U.S. Sen. John Cornyn hits the airwaves (after a hurricane delay) with an ad calling for change in Washington, D.C., and another calling for help for Texans set back and displaced by storms.Both Cornyn ads — like the Republican incumbent's new website — are in black and white. The first, called "Palo Duro," will air in 16 Texas TV markets and also in online ads on more than a dozen Texas newspaper websites. And they're holding off in Houston and Beaumont, where people are dealing with aftereffects of Hurricane Ike, for at least a week. The second ad, called "Help," is airing in 18 TV markets, including Houston and Beaumont. Democrat Rick Noriega hasn't yet announced an ad campaign for the last weeks of the election season, but he does have a response ad on the Internet. Here they are:

Hurricane Ike demanded the attentions of state bloggers again this week. Ike temporarily shut down writers in Houston and East Texas, halted political campaigning (but not politicking), and inspired residents to whip out their cameras. We grabbed a few more posts on the storm, and then a handful on other topics.

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Reboots on the Ground

When his power came back on Sunday, Dos Centavos thought about lighting up a celebratory cigar, but reconsidered when he realized that might mean spending time outside. TexasSparkleregained power on Saturday and made up for a missed week of blogging in one post. And here are some observations from Houston's Clear Thinkers.

"Do you have power yet?" That's the standard greeting in Houston right now, according to Blogs of War. Ike was the worst storm since Hurricane Andrew in the early 90s, says Pondering Penguin. "It will be months until the nation’s fourth largest city is normal, and years until Ike is just an awful memory," saysRight Side of the Rainbow.

Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center wants people who need help to make their presence known by posting a comment on the blog. PoliSci@UT feels guilty leaving Houston to pick up a baby boy in Kansas City. Meanwhile, Rhymes with Right is taking prolonged refuge in his church's "youth room" until his house is repaired.

And Old Soldier wins Headline of the Week award for: "Well Ike Kicked Our Ass."

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Hurricane Parties

John Cornynran an ad Tuesday in Austin, Dallas and Amarillo, despite promises to cease campaigning during hurricane recovery, says Postcards from the Lege, the Austin American-Statesman's blog. KVUE's Political Junkie explains that the Cornyn campaign did try to pull the commercials, but it was too late according to KVUE rules. "Either way, it looks bad," says Capitol Annex. [eds. note: The ads are now up and running full time, with Houston and Beaumont getting commercials aimed at generating help for storm victims (and for Cornyn).]

Lone Star Timesgets angry with Democratic challenger Rick Noriega for sniping at Cornyn while Noriega (who was called up for active National Guard duty for hurricane relief) was not in his district. And according to Lonnie Walker's Blog, Noriega is a "liberal hypocrite" because he made a couple of campaign appearances after the storm hit.

HD-127 Democrat Joe Montemayor writes a letter to constituents, via Half-Empty. And Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr thinks (surprise!) the government should get out of the way of hurricane evacuees who want to go back home, according to Postcards.

Windstorm insurance is now a hot topic in the House race between incumbent Juan Garcia, D-Corpus Christi, and Republican Todd Hunter, says Capitol Annex, while BurkaBlog says the old question of whether wind insurance should cover storm surge damage is likely to resurface again and again.

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Storm Shutters

Web developer Jake Cantrell is posting residents' photos of hurricane damage to Crystal Beach. Plowing, Sowing and an Occasional Harvest has photos of damage near Beaumont. Texas Rainmaker got more than he bargained for with the storm, and took photos of it. And Tex Parte Blog has pictures here, here, here, and here.

And the Houston Chronicle's Beltway Confidential shadowed President George W. Bush during his visit to areas hit by Ike, and got a photo of him holding hands with the mayor of Galveston.

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Debris

"[T]here’s one power that’s back on and in full effect: plaintiffs lawyers," says Tex Parte Blog, who posted a ton more times. Burnt Orange Reportcirculates rumors (that did not materialize, unless they meant fish) of "AT LEAST 1500 bodies in trees scattered about Galveston." And Texas Observer Blog thinks it's a good time to start thinking about creating an evacuation policy for exotic animals.

