It's midsummer. Hot. Time for vacations. But first: The campaign finance reports are in, and you can start to see where (some of) the money is going.

Short form: It's going into the Republican primary for governor.

Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison got to the mid-year point — the start, really, of the 2010 campaign finance cycle — with a combined $22 million in the bank. That's just the start of what looks to be the toughest-fought gubernatorial primary since Ann Richards, Jim Mattox, and Mark White went at it on the Democratic side in 1990.

Only some reports were available online as we hit our deadline, but they'll show up over the next week or so on the Texas Ethics Commission's website. And we've got the big ones. Read on.

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With this issue in the can, we're taking our annual summer break. Daily News Clips and Out There, our blog digest, will continue, and the newsletter will return in the first week of August. Until then!

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KBH: $6.7 Million Raised

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison says she raised $6.7 million during the first six months of the year for a race for governor against incumbent Rick Perry.

Hutchison said she raised more money during six months than any state candidate other than George W. Bush.

Her total compares to Perry's total of $4.2 million. The difference: His was collected in the last nine days of the finance period and hers came in over six months. Perry and other state officeholders are barred from raising money during a legislative session, for the month before one, and for the three weeks that follow a session.

Hutchison's account now has a total of $12.5 million in it. More than half of what she has raised, she raised for her federal account as a U.S. Senator. Hutchison primed the gubernatorial fund by moving $8 million from the federal account to the state account around the first of this year.

More summer fun ahead: Hutchison said at her Dallas press conference that she's ending her exploratory campaign, and make "a formal announcement" about her bid for governor next month.

Hutchison's campaign said more than 6,500 people gave to her campaign, that 98 percent of the contributions came from Texans, that 80 percent of her donors gave $500 or less, and that 1,000 of the contributors gave online.

Perry announced his totals last week (details for both are due at the Texas Ethics Commission this week): He raised $4.2 million and ended the period with $9.4 million in the bank. That puts the two about $3 million apart as the race gets underway.

Day by Day

Gov. Rick Perry raised $4.2 million in nine days. There was a weekend in there, so there are seven days of deposits from the end of June into the Guv's tank.

How it went, according to his report:

June 22: $62,010

June 23: $277,350

June 24: $747,715

June 25: $783,483

June 26: $230,533

June 29: $558,035

June 30: $1,571,959

State candidates can't take money for a month before a legislative session, during the session, and for the three weeks that follow. On the first day after the blackout, Perry's campaign took in $1,033 every hour (using a 24-hour clock). On the last day before the deadline, the hourly take was up to $26,199.

While announcing her numbers earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison accused Perry of soliciting donations during the session but not collecting them until it was over.

"It has been said, 'Well, the governor raised $4 million in 10 days.' That is not the case," Hutchison said in a Dallas press conference broadcast over her campaign website. "We both had six months. We were both asking for commitments. We were both asking for money."

Perry spokesman Mark Miner flatly called her a liar, and Hutchison hasn't offered any evidence to back her claim that Perry was soliciting contributions during the session (which is illegal).

Elephant Hunting

Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison each released spreadsheets of the big game they caught in their initial hunt for campaign money for that contest. Each had a bunch of familiar Texas names topping the lists.

You can download a spreadsheet here with each candidate's donor list (in slightly different formats, just as they delivered them to us). Some highlights:

Big Bucks for Perry

$225,000: Mica Mosbacher of Houston.

$100,000: m/m Thomas Friedkin of Houston, The Gallagher Law Firm of Houston, m/m B. "Red" McCombs of San Antonio, m/m Gary Petersen of Houston, m/m Bob Perry of Houston, m/m George "Brint" Ryan of Dallas, and m/m Harold Simmons of Dallas.

$75,000: m/m L. Simmons of Houston.

$50,000: AT&T Texas PAC, Border Health PAC, Phil Adams of Bryan, m/m Moshe Azoulay of Dallas, Johnny Baker of Houston, m/m Lee Bass of Fort Worth, m/m Mike Curb of Nashville, TN, m/m James Dondero of Dallas, m/m Dan Duncan of Houston, m/m J. Ellis Jr. of Irving, m/m Tilman Fertitta of Houston, m/m Paul Foster of El Paso, Stevan Hammond of Dallas, m/m H. Heavin of Gatesville, m/m Steve Hicks of Austin, m/m Thomas Hicks of Dallas, Peter Holt of Blanco, m/m Woody Hunt of El Paso, m/m Mickey Long of Midland, m/m Larry Martin of Houston, m/m L. Mays of San Antonio, James Moffett of New Orleans, LA, m/m S. Morian of Houston, m/m Gene Phillips of Dallas, James Pitcock Jr. of Houston, Joe Sanderson Jr. of Laurel, MS, James Schneider of Austin, m/m Michael Shaw of Denver, CO, Rick Sheldon of Waco, Robert Stillwell of Houston, m/m Kenny Troutt of Dallas, m/m Robert Waltrip of Houston, and m/m Charles Wood Jr. of Dallas.

Big Bucks for Hutchison

$100,000: John Adams of Dallas, Hushang Ansary of Houston, D. Andrew Beal of Plano, Tim Byrne of Dallas, Ray Hunt of Dallas, Nancy Kinder of Houston, Drayton McLane of Temple, Dick Moncrief of Fort Worth, Mike Myers of Dallas, John Nau of Houston, Robert Rowling of Irving, and Charles Tate of Houston.

$75,000: Ned Holmes of Houston.

$50,000: Louis Beecherl of Dallas, J. Robert Brown of El Paso, Dan Duncan of Houston, James Flores of Houston, Robert Gillikin of Dallas, Joe Long of Austin, Erle Nye of Dallas, James Perkins of Tyler, H. Ross Perot of Plano, Fayez Sarofim of Houston.

$40,000: Harlan Crow of Dallas.

(Note: m/m is Mr./Mrs.)

First Showing

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Schieffer raised "almost $800,000 in contributions and loans" since first announcing his interest in the race on March 2.

Schieffer raised $505,842.84, got a $200,000 loan from former U.S. Ambassador Lyndon Olson Jr. of Waco, and spent $73,953 of his own money on the effort, bringing the total to $779,795. Unlike everybody else who's floating numbers, Schieffer included copies of his full reports. There are two: Here, and here.

Schieffer's numbers are dwarfed by those of the GOP candidates. Rick Perry raised $4.2 million and Kay Bailey Hutchison raised $6.7 million. But he doesn't have to run in that primary; what'll count there is what the winning Democrat and the winning Republican show in their accounts a year from now.

More important to Schieffer: Whether this report shows enough strength to keep other Democrats from jumping into the primary against him. So far, it's him, Kinky Friedman, and Mark Thompson. Schieffer's totals are behind those for Perry and Hutchison, and also for down-ballot Republicans like Dan Branch and Ted Cruz, who are preparing runs for attorney general and who each broke the $1 million mark.

Still Out Front

Attorney General Greg Abbott raised more money in the last days of June than anyone not running for governor.

He raised $1.2 million and ended the first half of the year with $9.4 million in the bank. By comparison, Kay Bailey Hutchison got to June 30 with $12.5 million in the bank. Gov. Rick Perry had $9.4. There's some rounding in there, but if you're looking for the edge, give it to Abbott. His treasury has about $22,000 more in it than Perry's.

Abbott's look at a run for lieutenant governor next year, on the theory that David Dewhurst will leave that post to run for U.S. Senate.

Waiting for Kay

U.S. Senate hopefuls report their campaign finances while they want to see if and when they're running.

