Rep. Jim Keffer calls for party parity in committee chairmanships, selection of a temporary parliamentarian for the speaker election next month, a review of the heads of legislative agencies, and a five-point "speaker's ethics reform pledge." He's calling for term limits, removing speakers from the elections of sitting legislators, a ban on special interest groups and lobbyists operating from the speaker's office during floor debates, a ban on lobbyists and political consultants serving on transition teams, and a ban on using the appropriations bill to reward patronage. His release:

Jim Keffer Calls For Equality in Choosing New Committee Chairmanships; Selection of Temporary House Parliamentarian; Discusses Other Reforms Austin, Texas, December 12, 2008---?? "Now that the election recounts have confirmed the new Texas House will have 76 Republicans and 74 Democrats, I believe that in order for the 81st Session to be successful, it is important to commit to bipartisan leadership and representation," Jim Keffer (R-Eastland), candidate for Texas House Speaker, announced today. "In choosing leadership positions, I will ensure that the members who fill these positions will be appointed in proportion to the parties represented in the House and will reflect the diversity of the State of Texas." Keffer also called for the selection of a temporary House parliamentarian to serve during the opening day of the 81st Session. "The 80th Legislature gave Speaker Craddick the right to appoint House officers. Speaker Craddick appointed Terry Keel. However, when the 81st Legislature convenes, the members of the House have a constitutional right to select their own officers and to determine the method by which that is done — a method that may include the selection of a temporary House parliamentarian." This is an unprecedented time in our state’s history with 12 declared candidates for speaker and rumors of more to come. With 6 of those candidates from Tom Craddick’s own party, Keffer said that Tom Craddick will not be re-elected speaker nor will Terry Keel be the House parliamentarian for the 81st Legislature. "If a majority of the members are dissatisfied with the performance of the House parliamentarian, the best way to address that is to elect a new speaker who can appoint a parliamentarian that the membership will have confidence in. Until that time, it would serve us best to have an temporary officer to ensure the election is handled impartially."?? Additionally, Keffer said he will review all officers and directors appointed by the previous speaker to ensure that those employees are serving the entire membership. "For example, if the members feel that the Director of the Texas Legislative Council is not serving the interests of the entire body, I will resolve that issue with the Lieutenant Governor." Keffer has also called for new House rules to guarantee recognition of all House members for questions of privilege, points of order, and appeals of rulings during the session; and Keffer has offered a five point SPEAKER'S ETHICS REFORM PLEDGE which includes: * a three-term speaker term limit;? * banning direct and indirect contributions from the speaker in elections against sitting members of the legislature;? * ending the practice of special interest groups and lobbyists meeting with House members in the speaker's office during floor debate;? * banning lobbyists and political consultants from serving on legislative transition teams; and? * banning the practice of using the appropriations bill to reward patronage.? # # #?

Bloggers are keeping tabs on tomorrow's special election in Senate District 17. They're also (still) talking about the House Speaker race, statewide races in two years, and some legislation. And there's usual miscellany.

* * * * *

Tuesday Night Special

GOP candidate Joan Huffman might have broken the law by hosting a luncheon at an early voting location, according to the Houston Chronicle's Houston Politics blog.

Brains and Eggs received a suspicious phone call in the middle of the night from a robot concerning ethics complaints against "an unnamed candidate" -- Democrat Chris Bell. The robot directed the blogger to www.texasethicsreport.com, which contains links to complaints, mostly having to do with line items on campaign finance reports. Also appearing on the site are House candidates Donnie Dippel, Joe Heflin, Mark Homer, Charles Hopson, Ruth McClendon and Debbie Riddle, along with Galveston Mayor Linda Ann Thomas. The complainant in all the cases, except for one, is Jim Doyle of Conroe. The complainant against Riddle is Jean Iverson of Spring.

Noting that a scant 3.3 percent of registered voters cast ballots early, Half Empty accuses "the Republican deciders" of successfully suppressing turnout through tricky scheduling and strategic polling place locating.

