Alberto "Beto" Cardenas Jr. is coming back to Texas for a job with Vinson & Elkins in Houston. He was the Texas Tech guy in Washington, D.C. and most recently worked for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Ralph Duggins, senior partner at Cantey Hanger in Fort Worth, is the newest addition to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Commission. Gov. Rick Perry appointed him to replace Philip Montgomery of Dallas.

Deaths: Former Rep. Arves Jones, R-El Paso, who served three terms in the 1980s and later won a spot on the El Paso City Council, of heart disease. He was 82.

Tracking endorsements on the way to the primaries...Put U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison on the John McCain bandwagon. State Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, endorses Barack Obama. So does state Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine. Add former U.S. Rep. Charlie Stenholm, D-Abilene, to Team Clinton. He was a member of Congress for 26 years before becoming a lobbyist; while in the House, he was a founding member of the Blue Dog Caucus, a group of conservative Democrats there.

A long-awaited book on Texas political legend Bob Bullock is finally available. Bob Bullock: God Bless Texas, by Dave McNeely and Jim Henderson, is being published by the University of Texas Press. McNeely, who still writes a column for a number of Texas newspapers, is the dean of the Capitol Press Corps in Austin. Henderson is now a freelancer who worked at the Houston Chronicle and the Dallas Times Herald.

Out: Texas Youth Commission executive director Demitria Pope, forced to resign by that beleaguered agency's conservator. No replacement has been named. Pope, who compounded the controversies at TYC with an expensive office remodeling and a decision to use pepper spray to control inmates, said she'd stay until and unless she was forced out.

Pat Oxford moves into the chairmanship of Bracewell & Giuliani — a newly created position — while Mark Evans takes over as managing partner of the Houston-based firm. Oxford was chairman of Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid and helped bring the former New York Mayor into the law firm.

Reporter-turned-political consultant Mark Sanders is running for office. He says he's after one of three spots on the Eustace City Council (it's in northeast Texas, between Athens and Mabank). And one of his five goals if he's elected is to get the mayor to resign. He also wants to fill potholes and give a 30 percent raise to police officers. Sanders, who worked for the last two challengers to Gov. Rick Perry (Democrat Tony Sanchez and Republican-turned-independent Carole Keeton Strayhorn), is now raising horses. And running for office.

Comptroller Susan Combs named Sara Whitley her "senior advisor" and says she'll be the agency's liaison with business and advocacy leaders and groups. Whitley's been working for Combs for the last seven years.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed:

• Former congressional candidate and Public Utility Commissioner Becky Armendariz Klein of San Antonio as presiding officer of the Lower Colorado River Authority's board of director. Perry also added Tim Timmerman, an Austin real estate developer, to that board.

• Kelly Edward Doster of Frisco, founder and COO of Network Traffic Controllers Inc. and a former city councilman, to the board of the Texas Small Business Industrial Development Corp.

• Brazos County Tax Assessor-Collector Kristeen Roe of Bryan as presiding officer of the state's Board of Tax Professional Examiners. He also named three new board members: James Childers of Canyon, chief appraiser of the Potter-Randall Appraisal District; P.H. "Fourth" Coates IV of Medina, chief appraiser of the Kerr Central Appraisal District; and Denton County Tax Assessor-Collector Steven Mossman of Flower Mound.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst named Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, head of the Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education Finance, and named Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Property Tax Appraisal and Revenue Caps.

House Speaker Tom Craddick named three to the Texas Youth Commission Advisory Board: Grayson County District Attorney Joseph Brown of Sherman, Larry Carroll of Midland, who runs the Permian Basin Community Centers for Mental Health and Retardation, and Douglas Matthews, a Vernon veterinarian. That nine-member board advises the agency's conservator.

State Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, went on MSNBC's on behalf of Barack Obama and got his ears pinned back. The question: Can you list your candidate's legislative accomplishments?Here's the video: After everybody and their dog got a look at the video (these things go around fast), Watson posted a mea culpa on his campaign website:

MSNBC and Me. February 20, 2008 So . . . That really happened. On Tuesday night, after an important and historic victory in the Wisconsin Presidential Primary by Senator Barack Obama, I appeared on the MSNBC post-election program. “Hardball” host Chris Matthews (who is, it turns out, as ferocious as they say), began grilling me on Senator Obama’s legislative record. And my mind went blank. I expected to be asked about the primary that night, or the big one coming up in Texas on March 4, or just about anything else in the news. When the subject changed so emphatically, I reached for information that millions of my fellow Obama supporters could recite by heart, and I couldn’t summon it. My most unfortunate gaffe is not, in any way, a comment on Senator Obama, his substantial record, or the great opportunity we all share to elect him President of the United States. Had I not lost my mind, here are the accomplishments I would have mentioned: * Senator Obama’s fight for universal children’s health care in Illinois. * His success bringing Republicans and Democrats together (a huge selling point for me in general) on bills such as the one in Illinois requiring police interrogations and confessions to be videotaped. * His leadership on ethics reform in Washington (the bill that lobbyists and special interests are complaining about right now has his name on it). * His bill to make the federal budget far more transparent and accessible to Americans via the Internet – we could use that openness in Texas. * And his vital work with Republicans to lock down nuclear weapons around the world. Of course, it would have helped to remember all of this last night. I encourage anyone who wants to know more (especially Mr. Matthews) to log onto texas.barackobama.com. In the meantime, let’s not lose focus on what’s important in this election. It’s not my stunning televised defeat in “Stump the Chump.” Thankfully, it has nothing at all to do with me. What’s important is the direction our country is headed. What’s important are the priorities, methods, and, yes, accomplishments of those seeking the highest office in the country. Senator Obama has a vision for this nation, and we would be fortunate to fulfill it. He has the commitment to work with everyone from across the political and demographic spectrum to achieve it. And he has the strength to defend us, our security, and our values against all who will challenge them. But most of all, he has the record to prove that all of this is possible. It’s something no one should forget. . . . Even though I did. . . . On national television.

There really is a website for everything. To get a list of what the state's superdelegates are doing, check out this page on SourceWatch. They've got lists working for every state.