Kay Bailey Hutchison shuffled her gubernatorial campaign staff while we were out, naming Terry Sullivan the campaign manager, Jennifer Coxe-Baker a senior communications advisor, Jeff Sadofsky the press secretary, and Joe Pounder the deputy communications director. Hans Klingler is now communications director, and Rick Wiley, who had been the campaign manager, has moved on to other pastures. Sullivan was here four years ago preparing to run Hutchison's 2006 campaign for governor. When she backed out, he returned to his home on South Carolina.

• Hutchison fired an Internet consultant after the Austin American-Statesman wrote about hundreds of phrases — "rick perry gay" was one, "pro choice kay bailey hutchison" was another — woven into the unseen parts of her website. The idea, they said, was to manipulate Internet search engines to raise the site's profile. The first part didn't work, but they did raise the site's profile.

• Gov. Rick Perry accepted two debate invitations from the Belo Corp. and the Collin County GOP, prompting Hutchison to do the same. The weird part? The dates haven't even been set.

• Hutchison slammed Perry for saying he opposes the federal "cash for clunkers" program (she also opposes it), noting that he signed off on the state's own, more modest, program. Perry answered that the Texas plan is fully funded and that the federal program is not. She put her version in an Internet spot.

Justice Harriet O'Neill says she won't seek reelection to the court next year. The Republican judge has been on the court since 1999 and is second in seniority to Justice Nathan Hecht, who got there ten years earlier and remains there today. O'Neill was a district court judge and a justice on Houston's 14th Court of Appeals before joining the state's highest civil court. She has no plans to run again (but doesn't rule out something, someday), and doesn't know what she'll do when she's off the court. O'Neill had been talked about as a candidate for attorney general; that's not in the cards this time. "At the end of this term, I'll have 18 years as a judge and it seems time to do something else," she says. "It's really no more than that."

Jim Moseley, who announced his candidacy for Texas Supreme Court in June, followed O'Neill's announcement by saying he'll run for her open seat (he hadn't specified a seat before now). Moseley, who's been on Dallas' Fifth Court of Appeals for 13 years, is an active Republican and was first appointed to that court by then-Gov. George W. Bush in 1996.

O'Neill is one of three justices whose terms end next year; Scott Brister and Paul Green are also up for reelection in 2010.

Steve McCraw became the 12th director of the Texas Department of Public Safety. He'd been director of homeland security in the governor's office since 2004, but started his career at DPS as a trooper in 1977. He also did a stint with the FBI.

Charles Matthews, chancellor of the Texas State University System for the last five years, announced plans to resign in February 2010 (that'll make it five years on the job). He's a former Texas Railroad Commissioner and Garland mayor. The schools in that chain include Texas State University in San Marcos, Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Lamar University in Beaumont, and Sul Ross State University in Alpine.

Remove the "interim" from Michael Kelley's new title at the Texas Department of Public Safety. The agency's former legislative guy is now chief of the Driver License Division.

John Cox, the Texas Education Agency’s chief information officer, has been promoted to associate commissioner for information technology and agency operations. He'll keep the CIO title, too.

Former state Rep. Juan Garcia, D-Corpus, won U.S. Senate confirmation as Assistant Secretary of the Navy.

Steve Roddy is moving on after 18 years as a Senate staffer, and Dave Nelson will be the new chief of staff for Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville. No, they're not related. Janet Elliott, formerly of the Houston Chronicle, joined the staff as communications director. Brooke Hambrick got promoted to district director, and Austin Holder will be the new clerk on the Health & Human Services Committee, replacing Kyle Baum, who's leaving for law school.

Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia is the newly elected president of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials, or NALEO.

Dennis Nixon, a political player and banker in Laredo (he's the CEO of International Bank of Commerce), got selected as Mr. South Texas 2010. He's the 60th person to receive the honor.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed:

• David Cibrian of San Antonio to the Finance Commission of Texas. Cibrian is a partner with Strasburger and Price and a former CPA.

• Rodney Satterwhite of Midland to the 441st District Court in Midland County. Satterwhite is an attorney with Stubbemann, McRae, Sealy, Laughlin and Browder.

• W. Bernard "Barney" Fudge to the 78th District Court in Wichita County. He's been a partner at Fudge and Elder.