* * * * *

Battle Royal

Burnt Orange Report's updated Speaker race tally is: 76 against Craddick, 61 for Craddick and 13 tossups. For one, Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, has never been a fan of Craddick's, says PoliTex, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's blog. Meanwhile, "sources" tell Capitol Annex that Rep. Joe Straus, R-Republican, will toss his hat in this week.

Texas Politics, the Houston Chronicle's blog, outlines the platform of Speaker candidate Jim Keffer, R-Eastland. Keffer touts a three-term limit on being Speaker and various measures to reduce lobbyist influence on the Speaker. BurkaBlog weighs in on proposed House reforms by Keffer and Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown.

Letters from Texas invites readers to trash the Speaker candidates of their choice, and one commenter obliges with an anecdote about an unusually close alleged encounter with one of the wannabes.

* * * * *

Take '10

In the first of a promised series on the 2010 gubernatorial contest, Code Red looks at incumbent Gov. Rick Perry . The blogger describes Perry as "an empty suit" that Karl Rove filled out. He says that Perry has three advantages in the race: money, incumbency and a 100 percent pro-life record.

Burka says that Democratic U.S. Senate candidate John Sharp doesn't like him because he predicted Sharp's Lt. Gov. losses against Perry in 1998 and David Dewhurst in 2002. He then predicts that Houston mayor Bill White would beat Sharp head-to-head and that Sharp's chances in the general don't look so hot now, either.

Postcards from the Lege, the Austin American-Statesman's blog, couldn't get White to confirm a Houston Chronicle story that says he'll be declaring for the Senate soon (he'll have an announcement this week, they're telling us). Meanwhile, Capitol Annex says Sharp just might run for governor if Hutchison waits too long to vacate her seat. And Burnt Orange says Democrats have a better chance of snagging a statewide judicial seat in 2010 than the U.S. Senate spot.

* * * * *

Bill Me Later

Annex highlights Senate Bill 342 by Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, (about prosecuting new mothers with drugs in their system), SB 341 by Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio (about changing the name of the Texas Railroad Commission), and SB 338 by Leticia Van De Putte, D-San Antonio (about recycling plastic bags).

Grits for Breakfast looks at HB 385 by Rep. Solomon Ortiz Jr., D-Corpus Christi, and says that it's not a good idea to increase punishments for graffiti. And Kaos goes over several bills having to do with the environment.

* * * * *

Farrago

Hard times have forced blogger refinish69 into a prolonged and involuntary "Experiment in Misery"-type scenario. In this first post relayed to Texas Kaos, he talks about his first nights being homeless in Austin. In part two, he talks about living at the Salvation Army, searching for jobs and adjusting to his situation in general. He only gets an hour at a time at the library to write, and Kaos posts his entries as they receive them every few days.

Former Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Ron Kirk is a top contender for U.S. Trade Representative, according to the Dallas Morning News's Trail Blazers. Other "sources" are telling Annex that Van De Putte won't be taking a job with the Obama administration. And The Jackalope's Voice outlines a vast leftwing conspiracy of which U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, is allegedly a beneficiary.

Here's something: InThePinkTexas.com now redirects to a new Texas Monthly blog, called in the Pink, completing blogger Eileen Smith's metamorphosis into a creature of the mainstream media [ed's note: Really? We're ready to say that?]. On a somewhat related note, Redneck Mother has a new gig with Country Lifestyle Magazine.

KVUE's Political Junkie has a photo tour of the fancy new lounge for House members. Billionaire businessman and former presidential candidate Ross Perot guest-starred on the New York Times' Freakonomics blog, and PoliTex was paying attention. Steinberg for Congress is helping put on a poli sci conference at the University of Houston in May 2009. And here's a Christmas card from A Capitol Blog's Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg.

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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.

