this year, too. Rost runs the blog site "A Keyboard and a .45," which he started about year-and-a-half ago to talk about guns and politics. He supports candidates who support gun rights and individual rights, and most of the time he finds they are Republican.

In the coming months, he's not expecting to change voters' minds about who they support, but he is hoping to get Texas Republicans who are not excited about John McCain — he counts himself as one — to pay attention to down-ballot races.

He wants to make sure locals like Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington; and Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, aren't defeated because of low Republican turnout.

"I don't think I'm going to change Jane Fonda's mind and have her say, 'Oh I've been wrong all these years,'" Rost said. "All I'm trying to do is find some people who are sitting on the fence to actually go out and vote this year."

Conventional wisdom and some research shows Rost is in the minority in the blog world. About 47 percent of bloggers say they're to the left of political center, compared with 31 percent to the right, according to a 2006 study by the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University.

That imbalance was obvious last month when political bloggers came to Austin. The liberal Netroots Nation drew thousands to the convention center. The conservative answer, RightOnline, was a smaller, shorter affair in the Arboretum.

Houston Democratic state Rep. Senfronia Thompson was at the Netroots convention. She said half jokingly that she was there because she's "nosy." Also, she wanted to learn more about the blogger types and what they'll mean in elections.

She expects the bloggers could play a role in deciding some of the tighter Texas House races, although hers isn't one of them. (She has a Republican opponent, architect Michael Bunch, but she represents a solidly Democratic district.) Thompson said that, unlike daily newspapers, bloggers delve more deeply into issues and less into the who-dislikes-who campaign punches.

"I find that bloggers a lot of times don't slant their information too much. They just give it to you right off," she said.

—by Elizabeth Pierson Hernandez

Texas Libertarians are making noise this week. Bloggers are also typing about two-party contests, bidding adieu to one of their own (also claimed by press, the lobby, and the consultocracy) and keeping tabs on Rick Noriega's Senate bid because the M$M (mainstream media) refuses to! And we've got a return of the Headline of the Week award.

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Three's Not Company

Texas Libertarian Party chair Pat Dixon says he was a willing participant to a sit-down with House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, according to Texas Politics, the Houston Chronicle's blog. Here's an excerpt from Dixon's statement blasting head Texas Democrat Boyd Richie, who's been telling media that Craddick is strong-arming the third party: ""I find this vapid rhetoric to be utter hyperbole."

Chronic, the Austin Chronicle's blog, is on the story. They've even got a statement from Craddick's Democratic opponent Bill Dingus. But Republicans are still Enemy No. Two for Libertarians, at least through this fall, says Postcards from the Lege, the Austin American-Statesman's blog.

Meanwhile, in Austin, state Libertarians want the Travis County GOP to share its participant list for this year's precinct conventions so they can hunt down supporters of Rep. Ron Paul , R-Lake Jackson, according to KeithMilligan.net. Republicans aren't returning phone calls about that, the blog says.

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In and Out of the House

State Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, got a gig co-chairing the Progressive States Network, says Capitol Annex. Meanwhile, Texas Blue interviews HD-129 Democratic candidate Sherrie Matula, and HD-47 Republican Donna Keel tells Postcards that she didn't bounce a check.

Democrat Ernie Casbeer is challenging incumbent state Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, to a series of debates, according to Annex. El Paso Republican state House candidate Dee Margo sent out a "treatise" on health care, says Vaqueros & Wonkeros, the El Paso Times's blog. And new website Texas Republicans launched its first attacks on GOP candidates for the Senate and House, via Annex. Yes, you read that right.

WhosPlayin is now keeping a running tally of posts on U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville. And voters in Bell County and Odessa will double-dip Nov. 4 with special and general elections for their respective state representative seats, notes Chronic.

In HD-52, Williamson Republic reports on the opening of Republican Bryan Daniel's campaign headquarters and takes a swipe at Democrat Diana Maldonado's record on education. Meanwhile, Half-Empty spent a day registering voters in Fort Bend County. And Democratic state Senate candidate Joe Jaworski aired what Off the Kuff calls a "Nice, positive, get-to-know-you" television ad.

Texas on the Potomac has text of the House GOP radio address on energy by Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, while Texas Observer Blog spotted Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Austin, at a media event at an Austin gas station.