Florence Shapiro says she raised $100,000 in the last week of June for her U.S. Senate bid. Since that's a federal race, she wasn't bound by the state prohibition on fundraising by officeholders during the legislative session. Shapiro, a Republican state senator, decided to observe the ban anyway.

Houston Mayor Bill White raised $1 million and added $821,000 of his own money to his U.S. Senate campaign during the three months ending June 30. He's one of two Democrats in that pack of candidates.

Roger Williams, a Republican and the former Texas Secretary of State, says he got to the mid-year point with $727,597 in the bank after raising $471,969 during the last three months. That income number includes a $50,000 loan from the candidate, which brings his total loan amount so far to $250,000.

Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams raised $225,000 during the second quarter for that U.S. Senate race. His campaign says nearly a quarter of the money they've brought in was raised on the Internet.

Elizabeth Ames Jones says she raised $356,000 during the third quarter, bringing her total contributions for the year to date to $563,000. Jones, who's on the Texas Railroad Commission, is running for U.S. Senate (on the assumption that Kay Bailey Hutchison will quit to run for governor and open the job). She says her cash-on-hand in the report she's filing with the federal government will total $443,000.

And former Comptroller John Sharp, the other prominent Democrat in the race, raised $656,416 during the quarter, ending the period with $2.8 million in his campaign treasury.

Slant-Hole Drilling

Democrat John Sharp picked up a couple of high-profile endorsements in Bill White's back yard. Harris County Commissioners Sylvia Garcia and El Franco Lee say they'll support Sharp for U.S. Senate.

Sharp and White are both raising money for a special election to that seat, anticipating the resignation of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who's gearing up for a GOP primary challenge to Gov. Rick Perry. Sharp, the former comptroller, and White, the current mayor of Houston, are both Democrats. Several Republicans have expressed interest in Hutchison's spot, including Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, state Sen. Florence Shapiro of Plano, former Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams, and Railroad Commissioners Elizabeth Ames Jones and Michael Williams.

If Hutchison resigns to make the governor's race, Perry would appoint someone to hold the job until a special election. That special could land almost anywhere on the calendar; unless the governor calls an emergency, it would be on a regular election date in November or May (not on the same day as the party primaries, though). If he declares an emergency — a declaration, by the way, that is based simply on what the governor wants to do — the election could land on another date. Hutchison has told supporters she plans to quit early but hasn't announced that publicly. The conventional wisdom in political circles is that she'll make that announcement in October.

Cash Counts

Comptroller Susan Combs says she raised $512,076 during the last days of June and will file a campaign report this week that shows a bank balance of $3.8 million. She might get to keep a lot of it: No reelection opponents have appeared yet.

Jon Cole, a Republican running for the House in HD-67, says he'll have $103,553 on hand when he reports his campaign finances to the Texas Ethics Commission on Wednesday. That, he says, is roughly what he spent getting 48 percent of the vote in 2008. The incumbent in that district is Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Richardson.

And Sen. Kirk Watson put out a statement to keep up with all this disclosure about cash on hand in campaign reports. His: "It's $1,436,000, mas o menos."

About $100k per Day

House Speaker Joe Straus raised $721,050 during the last days of June and will report $1.2 million in the bank in his report this week.

Those were the first contributions he's accepted as speaker; he was elected to that job just as the legislative session started, and state officeholders can't raise campaign money during a legislative session, during the month that precedes one, and the three weeks that follow.

Straus says he's got reelection pledges from 123 members of the House — 62 Republicans and 61 Democrats. That's well over the 76 he has to have, but it's also hypothetical. Not all of those members are sure to return next session, and the Republicans have to hold the majority in the House in the 2010 elections to hand on to the high chair and the corner office.

In the Swing

The financial outlook is mixed for incumbent House members in potential swing districts.

We looked at the fortunes of representatives whose constituents like to vote for the opposing party (according to the Texas Weekly Index) and picked out who's sitting pretty and who's just sitting.

Campaign finance reports aren't crystal balls, but a mountain of money can scare away potential competitors, while an empty bank account can be taken as a sign of weakness.

Leading the first category are Reps. Allan Ritter, D-Nederland, Jim McReynolds, D-Lufkin, and Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, (whose district has a TWI of 8.3 in the GOP's favor, making it the most Democratic House District represented by a Republican).

Ritter reports having more than $208,000 on hand. That's up from about $150,000 this period two years ago. McReynolds has $90,000 cash-on-hand, up from $51,000 in July 2007. And Harper-Brown also has about $90,000, more than tripling her $25,000 total in July 2007.

In the most Republican House district held by a Democrat, Rep. Chuck Hopson, D-Jacksonville, reports having a respectable $67,000, up from his $37,000 in 2007.

The other blueberries in the tomato soup, Reps. David Farabee, D-Wichita Falls, and Joe Heflin, D-Crosbyton, whose districts have TWIs of more than 30 in the GOP's favor, aren't swimming in cash but have more than they did in 2007. Farabee reports $49,000 (up from $39,000 in 2007), while Heflin has $28,000 (up from $21,000 two years ago).

A quartet of Democrats and Republicans made the four-figure portion of our list. Rep. Mark Homer, D-Paris, (whose district has a TWI nearly identical to Ritter's) reports having less than $6,000. That's less than 5 percent of the $129,000 he counted in 2007. Of that total from two years ago, $125,000 was loan money.

Homer has been in office for more than a decade. The other cellar dwellers were freshmen during the 2009 session. Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt, R-Lexington, only has $1,600 so far, but that's a few hundred bucks more than he had two years ago. Rep. Ken Legler, R-Pasadena, has less than $5,000, and Rep. Angie Chen Button, R-Garland, has just shy of $9,000. Button had $73,000 in the bank at the end of 2007, when she filed her first ethics report.

—by a Texas Weekly Correspondent

Tomorrow Never Knows

The state's original prepaid college tuition program is in financial trouble.

That's not really news, but there are new numbers attached to the problem. Comptroller Susan Combs sent state leaders some reports from the Texas Tomorrow Fund's advisors saying that program will need $65 million in state funds in 2016 and $434 million in the 2016-17 biennium. Those numbers, she said in the forwarding letter, are conservative.

Combs and her advisors spell out the trouble. The prepaid plan was underpriced. Deregulation of college tuition raised prices higher than the originators expected. The market crash last year cut into the investments that were supposed to pay for all of this. And the original financial advisors didn't properly account for early payouts to the first Texans in the program to go to college. "The most important finding of the report is that the Plan is likely to run out of money to pay contract benefits to the universities," Combs wrote in her letter to Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and Speaker Joe Straus.

The state's on the hook for this one. Lawmakers approved the program and then came back and sent a constitutional amendment to voters giving the Tomorrow Fund the state's full faith and credit. Voters approved that, and the state has to make good on the contracts. The long-term cost: According to the latest report from the actuaries, it'll fall between $1.7 billion and $2.1 billion by 2030. Worse: The plan will run out of money "sometime between 2015 and 2017" if the Legislature does nothing.

A Different Kind of Bailout

The U.S. Supreme Court cracked open the door for Texas political units smaller than counties to escape mandatory federal oversight of elections-related actions.

Since last month's decision in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One vs. Holder, at least one Texas entity has sought an attorney about bailing out of Section Five of the Voting Rights Act. However, people shouldn't expect an immediate swarm of lawsuits from cities and school districts trying to opt out of the law, says Bennett Sandlin, general counsel of the Texas Municipal League.

"Bailing out is arguably more of a burden than just old-fashioned preclearance is. It's doubtful this is a big revolutionary thing for Texas cities," says Sandlin, whose organization represents 90 percent of the state's municipalities.