Today's the deadline to file an election contest if you don't agree with the counting in a particular legislative race. There could be none, there could be two, and as of 5 p.m., the candidates in HD-11 and HD-105 hadn't announced their decisions.Democrat Bob Romano of Irving lost to Republican Rep. Linda Harper-Brown by less than two dozen votes in HD-105. Republican Brian Walker of Tatum lost by fewer than 200 votes to Democratic Rep. Chuck Hopson of Jacksonville. Both losers could contest the results and, if they win, overturn the elections once the legislative session starts. But the decisions won't affect whether the certified winners — Harper-Brown and Hopson — take office on January 13. They'll be sworn in with everybody else, vote on the rules for the session and, most importantly, vote in the race for speaker. The election contests, if there are any, would follow after that. And if history's a guide, the contests might now be settled until February. In terms of the House's numbers, it could matter. Flipping the Irving race — the closer of the two results — would even up the number of Republicans and Democrats in the House at 75 each. If the House is restless or unsettled about the results of the speaker's election on the first day, that kind of change in the numbers could be dangerous to the new speaker. It would be threatening, in particular, to current Speaker Tom Craddick if he wins reelection at the beginning of the session. The House is already narrowly divided; giving the Democrats equal standing with the Republicans would make it difficult for him to hang on. About the deadlines: The candidates have to notify the state about the election contests today, but not in person. They can meet the deadline by getting a postmark before midnight and dropping their notice(s) in the mail.

Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams is the fourth Republican to file papers to run for Kay Bailey Hutchison's spot in the U.S. Senate.Williams is in — he's not exploring. He joins fellow Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones, former Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams, and state Sen. Florence Shapiro, who started all of this by filing papers for an exploratory committee last summer. Democrat John Sharp plans to file on January 1, and Houston Mayor Bill White has — according to the Houston Chronicle — decided to run announced his candidacy for Senate instead of getting into the 2010 race for governor. He'll have an announcement this week, according to aides. Hutchison is "exploring" a race for governor and had been telling supporters she would resign as early as this month. In public statements recently, she has said that if she resigns early at all (her term runs through 2012), it would probably come about this time next year. She also moved a fraction of her federal campaign money — $1 million of more than $8 million on hand — into her state account. The governor's race is in 2010, and Hutchison isn't required to quit the Senate to run in that contest; she'd have to resign only if she won and was sworn into the state office in January 2011. But even with the prospect of a year-long wait for the race, the candidates are lining up, talking to political financiers and seeing if they can put together the kind of statewide organizations needed to win a Senate seat. If she resigns, Gov. Rick Perry would appoint an interim senator to hold her job until a special election could be held. And the Republicans on this growing list would all presumably be lobbying Perry for that appointment. Here's Michael Williams' press release:

MICHAEL WILLIAMS ANNOUNCES CANDIDACY FOR UNITED STATES SENATE AUSTIN – Michael Williams, Chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, today announced that he is a candidate for the United States Senate. Williams is running for the seat currently occupied by U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. He is a candidate for the seat when she resigns or retires. “This critical juncture in time provides an historic opportunity for Texans to rekindle our can-do spirit; to look to the future for solutions, not to the past,” said Williams. A former prosecutor in the Reagan Justice Department and the Midland County District Attorney’s office, Williams has served two U.S. Presidents in three cabinet departments. “I have taken a leading role on energy, education, criminal justice, economic and environmental issues as a Railroad Commissioner and a member of the U.S. Departments of Justice, Education and Treasury,” said Williams. “We can have economic prosperity and cleaner air and water. We can have financial security without our elected officials compromising their conservative principles. We can have government accountable to the people,” continued Williams. Williams was appointed to the Texas Railroad Commission in 1998 by then-Governor George W. Bush. He has since won reelection to the statewide office three times. “I cannot sit idly by while Washington continues its dysfunction,” said Williams. “Change shouldn’t mean a blank check for Washington. I will be the voice of working families who deserve a government as responsible with their money as they are.” “Countless Texans have urged this campaign to begin. I urge them and all Texans to join with me as we renew our call for common-sense, solutions-oriented government that gets results,” said Williams. “I am not exploring a run. I am running,” concluded Williams. A Midland native, Williams is known nationally as an expert on energy issues. He serves as the Chairman of the Governor’s Competitiveness Council. He also chairs the Governor’s Clean Coal Technology Council, represents the Governor on the Southern States Energy Board and is a member of both the National Coal Council and the Interstate Compact Commission. An advocate of alternative energy, Williams is championing the conversion of Texas public and private fleets, especially school buses from diesel and gasoline to environmentally cleaner, cheaper and domestically produced natural gas and propane through his “Breathe Easy” initiative. The son of public school teachers who earned degrees in math and the husband of a mechanical engineer, Michael is the creator and co-sponsor of the “Williams Future Innovators”, a summer camp for 6th through 12th graders to inspire the next generation of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians. Williams has served as Chairman of Texas Victory in 2004 and 2006, Honorary State Chairman of Big Brothers Big Sisters-Texas and General Counsel to the Republican Party of Texas. Williams’ filed the necessary papers with the Federal Election Commission today. ###

