The law limiting speech and political contributions in races for Speaker of the Texas House is, in part, unconstitutional, according to a federal judge in Austin.

That's a big deal, like allowing parents to carry guns at spelling bees, or giving harpoons to coaches at swim meets. It lifts the restrictions against outside groups playing directly in speaker races, and it allows insiders and outsiders alike to spend unlimited amounts of money in their efforts to get the member of their choosing into the high chair in the House.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks said that the law set limits so low that even a newspaper editorial could constitute illegal support of a speaker candidate. His ruling parallels an earlier ruling by U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel, also based in Austin. Two provisions drew darts from both judges. The first prevents groups, corporations, unions and so on from giving money or other things of value "to aid or defeat the election of a speaker candidate." The second allows individuals to volunteer and to pay travel expenses, but limits to $100 what anyone can spend on any correspondence aimed at helping or hurting the chances of a speaker candidate.

What that means, apparently, is an end to restrictions on those who are trying to influence elections for speaker. A copy of the ruling is available here. There's a copy of Yeakel's earlier ruling here.

The lawsuit was filed by the Texas branch of the ACLU, the Texas Eagle Forum, and by the Free Market Foundation. They said at the time that the law had never been enforced, but said its very existence in the statutes had a chilling effect on anyone who wanted to have a say in who becomes speaker. That, they said, was the reason behind their challenge.

Some smart lawyers of our acquaintance say this opens the gates for rich folks and groups of not-so-rich folks to meddle in speaker races in ways they've avoided since the mid-1970s when this became law. They're not completely free, though. Legislative bribery — promising a benefit for a particular vote — is still illegal. And it's unclear whether this ruling allows unions and corporations to play, and in what ways.

A spokesman for Attorney General Greg Abbott says they're reviewing the ruling and haven't decided whether to appeal.

The Congressional Discount

Now that it's clear that U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, was not to be Barack Obama's pick for the vice presidential nomination — some say the higher profile he got from being on the list positions Edwards for an upcoming (maybe) race for U.S. Senate.

He'll need a bigger boost than that.

Only a handful of members of the Texas congressional delegation have won statewide office from those perches in the last 30 years. Democrat Jim Mattox had a Dallas Democratic machine and a statewide Democratic sweep in his favor when he ran for attorney general in 1982. Republican Phil Gramm had a national reputation — more importantly, a statewide rep — when he ran for U.S. Senate. Gramm got there after helping President Ronald Reagan's budget-cutting efforts from the Democratic side of the aisle. The Democrats ostracized him, so he resigned, changed parties, and won the special election to replace himself as a Republican. And Kent Hance had a national rep at the time, too, for some of the same reasons. He was a Democratic congressman, helped Reagan with his tax plan (the other half of that administration's financial package), lost a statewide race as a Democrat, switched parties, lost a race as a Republican, and finally won a place on the Texas Railroad Commission as a Republican.

Two others made it from Congress into statewide court positions, but we'd probably argue that those elections are more about the strength of a particular ticket than about the candidates. Even so: Jack Hightower, a Democrat, won a spot on the Texas Supreme Court after losing a bid for a sixth term in Congress in 1984. And Bob Gammage, a Democrat, won election to two statewide court seats (Court of Criminal Appeals and then the Supreme Court) in the years after serving one term in Congress in the late 1970s.

But the political field is littered with the carcasses of Democrats and Republicans who've tried to step from their congressional seats into statewide office. The odds of winning without a political wave or a bigger-than-normal reputation are skinny.

Jack Fields. Mike Andrews. John Bryant. Jim Chapman. Joe Barton. Ken Bentsen. Steve Stockman. None of them made it out of their post-congressional election bids (though Barton ran in a special election and still holds his seat in Congress, 15 years later).

Money helps, because a candidate can buy statewide attention with it, raising his or her profile to a competitive level. That's part of what boosted the handful of winners from local notoriety to statewide recognition. And several members of the current congressional delegation have the bucks to at least start statewide races. Edwards, with $1.5 million in his campaign fund, is one of them.

Others with more than $1 million on hand (and without serious threats against them in this election cycle): Ron Paul, R-Surfside, $4.0 million (largely because of his presidential campaign); Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, $2.4 million; Barton, R-Ennis, $2.1 million; Jeb Hensarling, R-Dallas, $1.4 million; Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, $1.1 million; and former U.S. Rep. Jim Turner, D-Crockett, $1.0 million.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison had $8.7 million in the bank at mid-year, but she's been a statewide elected official at either the state or federal level since 1990 and wouldn't have the congressional wall to hurdle.

For all of those officeholders, the federal campaign money would convert, in full, to state campaign accounts if the pols wanted to come home and run. Of the bunch, only Hutchison is regularly on the list of people who might come home for a state run.

If she were to leave office for a state race, some of the House mice might be interested in moving to the Senate. She beat two members of Congress from her own party — Barton and Fields — when she started her tenure in a special election in 1993. In a race like that, where they've raised all of their money with federal campaign limits in effect, federal officeholders start with a financial advantage. That could be important if Hutchison decides to run for governor and to resign early to make that race.

