Bernsen won't run in HD-52. Nelson wants another term.Former capitol reporter James Bernsen says now that he won't challenge Rep. Diana Maldonado, D-Round Rock, in next year's elections. He'll back Larry Gonzales instead. Last year, Maldonado won what had been a Republican seat, and the GOP wants it back. There are four people on the Republican side still looking at the race (John Gordon, Stephen Casey, and Ralph Piña have all shown interest, in addition to Gonzales). Bernsen says he got into the contest about the same time Gonzales did, that he took at look at it, and that he decided "Larry is the better candidate. I'm going to support him." • Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, will seek another term. She won her spot in 1992 and has held it continuously since then. Five senators have more seniority than she does; three others came to the Senate the same time she did.

by Julian Aguilar, contributor to The Texas Tribune Political allies and a noisy and very public divorce dominate the conversation so far in Rep. Tara Rios Ybarra's effort to win a second term in the Texas House.

The Democratic lawmaker's support from Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a group that gives generously to Republicans, continued this week. TLR gave her its Civil Justice Leadership Award in Harlingen. Though TLR's support was crucial to her primary victory last year over incumbent Rep. Juan Escobar of Kingsville, Rios Ybarra said their backing indicates her pro-business leanings, not her party affiliation.

J.M. Lozano, a South Texas businessman vying for the freshman's HD-43 seat, said her support from the group reflects the Democratic incumbent might be out of touch with her own party.

"Any political action committee is going to say they are bipartisan but when you see who funds them (TLR), they are not," Lozano said. "In South Texas when you get into these communities you cannot abandon your constituents. If 90 percent of your constituents are Democrats you better stay loyal to your party."

Despite the publicity surrounding her financial support from TLR, Rios Ybarra downplayed the issue.

"I am a pro-business candidate," she said. "There are different organizations that will make contributions based on my stance with that, and there is a way to be pro-business and pro-environment and pro-worker and pro-everything else, one is not mutually exclusive to each other."

Campaign finance reports show TLR has given to Democrats but favors Republicans — something Lozano claimed could up his chances of claiming a Democratic Primary Election victory next year.

Not so, said Rios Ybarra, adding that lawsuit reform is just one item in a cornucopia of issues that, when settled, will lead to job growth.

"First of all, our issues are not lawsuit reform, our issues are very clearly jobs, education and health care," she said. "And so I talk to constituents. I am not in Austin working the lobby."

Lozano, who is at the helm of three restaurant franchises in his district and the son of a medical doctor, said he believes frivolous lawsuits should be addressed but that TLR does not distinguish between frivolous and legitimate issues.

Rios Ybarra must also contend with her current divorce proceedings after splitting with Richard Ybarra. The state representative admitted in a deposition that she was having an intimate relationship with developer and campaign contributor Clayton Brashear after she filed for divorce. But she said her personal life — public as it has now become — is irrelevant when it comes to her politics.

"There are so many important issues for my district and for South Texas right now that there is not really time to get distracted," she said.

Lozano said he has followed the divorce proceedings not to sling mud, but to prepare himself for whatever may come next. He says he's considering his options should Rios Ybarra drop out of the race, and someone else jump in.

Chances of that look slim, however, according to Rios Ybarra. She and her ex-husband still attend public functions together, she said, and have agreed to put the best interests of their two children first.

"Our objective is to raise two healthy children," she said.

jaguilar@texastribune.org

Homer gets an opponent. Bolton loses one. And there's someone new running for the SBOE.Rep. Mark Homer, D-Paris, will have an opponent in the person of Erwin Cain, a Como lawyer and businessman who is also chairman of the Hopkins County GOP. Republicans regularly beat the stuffing out of Democrats in that six-county district — on the statewide level in the last two elections, the difference averaged 20.3 percentage points in favor of the Republicans — but Homer has held off serious challenges over several cycles. Not running: Donna Keel, a Republican who challenged Rep. Valinda Bolton, D-Austin, in 2008. She sent a note to "fellow Republicans" saying it's not the right time to run again, but that she'll support the Republican nominee San Antonio lawyer Tim Tuggey, managing partner of Tuggey Rosenthal Pauerstein Sandoloski Agather, will run in the GOP primary for the State Board of Education. He's got his eyes on the seat now held by former state Rep. Ken Mercer, who's also a Republican and is also from San Antonio. Tuggey, who served on San Antonio's VIA board, said in his announcement that he's concerned about alleged ethical lapses in SBOE's management of the Permanent School Fund.

Adam Haynes is leaving TIPRO (the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association) after five years for a job with Chesapeake Energy, one of TIPRO's member companies.

Gov. Rick Perry named R. David Kelly of Dallas to chair the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and appointed Todd Barth, Seth Crone, and Nanette Sissney to that board. Kelly is a partner with Carleton Residential Properties in Dallas. Barth is an attorney and president of Bowers Properties in Houston. Crone is a CPA and an exec with The Bank of New York Mellon Trust Co. He lives in Beaumont. Sissney is a school counselor at Whitesboro ISD.

The Guv appointed Keith Drewery of Nacogdoches and James "Jim" Hughes Jr. of Newton to the Angelina and Neches River Authority Board, and reappointed Dominick "Nick" Bruno of Jacksonville. Drewery runs a construction company. Hughes is an insurance and investment broker, and Bruno is the retired past president of Austin Bank.

Deaths: Former Sen. J.P. Word, a Democrat who served for a decade in the Senate, after following a family tradition by winning election as Bosque County Judge, and did a stint lobbying for the Texas Chiropractic Association and consulting for the Texas Association of Taxpayers. He was 80.

• Freshman Rep. Allen Fletcher, R-Tomball, will seek a second term in HD-130. He knocked off incumbent Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale in the GOP primary in 2008.

• John Sharp picked up an endorsement for his U.S. Senate bid from Dan Richards, son of the late Gov. Ann Richards.

• Dan Gattis, running for the SD-5 Senate seat, won endorsements from Round Rock Mayor Alan McGraw and from five of McGraw's predecesors.

• Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, being interviewed on Dallas radio, said "two or three" senators were planning to move on before the next session. We know of Steve Ogden and Eliot Shapleigh, a Republican and a Democrat who've said they won't seek reelection. But three? Dewhurst was apparently referring to Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, who's raising money to run for the U.S. Senate should Kay Bailey Hutchison resign her spot. Dewhurst is also interested in the Hutchison job.