Houston Mayor Bill White is now a U.S. Senate candidate — the second Democrat to enter the race. White announced on a website: BillWhiteForTexas.com Here's his campaign announcement video, followed by his press release:

Houston Mayor Bill White today announced that he intends to seek election to the U.S. Senate from Texas. "Working for my neighbors as mayor has been a great honor," said Mayor White. White was re-elected as mayor of the nation’s fourth largest city with 91% and 86% of the vote. "Texas needs a new voice in decisions that will be made in Washington, and my business experience and administrative expertise will ensure utilizing fiscally responsible means to get our economy moving," White added. During White’s five years as mayor, Houston added more jobs than any other city in the United States. "Representing Texans in the Senate will allow me to work for energy policy which is more secure and affordable," said White, who has decades of experience in energy business and policy, including service as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy. Under White’s leadership, the City of Houston expanded parks, libraries and health clinics, while cutting the property tax rate and raising the property tax exemption for our senior citizens every year. The FBI presented Mayor White with the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award, noting that "Mayor White made public safety one of his highest priorities, as evidenced by Houston’s decreasing crime rate." Mayor White is known for his work in promoting energy efficiency, fighting pollution, and redeveloping blighted neighborhoods. Mayor White received the prestigious Profile in Courage Award after Hurricane Katrina "in recognition of his political courage in leading a compassionate and effective government response to the disaster." Before serving as Mayor, White led businesses in the energy, real estate, and engineering and construction industries. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has told other senators and many constituents that she does not intend to seek re-election or serve out her current term. Mayor White has filed a campaign treasurer. Mayor White will make a formal announcement tour around the state in early 2009.

Republican Joan Huffman shredded Democrat Chris Bell in the special election runoff in SD-17, with 56 percent to his 44 percent. She won easily in early voting, and as Election Day returns came in, she maintained a strong lead over the Democrat who finished first among the candidates on November 4. Full results are online at the Texas Secretary of State's website.The mail-in and absentee ballots from last week belonged to Huffman. And while her margins were smaller on Election Day, maintained a strong advantage with all but a couple of the 211 precincts reporting. She won in Brazoria, Fort Bend, and Harris counties. Bell won in Jefferson and Galveston counties but didn't get enough votes to offset her wins elsewhere. Huffman did best in Brazoria, where she won 2-to-1, and in Harris, where she got 56 percent. His bright spots were Jefferson County, where Bell won 5-to-1, and in Galveston, where he won 2-to-1. The two counties where Bell did well accounted for the smallest vote totals among the five counties where votes were tallied. Voting in the runoff was a fraction of the special election total: 43,535 voters as against 223,295 a month ago, when the race was on the ballot with the presidential candidates and other federal, state and local races. Huffman will replace resigned Sen. Kyle Janek, R-Houston. The Senate will have 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats this session — a net change of one in favor of the Democrats. With the Senate's two-thirds rule, that effectively blocks the Republicans from bringing up an issue without Democratic support. And it means the Democrats can't get anything going without a mess of Republicans. Huffman will be the sixth woman in the Senate's ranks — an all-time high. And the females will be split evenly: Three Democrats and three Republicans. Bell and another Democrat, Stephanie Simmons, together won 53 percent in the first round, with Huffman and three other Republicans splitting the the votes of their party's supporters. Had only one of the two Democrats run, their party might have taken the Senate seat out of GOP column. Bell, who'd been talking about a run for the U.S. Senate, was coaxed into the race by trial lawyers and Democrats in the state capital, who ensured him a well-financed campaign. Their polling showed that, with the name ID he built up during a race for governor in 2006, Bell might be able to win what has been a Republican seat. But Simmons was recruited by former state Rep. Ron Wilson, D-Houston, and others, including Texans for Lawsuit Reform, which backed her and Huffman in the November 4 race. Bell beat Simmons in the first round of the special election — in fact, he led all six candidates — but fell well short of the 50 percent he needed to win in that round. The loss is the fifth in Bell's political career, which includes service on the Houston City Council and in Congress. He lost races for the Texas House, mayor of Houston, a post-redistricting congressional reelection bid, governor of Texas, and now the state Senate. Huffman, formerly a state district judge, was making her first bid for legislative office.