Meanwhile, the Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac has polls where readers can grade the responses of just about everyone associated with hurricane relief, including the newspaper.

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Non-Wind-Aided

Land Commissioner Jerry Pattersonleaned on Libertarian Lenard Nelson to drop out of a tight contest for HD-32 (currently held by Corpus Christi Dem Garcia), says Annex. Plano's Liberty Legal Institute is suing GOP vice-presidential pick Sarah Palin over "Troopergate," says Tex Parte. And Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, was spotted at a union meeting, says Texas Cloverleaf, who isn't impressed.

Annex has started an online support group for political bloggers where they can discuss the intriguing nuances of blogging software. It's only September, but Greg's Opinion is spreading the word that he'll be creating a site to track key counties on November's election night. And Off the Kuffinterviews HD-138 Democratic candidate Virginia McDavid.

El Paso Republican Dee Margo sent out an e-mail "attacking his opponent [Democrat Joe Moody] for attacking him," reportsVaqueros & Wonkeros, the El Paso Times's blog.

Bookmark this post to re-read on Nov. 5: "50 State Prediction for the 2008 Presidential Race," by Kevin Tracy. And A Keyboard and a .45 wishes readers a "Happy Constitution Day!"

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.

Democrat Rick Noriega shoots back at John Cornyn with an online ad and a fundraising pitch.Noriega's ad is called "All by Himself."

The Texas Supreme Court, without comment, left the Democratic and Republican presidential tickets on the Texas ballot, denying a Libertarian claim that the two major parties missed a state deadline.Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr sued the state, saying the major party conventions nominated their candidates after the state's statutory deadline had passed. Barr contended he was the only candidate with the legal right to appear on the Texas ballot. The Supremes disagreed, without offering any written opinion or explanation. Your ballot will have Barr, John McCain and Barack Obama on it. The big parties lauded the decision, but the chairman of the Texas Libertarian Party said it left questions unanswered: "We are naturally disappointed that the Supreme Court has refused to enforce the law against Republicans and Democrats in this case, when courts have repeatedly enforced the law against Libertarians, other minor parties, and independents in past cases," said Pat Dixon. He complained that the lack of a written opinion leaves unclear whether and when the deadlines are meant to be enforced. Russell Verney, a spokesman for the Barr campaign, had a similar reaction. "The Court’s one-sentence denial deprived us, and the voters of Texas, of any explanation of the Courts reasons for arbitrarily exempting the Republicans and the Democrats from the clear deadline set forth in the law," he said. "Third parties and Independent candidates are consistently told that deadlines are deadlines. Texas has somehow determined that deadlines are just suggestions but we are left without the guidance of the Court’s reasons."

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison told her colleagues in the Senate today that she won't be seeking reelection to her Senate leadership job.Add that to the other signs that she's preparing to leave the Senate early to run for governor. Hutchison, who strongly considered running for the top state job in 2002 and again in 2006, has been telling potential supporters and campaign finance people that she'll run in 2010. She's the policy chair of the Senate Republican Conference. Asked about what she said to the Republicans, her office issued a statement. "In order to explore new opportunities that many Texans have asked me to consider, I informed my colleagues in the Senate today that I would not seek re-election as Chair of the Republican Policy Committee. I have been honored to serve in the leadership for eight years, and have especially enjoyed shaping our policy positions in my current role; however, it is in the best interests of the conference to elect a new policy committee chairman who can commit full attention throughout the next Congress to Policy Committee responsibilities." Gov. Rick Perry has said he'll run for reelection to a third term. There's no reason not to believe that, but Perry's also got to preserve his power going into the 2009 legislative session; being a lame duck wouldn't help with the Legislature in town. The Dallas Morning News is also working on this one; here's their take.