Deadline, Schmedline

Libertarians got their candidate lists to the Texas Secretary of State on time, but say the Democrats and the Republicans missed it by holding their national conventions after the deadline, which was Tuesday of this week.

Neither party's nominee was official by the deadline. The Democrats were convening and still talking about having a roll call vote offering the choice between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Joe Biden had been named, but not nominated. And the Republicans were days away from their convention. John McCain is the presumptive nominee, but hasn't named his choice for veep. And so none of those names for the top two slots on the ballots of the top two parties was filled.

But the Texas Secretary of State says the parties filed their lists on time and are expected to file amended lists once their conventions are over.

No harm, no foul, they say.

The Libertarians say their candidate — Bob Barr — got knocked off the ballot in two states because he missed filing deadlines. And they say Ralph Nader, running as an independent candidate in 2004, was denied a spot on the Texas ballot for the same reason (Nader was a certified write-in candidate that year, meaning his votes were counted, and has that same designation this year).

"Texas law doesn't make any exceptions for absurdly late nominating conventions," said Wes Benedict, executive director of the Libertarian Party of Texas. "Although Bob Barr should win Texas by default, I expect the Republicans and Democrats will get away with breaking the laws they made. They get away with breaking their promises to voters all the time. It's a travesty that we have a double standard, where Republicans and Democrats are above the law, but other parties and independents have to comply with every letter of the law."

He cites the Texas Election Code, which we'll excerpt:

192.031. PARTY CANDIDATE'S ENTITLEMENT TO PLACE ON BALLOT. A political party is entitled to have the names of its nominees for president and vice-president of the United States placed on the ballot in a presidential general election if:

(1) the nominees possess the qualifications for those offices prescribed by federal law;

(2) before 5 p.m. of the 70th day before presidential election day, the party's state chair signs and delivers to the secretary of state a written certification of:

(A) the names of the party's nominees for president and vice-president; and

(B) the names and residence addresses of presidential elector candidates nominated by the party, in a number equal to the number of presidential electors that federal law allocates to this state; and

(3) the party is:

(A) required or authorized by Subchapter A of Chapter 172 to make its nominations by primary election; or

(B) entitled to have the names of its nominees placed on the general election ballot under Chapter 181.

A spokeswoman for the Texas Secretary of State, Ashley Burton, said elections officials are relying on a couple of Texas Supreme Court opinions that, in essence, hold candidates harmless when their parties' actions interfere with state deadlines.

Barr, a former congressman from Georgia, put out a press release saying he's the only candidate on the Texas ballot.

"We know all about deadlines," said Russell Verney with Barr's campaign. "We are up against them constantly in our fight to get on the ballot across the nation. When we miss deadlines, we get no second chances. This is a great example of how unreasonable deadlines chill democracy."

He said third parties don't get a break when they bust deadlines and that the major parties shouldn't get a break this time.

Neither the Republican Party of Texas nor the Texas Democratic Party seems particularly worried about it.

"Attorneys for the Texas Democratic Party spoke to the Secretary of State's Office and were told our filings were submitted in a timely manner," said Hector Nieto, a spokesman for the TDP. Hans Klingler with the GOP says they filed last Friday and, according to their lawyers, are in compliance.

On Hold

Kim Brimer has to wait until at least September 18 to find out whether he's got a legal opponent in his bid for reelection to the Texas Senate.

Fort Worth's 2nd Court of Appeals will hear his case against Democrat Wendy Davis that day, though there's no requirement that they also rule at that time. Brimer contends Davis' time on the Fort Worth City Council illegally overlapped her Senate candidacy and that she shouldn't be on the ballot.

Voters will apparently see her name whether she's legal or not. The deadline for pulling names off the ballot passed last week. If she's declared illegal, her own party will be stuck, since the deadline for replacing candidates or adding new names to the ballot passed this week.

Short form: The appeals court will be deciding whether she can serve if she beats Brimer at the polls in November.

Bell Ringer

Chris Bell's new poll has a little of everything in it.

• He's ahead in the SD-17 race, according to the poll, and since it was released by his campaign you would expect that. He's got 42 percent to Joan Huffman's 8 percent, Austen Furse's 5 percent and Grant Harpold's 4 percent. Bell is the only Democrat in the race.

• Bell is better-known (75 percent) than the other candidates, and since he's the one most recently on the ballot — two haven't been on the ballot at all and one has been there only as a judge — you'd expect that, too.

• President George W. Bush has negative job performance ratings from 61 percent of the respondents.

Bell's spin: He's ahead, well known, and Republicans aren't a slam-dunk in what should be a Republican district.

Spun the other way: He's well-known and still under 50 percent, the Republicans will do better when they advertise and match or approach his name ID.