The State of Texas' still has to seek permission from the U.S. Department of Justice before enacting redistricting plans or voter photo identification laws or other voting law changes. Section Five targets all or part of 16 states (including Texas) that have a documented history of racial discrimination at the polls.

Before the Supremes' ruling, it was unclear whether political entities that do not register voters have the option to bail out of Section Five, even though they must obtain federal preclearance before doing things like moving polling places or changing terms of office.

The justices' narrow ruling ducked the constitutional challenge to Section Five brought by the MUD, though their opinion contains criticisms of the provision. In a lone dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas said that section is no longer necessary, unfairly singles out certain parts of the country, and should be abolished.

"For Texas, the real implication is that the way the bailout statute was being interpreted, it left all of Texas covered without anybody really being able to bail out at all, which creates the impression that there's been no achievement or advancement in Texas over the last 30 years. And that's just not true," says Greg Coleman, lead counsel for the MUD and a partner in Houston firm Yetter, Warden and Coleman.

He's hopeful the ruling signals a change ahead. "It's a warning to Congress and maybe in fact to the Department of Justice saying, 'We'd like to see if you can make this bailout function work as we have now interpreted the bailout statute,'" Coleman says.

Others say the ruling lends flexibility to the law needed to withstand future challenges.

"The recent decision affirmed Section Five and affirmed that voting subdivisions in covered jurisdictions do continue to have to get preclearance from the federal government," says Lisa Graybill, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. "It extended the opt-out options to even smaller political subdivisions like the MUD."

The Texas ACLU intervened in the MUD case on behalf of an African American individual living in the district, arguing to keep Section Five.

Since the institution of the current bailout process in 1982, only 17 political units in the U.S. (all counties in Virginia) have successfully bailed out. Then again, those are the only entities that have ever sought to bail out from the provision.

Voting rights attorney J. Gerald Hebert was the lawyer for all 17 counties, none of which were exceptional, he says.

"The process isn't very burdensome. Actually, I wrote a brief on behalf of seven of the counties describing how easy it was," Hebert says.

Those seven counties reported the average cost to bail out was less than $5,000. That includes proving the clean records of all the political subunits contained in each county, he says. The cost of bailing out would presumably fluctuate according to the size of the political unit and the number of subunits within it.

Compared to Texas, Virginia has a simpler governmental structure that does not involve as many political subunits, making it much easier for Virginia counties to succeed in opting out, Coleman says.

Since the Supreme Court's ruling, two political subunits (smaller than counties) have approached Hebert about seeking to bail out from Section Five. One — which he wouldn't identify — is in Texas.

Officials and attorneys from several small governmental entities have also broached the topic with Coleman, he says.

Sandlin had been unaware of Hebert's figures; still, he doubts that many municipalities will take advantage of the option to bail out. He says that 900 of Texas' 1,200 cities do not have local districts (and hence do not undertake redistricting), do not change election laws regularly and consequently do not have to apply for federal preclearance very often. (Add one more: This week, a federal judge ruled the City of Irving has to adopt single member districts for council elections because it's current system violates the VRA.)

"Right off the bat, most small cities won't do a bailout or opt out, because they don't ever go to the Department of Justice or do it once a decade," he says.

In 2006, Congress extended the VRA for 25 years, promising to revisit the act in 2016. Since the extension, the Justice Department has expressed objections to three Texas entities: to a Houston-area junior college district in 2006 regarding polling locations, to the State of Texas in 2008 regarding candidate qualifications for freshwater supply districts and to Gonzales County in March 2009 regarding bilingual election procedures. (Additionally, in 2006 the courts rejected portions of the 2003 congressional redistricting plan.)

That means if Texas and its thousands of political subunits maintain perfect voting rights records starting now, the earliest that Texas as a state could escape from Section Five's preclearance requirements is 2019 — two years before it's due to redraw congressional, statehouse and other political maps.

—by a Texas Weekly correspondent

Political Notes

Gov. Rick Perry has a 10-point lead over U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the latest Rasmussen Poll of the GOP gubernatorial primary. That survey has Perry at 46 percent and Hutchison at 36 percent and almost one in five voters up for grabs. In a poll in early May, the same pollster had Perry up by 4 points. That was a telephone survey of 776 "likely Republican primary voters" done on July 15; the margin of error is +/- 3.5 percent.

• There's another Republican candidate for governor. Debra Medina, chairwoman of the Wharton County GOP, raised $35,000 and had $9,000 in the bank at the end of June. And she blasted the governor for doing better, saying "many hardworking Texans are disgusted by the sorts of back room deals these numbers imply." She put up a website last month.

• U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Surfside, plans to kick off his reelection with a barbecue in Galveston in mid-August and says in a letter to supporters that he expects to have "at least two people" running against him in the GOP primary next year.

• Put Lubbock attorney Zach Brady on your watch list — he's filed papers and is considering a challenge to Rep. Delwin Jones in next year's Republican primary. Brady says he hasn't made up his mind whether he'll pull the trigger or not, but says, "West Texas is out-numbered in Austin, and people who care about the area have to play hard... Mr. Jones doesn't play hard anymore." Jones didn't want to bicker: "I let other candidates run their own deal. I just don't interfere with them. Everybody's got a right to run for office."

• Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, has a fight on his hands. After he said he wanted to run for governor, former Tyler Mayor Joey Seeber got into that race. Berman's not running for governor, but Seeber's staying in. And the challenger says he raised $50,000 in cash and pledges between June 19 and June 30.

Lowe Will Head SBOE

Gail Lowe, co-publisher of the Lampasas Dispatch Record, is Gov. Rick Perry's choice to head the State Board of Education.

Perry's first pick for the chairman's job, Don McLeroy of College Station, didn't get past confirmation by the Texas Senate. And outside groups like the Texas Freedom Network were stirred up earlier this week at the idea that Cynthia Dunbar of Richmond might be the governor's choice.

"Gail has shown exemplary leadership and commitment to the education of young Texans through her work on the State Board of Education for the past seven years, as a classroom volunteer assisting elementary school students with math and reading, and as a member of the Lampasas School District," Perry said in the press release announcing his choice. "I am confident that through her leadership, we will continue to ensure that Texans receive the educational foundation necessary to be successful in college, the workplace and beyond."

Lowe, a Republican, was first elected to the SBOE in 2002 in a district that stretches from the Red River to Central Texas. She's been less of a lightning rod than McLeroy or Dunbar, but generally votes with those two and the rest of the most conservative members of the board.

The TFN folks criticized Perry's choice. "It's disappointing that instead of choosing a mainstream conservative who could heal the divisions on the board, the governor once again appointed someone who repeatedly has put political agendas ahead of the education of Texas schoolchildren," said Kathy Miller, TFN's president. "Ms. Lowe has marched in lockstep with a faction of board members who believe that their personal beliefs are more important than the experience and expertise of teachers and academics who have dedicated their careers to educating our children and helping them succeed. We can only hope that she will rise above her history on the board and as chair keep fellow members from continuing to hold the education of our children hostage to divisive 'culture war' battles."

Others, like the Free Market Foundation, voiced support. "Our state and our schoolchildren will benefit greatly from Mrs. Lowe's service, care, and commitment as the new State Board of Education Chair," said Jonathan Saenz, that group's legislative director. "We hope that the usual critics will rise above their religious discrimination of the past and allow Mrs. Lowe to focus on the important education issues of our state."

Clean Slate

Sen. Rodney Ellis wants Attorney General Greg Abbott to say whether the governor has the power to grant a posthumous pardon.