A new group formed to push the Legislature to allow more gambling opportunities at Texas racetracks puts all the ponies in one corral.

Texas HORSE — which stands Horse Organizations for Racing, Showing and Event — consolidates the American Quarter Horse Association, American Paint Horse Association, National Cutting Horse Association, Texas Arabian Breeders Association, Texas Quarter Horse Association and Texas Thoroughbred Association. They say they want to present "a unified front" next year in yet another effort to legalize casino-style games at the state's 13 licensed tracks.

The racing industry, with the sometimes on-and-off support of such state leaders as Gov. Rick Perry, then Agriculture Commissioner and now Comptroller Susan Combs, and former Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, has been trying to convince lawmakers since 2003 to open up the state to the kind of gambling that's long been legal in all the U.S. states that border Texas.

But each session, the effort sputters. And it doesn't seem to matter whether the state's facing a daunting budget crisis, like the near-$10 billion hole in '03, or the coffers are overflowing, as Combs is projecting, informally, for 2009.

"It is time to put Texas horses and Texas horsemen out in front of this legislative effort," said Jim Helzer, an Arlington quarterhorseman who was elected president of the new group at its organizational meeting in July. "Passage of (new gambling legislation) will have a tremendous positive impact on the agricultural economy and on rural development in Texas."

Under the proposal being backed by HORSE, the money generated from additional gambling would be pumped into a Performance Horse Development Fund, which would be used to promote such non-racing equine activities as cutting, reining, barrel racing, team roping, Western pleasure, rodeo and trail rides.

There would also be money for the racehorses and for such initiatives as health care for low-income Texans and for better roads and highways, they say.

State Rep. Sid Miller, the Stephenville Republican who chairs the House Agriculture and Livestock Committee, said he expects to hear pitches from HORSE and some of the other pro-gambling organization when his panel meets next week (October 1) at Tarleton State University to discuss ways to bump up purses for a variety of horse events.

But Miller remains skeptical that the 81st Legislature will have any greater appetite for gambling that the ones that came before.

"I expect we'll hear all sorts of proposals for VLTs (video lottery terminals) and everything else, but I'm just not convinced they can pass," Miller said. "I agree we need to do something for the horsemen, but I think we need to be looking at other alternatives."

One option, he said, would be to follow Kentucky's lead and levy a sales tax on horse-breeding fees.

And even as HORSE and other groups continue to explore ways to make gambling more appealing to lawmakers, forces on the other side are gearing up to go toe-to-toe with them.

Weston Ware, who over the past two decades-plus has waged battles against pari-mutuel betting, the lottery, and casinos, has reactivated his group Texans Against Gambling with online petitions and money-solicitations of $10 to $100 to counter the much better-financed pro-gambling organizations. He said 250 online signatures were gathered within the first week of his plea.

"We put lawmakers on notice that voters across the state will oppose any action that might lead to expanded gambling in Texas," Ware said.

—by John Moritz

Democrats in HD-52 say Williamson County is headed in their direction. They've got quite a rally going around their candidate, Diana Maldonado. But Republican candidate Bryan Daniel says he doesn't think the district is going blue, and other Republicans say the Democrats are misreading the results of the 2006 elections.

Democrats need to win five seats to take over the House, and this is one of several they're counting on. Republican incumbent Mike Krusee has held the seat since 1993. In 2006, he defeated Democrat Karen Felthauser by only 2,333 votes (50.4 percent to her 44.2 percent — Libertarian Lillian Simmons got 5.3 percent and she's going for it again this year), and Felthauser did it without much money and with no significant outside help. It looked to some like Democrats were rising in the district. Others thought the result had more to do with dissatisfaction over the incumbent than in any change in the electorate. About the same number of Democrats turned out for this year's primary (16,870) as for the 2006 general election.

"Since the primary, the energy is really picking up," says Maldonado, a former Round Rock School Board Trustee. "We have so many groups coming out to block walk — high school seniors, the UT Democrats and even a group from San Angelo came out."