Senator-elect Joan Huffman ends the week with fundraisers aimed at paying down her campaign debts. Huffman, who beat Democrat Chris Bell in a special election runoff on Tuesday, won't be sworn in until next week and says in her invitations that she's not subject to the ban on fundraising by state officeholders until then. According to her last full campaign finance report — filed eight days before the runoff — her campaign debts totaled $890,000. She'll hold a funder in Austin tonight (Thursday) and another in Houston on Friday (a nod here to the Houston Chronicle for catching the first invitation).

The House will host an election contest when the legislative session starts, but it's not the one you thought.

Republican Brian Walker mailed in his protest before the midnight Monday deadline, asking that the House have a look at the election he lost by 121 votes to Rep. Chuck Hopson, D-Jacksonville. That's in HD-11

That wasn't the closest result in the certified election numbers. The honor there goes to HD-105, where Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, defended her post against Democrat Bob Romano, winning by 19 votes. Romano missed the Monday deadline, so there won't be an election contest there. But he was still saying, a day later, that he hadn't made a decision and that he was considering his options.

The election contest window is closed, but he's still party to a federal lawsuit on the counting of so-called emphasis ballots cast on electronic voting machines. Lawyers say there weren't enough questionable votes there to flip the result, but that appears to be one of the few avenues of protest still open to the Democrat.

The election contest in HD-11 won't affect the speaker's race, if that's still underway on January 13. Hopson, the winner of the certified vote, will be sworn in and allowed to vote on anything and everything with the exception of votes on his own election contest. If Walker prevails, he'd replace Hopson. But by the time that's investigated and gets to the floor, the speaker's race will be old news.

Rep. Tommy Merritt want some changes to the House's rules, including sealed ballots for the election of a speaker, a parliamentary mechanism for ousting a sitting Speaker of the House, more oversight of large House expenditures, and changes in the formation of House committees. Merritt, who's running to replace House Speaker Tom Craddick, was also part of a group of state representatives who met with Secretary of State Hope Andrade to talk about the opening hours of the legislative session. Andrade will preside over the election of the speaker and the initial organization of the House in January. In the words of one participant, "We wanted to make sure she knows just what she's in for." One concern they expressed was over who'll be advising her while she's got the gavel; some want Parliamentarian Terry Keel off the dais, replaced with someone who's not so closely allied with Craddick. Merritt's release:

MERRITT OUTLINES 5-POINT REFORM PLAN FOR HOUSE RULES (AUSTIN) – Following input from the just concluded Speaker’s Summit, Rep. Tommy Merritt today announced he will begin working with members to implement a 5-point reform of the House rules. “Members like me who are running for Speaker, and members who have suffered through the last Legislative session, want change, and the first place to start is with the rules under which the House operates.” Merritt immediately proposed the following changes for the 81st Legislature that convenes on January 13th: • Using a sealed ballot for electing the Speaker. • Ensuring that a motion to vacate the chair must be recognized and only requires a simple majority vote for adoption. • Changing the House Committee structure to ensure that House districts are fully represented. • Changing the daily order of business to designate periods for consideration of all 3rd reading bills. • Increasing the oversight for large expenditures of House funds and amending the housekeeping resolution to require a vote of the House Administration Committee for certain types of expenditures. Merritt said that only two contested speaker elections have not been conducted by sealed ballot and noted that on the opening day of the Legislature in 2007, then-Secretary of State Roger Williams, under the advice of Tom Craddick’s own parliamentarian, ruled that a sealed ballot was authorized and that it was a matter for the house to decide. “As for recognition of the members to remove the Speaker,” Merritt said,” we don’t need new rules as much as we need a new speaker who will apply and interpret the rules properly and fairly. We never envisioned that clear Texas House precedent would be so blatantly ignored or that the rules we adopted last session would be interpreted to so clearly thwart the will of the majority.” Merritt said those at the Speaker’s Summit also expressed a desire to reduce the number of committees so that membership on individual committees can be increased, providing for more diverse input on legislation at the committee level, and to reinstate seniority rules for Appropriations, to allow a more diverse cross-section of the House to be involved in the most important decisions Other House members expressed frustration over the manner in which bills are presented on 3rd reading. “Designating periods for considering all 3rd reading bills will provide more incentives for members to be present when most record votes are being taken and do more to address the problem of ghost voting than the current parliamentarian’s proposals,” he said. Finally, Merritt said House members want increased oversight over large expenditures of House funds. “The house has recently spent over $140,000 to renovate the house members’ lounge and over $100,000 on fingerprint voting stations that are only optional and will not address the issue of ghost voting,” Merritt said. “More members should be involved in the decisions for such large expenditures.” In addition to presenting these reforms to members, Merritt said he has also met with the Secretary of State to emphasize the importance of having a fair and impartial parliamentarian advising her and the members of the House when she presides over the vote of a new Speaker in January. -30-

We don't have to make things up. The political world is weird enough.

PATTERSON ANNOUNCES INTENTION FOR U.S. SENATE SEAT (AUSTIN) The latest in a long line of officeholders announcing their intentions to seek the U.S. Senate seat that might be vacated by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison in her run for Governor, Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson today made his decision public. “After a great deal of consideration, and much soul-searching, I am today formally announcing my intention to join many of my fellow elected officials and not seek the U.S. Senate seat,” said Patterson. “I have been urged by many of my fellow Texans to seek this seat . . actually only a few Texans . . . truthfully just a couple members of my staff and a few others officeholders who want my job . . . so I’ll to sit this one out.” “I will form an unexploratory committee to be sure,” said Patterson, “ but my heart tells me that I am deeply ambivalent about being a U.S. Senator.” “After all,” said Patterson “I don’t want to share statewide office with anyone, and D.C. is a tough commute for my thirty-year old single-engine fabric-covered aerobatic airplane.” Despite the recent D.C. vs. Heller case before the Supreme Court that ruled Washington’s prohibition against handguns was unconstitutional, Patterson said he could not live in the Nation’s Capital. Patterson is author of the Texas Concealed Handgun Law and a known gun advocate. “Just like Johnny Cash, I’d definitely take my guns to town,” Patterson said. “Living in D.C. would be tough only because of the lack of gun ranges and available ammunition.” Paraphrasing his quote from a recent West Texas land controversy, Patterson added “No guns, no hunting, no Senate.” By removing himself for consideration for Senate, Patterson says it will affect his health. “I’ll live longer.” Patterson said. “When Gov. Pappy Lee O’Daniel appointed Sam Houston’s youngest son Andrew Jackson Houston to fill an empty Senate seat in ’41, Houston went to one committee meeting then died. Of course, he was 88. I’m sure it was mere coincidence that O’Daniel subsequently himself ran to fill Houston’s Senate seat.” Similarly, Patterson pointed out, those officeholders who lose the U.S. Senate race could also face ill-effects on their health. “After former Republic of Texas president Anson Jones was passed over for an open Senate seat in 1857, he blew his brains out.” Patterson said. “No one should need to go to Washington that bad.”