Gov. Rick Perry says he doesn't have that power and that an opinion from former Attorney General Waggoner Carr says as much. Ellis asked the Texas Legislative Council for its opinion and got back a one-word answer — "possibly" — followed by a long explanation. Now he's asking Abbott for a modern opinion and says he's checking to see whether this will require a constitutional amendment. Ellis (with others) wants Perry to pardon Timothy Cole, who died in prison in 1999, serving time for a rape he did not commit.

Political People and Their Moves

Karen Hughes and Gordon Johnson are going to work as "strategic counselors" to Texas House Speaker Joe Straus. Hughes is a former U.S. Ambassador, counselor to President George W. Bush and spokeswoman for then-Gov. Bush. She's now an exec with Burson-Marsteller. Johnson is an Austin lawyer and lobbyist; he'll drop his lobbying clients to keep Straus out of hot water on that front. Both he and Hughes will be employed by Texans for Joe Straus and not for the State of Texas.

Rob Johnson, chief of staff to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, will leave that job to run Gov. Rick Perry's reelection campaign. Perry is gearing up for a race against challenger and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Both are using imported talent at the top: Her campaign manager, Rick Wiley, is from Wisconsin. Johnson is from Arkansas (and Perry's lead consultant, Dave Carney, is from New Hampshire). Perry also named a number of other staffers: Kevin Lindley will be campaign director; he'd been at the Republican Party of Texas. Krystle Kirchmeyer Alvarado, who worked on Perry's 2002 and 2006 campaigns, will be finance director. David White, whose most recent employer was Rep. Wayne Christian, R-Center, will be political director. And Sarah Floerke, who's been Perry's director of community affairs, will be the campaigns organization director. Johnson ran Dewhurst's last campaign, but this might keep him out of the next one. Dewhurst could be a candidate for U.S. Senate within the next year, if Hutchison decides to quit early — as she's told supporters she'll do — and if Dewhurst decides to run for what would then be an open seat. Barring that, he's up for reelection in 2010. Either way, he's gonna need someone to fill Johnson's shoes.

Barbara Best, who runs the Texas office of the Children's Defense Fund, won the Gertrude Manley Fellowship and will leave for ten months to study at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

Quotes of the Week

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, talking to The Hill about a recent poll that had her trailing Gov. Rick Perry by 11 percentage points (her campaign crowed about late 2008 polls that had her in the lead): "When I'm ahead in a poll, I don't think it means anything, and when I'm behind in a poll I don't think it means anything. I think this poll was flawed anyway, but you know, I think polls at this point are really not relevant. It's far away, and I haven't even started the campaign."

Democratic consultant Jason Stanford, quoted in the Austin American-Statesman on the amounts of money raised by the GOP's two gubernatorial candidates: "If you don't like politicians contacting you, and you vote in Republican primaries, I'd move."

Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia, musing about the campaign finance differences between Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison, in the San Antonio Express-News: "Generally, if spending is going to pick the nominee, it's spending of 2-to-1 or 3-to-1. A couple of extra million in Texas doesn't mean all that much."

El Paso County lobbyist Claudia Russell, talking to the El Paso Times about contributing $150 to Rep. Norma Chavez' $3,500 graduation party in Austin: "I don't know if I wanted to. I just kinda felt it was my duty to."

U.S. Senate candidate John Sharp, quoted in the Longview News-Journal: "Washington is a very political place, and Texas really needs a Democratic senator there. If you're going to have one, you might as well not have an idiot, so that's why I'm asking people to elect me."

Montgomery County Commissioner Ed Chance, on problems at prisons run by the GEO Group, in The Dallas Morning News: "When you're dealing with inmates, you're going to have problems. You're going to have some headlines."

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Texas Weekly: Volume 26, Issue 28, 20 July 2009. Ross Ramsey, Editor. Copyright 2009 by Printing Production Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. One-year online subscription: $250. For information about your subscription, call (512) 302-5703 or email biz@texasweekly.com. For news, email ramsey@texasweekly.com, or call (512) 288-6598.

The state's original prepaid college tuition program is in financial trouble. That's not really news, but there are new numbers attached to the problem. Comptroller Susan Combs sent state leaders some reports from the Texas Tomorrow Fund's advisors saying that program will need $65 million in state funds in 2016 and $434 million in the 2016-17 biennium. Those numbers, she said in the forwarding letter, are conservative.

Combs and her advisors spell out the trouble. The prepaid plan was underpriced. Deregulation of college tuition raised prices higher than the originators expected. The market crash last year cut into the investments that were supposed to pay for all of this. And the original financial advisors didn't properly account for early payouts to the first Texans in the program to go to college. "The most important finding of the report is that the Plan is likely to run out of money to pay contract benefits to the universities," Combs wrote in her letter to Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and Speaker Joe Straus.

The state's on the hook for this one. Lawmakers approved the program and then came back and sent a constitutional amendment to voters giving the Tomorrow Fund the state's full faith and credit. Voters approved that, and the state has to make good on the contracts. The long-term cost: According to the latest report from the actuaries, it'll fall between $1.7 billion and $2.1 billion by 2030.

Like water balloons filled with shaving cream, bloggers are bursting with opinions on how to win the state's big-time election contests. They're also sorting through other people's finances, localizing national politics and trying real hard to be more open. The finale features appearances by Texas TV anchors and more news.

* * * * *

Democracy Now

Saying that Houston Mayor Bill White couldn't beat either Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst or Attorney General Greg Abbott in a special election, BurkaBlog makes the case for White to drop out of the U.S. Senate race. "If White wants to win, he should run for governor," he says.

Rick vs. Kay goes out on a limb and suggests that politics may have something to do with Gov. Rick Perry's support of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and vice versa. Perry's reliance on the right and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's "incompetent, tin-eared campaigning" could encourage more Democrats to jump into the race for governor, Off the Kuff says. And Blogabear has a post on the GOP gubernatorial primary featuring a black-and-white photo of a youthful Hutchison.

Burnt Orange Report argues that Debra Medina should be taken seriously as a gubernatorial candidate, because of: the power of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, the backing of libertarian newspapers, her stance against term limits and the conflict between the GOP and Libertarians. Meanwhile, Empower Texans exploits Sen. Kirk Watson's Scanners moment on MSNBC in a commercial starring a guy dressed like Michael Williams, via Blue Dot Blues. And Greg's Opinion takes a gander at election results in the state's five biggest counties, comparing 2002 to 2006 and 2004 to 2008. Long story short, Republicans aren't doing as well as they used to in the big cities.

Whosplayin looks at who's running for the North Texas congressional seat held by U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess. The GOP incumbent has drawn challenges from a Democrat, an independent and a Republican, Earle Davis II of Keller. According to his MySpace page, the mustachioed Davis' campaign slogan is "Restore Our Constitution, Liberty & Freedom." He's a Libra and includes "The Alamo" among his favorite books, movies and heroes.

* * * * *

Cash Considerations

Burnt Orange checks out the bank accounts of 10 incumbent Democrats in the House after the recent release of ethics reports. El Paso legislators didn't have a whole lot of money to write about, reports Vaqueros & Wonkeros, the El Paso Times' blog. (Rep. Norma Chavez only brought in $699, about one-fifth the cost of her college graduation party.)

Bay Area Houston finds some interesting expenses incurred by Harris County Commissioner Jerry Eversole, who drew a record $75,000 fine by the Texas Ethics Commission for spending "$162,044.87 of his donor's money on cattle, western guns, western art, western clothing, western books, golf, art, and an unknown amount on food and coffee," according to the blogger.

The Public Safety Commission isn't pleased with the company responsible for collecting "Driver Responsibility" surcharges for the Department of Public Safety, Grits for Breakfast says. And a federal judge dismissed charges of insider trading against Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, the man behind blog maverick, according to Tex Parte Blog.