The survey by Alexandra, Va.-based Cooper & Secrest was done a week ago (with a one-day break, apparently). They talked to 404 general election voters and put the margin of error at +/- 4.9 percent.

Flotsam & Jetsam

With the exception of the presidential candidates and pending lawsuits, the ballots for November are all but set. Republicans say the only drop they had before the ballot name deadline was James Masik, who had filed to run against Rep. Elliott Naishtat, D-Austin. The most current lists (still not certified; that comes later) are available on the Texas Secretary of State's website.

• South Texas politicos are talking about a Hillary Clinton swing through the Valley on behalf of Barack Obama and Rick Noriega. Details are scarce, but they're talking eight cities, late September, with some fundraising layered in between public appearances.

• U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will be among the speakers at the GOP national convention in St. Paul next week. She's got a prime-time spot on Wednesday to talk about energy independence.

• Democrats are passing around a poll that says voters aren't all that familiar with either of the candidates in HD-52. That's currently Republican Mike Krusee's district. Democrat Diana Maldonado is running against Republican Bryan Daniel (and Libertarian Lillian Simmons). The survey by Opinion Analysts has the candidates locked in a tie in a "cold test." When some biographical details and issues ("with a health mix of positives and negatives for each candidate") were added in, Maldonado pulled to a 55-30 lead. They didn't reveal any of those details in the memo that got leaked, but did include one tidbit — 77 percent of the respondents "agree that their state representative should oppose the [House Speaker Tom] Craddick agenda."

• State Senate candidate Chris Bell picked up endorsements from the Texas State Teachers Association and the American Federation of Teachers political action committee. Bell is the only Democrat in the race to replace Kyle Janek, R-Houston. Three Republicans have signed up: Austen Furse, Grant Harpold, and Joan Huffman.

• Follow-up: Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, re-invited supporters to a fundraiser to be held after Labor Day in Fort Worth. He's still asking for contributions of $1,000, $2,500, and $5,000. But the invites this time don't have any federal officeholders mentioned as hosts, guests, or anything at all. Zedler's earlier version had U.S. Reps. Joe Barton of Ennis and Kay Granger of Fort Worth on board. But federal officials cannot solicit donations for themselves — or anyone else — above the federal limit of $2,300 per donor.

• The political arm of the Texas Farm Bureau — AGFUND — endorsed Ralph Sheffield in the HD-55 race to replace Rep. Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple. Sheffield's the Republican in that contest and faces Democrat Sam Murphey and Libertarian Chris Lane in November. Sheffield's also getting out-of-town help: U.S. Sen. Hutchison is doing a fundraiser for him on October 2.

Hutchison isn't the only statewide official playing in House races. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is hosting a fundraiser in Austin on September 11 for Mike Anderson. The former Mesquite mayor beat Rep. Thomas Latham in the GOP primary and faces Democrat Robert Miklos in November.

• At least four Democrats in the state Senate are on the Chris Bell bandwagon: Rodney Ellis, Mario Gallegos, Kirk Watson, and John Whitmire all signed up as "special guests" for a fundraiser for Bell next week in Houston. Kyle Janek, who resigned from the seat Bell's trying to win, is supporting Austen Furse in the race.

• John Cornyn and Rick Noriega will debate at least twice, at public television forums in Houston and Dallas in October. On Thursday, October 9, they'll be at KUHT during that station's "Red, White, and Blue" public affairs show. The KERA-TV event is a week later, and is co-sponsored by The Dallas Morning News, Texas Monthly and the Texas Association of Broadcasters. The League of Women Voters signed on as sponsor of both debates.

• The latest Rasmussen poll has Cornyn ahead of Noriega 48 percent to 37 percent. This next line is becoming standard with the two Senate candidates: It's generally bad mojo for an incumbent like Cornyn to be pulling less than 50 percent in a reelection bid. But Noriega, the Democratic challenger, hasn't yet been able to close the gap separating him from the Republican.

• Gov. Rick Perry has the government digging for its galoshes and batteries, issuing a disaster declaration while the weather folk watch Gustav in the Gulf of Mexico. That was a tropical storm at the time he pulled the trigger, but the machinery in several state agencies is geared up for a potential landing, or potential damage, in any or all of 61 Texas counties.

Political People and Their Moves

Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade named John Sepehri of Dallas to be her general counsel, replacing Jay Dyer, who left the SOS for a gig with Attorney General Greg Abbott. Sepehri was most recently with the Patton Boggs law firm.

Scott Haywood is leaving the Secretary of State's office, where he's been the spokesman for just over three years. His replacement, for now, is Ashley Burton. Haywood had been on Gov. Rick Perry's media staff before going to work for then-SOS Roger Williams. He's going to work for Houston-based Spacehab, which bills itself as a "space commerce" pioneer. He'll remain in Austin.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed Brian Gary of Gunter to the 397th Judicial District Court in Grayson County. Until now, Gary was an attorney in private practice. That's a new court.