An addendum to our recent item on special elections (We found this next to having a toothache on the list of things to do).

We left out a mention of the very important provision that allows the governor to declare an emergency and ignore the uniform election dates in May and November. Under normal circumstances, a governor calls special elections for the next appropriate uniform date when, say, a U.S. Senator quits to run for another office. If the governor wants to hold a special election on something other than a uniform election date, all he or she has to do is call an emergency — the law leaves it to the Guv to decide what constitutes an emergency — and set it for another date.

So, to condense: If Kay Bailey Hutchison quits her term in the U.S. Senate to run for governor, Gov. Rick Perry will appoint someone to serve on an interim basis and call a special election to replace her. That election will be held in May, or November, or on a date Perry chooses. If she doesn't quit, but runs and wins, she'll be in position to appoint her own interim successor once she's sworn in as governor in January 2011. And then it would be up to her to set the special election, opting for the uniform date in May, or calling an emergency and picking a date of her own.

If she doesn't quit and then loses the race, she'll still be a U.S. senator. And if she quits the Senate and loses the governor's race, she'll be a private citizen like you.

Another provision that brought to our attention turns out to be a red herring. Texas law says that if you resign after January 1 in an election year, and if your resignation takes place at least 62 days before the primary, your successor is chosen in that year's regular election. But that's not going to happen in 2010: January 1 and March 2 — the primary date — aren't 62 days apart. It'll be a special election whenever Hutchison resigns.

While we're at this nutball legal stuff, take a look at this: State law blocks state candidates from raising campaign money during a legislative session — a ban that starts a month before the session and is already in effect for this year. But candidates for federal office — even those who are also state officeholders — can raise money for their federal races during the legislative session. As of now, that provision allows state Sen. Florence Shapiro and Railroad Commissioners Elizabeth Ames Jones and Michael Williams to raise federal money while the Pink Building is busy this spring.

And if any of them drop out of the federal race, they'll be free to transfer that money — with few restrictions — from the federal accounts to their state campaign accounts. Put on your schemer's cap: What prevents a sitting legislator from declaring for federal office, raising money while bills are being considered, then deciding against the federal office at the end of a session and moving the money into the state account? Nothing, apparently.

The recommendation by the Sunset Commission to combine the scandal-plagued Texas Youth Commission with the more highly touted Juvenile Probation Commission appears to drive a wedge between two of the Legislature's most respected voices when it comes to criminal justice.

But the tandem in question, Democratic Sens. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa of McAllen and John Whitmire of Houston, are playing down any talk of schism. Both predict that they'll craft legislation to keep the juvenile justice system operating for at least another two years and make sure that the TYC reforms enacted in 2007 are not derailed in the process.

"We're not that far apart," said Whitmire, who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and favors merging the two agencies. "We both know that TYC is broken and doesn't work. He's saying, 'Give them more time.' I'm saying, 'How much more?'"

Hinojosa opposes the merger. He carried the far-reaching 2007 legislation to clean house at TYC after a highly publicized sex-abuse scandal (TYC officials were abusing inmates) forced state leaders to place the agency into conservatorship. During this week's Sunset Advisory Commission meeting at the Capitol, he was among those warning that bringing the agencies under a single umbrella would likely allow TYC's incarceration mindset to overrun the more rehabilitative juvenile probation commission.

"The Texas Youth Commission is dealing with the kids who have the most problems," Hinojosa said in an interview. "Their mission is different from probation, which deals with kids who still have a chance (to be deterred) from incarceration.

"I think we need to give the reforms we passed last session time to work before we dismantle TYC and merge it with probation."

Hinojosa said he expects to carry the TYC Sunset bill during the upcoming session that would keep the myriad juvenile justice agencies (in one form or another) in business until 2015 — if the Sunset staff's recommendation is followed. And his bill won't have the merger component, he said.

But the bill will likely be heard on the Senate side by Whitmire's criminal justice panel. And the Houston lawmaker said he's pretty adamant that TYC needs a healthy dose on whatever positive influence the probation side can give it.