* * * * *

Under Fed

A complicated chart depicting the Democrats' healthcare reform plan thrust U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady into the mass media spotlight, reports the Houston Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac, linking to a website that offers Brady's chart on more than 50 kinds of t-shirts, in addition to tote bags, teddy bears, pet bowls, coffee mugs, beer steins and baby clothes. (No word on who owns the rights to the image or who will profit from the sale of merchandise.)

U.S. Rep. Pete Olson attracted a crowd of near 200 in Missouri City, by Lone Star Times' reckoning. Olson rapped about the economy, cap-and-trade and health care. Apparently the Dems are steamrolling the GOP on all counts. Lone Star Times says the Harris County GOP needs to follow RNC chair Michael Steele's lead and welcome minority groups and non-social conservatives into the big tent, if the party's going to survive.

Potomac covered the confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor for the U.S. Supreme Court and put all the posts in one convenient location. And Texas "Off the Record" talks U.S. Presidents with longtime Associated Press shooter Harry Cabluck.

* * * * *

Informatics

Five out of six bills Texas Watchdog was paying attention to this past session failed to become law. The Houston airport's nonprofit doesn't want Watchdog or Mayor Bill White to know what it's been up to, says Watchdog. And Defending People is no longer publishing anonymous comments.

Some state school board members are suspicious of their colleagues' decision to fire the board's investment counselor. "There were cryptic references to conflicts of interest and inadequate disclosure," according to the Houston Chronicle's Texas Politics.

* * * * *

News Items

Watchdog was interviewed by a reporter from PBS' the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. And Potomac puts together a Best of Walter Cronkite video tribute in honor of the former CBS newscaster.

The governor's office is still on the lookout for the right person to succeed Albert Hawkins as Health and Human Services Commissioner, reports the Dallas Morning News' Trail Blazers. (Their best guess: Austin lawyer Lowell Keig.) And if the man in the photo is who mean rachel says he is, then she snapped a photo of GOP strategist Karl Rove loading cardboard boxes into an SUV.

By March 2010, the appeals process in Texas will be paperless, reports Tex Parte Blog. Meanwhile, Walker Report hit the half-a-million page views mark on Saturday, and Dos Centavos reports on the opening of a district office by his favorite freshman Rep. Armando Walle, D-Houston.

If you see one documentary about the border fence this summer, make it The Wall, says Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, in his A Capitol Blog.

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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.

The Texas Tribune, a new non-profit news organization that will cover Texas politics and government, is buying Texas Weekly and naming Ross Ramsey its managing editor.

A Note to Texas Weekly Readers

The Texas Tribune is buying Texas Weekly and naming me the managing editor of the new enterprise.

The Tribune is a newly created nonprofit, nonpartisan public media organization whose mission is to promote civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government, and other matters of statewide interest.

One of the things they'll be doing — we'll be doing — is publishing the newsletter a few of you have been receiving every week since 1984 — and that all of you see every Friday morning.

We don't expect any more disruption than in 1998, when founding editor Sam Kinch Jr. sold his share of the newsletter to me, or when George Phenix, our publisher and the last of the three founders (the late John Rogers was the third), retired in 2006.

You will see some changes by the end of the year. But frankly, the biggest of them is probably this note. We'll continue to do what Sam and George and John set out to do in the first place — to give you honest, entertaining, and insightful reporting and analysis, every week, on what's going on in Texas politics and government.

We remain devoted to you, and will continue to strive to deserve the loyalty you've shown us for all these years.

—Ross Ramsey, Editor

 

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For Immediate Release

TEXAS TRIBUNE ACQUIRES TEXAS WEEKLY, APPOINTS ROSS RAMSEY MANAGING EDITOR

FIVE NEWSROOM HIRES ALSO ANNOUNCED

Austin, TX – July 23, 2009 – Incoming Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith announced today that the non-profit public media organization has acquired Texas Weekly, the premier newsletter for government and politics in Texas, and has hired longtime Texas Weekly editor and owner Ross Ramsey as its managing editor. Smith also formally announced the hiring of the first five reporters on the Tribune's newsroom team: Brandi Grissom, Elise Hu, Emily Ramshaw, Abby Rapoport, and Matt Stiles.

"I'm thrilled that we were able to attract journalists of such high caliber," says Smith, "as each one brings incredible experience and perspective on matters of statewide interest, along with a high level of energy and passion and ambition. I couldn't imagine a better foundation for the kind of work we intend to produce."

Before taking over Texas Weekly in September 1998, Ramsey spent twenty-eight months as associate deputy comptroller for policy and director of communications in the office of the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. From 1991 to 1996, the West Texas native reported on state politics and policy from the Houston Chronicle's Austin bureau. From 1986-1991, he was a reporter on the business desk and in the Capitol bureau of the Dallas Times Herald, eventually serving as the paper's Austin bureau chief. He has also been a radio reporter in Dallas and Denton.

"Ross is one of the two or three best-respected reporters at the Capitol," Smith says. "He's fair, scrupulously nonpartisan, whip-smart, and crafty in the way he pries information out of sources. He's also funny as hell, which makes him a great story-teller. That's why we've asked him to write and report as well as lead our newsroom."

In acquiring Texas Weekly, the Tribune will give its readers access to the venerable publication's vast archives—a searchable electronic trove of stories dating back to the early 1990s that amounts to a modern history of Texas politics. Upon the Tribune's launch this fall, current Texas Weekly subscribers will receive, for the duration of their subscriptions, a new weekly publication featuring premium content not available to regular readers of the Tribune.

Grissom joins the Tribune after four years at the El Paso Times, where she has been a one-woman Capitol bureau during the last two legislative sessions. Grissom won the Associated Press Managing Editors 1st place award in 2007 for using the Freedom of Information Act to report stories on a variety of government programs and entities. She previously worked for the daily paper in her hometown of Alliance, Nebraska, the Alliance Times-Herald, and has reported for the Taylor Daily Press, the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung, and the Associated Press. She has a degree in history from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was managing editor of the student-run Daily Texan.

Hu has been the state political reporter for Austin's ABC affiliate, KVUE-TV, since 2006. She has been recognized by the Associated Press' Texas bureau three years in a row for her beat reporting on state politics and has been cited by the Austin Chronicle as "The Best TV Reporter Who Can Write" Her "Political Junkie" blog was listed as one of WashingtonPost.com's top Texas political blogs. A native of Plano, she has a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri.

Ramshaw spent the last six years as a reporter at The Dallas Morning News, first as a city hall reporter, then as the state investigative reporter. In April, she was named Star Reporter of the Year by the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors and the Headliners Foundation of Texas. Before working for the News, Ramshaw interned at the Boston Globe, Costa Rico's Tico Times, and the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. A native of Washington, D.C., Ramshaw has a B.A. from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Rapoport, a Williamsburg, Virginia, native, interned for TEXAS MONTHLY during the 2009 legislative session, covering the House under the tutelage of Paul Burka, the magazine's senior executive editor and the co-author of its Best and Worst Legislators feature. She previously served as a writing fellow at the Economic Policy Institute, in Washington, D.C, and wrote for Glamour magazine's Glamocracy blog during the Iowa caucus in the 2008 presidential election cycle. She has a degree in history from Grinnell College, where she was editor-in-chief of the student-run Scarlet and Black newspaper.

Stiles spent the last four years at the Houston Chronicle, where he wrote about government and politics with a focus on computer-assisted reporting. While there, he won the newspaper's Jesse Award for service journalism and beat reporting and was its reporter of the year in 2007. Before joining the Chronicle's staff, Stiles worked as a reporter for nearly four years at The Dallas Morning News. A native of Tallahassee, Florida, he has a degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Arlington.