The Guv made a couple of insurance appointments. He named Rod Bordelon Jr. the commissioner of the Workers' Compensation Division at the Texas Department of Insurance. Bordelon has been running the Office of Public Insurance Counsel, which represents ratepayers before insurance regulators. He's replacing Albert Betts. In Bordelon's place, the governor tapped Deeia Beck of Fort Worth; she had been an administrative law judge in the Workers' Comp Division.

Chrissy Borskey moves to General Electric, where she's in charge of Mid-South government relations. In English: She'll lobby in Texas, Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi, and New Mexico.

Deaths: Mary Ellen Murphy Hall, wife of U.S. Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Rockwall, for 63 years. She was 83.

Quotes of the Week

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, riffing on Texas Democrat Jim Hightower's line from the 1988 national convention: "You know, it was once said of the first George Bush that he was born on third base and thought he'd hit a triple. Well, with the 22 million new jobs and the budget surplus Bill Clinton left behind, George W. Bush came into office on third base, and then he stole second."

Cecile Richards, daughter of the late Ann Richards, at the Democratic National Convention: "After eight years of George Bush, you might be surprised that a Texan is president of Planned Parenthood. After all, there aren't many people eager to see the words 'Texan' and 'president' in the same sentence ever again."

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, joking with the Houston Chronicle that Barack Obama might name him head of the CIA for keeping his silence during the vice presidential vetting: "In a town of leaks, I could keep a secret for 2-1/2 months."

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, asked on MSNBC (before the choice was known) whether she ducked consideration as a potential veep because she wants to run for governor of Texas: "Everybody knows that is where my heart is."

Former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox, famous for his rough-and-tumble campaigns, telling the Fort Worth Star-Telegram what the national Democrats should be doing to the GOP ticket: "I'd never advocate using untruths or distortions, but we ought to be going at them blow-for-blow right here on this floor, and real soon."

John Goodman, from the National Center for Policy Analysis, quoted in The Dallas Morning News on Census reports showing Texas leads the nation in uninsured citizens: "So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime. The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American — even illegal aliens — as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care. So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved."

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Texas Weekly: Volume 25, Issue 33, 1 September 2008. Ross Ramsey, Editor. Copyright 2008 by Printing Production Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. One-year online subscription: $250. For information about your subscription, call (512) 302-5703 or email biz@texasweekly.com. For news, email ramsey@texasweekly.com, or call (512) 288-6598.

Joe Jaworski says now that his campaign isn't worried about funds received from Dallas lawyer Fred Baron, isn't returning it or donating the money, and that the reason for the mixup is that one of the Galveston Democrat's campaign consultants got it wrong when telling us about it.

So the check that he wrote for cancer research at the University of Texas Medical Branch has nothing to do with the check he received for the same amount from Baron, Jaworski says, and he's got no problem taking the Dallas attorney's money.

"I was happy to take his money in 2007 and I daresay I spent it fairly quickly," Jaworski says. "I would accept it again. Fred Baron is a good Democrat and his heart is in the right place."

Jaworski, who's running for the Texas Senate, is one of two legislative candidates who received direct contributions from Baron in this campaign cycle; most of Baron's donations go to Democratic groups and political action committees.

Earlier, a campaign consultant had sought us out to make sure we knew that the Monday check to UTMB was a result of stories describing Baron's help to former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. Baron told The Dallas Morning News last week that he paid to relocate a woman with whom Edwards had an affair during his campaign, as well as another campaign worker who now claims to be the father of that woman's child.

Republicans have started pushing Democratic candidates to disavow the money now that Baron has been tied to Edwards' problems. Jaworski says he's not going to do that.

We mentioned Jaworski and Carol Kent of Dallas in earlier reports as a couple of legislative Democratic candidates who got money directly from Baron in this election cycle. We left out a few state candidates with competition, to wit: Jim Jordan, challenging Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, $5,000; Emil Reichstadt, who's running against Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, $2,500; Chris Turner, challenging Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, $5,000; and Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, who's trying to fend off Republican Louis Bruni Jr., $2,500. Out of harm's way, at least in November, but on Baron's list: Reps. Rafael Anchia of Dallas, $2,500; Jim Dunnam of Waco, $2,500; and Richard Raymond of Laredo, $5,000; and Sen. Royce West of Dallas, $5,000.

This week, bloggers in Denver for the Democratic National Convention wrote so much that we could barely keep up. We've highlighted what we thought were the best posts — if you want to see everything they wrote, click on the names of the blogs. In related news, bloggers are also paying attention to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, just starting, while just one blog attends the alternative gathering across town held by Rep. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson. And some bloggers don't get to go any conventions at all, but that doesn't stop them from churning out copy.

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Colorado Kool-Aid

Texas Observer Blog : Says nearly no one showed up for the Rural Council Caucus. Listened to former Rep. Charlie Wilson speak out against war at an event sponsored by Lockheed Martin at Denver's Hard Rock Cafe.

Texas Blue : Posts video of the convention's best speeches.

Tex Parte Blog : Says that Fred Baron says he didn't know the John Edwards was cheating on his wife. Here's what they saw at the beginning of the convention.