She says some of her Democratic friends have had to "go Republican" in the past to maintain their businesses or form associations, but "with a good slate of Democratic candidates, they are able to come out and be themselves." Maldonado also says growth and changing demographics in Williamson County mean a shift to the left.

Daniel isn't buying it.

"I haven't seen evidence of a huge shift in conservative versus liberal," he says. "People are going around saying District 52 is becoming more liberal, but I'm certainly not seeing that in the issues with my voters. I think they're the same as they've been in the last eight to ten years."

Daniel, an agricultural insurance exec, says growth has certainly brought new voters and with that, an atmosphere that invites political discussion, but overall, he believes Williamson County has retained conservative values.

Mid-year reports with the Texas Ethics Commission shows Maldonado is way ahead financially with almost $139,000 in contributions and just over $129,000 left over in cash. She's been campaigning since July 2007. Bryan had raised about $60,000 since the primary and held on to half of it, but he didn't start raising money until January. New reports are due soon — 30 days before the November 4 election.

The candidates aren't getting after each other too much — both say in their own words that they're focusing on the issues, from toll roads to the margins tax. (You can catch videos of their recent debate in Hutto here.)

But, Maldonado criticized has Daniel for taking contributions from Bob Perry of Perry Homes in Houston — in light of the Sunset Advisory Commission's recommendation to abolish the Texas Residential Construction Commission. "It's a problem if we want change," she says. "We have to be committed to make sure we don't have anymore cronyism, scare tactics and back room deals that the current leadership has put us in."

Daniel says that Maldonado takes donations from trial lawyers and has no room to talk. Maldonado says trial lawyers are playing because there's a speaker's race underway and she's a vote against the incumbent, Tom Craddick of Midland. Daniel hasn't specified whether he'll support Craddick if elected.

"He's proven to be very conservative," she says. "It's the same tired politics, he's pretty much going down that path."

The only thing these candidates really agree on is their parties' respective presidential tickets — both are sure the top of the ticket is going to bring big crowds to their downballot race.

Hurricane Ike threw a campaign curveball at the candidates in CD-22. U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, who's also busy with congressional work on the Wall Street bailout, is taking a complete break from campaigning. His opponent, Pete Olson, is trying to balance campaigning and recovery efforts.

The district covers four counties — Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston and Harris. Damage and power outages were pretty widespread, and there are still hundreds of thousands of homes and offices without power. With so many displaced voters, the candidates have lost ad space all around. But that's not a total loss, politically — they gained face time with voters.

"He was all over the district," says Lampson spokesman Trevor Kincaid, "talking to people on the ground and calling mayors to make sure the federal and state governments were responding to their needs."

Lampson also helped get a mobile FEMA unit set up in Galveston.

"He hasn't been able to be here constantly," says Sue Funkhouser, chair of the Brazoria County Democrats, "but he's made his presence known. I don't know that he's been necessarily hurt by this."

Power outages forced the Olson campaign to shut down for a while, but they're getting back into the game.

"We spent that time volunteering in the district and we're slowly beginning to campaign in the district where it's appropriate," Olson says. "There are certainly some areas that have a long way to go."

Both campaigns say their main focus is getting the district back to some state of normalcy, so there's no clear vision of how the next few weeks will play out.

Even debates are shaky. Olson wanted four, but Lampson just agreed to one. Then he cancelled one scheduled for October 20 at the Rosenberg-Richmond Chamber of Commerce. That didn't make the chamber's CEO Gail Parker too happy. They had another debate scheduled for October 1 at the Hilton Houston NASA Clear Lake (say that five times fast), but the hotel suffered major damage. It's safe to say next week's debate might not happen, even though the campaigns are looking for a new location.

"The campaign is on the back burner," says Kincaid, "but we're looking forward to a debate. It's just a question of where and when."