About The Texas Tribune

Scheduled to launch in the fall of 2009, the Texas Tribune is a non-profit, nonpartisan public media organization whose mission is to promote civic engagement and discourse on the public policy, politics, government, and other matters of statewide interest. Based in the Texas capital, the Tribune will publish original news reporting online and host conferences and similar on-the-record, open-to-the-public events. Individual, corporate and foundation philanthropy will provide much of its operating budget; other revenue sources will include content syndication and multi-platform brand extensions.

The Texas Tribune's web site is www.texastribune.org. You can also follow the Tribune on Twitter or become a fan of the Tribune on its Facebook page.

For more information on the Texas Tribune, contact Elaine Garza (512.382.9017; elaine@giantnoise.com) or Dave Cirilli (646.454.9740; dave@giantnoise.com).

August could be a big political month, and the conversations are picking up. The state's blogosphere bubbled with the emergence of the Texas Tribune (which affected us, too) and other media events. Bloggers are also chatting about things related to The Law, political jockeying and goings on in Washington, D.C. Closing the curtain is a showdown between arch-liberal and ultra-conservative activists, plus more news.

* * * * *

Racing Starts

Rumor has it that U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will make her official announcement for governor on Aug. 17, according to the Dallas Morning Trail Blazers. To prepare for the showdown, Gov. Rick Perry's spending five nights in California to raise money and court business folk, Trail Blazers says.

Texans for Rick Perry is pushing an online, viral, word-of-mouth strategy to build a campaign network. It's called "Home Headquarters," and it works kind of like a chain letter, but different. Watch the video for details.

Burnt Orange Report ran Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Schieffer through their liberal detecting machine, concluding that the blood running through Schieffer's veins is, indeed, dark blue. "After an hour conversation, we are confident that Schieffer will be a champion of core Democratic issues," the bloggers say.

Potential U.S. Senate candidate and Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams had Panhandle's Perspective cooing like a turtledove in Amarillo with his talk about proposed "cap-and-trade" legislation on carbon dioxide emissions. ("I like the way he referred to it as the bill that would "cap our economy and send trade somewhere else,"" the blogger says.)

In a Watson Wire report, plausible statewide contender Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, takes a shot at Perry for his handling of state unemployment insurance. Meanwhile, vanquished Perry opponent Chris Bell is the subject of Texas on the Potomac's weekly "Where Are They Now?" feature. Bell tells the blogger that his political future will be "on the sidelines."

Lone Star Times attended a voter education meeting for Republicans in Houston. The main presenter argued that the GOP needs to focus on pulling in urban voters. The blogger's got more information and some photos, too. Meanwhile, Off the Kuff has put together "A tour of the July campaign finance reports," organizing the data according to what kind of contest the incumbents are likely looking at in 2010. And Burnt Orange checks out financial reports for the Austin area's State Board of Education District 10. There's not a lot of cash in there, with Democrat Judy Jennings claiming about $10,000 on hand and Republican incumbent Cynthia Dunbar reporting $672.66.

Texas Politics links to the Texas Lyceum's 2009 journal of ideas, featuring essays by Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, and Houston Mayor Bill White, among others. And the El Paso County Democratic Party chair Danny Anchondo tells Vaqueros that he's not planning on challenging Chavez in next year's primary.

* * * * *

Legal Briefs

BurkaBlog posts on the indictment of Rep. Kino Flores, D-Palmview, for ethics law violations. The comments section is the best part of the post, with Burka saying Flores is the most flagrant at omitting things from ethics reports ("except maybe [Lt. Gov. David] Dewhurst") and commenters broaching topics such as HillCo, racehorses, Flores' potential opponent and his future successor.

Judge Manuel Bañales has been taken off the Maurico Celis case due to a possible conflict of interest involving fundraising and such. After being convicted of falsely impersonating a lawyer, prominent Democratic moneyman Celis was given 10 years' probation by Bañales. Tex Parte Blog says Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson will pick the new judge if there's another trial.

A lobbyist who said she felt obligated to chip in for El Paso Rep. Norma Chavez's college graduation party has retracted her earlier assertion, according to NewspaperTree.com Blog. "The lobbyist, Claudia Russell, broke the number one rule of lobbying — YOU NEVER TALK ABOUT LOBBYING TO OUTSIDERS!" says Refuse the Juice.

Here's the latest from Texas Watchdog in its continuing scrutiny of the Houston airport's nonprofit affiliate. Meanwhile, Tex Parte Blog wraps up coverage of the "ugly spectacle" of the imprisonment and near-impeachment of former Judge Samuel Kent. And Grits for Breakfast looks at stats on inmates serving life sentences in Texas and other states.

Grits (and Mrs. Grits) are proposing the creation of an indigency program for folks paying "Driver Responsibility" surcharges on traffic violations. The blogger posts a call for support here. Erstwhile, Friends of Justice observes the 10th anniversary of the Tulia drug sting.

* * * * *

Inside I-495

U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess is not the author of a bogus email circulating the Internets that's filled with fraudulent claims about Pres. Barack Obama's health care proposals, says Whosplayin after checking with Burgess' staff.

After taking into account U.S. Sen. John Cornyn's reasoning for his rejection of Sandra Sotomayor for the U.S. Supreme Court, Tex Parte says, "Cornyn's vote is why the Republican Party should worry about keeping its stronghold in Texas in the future -- a state that has an enormous Hispanic voting population that grows larger and larger each year." But Panhandle's Perspective is happy about Cornyn's recent appointment to the Senate Agriculture committee, at least.

According to a Zogby poll, 80 percent of Americans oppose U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's proposed congressional resolution to honor singer Michael Jackson, says the Houston Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac. Ouch.

* * * * *

Five Bits

Outside Cornyn's Houston office, Texas Kaos and other MoveOn.org activists got into a West Side Story type confrontation with North Texas TEA Party members (only without the singing). They weren't all that tough, Kaos says afterward.

The Statesman's Public Capital blog is paying attention to a question posed to the Attorney General -- Is a proposed $500 supplemental payment from the General Fund to members of the Employees Retirement System unconstitutional?

NewspaperTree.com Blog flicked on the TV and spotted El Paso Rep. Chavez and a couple of political staffers ringside for a boxing match. And the Austin Chronicle's newsdesk reports that Texas firm Ford Powell Carson has been picked to lead the restoration of the burned out Governor's Mansion.

* * * * *

Tribune & Co.

Brazosport News isn't convinced that the Tribune's nonprofit model is going to work, since major donors might not like the spotlight they're helping to keep shining. The blogger links to an interview by Reflections of a Newsosaur with the Tribune's founding chair John Thornton.

KVUE's Political Junkie bids adieu to television journalism as she prepares to move on to the Tribune. In the interim, fans can keep current on all things Elise Hu at new blog Hey Elise. Another Tribune staffer, the El Paso Times' Vaqueros & Wonkeros, also says adios, but doesn't leave a personal forwarding address.

Texas Watchdog reports on a state appeals court decision granting an online reporter the same legal protections as traditional journalists. That could come in handy someday for recent college graduate Andrew Strong, who's the newest blogger for Texas Prison Bid'ness.

Bay Area Houston is taking care of musings while the blogger is on vacation in Hawaii. And the Austin American-Statesman's First Reading blog has a podcast with KXAN's Jenny Hoff, wherein they discuss her Sunday morning Texas political news show and other stuff.

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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.