In the Pink Texas : Danced as if she were Hillary Clinton and posted the footage on YouTube. Then she did it again. In between the bouts of dancing, Pink Lady posted at her other blog, Texas Monthly's Poll Dancing .

Houtopia : Had to blog quickly about the second and third days of the DNCC.

Houston Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac : Contended Barack Obama had 10 things to accomplish at the convention. Assessed the presidential campaign state-by-state. Takes photos at breakfast. Reported that AT&T paid a lot for parties. Listed Obama's Texan pals. Said U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, implemented a "no Mohawk" policy for his kids. Created a podcast on the state of the presidential race. Said the Texas House Speaker race reached Denver. Hosted guest bloggers like young person Grace Powell (here, here and here) and Houston delegate Terrel Shepherd. Gave out awards for best political buttons here and here. And got Obama girl Amber Lee Ettinger to star in a couple of videos for the blog, here and here.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram's PoliTex : Talked to two Tarrant County Hispanics for Obama. Got a quote from Cyndi Lauper. Interviewed a nonagenarian delegate. Read that former Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes took a letter meant for Obama from Iraqi veterans. Said Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, got emotional about Obama's nomination. Didn't smell any funny stuff at Invesco, despite being surrounded by Democrats. And, spoke with one of U.S. Sen. Clinton's best Texan friends.

El Paso Times' Vaqueros & Wonkeros : Got " this close " to Dan Rather.

Dallas Morning News's Trail Blazers : Directed readers to a picture gallery by staff photographers. Wrote about breakfast. Posted the 57-page party platform. Said U.S. Sen. Chuck Shumer of New York didn't know what elected position senatorial hopeful Rick Noriega holds (not a good sign for the Houston state rep). Reported that the song "Addicted to Love" began playing soon after former Pres. Bill Clinton exited the stage. And criticized "the wors[t] fireworks show ever."

Capitol Annex : Snagged the full text of remarks by Cecile Richards, the daughter of former Gov. Ann Richards. Also listened to a speech by U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes.

Burnt Orange Report : Was there for days One, Two, Three and Four. Click here to watch eight videos from Denver. And here's some multimedia.

BurkaBlog : Says the first day of the convention was a waste. Thinks Clinton successfully stole the spotlight with her speech. Posts that Eddie Lucio III, D-Brownsville, "looked and sounded great" on PBS talking about Obama.

Austin American-Statesman's Postcards from the Lege : Had three " John Sharp moments " in Denver. Said U.S. Senate candidate Noriega showed up late in Denver because he had to drop his son off at school. Learned what happens when anarchists confront a traffic light. Recorded remarks on Clinton and Obama by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston. Cut in front of the poor plebes to find a press entrance to a packed Invesco Field. And reported that Texas Democrats got really good seats for Obama's speech.

ABC 13's Houston Political Blog : Spotted state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, wearing what appears to be some sort of wetsuit. Found Clinton supporters who will vote for McCain. And here's a post summing up the week's activities.

A Capitol Blog : Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, met AFL-CIO co-founder Dolores Huerta at the DNC. Bloggers played a prominent role at the convention. And here's a photo of Invesco Field filling up with folks.

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St. Paul Girls (and Guys)

Trail Blazers: Profiled a young GOP delegate. Has further proof that U.S. Rep. Pete Session, R-Dallas, "likes to get down." Kept an eye on National Guard troops, who've been busy thus far battling anarchists and protestors.

Potomac: Said getting inside the GOP convention was almost like Spinal Tap. Listed McCain's Texan advisers. Twittered. Hosted guest bloggers like Katy delegate Michael A. Franks and young person Zoe Schwartz. Did a photo essay on Texas GOP delegates. And highlighted GOP political buttons.

Postcards: Heard from U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, that Hutchison is running for governor in 2010. Posted a Republican fight song. Said that each Texas delegate got a cowboy hat. Talked to a Paul supporter fighting the "fairness doctrine." And, went to a breakfast keynoted by First Lady Laura Bush.

PoliTex: Said Texas Republicans got much nicer convention digs than their blue counterparts. Informed readers that U.S. Sen. John Cornyn talked to GOP delegates at a Monday breakfast and then went back to Texas. Heard from the First Lady that Palin is "tough" and is a "reformer." And, conversed with a really conservative Texan about McCain's picking of Palin.

Patriot Writer : Said there's a civil war going on in the GOP. Thinks TV personality Greta Van Susteren was being rude during a talk by Barry Goldwater Jr. And predicted that the younger Paul supporters will eventually gain control of the GOP.

Observer: Reported that the first day of the GOP convention was "underwhelming."

Austin Chronicle's Newsdesk: Noted the music preceding John McCain's announcement of Palin as his running mate — "Van Halen's "Right Now," from their 1991 album For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge."

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Letters from (Ron) Paul to the Republicans

PoliTex: Took a photo of a billboard for Paul. And wrote that some Paul supporters are splitting time between the two functions.

