Whitacre, Clements/Jones, and DaSilva

Ed Whitacre Jr., retired chairman of Dallas-based AT&T Corp., will take the reins at General Motors after a bailout transition there. He's a longtime player in Texas public affairs and headed the board of regents at the Texas Tech University System.

Bill and Rita Clements — the former governor and first lady — signed on as honorary chairs for Elizabeth Ames Jones' exploratory run for the U.S. Senate. Jones, a Texas Railroad Commissioner, has her eye on the seat Kay Bailey Hutchison is expected to yield on her way to a run for governor next year.

Joe DaSilva is the new executive director at the Texas Pharmacy Association. CEO Jim Martin is leaving that association at the end of the month and DaSilva will take his spot. DaSilva has most recently been running his own lobby shop; he was at the Texas Hospital Association for 28 years before that.

Judge Lawrence Meyers will run for reelection to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, a post he's held since the 1992 elections. A win next year would mean a fourth term for Meyer, who's the longest serving member of that court.

Angela Olige is the new assistant commissioner over the Texas Department of Agriculture's food and nutrition division. She had been a deputy assistant in that division.

Matt Mackowiak, formerly the spokesman for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, is opening his own politics and public affairs shop. The Potomac Strategy Group will have offices in Austin and Washington, D.C.

Indicted: Former county attorney, county judge, and state Rep. Luther Jones of El Paso, on federal charges of bribery and mail fraud stemming from a long-running public corruption investigation in that city.

Deaths: Former Rep. Frank Eikenburg, R-Plano, of complications from liver cancer. He was 64.