An allegedly underhanded online tactic gets bloggers to talking about the 2010 gubernatorial contest. There's discussion of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, incumbent Gov. Rick Perry and everybody else in their wake. The City of Houston was big enough to get its own sub-head, and news that will strike fear in Texans' bleeding hearts leads off the last section of miscellaneous posts.

* * * * *

How to Whisper... Online

A day after the Austin American-Statesman's Postcards discovered the phrase "Rick Perry gay" in the Hutchison campaign's StandByKay.com source code (which no casual user would ever see), the campaign dismissed the consultants who told them it was a good idea in the first place. The StandByKay site now redirects to texans.forkay.com. We assume Texans for Rick Perry would say that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Here's a response from Rick vs. Kay (which has tended to support the incumbent): "Kay may have just earned that distinction... dirty trick Kay, although I am waiting for all the facts before jumping to conclusions," the blogger says.

In the Pink writes about the money situation in the governor's race. Somehow, some way, a commenter brings up an old (and completely unverified) story involving Hutchison and shampoo salvaged from a neighbor's trashcan.

Hutchison shouldn't have told everyone that she was going to resign in hopes that Perry would step down, Prof13 says.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Hutchison included language in a federal transportation bill that would prohibit tolls on existing Texas interstates through September 2010, says the Houston Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac.

* * * * *

Shoe Closet

Like shoes? Support Perry? Like supporting Perry on your shoes? Well, send 'em on in to Texans for Rick Perry's "Kicks for Rick" campaign. Hair Balls thinks it would be funny to flood the Flickr account with photos of masculine feet in ladies' pumps. And the Dallas Morning News' Trail Blazers thinks it's appropriate to illustrate a story on campaign funding with a picture of a younger Perry in senior boots and Midnight uniform.

The Guv named Fox News talker Sean Hannity an "Honorary Texan" at a freedom-themed event in Houston. That prompted Brazosport News to issue an angry tweet: "Honorary Texanhood shouldn't be given out lightly, sir. And not to curry political favor. I'm disappointed."

Here are some other Honorary Texans designated by Perry, according to various places on the Internet: GOP pundit Rush Limbaugh, San Antonio Spur Sean Elliott, tennis players Anna Kournikova and Pete Sampras, musician Chris Knight and Indian Member of Parliament Sunil Dutt. (Then-Gov. George W. Bush made musician Bob Dylan a Texan a few days before becoming President. And former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed honorary Texanhood at a Lone Star State fundraiser in D.C., but we don't know if Perry had anything to do with that. Also, Perry once sent late night comic Craig Ferguson a list of requirements to become a Texan, but it's unclear if Ferguson followed through.)

In other news, Perry admitted that he watches HBO vampire show True Blood, according to Trail Blazers. No word on his opinion of the Twilight series.

* * * * *

Wing Waiters

The Statesman's First Reading has a podcast with SMU Prof. Cal Jillson. According to Jillson, Perry doesn't have deep roots with Texas voters outside of the GOP's conservative wing. (Perry's benefited from "fortunate" circumstances in his election bids, Jillson says.) Meanwhile, people "feel good" about Hutchison, but wonder how she'll fare in a mano a mano with the incumbent Guv. On a related note, First Reading summarizes the effects on some key politicos if Hutchison does indeed step down from the U.S. Senate this fall.

Capitol Annex says the logical choice for a Perry appointment is Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, because he's rich, and his appointment would clear the rest of the GOP primary field. And McBlogger says Travis County will be contested territory should Democrats John Sharp and Bill White do battle for Hutchison's seat, judging by two important supporters he ran into.

Rick vs. Kay relays info on Hutchison's new campaign manager from the Palmetto Scoop, a South Carolina website. The blogger calls Terry Sullivan one of the state's "most despicable political operatives." And Rhetoric & Rhythm dubs the third Republican contender for governor, Wharton County GOP chair Debra Medina, "The Sarah Palin of South Texas."

* * * * *

Houston's Chronicles

The Democratic Lone Star Project links Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston, Harris County Associate Voter Registrar Ed Johnson and Tax Assessor-Collector Leo Vasquez under the headline "Dwayne Bohac's Corrupt Enterprise." Allegedly, Bohac used Johnson to obtain drivers license records to enhance his consultant firm's voter data file. (The blogger also reports that Vasquez has taken Johnson off voter registration duties and reassigned him to communications; here's the Houston Chronicle's take on that.)

BurkaBlog jumped a flight to Washington, D.C., and spoke to Democratic U.S. Reps. Gene Green of Houston and Chet Edwards of Waco about their opposition to CO2 cap-and-trade plans. And Lone Star Times lets readers know about Green's town hall meetings in Houston this coming week. The blogger mentions a GOP challenger to Green, Frank Mazzapica, who assures everyone that he's a serious contender, even if he doesn't have any money yet.

It wasn't a good week for imprisoned Houston financier R. Allen Stanford, according to Tex Parte Blog. Stanford's lawyer quit because of paycheck worries, and his air-conditioning isn't working. (Plus the whole being in prison thing.) And BlogHOUSTON notes that the Chron has gone with a bunch of different reporters to cover the political beat vacated by Alan Bernstein, and says that the newspaper seems to be running a lot more on local Republicans than Dems.

* * * * *

Roving Eye

He's ba-aack... Or, he will be soon, Karl Rove that is, in Texas, according to Potomac.

Nearly 90 percent of all new college students from now until 2015 will have to be Hispanic if the state is to reach the diversity goal it adopted in 2000, according to the Statesman's The Low Down on Higher Education. En todo, Texas lawmakers created 40 new laws this past session, reports the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Poli-Tex. That's down from about 50 each in the couple of sessions prior.

Here's a full list of the Dallas Morning News' blogs. And Phillip Martin is leaving Burnt Orange Report to go earn a paycheck somewhere.

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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.

This stuff is going to be on the ballot in November, and Secretary of State Hope Andrade says it'll be in the following order:

Proposition 1 (HJR 132)

"The constitutional amendment authorizing the financing, including through tax increment financing, of the acquisition by municipalities and counties of buffer areas or open spaces adjacent to a military installation for the prevention of encroachment or for the construction of roadways, utilities, or other infrastructure to protect or promote the mission of the military installation."

Proposition 2 (HJR 36-1)

"The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for the ad valorem taxation of a residence homestead solely on the basis of the property's value as a residence homestead."

Proposition 3 (HRJ 36-3)

"The constitutional amendment providing for uniform standards and procedures for the appraisal of property for ad valorem tax purposes."

Proposition 4 (HJR 14-2)

"The constitutional amendment establishing the national research university fund to enable emerging research universities in this state to achieve national prominence as major research universities and transferring the balance of the higher education fund to the national research university fund."

Proposition 5 (HJR 36-2)

"The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to authorize a single board of equalization for two or more adjoining appraisal entities that elect to provide for consolidated equalizations."

Proposition 6 (HJR 116)

"The constitutional amendment authorizing the Veterans' Land Board to issue general obligation bonds in amounts equal to or less than amounts previously authorized."

Proposition 7 (HJR 127)

"The constitutional amendment to allow an officer or enlisted member of the Texas State Guard or other state militia or military force to hold other civil offices."

Proposition 8 (HJR 7)

"The constitutional amendment authorizing the state to contribute money, property, and other resources for the establishment, maintenance, and operation of veterans hospitals in this state."

Proposition 9 (HJR 102)

"The constitutional amendment to protect the right of the public, individually and collectively, to access and use the public beaches bordering the seaward shore of the Gulf of Mexico."

Proposition 10 (HJR 85)

"The constitutional amendment to provide that elected members of the governing boards of emergency services districts may serve terms not to exceed four years."

