by Brandi Grissom, The Texas Tribune El Paso state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh's surprise announcement that he won't seek another term in the Texas Senate in 2010 set off speculation about his plans for higher office — and a vigorous fight to replace him.

"While other public service may lie ahead, I will not run for the Texas Senate in 2010," Shapleigh said Friday. "During each day of the last decade, we have endeavored to do our very best for the people of our great community and state."

Shapleigh said he had been weighing the decision for several weeks, but the announcement came as a shock to his staff and to many in the political arena.

"I've done what I came to do," Shapleigh said.

Shapleigh would not say specifically what office he will seek, but he did rule out a challenge to El Paso Democratic U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes.

"My dreams have never been in Congress," he said.

Shapleigh said repeatedly that Texas needs change at the highest state levels, but he would not say whether he planned to run for statewide office. He didn't say no, either.

An announcement about his future plans, he said, would come in about three weeks after he has some time to relax.

Shapleigh's good friend El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez was one of the few people not surprised by Friday's news.

Rodriguez said Shapleigh told him last week he planned not to seek re-election. During that conversation he said Shapleigh mentioned that he might consider a run for statewide office.

Shapleigh was elected to the Senate in 1996 and helped lead efforts to establish a four-year medical school in El Paso, the first on the U.S.-Mexico border. [Correction: The University of California San Diego School of Medicine opened in 1968. The school in El Paso is the first medical school on the Texas-Mexico border.]

He has been among the most liberal Democrats in the Texas Senate, a vocal critic of Republican leadership and a lonely proponent of establishing a state income tax. He has fought to fund services for low- and middle-income families and chastised conservatives for slashing the budgets for children's health insurance and other programs.

Shapleigh's departure leaves open a Senate seat that has rarely been vacated.

Only three people, all Democrats, have held the seat since 1973: Shapleigh, Peggy Rosson, who served from 1991 to 1997, and Tati Santiesteban, who held the seat from 1973 to 1991.

Potential successors — mostly Democrats — are already stacking up. It's a solidly Democratic seat; over the last two election cycles, the average statewide Democrat beat the average statewide Republican by 25.7 percentage points.

Rodriguez said he plans to announce an exploratory committee to run for the Senate soon.

"I am going to be trying to gain support both here locally and in Austin in the next 30 days or so," he said.

Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, said his phone was ringing off the hook following Shapleigh's announcement. Most of the callers — legislators, lobbyists, El Paso politicos — were encouraging him to run, he said.

"I must have gotten a dozen calls this morning offering to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars," Pickett said. "I really have to think about it."

But Pickett said he might have more power and be able to do more good for El Paso in his current position as chairman of the House Transportation Committee.

"I have as much power as the senator does," he said.

State Rep. Norma Chavez, D-El Paso, said, "you bet" she's going to consider a run for the Senate seat.

"I finished my seventh term. I'm an accomplished legislator who will obviously look seriously at the Senate race," Chavez said, adding that she was already planning to do a countywide poll in November to gauge her support.

Former Republican state Rep. Pat Haggerty, caught during a round of golf in Austin, said he would consider running, but he added that a Republican couldn't win that seat. "If I ran, it wouldn’t be as a Republican," he said.

Other names circulating in the potential candidate list today include El Paso Mayor John Cook and Republican businessman Dee Margo, who challenged Shapleigh in 2006.

Margo, reached at a reunion in Nashville, Tenn., said he still hasn't made any decisions about running in 2010. He had previously said he wouldn't run against Shapleigh. Asked whether today's news changed the equation, Margo said, "I doubt it, but I don't know."

bgrissom@texastribune.org

by Matt Stiles and Elise Hu, The Texas Tribune On the day Gov. Rick Perry removed three forensic science commissioners, citing their expired terms, at least 100 appointees whose time was also up remained in their jobs.