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Noriega, with Teeth

"Noriega is doing everything right" — talking to voters, addressing the issues — except raising money, says Capitol Annex. So why aren't the media talking more about him? (Because of the money thing, probably.)

On that note, Texas Politics prefaces a podcast with Noriega thusly, "It's dark days in political campaigns when the mainstream media starts routinely taking the pulse of one of the candidates."

Adding injury to insult, Noriega underwent surgery for an abscessed tooth, reports Texas Politics. "It's not so much that he's incapacitated as it is he's incomprehensible," spokesperson Martine Apodaca told the blog. After the surgery, Noriega told Travis County Democrats he has something in common with Paris Hilton.

Off the Kuff has a copy of Noriega's immigration plan. And Noriega spoke to the Texas Association of Broadcasters. Texas Politics was there and has audio of him and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, too.

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Bye, Billy Clyde

State Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, eulogizes Jim Warren , AKA Billy Clyde of Billy Clyde's Political Hot Tub Party and Yougottaplayhurt , among others. He was also commenter NOITALL on In the Pink Texas, FYI.

Trail Blazers, the Dallas Morning News's blog, describes him as "an infuriating troublemaker, master storyteller, prankster, smart alec, and one of the funniest and most unique dudes I've ever known."

"People take themselves much more seriously in the big pink building than they used to, but "Billy Clyde" was never afflicted with that particular disease, to the delight of almost everybody who read his stuff," says Letters from Texas.

Here's what Warren had to say back in May 2007 about the role of the House Speaker.

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Random Links

Reputedly Republican law firms in Texas actually give more money to Barack Obama than John McCain, says Tex Parte Blog. (So do Exxon employees, says Texas on the Potomac, despite Democrats' attempts to link Exxon to McCain.)

Remember Allan Steinberg, former Congressional District 22 GOP candidate? Well, he's been keeping up his campaign blog Steinberg for Congress, and now he's asking readers to help him rename it.

South Texas Chisme has a two-parter on how "Obama doesn't Texas," here and here. And the Obama campaign opened 16 offices in New Mexico, reports Vaqueros.

PoliTex, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's blog, took a tour of an anti-George W. Bush bus. PoliSci@UST posts a photo of damage wrought by Tropical Storm Edouard. And The Ellis County Observer is holding EllisCountyDemocrats.com for ransom.

Here's some earthiness for you: Old Grandpa relays an opinion on torturing Iraqi terrorists, and Texas Fred tells you what he thinks about enforcing immigration laws.

Finally, Headline of the Week award goes to Half Empty for his titular explanation for the renouncing of a powerful liberal group by Democratic congressional candidate Michael Skelly: MoveOn.Org Ain't From Around These Parts.

This edition of Out There was compiled and written by Patrick Brendel, who hails from Victoria but is semi-settled in Austin. 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.

Texans aren't happy with the direction of the country or the economy, but remain conservative and favor Republicans over Democrats in both the presidential and U.S. Senate contests.

Those findings are from a poll conducted by the government department and the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. Poll Co-Director James Henson (with UT prof Daron Shaw) posted the findings — with all of the internal numbers and crosstabs and such — on UT's Texas Politics website if you want details. Some highlights:

• Two-thirds of Texans think the country's on the wrong track. They rated the economy the top issue facing both the country and the state — ahead of gas prices and energy. A huge majority — 81% — said the country is in worse economic shape than a year ago and 48 percent said they were personally less well off than a year ago.

• They favor John McCain over Barack Obama by 10 percentage points in the presidential contest, and John Cornyn over Rick Noriega by 13 percentage points in the race for U.S. Senate.

• In spite of those splits on the races, and their answers to issue questions, slightly more of the respondents identified themselves as Democrats: 23% as "strong Democrat," 12% as "not very strong Democrat," 18% as "strong Republican," and 12% as "not very strong Republican." Asked a different question about their views, 39% IDed themselves as conservatives, 41% as moderates, and 20% as liberals.

• U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Tom Craddick — as well as McCain and Obama — all outdid President George W. Bush when people were asked how they feel about various politicos. (Dewhurst and Craddick weren't as well-known as the others, but their positive-negative ratings were relatively high.)