At mid-year, Lampson was ahead in the money game with about $1,600,000 in donations. He'd spent just over $600 thousand. Olson had raised about $1,300,000 — but his spending (lots on consultants) left him with just over $200,000 in cash. He says the funding situation is what led him to launch a new campaign Web site about Lampson's record.

"We're acting like we're behind," says Olson, "When people say this is a Republican district and stronghold and we should win comfortably, I don't believe it. We're not acting that way."

Two of Corpus Christi's TV stations refused ads from the Nueces County GOP, saying the commercials tying an indicted lawyer to Democratic officeholders didn't pass their fact checks. The party revised the adto keep it on a third station. It tries to link money donated by Mauricio Celis to Reps. Juan Garcia of Corpus and Abel Herrero of Robstown. The ads say Celis gave to a PAC that in turn gave to the two candidates and says their elections were tainted as a result. Herrero has said he took the contributions in good faith and did nothing improper. Garcia's campaign has documented the PAC's spending to show that it had used all of Celis' money and replenished its balance with other contributions before giving to Garcia. After Celis' indictment, both candidates made charitable contributions with the money he'd donated this cycle.

• The Texas Farm Bureau's AGFUND — that's their political action committee — endorsed U.S. Sen. John Cornyn for reelection over Democrat Rick Noriega. The PAC affiliate of the Texas Association of Realtors endorsed Bryan Daniel over Diana Maldonado in HD-52. Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, picked up the Texas Parent PAC's endorsement; she's running against Republican Pamela Waggoner. Rep. Juan Garcia, D-Corpus Christi, got an endorsement from CLEAT (the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas) in his race against former Rep. Todd Hunter.

• House Speaker Tom Craddick is hosting a funder for Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, in Austin early next month — no surprise there. But the special guest is interesting because she's been away from this sort of thing in Texas for a while: Karen Hughes, former top aide to President George W. Bush.

• Nine Republican House candidates — only two of them current incumbents — made the list of people who'll benefit from a "Red River Rivalry Fundraiser" in Dallas on the Friday before the UT-OU football game. The roster: Rep. Tony Goolsby and former Rep. Bill Keffer of Dallas, Rep. Bill Zedler and Mark Shelton of Fort Worth, Ralph Sheffield of Temple, Tim Kleinschmidt of Lexington, Mike Anderson of Mesquite, Ken Legler of Pasadena, and Bryan Daniel of Georgetown. All but one of those is considered a real race: Sheffield is running against Democrat Sam Murphey in a solidly Republican district, but some political types on both sides have that contest on their "sleeper" lists.

• They delayed elections in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina and even after Gustav. Now a group of Texans is asking for a delay not in the election date but in the deadline for voter registration. The law gives Texans about a week — until October 6 — to sign up. These folks are asking Gov. Rick Perry to extend the deadline because of Ike: League of Women Voters of Texas, Houston Votes, Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, Common Cause, and the People for the American Way Foundation.

• That Houston conference on transportation we told you about last week? Moved to December 3, courtesy of Hurricane Ike. You can get details from the Texas Lyceum, which is hosting.

• The next turn of the screw in the Brimer-Davis eligibility fight is set for Thursday, October 2, when the two sides argue before the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas. Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, sued to knock Democrat Wendy Davis out of contention, saying she wasn't off the Fort Worth city council soon enough to qualify for the Senate race. The courts might not be able to take her off the ballot this late, if they think that's the thing to do, but they could tell election officials not to count the votes of an illegal candidate.

• The Speaker's Golf Tournament raised $590,000 for childhood immunizations according to Speaker Tom Craddick's office. That money goes to the Caring for Children Foundation.

• Joan Huffman, one of six candidates running for Sen. Kyle Janek's open SD-17 seat, signed the Grover Norquist tax pledge, saying she will "oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes." That's sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform — Norquist's group. Huffman joins 15 challengers in Texas and 38 state legislators (including Janek) who've taken the pledge.

• Michael Skelly is touting a new poll showing him seven percentage points behind U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, and saying he started 20 points back. That's attached to a fundraising missive.