The governor has said he followed the "the normal protocol of the state" in removing the three commissioners just 48 hours before they planned to review a report raising questions about an execution. But critics say Perry removed them to cover up the possibility that the state executed a man convicted on faulty evidence.

"These numbers are disturbing because, contrary to what Gov. Perry said, it was not a regular practice to remove these commissioners so quickly and on the verge of a very important hearing," said Barry Scheck, co-director of The Innocence Project, a group that helps the falsely accused. "It's more evidence that Gov. Perry's actions were not to get to the scientific truth of the matter but were self serving and calculated for political advantage."

The list of gubernatorial appointees who were serving after their terms were expired on September 30 also contains nine chairmen of state boards and commissions, according to data obtained by The Texas Tribune under the state's open-records law.

Chris Cutrone, a Perry spokesman, reviewed the list Monday afternoon and said some people with expired terms had been replaced or reappointed since September 30. The office did not have time to research each appointee's status, however.

"The majority of expired appointments are replaced when their terms are up, and these members were replaced," he said of the forensic science commissioners.

The appointees with expired terms represent just a fraction of the roughly 2,400 people serving now. The 103 people serving after their terms were up had overstayed their terms, on average, more than 100 days when the other commissioners were ousted. Several had overstayed their terms more than a year, the records show.

The Forensic Science Commission had scheduled a meeting to examine a report in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, a Corsicana man convicted of capital murder in the 1991 fire deaths of his three daughters. The state executed him in 2004, after numerous appeals, but some experts now question the investigative conclusions made by arson investigators at the time of the trial.

As the day of the commission's meeting approached, however, Perry announced the removal of chairman Sam Bassett, an Austin attorney, and two other panel members, including a Tarrant County prosecutor whose work has sent killers to Death Row.

Bassett said Monday that Perry aides questioned the scope and cost of the commission's work. He suspected he might be replaced when he learned that Perry aides were compiling a list of potential new commissioners.

"I'm not surprised that the commission was a priority for Gov. Perry because I know his office was concerned about the Willingham investigation," he said.

He said he remains proud of the work he and his colleagues performed on the commission.

"I'm sad that it has been delayed, and I hope that it hasn't been stopped," he said.

The new chairman, Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, delayed the meeting, and it's unclear when or if it might be rescheduled. Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the criminal justice committee has scheduled a meeting on the issue for November 10.

"There wasn't going to be enough time for me to learn about the case before the hearing," Bradley said after his appointment.

Craig Beyler, an arson expert hired by the commission, concluded that arson investigators in the Willingham case didn't use scientifically supported techniques and displayed "poor understandings of fire science."

Perry refers to people who question the evidence as "supposed experts," and strongly supported the execution and Willingham's conviction, calling him a "monster."

The forensic commission investigates complaints that allege professional negligence or misconduct in the use of scientific evidence from criminal cases. It doesn't have authority to make legal conclusions about Willingham's guilt or innocence, but it was expected to release its own report about the fire investigation.

"It is not unusual for gubernatorial appointments to lag, but this new information suggests a unique urgency in replacing members of the Forensic Science Commission on the eve of a critical meeting to review an independent, renowned expert's report on the faulty arson science used to convict Cameron Todd Willingham," said Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston. "This new information raises new questions about why Governor Perry replaced several members of the Forensic Science Commission when he did. Those questions need to be answered."

mstiles@texastribune.org


ehu@texastribune.org

by Emily Ramshaw, The Texas Tribune Want a cheap house for your large family? Texas has you covered. The state is home to the largest average household and lowest median home value in the nation, according to new data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Odessa takes the prize for cheapest home; the median home value is $68,200. Meanwhile, Laredo shares its largest average household ranking – 3.5 people per home -- with Provo, Utah. In Provo, 88 percent of residents are Mormon, a faith known for its large families. Texas is also home to the U.S. city with the highest percentage of people who speak a language other than English. More than 84 percent of people over age 5 in McAllen speak a language other than English at home, compared to 1.8 percent in Charleston, W.Va, which is on the other end of that ranking. The language isn't specified in the survey, but it's a safe bet that it's Spanish. The second place city is also in Texas. In El Paso, more than three-quarters of people speak a language other than English. The American Community Survey covers socioeconomic, housing and demographic characteristics for the three-year period between 2006 and 2008. eramshaw@texastribune.org