• Texans are split on public education — about as many give it good ratings as give it bad ones. Call it a C. Asked about improving education, Texans favor more accountability for educators over more spending on education.

• Almost three-quarters think funding for higher education should be increased to make it more affordable for students.

• They overwhelming support (70%) photo ID cards for voters.

• Texans strongly support the death penalty.

• More than half think it's unlikely that Iraq will be able to establish a stable, Democratic government. And they think the U.S. should withdraw, with 27% favoring immediate withdrawal and 38% saying a the U.S. should begin a gradual withdrawal.

• They're split on illegal immigration. Asked what should happen to illegal immigrants who've lived and worked in the U.S. for two years, 49% said they should be allowed to stay and apply for legal status. But 46% said they should be deported to their native country.

• More than half think the state government works best when the governor and the Legislature are controlled by the same party, but they're split when asked which party they prefer.

• More than half — 51% — say they can trust state government to do the right thing "only some of the time."

• A slight majority — 52% — opposes abortion, with 35% saying it should only be allowed in cases of rape, incest, and to save the life of the mother, and 17% saying it should never be legal.

• They're split on whether transportation is best handled by the government or by the private sector.

• Almost half say an independent commission should handle redistricting, but a large number — 35% — have no opinion about it.

This is the first in what the pollsters hope (these things cost money, you see) will be an ongoing series of quarterly polls. The survey, conducted online, included 800 Texas adults. The margin of error is +/- 3.4%. And questions asked of the 667 registered voters in the survey group, the margin of error was +/- 3.7%.

Property tax relief might not have put cash in your pocket, but without it, you'd have spent more money, according to a business group that studies tax issues.

The school property tax cut that legislators paired with increased business taxes lowered taxes for some, but not for everyone. What it did do, according to the Austin-based Texas Taxpayers and Research Association, was a combination of actual cuts and property taxes that would lower than they would have been otherwise.

Taxpayers might feel they were promised a pony, only to get a puppy instead. The message here: Count your blessings — it could've been a stuffed animal.

The $7 billion in tax relief, by their calculations, includes $2.3 billion in tax cuts and $4.7 billion in taxes that would have been owed without the swap. And their estimate is that the average Texan's total property tax bill — including school and other property taxes — would have been 20 percent higher without the Legislature's 2006 changes.

That's the amount those taxes would have gone up without the state-ordered cuts, according to TTARA. They built a spreadsheet you can use to look at property taxes in particular districts.

A couple of examples:

The owner of a $200,000 property in the Dallas ISD, according to TTARA's calculator, "saved" $920 in 2007 school taxes — the difference between the actual $1.20 tax rate and the $1.66 that would have been the tax rate without the Legislature's swap. That property owner would have spent $3,319 in taxes instead of $2,399.

The Houston numbers are similar for a property worth that much; TTARA says the taxes foregone amounted to $987.

In their write-up on the tax bills, TTARA noted a couple of reasons Texans didn't get the property tax cuts they were expecting. School property taxes only account for half of the average tax bill (the rest is for counties, cities, hospital districts and the like). And the property tax for business tax swap didn't include appraisal reforms that might have leashed the other big variable in property tax bills: The values of the properties being taxed. That's something lawmakers are working on now in anticipation of next January's regular legislative session.

Small businesses didn't get any break at all, according to the trade group NFIB/Texas. They didn't do a study, but say members they've polled are paying higher taxes on the business end and didn't get enough break on their property taxes to offset that new tax. Only 1.3 percent, according to that group, said they came out ahead.

Texas Republicans are trying to hit local Democrats with ricochets from the John Edwards scandal.

Edwards admitted conducting and then lying about an extra-marital affair during his presidential campaign. In the wake of that announcement, his campaign finance chairman, Dallas attorney Fred Baron, told The Dallas Morning News that he paid to move the woman, Rielle Hunter, and Andrew Young, another Edwards staffer who says he fathered a child with Hunter, to help them escape media scrutiny and pressure. Edwards and Baron have both said Baron did that without talking to the candidate.

The Texas angle?

Baron and his wife, Lisa Blue, jump-started Democratic political funding in Texas four years ago and are among the party's most generous donors. And in Texas, Republicans pounced on the Edwards/Baron news to try to poison Democratic causes and candidates they've helped fund.

