This week, bloggers are flooding the Internet with talk about the two gubernatorial contenders who currently hold public office. Guess who? Elsewhere in the blogosphere, there's chatter about people who probably won't be governor in 2011 (barring thaumaturgy), folks interested in different positions and a Houston congresswoman who's in the news — again. Wrapping it up is a r3volutionary real estate venture and other curiosities.
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He Said, She Said
The Dallas Morning News' Trail Blazers releases the "Texas Heat Index," a series of posts fact-checking claims by political candidates and the like. Their rating system, measured in peppers, goes from one (mostly true) to four (totally false). The first eight Heat Index posts are on the race for governor, concerning Gov. Rick Perry's claims about the 2003 budget shortfall (two peppers), border security (two), unemployment stimulus funds (three) and border security (three), plus U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's words on the Texas economy (one), Trans Texas Corridor (two), business taxes (three) and Texas' dropout rate (four).
Off the Kuff says someone should make concert tour-style t-shirts featuring dates and places where Hutchison has talked about running for governor. "[T]his tour has been going on for what, eight years? At least? You may have to use really small print to do it justice," he says. Meanwhile, memoirs from a young conservative is doing some recruiting for Perry's reelection campaign. Her pitch: "Texas is #1 in job creation with seven out of every ten jobs created in the US. are right here in the Lone Star State." (According to Trail Blazers' Heat Index, that figure should be six in 10.)
A Pew poll has mixed results for Perry, reports the Houston Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac. Voters' opinions of state governments are getting worse, but Republicans like state governments better than Democrats do. The Houston Chronicle's Texas Politics links to a list of Hutchison's earmarks, while Rick vs. Kay announces they're taking some time off from blogging for business reasons. And Perry appointee Texas Transportation Commission chair Deirdre Delisi says private toll roads are just great, according to the Morning News' Dallas Transportation Blog.
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An Unknown, a Non-Candidate, and a Secessionist
The Austin American-Statesman's Postcards talks to Democratic governor explorer Felix Alvarado, whose sister Maria Luis Alvarado was the Democratic nominee for Lt. Gov. in 2006. Kuff calls that primary contest between her and Ben Grant "a referendum between random unknowns," and hopes to avoid that this time around, while Burnt Orange says Mr. Alvarado could be another Victor Morales.
Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, put an end to gubernatorial speculations by saying he's going to run for reelection instead. The most surprising part of the whole thing is when Texas Observer Blog calls Watson "tall." BurkaBlog says the worst part for Democrats is it means Watson's not running for Attorney General (and a seat at the redistricting table). "[T]his election could set the Democrats back by a full decade. I see no signs of life," Burka says. And mean rachel wins Headline of the Week award for a post title that sums up the frustrations of at least some Texas Democrats, probably — "With candidates like these, who needs opponents?"
Code Red posts an interview with GOP gubernatorial candidate Larry Kilgore, who's running on a pro-secession platform. Highlights: Kilgore attended Robert E. Lee Elementary in Amarillo; he served in the U.S. Air Force and once volunteered to wear a key to participate in a nuclear weapons launch; "The USSR peaceably separated and the USA can accomplish the same feat," he says; and, when asked about his chances to win, answers, "2006 was Goliad. 2008 was the Alamo. 2010 is San Jacinto."
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Running Time
Seeing that Houston Mayor Bill White's bumper stickers say "Bill White for Texas" (rather than "Bill White for U.S. Senate" or something like that), Trail Blazers asks the campaign if the candidate's real intent is to switch over to the governor's race. No, a spokesperson says, indicating that White used a similar slogan in his race for mayor, "Bill White for Houston."
Capitol Annex says Humble ISD school board president Dan Huberty is the first person to jump into the race to replace retiring incumbent Rep. Joe Crabb, R-Atascocita. Not so fast — former Houston city councilwoman Addie Wiseman, a Republican, told ABC13's Houston Political Blog that she wants Crabb's seat (beating Huberty to the punch by several days). As we've written, Dr. Martin Basaldua is also a contender for the heavily Republican district. It's so red that Annex wonders if Democrats should even bother fielding a candidate.
El Paso attorney Mike Torres is thinking about challenging Rep. Marisa Marquez, a fellow Democrat, according to the El Paso Times' Vaqueros & Wonkeros blog, who posts her "30" column here, on her last day as an EPT-er before joining the Texas Tribune. Meanwhile, Democrat Chuck Silverman, a 2006 judicial candidate, is making a run for Harris County judge, according to Capitol Annex. And Lone Star Times writes about Paul Simpson, who wants to be chair of the Harris County GOP.
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Phoning It In
The town hall attendee whose questioning was interrupted by U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's phone conversation now wants Jackson Lee to debate her on health care reform or share the stage with her at a forum — Lone Star Times thinks that sounds reasonable. The same blogger attended that meeting and writes about it here. Meanwhile, Jackson Lee referred to herself in the third person during a CNN interview on the topic, Potomac reports. Here's more on the subject from Potomac. And Potomac blogger Helen Thomas writes that conservatives are lying about health care, and Pres. Barack Obama is being weak.
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Odds and Ends
Ellis County Observer makes note of the latest attempt by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul supporters to create a town of their own in West Texas. This time, it's a place called "Freedom County," somewhat near Abilene. (Here's the website for an earlier effort called "Paulville.")
Texas received an "F" (that doesn't stand for "fantastic") in a national study on evolution education, reports TFN Insider. Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, couldn't get Texas Workforce Commission chair Tom Pauken to say how much taxes on employers are going to increase next year. Pauken's answer was, "It's a moving target." Trail Blazers says that translates to, "Employers, get ready for steady hits to your wallets..." And Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, told a McAllen audience that an estimated (by him) $10 billion to $15 billion state budget shortfall in 2011 will prompt legislators to consider legalizing gambling, rather than raising taxes or cutting services, according to his A Capitol Blog.
"A Texas judge ruled Tuesday that Microsoft cannot sell one of its flagship products, Word, in the United States because of patent infringement," the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Microsoft Blog says (via Austinist). And here's a dispatch from the Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh from Burnt Orange Report.
Miffed that they couldn't get media credentials to cover the Texas Legislature last session, Texas Watchdog says it's not fair to discriminate against online publications. A couple of commenters (including former Texas Weekly contributor Karie Meltzer) points out that some online-only outlets (including Texas Weekly and Quorum Report) haven't had trouble obtaining press passes.
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.