With three days left to go, only 103,992 Texans had voted early on 11 proposed constitutional amendments in the state's biggest counties.The turnout was bad even in Houston, where races for mayor and other city posts are on the ballot. According to the Texas Secretary of State's office, just under 43,000 had voted in Harris County, which includes Houston. That's about 2.3 percent of the registered voters there. The vote totals aren't available for all of the 254 counties in Texas, but the SOS reports daily on activity in the top 15 counties. Through the first nine days of early voting, 1.3 percent of registered voters had voted in those counties. Three days, including today, remain. And Election Day is November 3 — next Tuesday.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Hank Gilbert's new transportation plan includes an eight-cent-per-gallon increase in gasoline taxes, which would then be indexed to something called the highway cost index. He wants an elected transportation commission replacing the one appointed by the governor. And he'd kill toll roads, with the exception of toll roads that first won approval from voters.

The Texas Medical Association's PAC voted to endorse Gov. Rick Perry over U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican gubernatorial primary. So did the PAC of the Texas Association of Builders.

Gov. Rick Perry personally endorsed Doug Hoffman, who's running for Congress in New York's CD-23. That's a little off the beaten path. The address the governor listed in his email endorsement wasn't his campaign office, the Capitol, or the home he's renting in West Austin. It was the address for the Governor's Mansion, which is being rebuilt after an arson fire.

While we have the travelogue open, Perry got campaign visits (in Fredericksburg and Dallas) from Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.

Former major league pitcher Nolan Ryan endorsed former minor league pitcher Roger Williams for U.S. Senate. Williams, a former Texas secretary of state, wants to run for Kay Bailey Hutchison's seat if the senator resigns to run for governor.

by Brandi Grissom, The Texas Tribune Starting Monday, U.S. Border Patrol plans to ship about 100 undocumented immigrants a day from Arizona back to Mexico through a remote border entry point in Presidio, and Gov. Rick Perry is displeased.

“Turning the Presidio area into a way station for the repatriation of illegal immigrants adds responsibility to local authorities and holds the potential of increasing the strain on local and state infrastructure and resources,” Perry said Saturday.

Perry sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano urging her to stop the Alien Transfer and Exit Program, or ATEP.

Bill Brooks, spokesman for the Border Patrol Marfa Sector, where Presidio is located, said the plan would not create any burden on the local community.

Local officials, including Presidio's mayor and law enforcement, he said, have been consulted about the plan.

“We’ve got plenty of Border Patrol agents,” he said. “It’s our job to interdict people trying enter our country illegally.”

Under the program, undocumented immigrants apprehended in Arizona will be transported to Presidio, then deported to Mexico.

Immigrants who are caught crossing illegally in Arizona and deported, Brooks said, often just come right back.

By shipping them to the remote countryside between Presidio and Ojinaga, Mexico, Border Patrol is hoping to decrease the likelihood of repeat illegal entry.

“It’s difficult to get anywhere if you come across there,” he said.

The plan will bring two buses per day to Texas, each with 74 undocumented immigrants. The immigrants will be checked for health problems and will have signed voluntary deportation agreements. The program will not involve immigrants charged with criminal violations, Brooks said.

Mexican officials are participating and will provide the immigrants with bus tickets to their hometowns, Brooks said.

“Every day we send people across the border down there,” he said. “We don’t have problems with them coming back immediately in this area.”

But Perry said he was worried the plan would result in more illegal immigration to Texas, which already has a large undocumented population.

“Texans will not stand for federal programs burdening our state and communities with the nation’s illegal immigrants,” he wrote.

bgrissom@texastribune.org