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No Place Like Home

Libertarian Republican: Posts video of Alex Jones (of Infowars.com and Austin public access television fame) haranguing conservative pundit Michelle Malkin.

KVUE's Political Junkie: Took video of an Obama watch party in Austin.

Half Empty: Took pictures of a Fort Bend Democrats watch party.

Election Law Blog: Sent out a memo that National Public Radio has a new project on 527s, et al.

Castle Hills Democrat: Posted a "word cloud" of Obama's DNC speech.

Blue Dot Blues: Livebloged Obama's speech.

Blogs of War: Followed the Democratic convention via Twitterati member Alice_H.

BeldarBlog: Compiled an index of entries on the Alaskan governor.

Our Headline of the Week goes to North Texas Conservative who commits an unintentional double entendre by titling a post, "McCain Tags Palin."

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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.

Two late entrants — a Democrat and a Republican — signed up at the deadline for the SD-17 contest to replace Kyle Janek — one of them prompting a lawsuit in the process.

That's one of three special elections on the November ballot, and the only one that'll determine a term of more than a few weeks. Janek, a Houston Republican, resigned earlier this summer. The race for the remaining two years of his term now includes four Republicans and two Democrats.

And one of the Democrats, Chris Bell, filed suit challenging the residency of the other, Stephanie Simmons, saying she voted in Harris County in March but said on her candidate forms that she has lived in Fort Bend County for at least 11 months. Her voting record, according to Bell, has been tied to a Harris County address for at least 14 years. More to the point, the Fort Bend address is in the Senate district and the Harris County address is not. That, according to Bell's suit, is a disqualifier that ought to knock her off the special election ballot. Simmons didn't immediately return calls seeking comment.

That would make him the only Democrat in the race, which also features Republicans Austen Furse, Grant Harpold, Joan Huffman, and Ken Sherman (the other late entrant). Unlike the general election races on the same day, this will go to a runoff if no candidate breaks 50 percent on Election Day.

State District Judge Stephen Yelenosky set a hearing on all that for Monday in Austin.

The other two specials are for House seats and the winners will hold them only until new legislative terms begin in January. Still, they could get a small edge over the rest of the freshman class if they win — an edge that could result in stuff like better furniture, parking spaces and offices. And if you don't think that matters in a body formed on pecking orders, you've never watched chickens.

In HD-81, Republican Tryon Lewis of Odessa is the only candidate who signed up for the special election. He defeated the late Rep. George "Buddy" West in the March GOP primary. West, who was already ailing at the time, died several weeks later. Lewis is on the ballot for the general election, too, running against Libertarian Elmo Hockman of Odessa.

And in HD-55, where Rep. Dianne White Delisi, R-Temple, resigned, three candidates will compete for the remaining weeks of her term. That field includes R. "Danny" Daniel, an independent; Sam Murphey, a Democrat; and Ralph Sheffield, a Republican. Daniel isn't in the regular election for that seat, which will be held the same day and will determine the winner of a full term in the seat. And Chris Lane, the Libertarian on the general election ballot, didn't sign up for the special.

An Austin judge set a post-election trial date for the Texas Association of Business, which is accused of illegal electioneering in two dozen 2002 legislative races. The timing could have an effect in this year's elections, as almost a dozen candidates have their names on this year's ballots and also in the indictments.

The case, winding through the courts for the last six years, is over TAB's efforts on behalf of Republican legislative candidates that year. The business group's political action committee issued a slew of mailings touting those candidates and/or criticizing their opponents, and they used corporate money doing so. TAB's lawyers say the advertising was legal "educational material" that didn't direct voters what to do with the information. Prosecutors contend the adverts were intended to influence the election and, because corporate money was used, were illegal.

It's hard to tell whether that's good or bad news for the candidates whose names have been linked — directly or indirectly — to the case. But some of their opponents are already teeing up on the names listed in the latest version of the indictment. None are charged — they're just listed, by name, as the candidates TAB was assisting in that election six year ago. Still, that's enough content for political mail.

The first such shot is from Democrat Ernie Casbeer of Oglesby, who's challenging Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville. Miller's one of the candidates who benefitted from (but like the others, isn't accused of coordinating his efforts with) TAB. Here's the headline on a recent press release from the Democrat's camp: "Sid Miller Named In Criminal Indictment For Illegal Campaign Cash." We haven't seen other mailers, but there are several current officeholders in the list of 24 candidates TAB helped in 2002: Reps. Betty Brown of Terrell, Mike Hamilton of Mauriceville, Dan Flynn of Van, Bryan Hughes of Mineola, Byron Cook of Corsicana, Miller, Wayne Christian of Center, Larry Taylor of Friendswood, Rick Hardcastle of Vernon, Bill Zedler of Arlington, and Sen. Bob Deuell of Greenville (who's not on the ballot this year). The rest of the candidates on the list have either left the Legislature or never got in.