Few were direct contributions; the attacks from GOP candidates are of the "Baron gave to a group who gave to a candidate" variety. And so far, no Democratic candidates have felt the need to run from the money. Hector Nieto, a spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party, dismisses the whole line of attack, saying all Baron did was "help a friend (Hunter) who was being hounded by the press and others." He violated no laws, Nieto says, and there's no reason for anyone to return any money.

Baron and Blue have contributed $713,446 to political committees this year. In 2007, their total state political contributions, according to the Texas Ethics Commission, were $999,078. They gave $1,778,620 in 2006, and $332,201 in 2005. That's $3,823,345 over the last four years. Most went to Democrats, though the couple supported Republican-turned-independent Carole Keeton Strayhorn before switching to Democrat Chris Bell in the last gubernatorial race.

The lion's share of that money — $3,465,701 — went to the Texas Democratic Trust, which in turn pays a phalanx of Democratic consultants, gives the Texas Democratic Party around $50,000 monthly, supports a research group called the Texas Progress Council, and contributes to the House Democratic Campaign Committee. Baron and Blue also gave $55,000 to Annie's List, a PAC that supports pro-choice women running for statehouse spots, $40,000 to the Texas Values in Action Coalition, and $20,000 to the Texas Democratic Party.

Few of their contributions went directly to Democrats on this year's list of Republican statehouse targets. Two exceptions: Joe Jaworski, challenging Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, got $2,500 (and has now given it back; details here — WHOOPS, now he says he didn't), and Carol Kent, challenging Rep. Tony Goolsby, R-Dallas, got $10,000.

The Republicans have fired at two candidates (that we're aware of) so far: Hubert Vo, D-Houston, who's being challenged by Republican Greg Meyers, and Diana Maldonado of Round Rock, who's running for an open seat currently held by a Republican. Both got money from groups that got money, indirectly, from Baron and other Democratic financiers.

In seven of the state's 31 Senate districts, more people voted in this year's Democratic primary than voted in the 2006 general election.

Another way to put it: This year's Democratic primary outdrew the most recent contest for governor of Texas in seven of the state's Senate districts.

The overall numbers have been known since March, when the primaries were held. But it takes a while for the state's number-crunchers to produce district-by-district numbers. Now that they're available, those figures reveal details that weren't apparent after the first round.

In five of those seven districts, Hillary Clinton smothered Barack Obama with between 64 and 70 percent of the vote. (Statewide, she got 50.9 percent of the popular vote to his 47.3 percent.) All but one of those districts elect Hispanics to the state Senate: Mario Gallegos of Houston, Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa of McAllen, Judith Zaffirini of Laredo, Eddie Lucio of Brownsville, and Eliot Shapleigh of El Paso. Obama won in the two districts dominated by African American voters, getting about 73 percent of the vote there. The senators from those two districts, Rodney Ellis of Houston and Royce West of Dallas, are the only two Blacks in the state Senate.

Obama's election map looks better when you look at Senate districts than when you look at counties. Clinton won the state overall, defeating him in 230 of the state's 254 counties. But he won 13 of the state's 31 Senate districts (U.S. Senate candidate Rick Noriega, for comparison, was getting 51 percent of the state vote while winning 18 Senate districts).

On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee beat John McCain in four districts, while McCain was getting 51.9 percent of the statewide GOP vote and Huckabee was getting 38.3 percent. Huckabee's four wins came in Senate districts held by Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, Brimer, R-Fort Worth, and West, D-Dallas. But the former Arkansas governor's margins in those districts were thin, and he didn't break 50 percent in any of the state's 31 Senate districts.

Huckabee won in 50 counties in the primary — getting bigger numbers in the counties close to his native Arkansas.

Republican primary turnout fell short of the 2006 general election in all 31 Senate districts. And the Republicans outvoted the Democrats in only two Senate districts in the primaries (both held now by Republicans: Troy Fraser of Horseshoe Bay and Kel Seliger of Amarillo).

If you add the votes from the two primaries, turnout in March outdid the 2006 governor's race in ten Senate districts — each of which is currently represented by a Democrat.

