White, Patterson, Robinson, Whitmire, Neerman, and Higginbotham

Former Gov. Mark White, telling The Dallas Morning News that he's lost confidence that the state can fairly administer the death penalty, which he once championed: "I'm not running for anything. It's a lot easier for me to say it."

Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, telling the Houston Chronicle that Matthew Knowles' home on the eroded Texas beach is getting the same treatment it would get if his daughter wasn't famous: "I didn't know who Beyoncé Knowles was. If he's getting special treatment it's not because of me."

Charles Robinson of Amarillo, talking to gubernatorial candidate Tom Schieffer after a speech, quoted by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "You sure picked a bad time to run on the Democratic ticket."

Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, asked to second-guess Gov. Rick Perry in the Houston Chronicle: "I can't get inside the mind of Perry even on a good day."

Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Jonathan Neerman, in The Dallas Morning News: "Even the most ardent partisan can't claim we didn't get our clocks cleaned the last two cycles. The question is why? We don't know what's driving it. I, for one, don't believe this is a Democratic county."

Billy Higginbotham, a wildlife specialist at Texas A&M University, in The Atlantic: "There are two types of landowners in Texas — those that have hogs, and those that are about to have hogs."