That trial is tentatively set for November 10, a date that takes the court out of the election cycle while leaving the issue right in the middle of it. While there won't be a trial to muddy the campaign season, there won't be a verdict that could possibly clear (or sink) everyone involved before voters do their business.

Auditors found holes in the payrolls of some of the biggest state agencies.

Five Health and Human Services agencies: Department of Aging and Disability Services, Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services, Department of Family and Protective Services, Department of State Health Services, and the Health and Human Services Commission.

Five numbers: 5.77 percent, 7.31 percent, 10.09 percent, 2.95 percent, and 6.55 percent.

Connect those lists respectively and you have the percentage of terminated employees who were overpaid in each of those agencies in fiscal years 2007 and 2008, according to the State Auditor's Office.

The agencies employ around 50,000 people and have a combined annual payroll of $2.2 billion. The agencies, according to SAO, paid $738,192 to 1,229 people after those folks were no longer employed by the state. That's an average of $600.64 per person.

In their official response, which is part of the SAO report, HHSC officials said they've recovered $414,427 of the overpaid money and are in pursuit of the balance.

It's starting to be debate season, by which we mean that the candidates are throwing sand over whether and when and how frequently they'll appear together in public so voters and political voyeurs can compare and contrast the competitors.

Pete Olson, running against U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, says it's not right that Lampson has agreed to only one debate, and in Clear Lake. That's an affront, according to the Republican challenger, to Fort Bend, Brazoria, and Galveston. Olson wants to debate in all four districts in the county.

Ernie Casbeer wants to debate Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, so he can ask him in public about the Texas Association of Business indictments in which Miller is mentioned along with 24 other candidates. No resolution there yet.

And Rep. Juan Garcia, D-Corpus Christi, says former Rep. Todd Hunter, his Republican challenger, backed out of a debate scheduled for September 22.

• Garcia's campaign (along with others) is touting a match offered by Austin Sen. Kirk Watson, who's taking sort of a Sally Struthers approach to legislative elections. He's got a website — AdoptAHouseCandidate.com — listing 26 Texas House candidates and offering to match small donations. He's capping his matches at $5,000 and is asking donors to give $20.08. They're all Democrats, as he is, and his list includes four challengers, six open set candidates and 16 incumbents. That's a way, among other things, to stack up favors if you want to someday run for statewide office. Not that anyone's saying anything like that.

• Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst already has a statewide office, but he, like U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, is helping Texas statehouse candidates raise money. His latest assist goes to Mike Anderson, the former Mesquite mayor who beat Rep. Thomas Latham in the primaries. Anderson has a Democratic opponent, Robert Miklos, in a contest targeted by both parties.

• A Republican consultant fired up a website taunting Democrats who've received contributions from Dallas attorney Fred Baron. GiveTheMoneyBack.com belongs to Anthony Holm, who works for the Austin-based Patriot Group and also is the media rep for Houston homebuilder Bob Perry. Baron is the biggest contributor to Texas Democrats; Perry is the biggest contributor to Texas Republicans. He says candidates who got money from Baron ought to pay it back now that Baron has admitted paying to relocate a woman who had an affair with former presidential candidate John Edwards. Baron's money overwhelmingly goes to Democrats (see here and here), but there are a couple of other names on his list from a couple of election cycles back: Baron gave $2,000 to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in 2003, and Baron & Budd, his law firm (he's sold his interest) gave $5,000 each to Dewhurst and to House Speaker Tom Craddick in 2003 and 2002, respectively.

If your campaign plan depends on something that has never happened before, you're a long shot.

That's one of our favorite political axioms because it's usually right. When it's wrong, it's often as much a surprise to the winners as anyone else.

But there's always an enticing theory out there, like Tony Sanchez's wager that the state's demographics had changed enough to elect an Hispanic Democrat with a bottomless bank account. Or Carole Keeton Strayhorn's bet that Republicans and Democrats were tired enough of their own parties to go for an independent for governor. Or the nutty idea that the Democrats could sweep the Dallas County elections... the one shocker in that trio that actually came true.

The voting boom in the Texas primaries is the source of this year's pipe dreams. Who were all those people? Will they come back? Are Democrats resurrecting themselves after years in the political wilderness or was that Clinton-Obama thing just a bump in the road?

There's no knowing until the returns are in. But there are theories:

• Democrats got a rare chance to boost interest, voter registration, and the quality of their voter databases and should be able to convert that into bigger than normal numbers in November.

• Republican numbers will hold up better in November because their March turnout wasn't artificially driven up by a one-time fight or by the sort of political spending that goes with that kind of fight. The national Democratic candiates were working the state, staging massive ground wars, and won't be back for a similar fight in November. This is basically the idea that March was a glitch and that things will mostly snap back to normal in November.

• Democratic turnout will hold up, but will do better in places where Obama won in March than in places where Clinton was the favorite in the primaries.

• It doesn't matter if more Democrats come to the polls in November, because the number who vote for president and then stop voting was so high in March; downballot Democrats won't get any love.