Three Senate seats are on everyone's list of hot races, all three held by Republicans. Two of those were Obama country in the primary; he won the majority in Kim Brimer's Fort Worth district and in Kyle Janek's Houston district. Clinton won, narrowly in Mike Jackson's La Porte district on the coast.

The primaries aren't directly comparable, since the Republican contest was all but over and the Democrats were pitching cannonballs at each other. But out of curiosity, we compared McCain's numbers with those of the two Democrats whose fight drove the turnout. McCain got more raw votes in the Republican primary than Obama got in the Democratic primary in six Senate districts. The Republican got more votes than Clinton in two. In all of those cases, the districts in question are currently held by Republican senators.

Old hotels, forgotten kids, gamblers, and election schemes...

Gov. Rick Perry will be in Big Spring next week toasting a restoration of the Settles Hotel, a historic structure owned and fixed up by G. Brint Ryan. The political trick here is that Ryan, founder of a Dallas-based tax-consulting firm, was a major supporter of Carole Keeton Strayhorn's challenge to Perry in the 2006 governor's race. He was also Democrat John Sharp's boss, both before and after Perry and Sharp ended their long political feud.

• You might remember the "Forgotten Children" report issued by then-Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn in 2004, detailing abuses at facilities for troubled kids. The owner of one such facility — the Woodside Trails Therapeutic Camp in Bastrop County — sued and won $300,000 from the state for errors it made in the report and in closing her facility. Betty Lou Grimes beat the state in court, though Strayhorn had long since been dropped from the lawsuit. The report and a follow-up to it are still available online at the state comptroller's website. It includes allegations of abuse from a child at the camp who recanted before the report was released.

• Republican Joan Huffman's latest list of endorsees includes three state representatives: Mike Hamilton of Mauriceville, Wayne Smith of Baytown, and Beverly Woolley of Houston. Huffman's one of four candidates (including three Republicans) running for Kyle Janek's former seat in the state Senate.

A couple of snarly emails wound through that campaign this week. Conservative activist Steven Hotze sent an email attempting to associate Huffman with "gambling, liquor, and nightclub" interests, and promoting the candidacy of Austen Furse. He pulled out contributions from Huffman's husband, Ken Lawyer, to Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, and ended with a swipe at state Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton. Hotze said Bonnen's sponsoring a funder for Huffman "to raise money from the Austin liquor, gambling and union lobbyists."

Bonnen shot back, calling Hotze a surrogate for Furse. He noted contributions from Furse's wife to Democrat Barack Obama and her votes in past Democratic primaries. He wrote that Huffman is "unequivocally opposed to gambling" and won't vote for it as a senator. And he noted contributions to Furse from the Texas Lobby Group, which has gambling promoters on its client list.

Both writers accused the other campaign of making things easier for Chris Bell, the only Democrat in the race.

• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has recently been giving good marks to U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, is against him in the election. That group endorsed Republican Pete Olson in the CD-22 race.

• U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will headline a fundraiser for Texas House candidate Ralph Sheffield. Keep your eyes peeled: This is one way to build support for a state race, if she's serious about running for governor in 2010. Sheffield is running against Democrat Sam Murphey in HD-55. That election's a two-fer: Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple, resigned early. And Gov. Rick Perry put the special election on the same day as the general election.

• NFIB/Texas let one of their endorsements out of the bag: They like Republican Greg Meyers over Rep. Hubert Vo, D-Houston, in HD-149. They plan to announce more endorsements in the next few weeks.

• The El Paso pitch to Democrats, short form: Vote a straight ticket. Two-thirds of the straight-ticket voting there in 2004 was Democratic, according to Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso. And they're trying to increase the number of voters from 174,000 to 200,000. That riff accompanied a trip to El Paso by Juan Sepulveda, Obama's Texas director.

With two open positions on the powerful Public Utility Commission, Gov. Rick Perry raided his own staff.

He appointed Ken Anderson Jr. — his former appointments secretary — and Donna Nelson — one of his policy advisors — to that three-person regulatory panel.

Anderson is an attorney and recently left the governor's office to return to private practice (the PUC is a full-time gig). And Nelson was the Guv's special assistant and advisor on energy, telecommunications and cable issues. She worked at the PUC before that, as director of the telecommunications section and she's a former assistant Texas attorney general.