"TYC is still being run like it was in the '50s," Whitmire said. "They're taking kids out of the urban areas and shipping them off to some rural unit where they ain't getting the services they need and the support they need. Something's got to give."

The Sunset staff said the merger could save the state some $28 million a year beginning in 2011 by reducing the workforce by nearly 600 and shuttering five youth lockups.

Whitmire and Hinojosa both like the idea of closing down units, especially after the 2007 legislation helped slash TYC's inmate population from 5,000 youngsters to around 2,200.

"Whatever we do with TYC, we've got to keep on eye on them," said Whitmire. "I think whatever bill we pass should have a provision that we sunset them again in two years."

— by John Moritz

The paperwork on Brian Walker's challenge to his loss in HD-11 is in — the Republican challenger to Rep. Chuck Hopson says the number of questionable ballots is greater than the 121-vote margin.Walker's petition for election contest — basically an appeal of the election, to be judged by the Texas House itself — drills in on Cherokee County, and contends there are enough irregularities in Hopson's home precinct to justify a challenge. Here's a copy of his petition. "He doesn't even allege the outcome of the election would have been different," says Renea Hicks, the lawyer for Hopson. And he doesn't think a challenge will change the result: "Even if all of this happened, you could not make up 121 votes." He said Hopson will "quickly and vigorously" respond to the filing, including a request for attorney fees from Walker. The procedure: Those filings go from the Secretary of State to the Speaker, who appoints a "master of discovery" and a committee to hear the contest. The master can throw out the contest as frivolous or investigate it, take it through the committee and then to the full House with a committee recommendation. The odds are against the challenger. According to the Texas Legislative Council, there were no election contests in the state Legislature from 1949 to 1979. Since then, there have been ten in the House and one in the Senate. And in those eleven attempts, the candidate who lost the election and filed the contest failed to overturn the results. They're eleven for eleven, and not in a good way.

The agency once known as the Texas Highway Commission could be changing lanes once again.

The Sunset Commission this week voted 7-5 to scrap the five-member panel that oversees the Texas Department of Transportation and replace with a single commissioner who would run the agency with pretty much the same autonomy now wielded in their domains by the executive commissioner for health and human services and the Texas insurance commissioner.

And at least two members of the Sunset panel said they'll pursue legislation beginning next month to make the transportation commissioner an elective office.

Any changes to the management structure at TxDOT must be ratified by the full Legislature once the 2009 session starts next month. But while the vote to overhaul the agency was close, there was a pretty clear consensus that TxDOT has been heading in the wrong direction for quite some time.

"You inherited a mess," Sunset Chairman Carl Isett, R-Lubbock, told TxDOT Chairwoman Deirdre Delisi, adding that the agency "has been in gridlock since the 1920s."

The Sunset staff report was equally blunt. The staff said that "an atmosphere of distrust had permeated most of TxDOT's actions" and that simply "tweaking the status quo" would be an insufficient remedy to bringing about accountability and efficiency to the sprawling department that oversees Texas' transportation infrastructure.

The staff recommended greater transparency in TxDOT's contracting procedures, more transparency in deciding which projects go forward and which remain stuck in neutral and more thoughtful long-range planning for the state's transportation needs.

Finally, the staff said, the agency should be placed under "legislative conservatorship" until its problems are ironed out.

Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, who co-chairs the Sunset panel, spearheaded the effort to put a single commissioner at the helm, saying that lawmakers and the public could hold a single person accountable for "changing the culture" of that agency. He also said the commissioner should be limited to a two-year term, at least in the short run.

Rep. Isett disagreed: "You give all the power to the bureaucrats because they're the only ones with institutional knowledge."

The term-limit idea went nowhere. But Hegar did prevail on the motion to have TxDOT run by a single honcho.

That idea didn't go far enough for two House members on the Sunset panel. State Reps. Ruth Jones McClendon, D- San Antonio, and Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, said they'll push legislation to have the commissioner elected statewide and be held accountable by voters.

"We have to send a really dramatic message to the public," said McClendon.

— by John Moritz