Clay Robison will join Tom Schieffer's gubernatorial campaign as communications director and sage. Robison was the Austin bureau chief of the Houston Chronicle for 27 years before being laid off last week (part of a 30 percent newsroom cut at that paper). He's got more experience than his candidate, or any of the opponents, having covered state politics and government since 1971, initially for the San Antonio Light. Schieffer, a former U.S. Ambassador (to Australia and then Japan) and state representative, announced his exploratory campaign last month. He's the only Democrat in the hunt, although state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, and humorist Kinky Friedman are also talking about getting in. On the Republican side of this, Gov. Rick Perry says he wants another term; U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is exploring a GOP primary challenge to the incumbent.

William Gimson is the new executive director of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, which will oversee the $3 billion bond program approved by voters for cancer research in 2007. Gimson recently retired from his post as COO at the Centers for Disease Control, where he worked for 35 years.

Liz Young, most recently with Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, joins the Texas Public Policy Foundation as a higher education policy wonk.

Gov. Rick Perry's latest appointments include:

• Eric McDonald, owner and chief investment officer of McDonald Capital Management in Lubbock, to the Teacher Retirement System Board of Trustees.

• Mary Ann Williamson of Weatherford to chair of the Texas Lottery Commission. Perry also appointed J. Winston Krause, an Austin lawyer, to that panel. Williamson is a CPA, owner of MKS Natural Gas Co. and the widow of former legislator and state transportation commissioner Ric Williamson.

• Mary Alexander of Valley View, Gene Brooks of Austin, and Joseph Muñiz of Harlingen to the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Brooks is being reappointed. Alexander is regional outreach manager for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic. Muñiz is assistant library director for the City of Harlingen.

• Oliver Bell of Horseshoe Bay, Janice Lord of Arlington, and Carmen Villanueva-Hiles of Palmhurst to the Texas Board of Criminal Justice. Bell, owner and CEO of an eponymous company, and Lord, a social work consultant, are being reappointed; Villanueva-Hiles, owner and COO of A+ Therapy, is new to the board.

• Linda Lowes Hatchel of Woodway, a retired professor, to the Board of Tax Professional Examiners.

• Sue Evenwel presiding officer of the Texas Funeral Service Commission. She owns Designin' Women Custom Embroidery in Mt. Pleasant.

• Gary Wood, president of Collins Financial Services in Lakeway, to chair the Texas Public Finance Authority. Wood is also being reappointed to that panel. Rodney Moore, owner of Dude Development and Gibraltar Construction in Lufkin, is new to the panel.

• James Stanton of Dallas to the 134th Judicial District Court, replacing Judge Anne Ashby, who's retiring. Stanton is an attorney at the Cozen O'Connor law firm.

• John Chism of Irving and Patrick Patterson of Boerne to the Texas Private Security Board that regulates everything from private investigators to locksmiths. Chisum will continue as chairman; Patterson, a retired FBI agent and now an exec at Harland Clark Corp., is new to the board.

• Steward Geise of Austin, Jody Anne Armstrong of Abilene, and Nary Spears of Houston to the Texas State Board of Social Work Examiners. Armstrong and Spears are being reappointed; Geise works for CB Richard Ellis in Austin.

Busted: State District Judge Manuel Barraza of El Paso, on charges of trading and trying to trade judicial decisions for cash and sexual favors. One of those women was an undercover FBI agent; her agency arrested the judge on a four-count indictment just three months after he took office... Longtime Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy and three others, including her husband, were indicted on six counts of harboring undocumented aliens and putting them on the county payroll, in part to pay for the commissioner's housekeeper and day care provider. She's also accused of using county money to pay off a personal loan.

Deaths: Thomas Goggan III, name partner of one of the state's biggest and most politically connected law firms, of complications from cancer. He was 65. The law firm — now called Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson — grew into a major tax collector for local governments in Texas and elsewhere.