• Much of the turnout in the primaries — the Democrats got all the attention, but the Republican numbers set records, too — were borrowed from November. The primary looked like a balloon, according to this one, because November Democrats and November Republicans came out in March. The November numbers will be closer to normal.

We started picking apart some primary numbers last month, when statewide district-by-district numbers became available from the Texas Legislative Council. It's the first publicly available look at how the Democratic and Republican primaries went, sliced by congressional, Senate, and House districts.

We knew the day after the election, for example, that Hillary Clinton beat Barack Obama in all but 24 of the state's 254 counties. But that's based on geography and not population. So when you look at political districts based on population, the view changes. Obama won in 13 of the state Senate districts. He won in 14 of the 32 congressional districts. And he won in 69 of the 150 House districts.

McCain got more votes than Obama in 29 House districts, six Senate districts, and two congressional districts. He got more votes than Clinton in 20 districts, two Senate districts, and one congressional district. All of those are held by Republican lawmakers.

Republicans outvoted Democrats in 16 of the state's House districts (Berman, Merritt, Eissler, Hilderbran, Creighton, Delisi, Keffer, King, Macias, West, Craddick, Jones, Smithee, Swinford, Chisum, and Van Arsdale), though they were getting outvoted statewide by a better than 2-to-1 margin. That happened in two Senate districts (Fraser, Seliger), and in three congressional districts (Conaway, Neugebauer, Thornberry). Not surprisingly, each lawmaker in office from those districts is a Republican.

In 32 House districts — all held by Democrats — the turnout in the Democratic primary exceeded the total turnout in the 2006 general election. More people in those districts voted in this year's Democratic primary than in the last general election for governor. In one House district, the primary vote also exceeded turnout in the 2004 presidential general election; that was HD-31, Guillen. And in 54 House districts, the combined Republican/Democratic primary turnouts exceeded the 2006 general election turnout. Democratic voters outdid 2006 voters in seven congressional districts and seven Senate districts.

We charted the numbers for the House, Senate, and Congress. For the true political nerds, we put the whole spreadsheet online so you can fool with the numbers. Holler if you find something interesting.

Two top state police officials are leaving. Lt. Col. David McEathron, assistant director of the Department of Public Safety, and Chief Randy Elliston, who heads the highway patrol, both retired at the end of August. Meanwhile, the board there named one of the buildings at the DPS campus in Austin after the just-retired director of the agency: What used to be Building A is now the Colonel Thomas A. Davis Jr. Building.

Cherie Townsend is the new executive editor of the Texas Youth Commission, or will be on October 1. She's been running the Clark County (Nevada) Juvenile Services agency and was director of Juvenile Court Services in Maricopa County, Arizona (that's Phoenix), but worked for TYC for 18 years earlier in her career.

Ben Delgado moves over to the Department of Family and Protective Services, presumably for just a little while, as interim commissioner while they're doing a search for a permanent leader. He's the former COO at that agency and has been the agency's interim chief once before. He's normally at the Department of State Health Services, where he's the associate commissioner.

After a year of teaching (in Mesquite), Janiece Crenwelge is rejoining Sen. Robert Deuell, R-Greenville, as a legislative aide. She worked for him in the last legislative session.

James Bernsen, who moves around more than a beagle with fleas (we kid), is the new press secretary to House Speaker Tom Craddick. His boss and the new communications director is Alexis DeLee, who's been wrangling reporters up to now (and will still be the main spokesperson). And Chris Cutrone gets a new assignment, too: He's the media relations liaison for the House, working with members who need media help.

Officially now: John Sneed is leaving Lt. Gov. DavidDewhurst's employ to become interim executive director of the State Preservation Board.

Gov. Rick Perry named three new directors to the board of the San Jacinto River Authority, all of them owners of businesses named for themselves: David Kleimann of Willis, R. Gary Montgomery of The Woodlands, and Lloyd Tisdale of Conroe. Montgomery and Tisdale are being reappointed to the board.

Perry named five board members for the Nueces River Authority: Fernanda Camarillo of Boerne, an engineer; Manuel Cano, a Corpus Christi homebuilding exec; Robert Dullnig of San Antonio, an exec with Presidio Financial Services, Gary Jones, vice president at South Texas Children's Home, and Roxana Tom, a CPA and rancher from Campbellton.

Indicted: U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent of Galveston, on charges of abusive sexual contact and attempted aggravated sexual abuse of his court's former case manager.

Rep. Leo Berman, who's hinted at running for governor if state lawmakers don't address immigration issues, wants to know if making himself a candidate would knock him out of the House.Berman's asking Attorney General Greg Abbott for his opinion on two questions. First, would declaring oneself a gubernatorial candidate during the first year of one's term (that'd be 2009) force one to resign from the House? Second, what about forming an exploratory committee; would that hurt one's legislative status? Berman has pushed for stricter immigration laws and has been telling people for some time that he'll run for governor if the issue isn't addressed.