Proposition 11 (HJR 14-1)

"The constitutional amendment to prohibit the taking, damaging, or destroying of private property for public use unless the action is for the ownership, use, and enjoyment of the property by the State, a political subdivision of the State, the public at large, or entities granted the power of eminent domain under law or for the elimination of urban blight on a particular parcel of property, but not for certain economic development or enhancement of tax revenue purposes, and to limit the legislature's authority to grant the power of eminent domain to an entity."

If U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison really does step down in October or November, as she said recently on WBAP-AM, the election to replace her could land anytime between December and May.

It'd be in May unless Gov. Rick Perry — the guy Hutchison hopes to unseat — declares an emergency and sets an earlier date.

If she were to quit, Perry would appoint someone fairly quickly.

But what makes sense for the election date depends on the appointee (and how much political money he or she has), on what effect the date might have on the gubernatorial primary election and the Republican electorate, and on the competition for political money.

A politically rich Republican candidate like David Dewhurst could benefit from a quick election, since it would take place before most of the rest of the pack could pull together funding for a statewide race. The bugs in that soup are two Democrats, Houston Mayor Bill White and former Comptroller John Sharp, who have already banked $3.3 million and $2.9 million, respectively. Dewhurst doesn't have a federal account, but the widely held assumption is that he could write a personal check to finance a statewide campaign.

Other Texans with fat federal bank accounts at mid-year include U.S. Reps. Ron Paul, R-Surfside, $2.2 million; Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, $2.9 million; Jeb Hensarling, R-Dallas $1.7 million; and Joe Barton, R-Ennis, $1.4 million. Nobody in that quartet has publicly expressed any interest in Hutchison's job. Barton lost to her in the special election in 1993. Paul, who has a national following (think fundraising) and an ardent base of supporters in Texas (think TEA parties and votes), would be an instant contender.

Most of those who have expressed an interest aren't in the million-plus club: Dr. Alma Aguado, a San Antonio Democrat who has never held public office, has no money on hand, according to reports she filed with the Federal Election Commission. Four Republicans have varying amounts: Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones, $443,211; Sen. Florence Shapiro, $296,361; Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams, $168,144; and former Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams, $727,597.

Perry has kept his poker face, leaving the speculation about who'd get the appointment to everybody else.

A May election means voters would have no distractions from what promises to be the most competitive primary race since the 1990 Democratic demolition derby featuring Jim Mattox, Ann Richards, and Mark White. The governor's race (and all the other primaries) would be saved from competing for attention with a special election for Senate. And the Senate candidates would be rescued from trying to buy advertising time that not already been scooped up by Kay and Rick.

Maybe that's good for Perry, maybe not.

If the Democrats don't have any ballot-top battles, the Republican primary could attract independent voters drawn to the conflict, and maybe some Democrats who cross over to spoil the elephants' party. "Conventional wisdom" sounds like an oxymoron in this context, so put it like this: You can find Republican political consultants who think that a bigger-than-normal primary will be more moderate than a normal one and that that will be good for the more moderate candidate. They think that candidate is Hutchison. (The Hutchison campaign, meanwhile, is telling reporters that she's just as conservative as Perry but isn't confrontational about it — a sign they'll be positioning her to the right to appeal to GOP voters.)

Say, on the other hand, that Perry called a January special election. Voters would go to the polls that month. They'd probably go to the polls a month later for a runoff (the last open Senate election in Texas, in 1993, drew 24 candidates). And then they'd go to the polls on March 2 to vote in the primaries. That could produce some burned-out voters. That could lower turnout. And a lower turnout (again with the conventional wisdom) would concentrate die-hard Republicans — the kind of people who vote no matter what — and that would favor the more conservative candidate. They think that's Perry.

The money hunt is probably a wash. The Senate wanna-bes are already raising money and in virtually every scenario, they'll be raising money before, during and after the primaries. Hutchison and Perry have to compete with them and with everyone else who'll be dragging sacks for the March elections. The Republican gubernatorial candidates will almost certainly have all the money they need (at mid-year, she had a balance of $12.5 million; his was $9.4 million.) Down the ballot is where the money will get thin.

It's possible Perry could call a special election as early as December. But that would give current officeholders a risk-free run. A loser in a December special election for U.S. Senate would be able to run for a different office in the 2010 regular election. Eyes here generally turn to Bill White, who has consistently said he wants to run for Senate. A loss in an early election would give him time to regroup and file for a state office — governor, say — in the first week of January. If Perry puts the special election in January, White and others wouldn't have that safety net.

Florence Shapiro, who'd like to move from the state Senate to the U.S. Senate (if Hutchison moves on, etc., etc., etc.), won endorsements from former U.S. Secretaries of Education Bill Bennett and Margaret Spellings.Spellings, who went to Washington with George W. Bush, is a former legislative staffer in Texas and worked on education matters there. Shapiro heads the state Senate Education Committee.

• Democrat Jack McDonald, the tech exec putting together a challenge to U.S. Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Austin, is giving up his job as CEO of Austin-based Perficient. He'll remain chairman of the board. McDonald had $557,557 in the bank at mid-year to McCaul's $359,088. That district stretches from Austin to Houston.

• Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Democrat running for state attorney general, says she's won endorsements from 52 Democratic county chairmen.

• Put Cedar Park City Councilman Stephen Thomas on the list of candidates looking at Dan Gattis' seat in the state Legislature. This is an "if, then if" situation: If Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, gives up his seat in the state Senate, Gattis, R-Georgetown, wants to run. And if he's not in place, Thomas is one of two candidates (so far) telling Williamson County Republicans he's interested. The other is Milton Rister, a former political consultant and former head of the Texas Legislative Council. Thomas is a state employee — a deputy executive director at the Texas Facilities Commission.

While we're there, at least three Republicans are knocking around the idea of a challenge to freshman Rep. Diana Maldonado, D-Round Rock, including one of the losers in the 2008 GOP primary for that HD-52 seat. Maldonado wrested the seat away from the Republicans after Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Austin, decided not to seek reelection. John Gordon, who finished third in the GOP primary, is telling people he's interested, as is Stephen Casey, who works for the Texas Supreme Court, and Ralph Pina, the veep at Fumée, a cigar retailer.

• Rep. Bill Callegari, R-Katy, says he will seek reelection to a sixth term in the Texas House in HD-132.

It's illegal for a corporation or labor union to reimburse a state officeholder for transportation, food, and lodging expenses that arise from making a speech or presentation to a group, according to the Texas Ethics Commission.

"An elected officeholder may not accept transportation, meals, and lodging from a corporation or labor organization in return for addressing an audience or participating in a seminar if the officeholder's services are in connection with his or her duties or activities as an officeholder," the commission says in a new opinion approved 5-1 by the TEC board.

The ruling (it's opinion #547) could affect reimbursements dating back two years, according to lawyers who've looked it over. Since many trade groups are organized as corporations, reimbursements they've made to state officeholders for speaking to their groups could be in question.

Officeholders already know they can't accept honoraria for such appearances. And the reimbursements are legal under the penal code and the state's lobby laws. It's the campaign finance statutes that cause the problem. Texas doesn't allow corporations and unions to give to campaigns and candidates.

Even, as it turns out, to reimburse expenses like these.

Their lobbyists can make those contributions, so unions and corporations with non-staff lobbyists can run the money back through those folks.

One more twist: An elected official who makes an appearance during a legislative session can't be reimbursed during a legislative session. It's illegal to accept campaign contributions while the Lege is in regular session, for a month before, and for three weeks after the session ends. That taboo applies to everyone — not just corporations and unions.

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.