Enlarge Gage Skidmore

Rick Santorum getting out of the race for president presents two interesting problems in Texas. First, he'll be on the Republican primary ballot anyhow — it's too late to get off. Second, without a fight at the top of the ticket, turnout will probably slide.

Who benefits? It's hard to get a straight answer. The campaigns are all in the sales business, basically, and they're all full of reasons why lower turnout would benefit their candidate, whether that candidate is a social conservative, a moderate, an incumbent, a challenger, a dog or a cat.

Turnout in 2008 — a banner year, in comparison — was sort of a stinker. Just 7.7 percent of the voting age population showed up for the Republican primary and 16.2 percent showed up for the Democratic primary (a fight that year between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama).

In a state where the Republican primary was the only real challenge to anyone seeking statewide office, fewer than 682,000 votes were all it took to win. John McCain won in Texas that year, but just cleared the halfway point, with 51.2 percent of the vote. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, for all practical purposes out of the race by then, got 38 percent in the GOP primary here. With the battle on the other side, it took more than 1.4 million voters to win a Democratic nomination.

That was in a year with a bigger than normal turnout. Now the political world is full of spin and gossip about who will vote. Old people? Hard core activists? Which kind of hard-core activists? Tort reformers? Social conservatives? Tea partiers?

It's safe to say the uncertainty makes people nervous. But the candidates have relatively good lists of people who always vote in Republican primaries and for bond elections and such. They have reasonable maps that show local races could gin up significant local interest in places like the suburban counties south of Houston, in Collin and Tarrant counties were there are more than one hotly contested races, and so on.

And they know this: People are voting early more than they used to. One experienced consultant in a Senate campaign is predicting more than half of the voting will be done before Election Day. That can be read as an argument for early spending on ads — whether they're on social media, the internet, TV, radio, 4x8s, cable, door hangers, yard signs, sound trucks, bumper stickers emery boards, funeral fans, combs, or whatever you want to imagine.

The election is just over six weeks away. Early voting begins two weeks before that. A couple of candidates have already started ad campaigns that probably won't stop until the voting is over. They're trying to excite an electorate that, with a late date following a holiday and no fight at the top of the ticket, could be shrinking to a small and unpredictable size.

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This week in the Newsreel: The effect Rick Santorum's departure from the GOP presidential nomination race will have on the Texas primary and turnout, and the third anniversary of Gov. Rick Perry's first date with the Tea Party.

You can view the video at: https://trib.it/HEEYPp

Enlarge Marjorie Kamys Cotera

Sen. John Whitmire D-Houston listens during an October 4th, 2011 business and commerce committee meeting.

A parade of crime victims service providers pleaded with the Senate Criminal Justice Committee this week to find a way to keep funding the critical support they offer to those who have been raped, robbed and otherwise traumatized by criminals.

“These are children who are young, who are traumatized and who are floating in strange water,” Vicki Spriggs, CEO of Texas Court Appointed Special Advocates, told lawmakers of the youths her agency works with who have been removed from their parents’ care.

Crime victims organizations statewide are bracing for up to a 50-percent cut in financing from the Texas Compensation to Victims of Crime Fund in 2013. A perfect storm of declining revenue, inaccurate financial forecasting and penny-pinching by lawmakers resulted in a projected $16 million shortfall in the fund. And Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office, which manages the fund, has told groups like the CASA to start scrimping and saving.

At the interim hearing Wednesday, Daniel Hodge, first assistant attorney general, told committee Chairman Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, that they need to find a solution not only for the 2013 shortfall, but for fixing the fund’s revenue stream for the long term.

The fund was created in 1979 to help offset the costs associated with victimization, like funeral expenses and medical bills. Lawmakers hoped to ease the rehabilitation process for victims and increase the likelihood that they would be able to help police catch perpetrators. 

The law requires the AG’s office to cover 100 percent of the expenses of individual crime victims who qualify for reimbursement. Remaining money can then be used to provide grants to other agencies that provide services to victims. In 2011, the fund budget was estimated at more than $85 million, according to a legislative appropriations request from the AG's office.

For years, those remaining funds — millions of dollars — have gone to services like CASA, rape crisis centers and family violence prevention groups.

But last year as lawmakers were scrounging to fill a multibillion-dollar budget shortfall, they allocated excess money that they expected to be available in the crime fund to pay for other victims’ services that had previously been paid for with general revenue. The problem is that they relied on an overestimation to allocate those funds. That overestimation created the current shortfall.

The long-term funding problem, though, is more systemic, Hodge explained to the committee. The fund relies on the collection of court fees by counties. The amount of fees collected, though, has been falling by about 3 percent per year for several years, he said.

The largest 10 cities and counties in Texas, excluding San Antonio and Corpus Christi, he said reported about $210 million in uncollected court costs.

“We do need to look at what dollars are not being collected that could be,” Hodge said.

In a comment that surely was of little comfort to advocates for the service providers in the audience at the hearing, Whitmire said that although their work is worthwhile, lawmakers should focus on the core purpose of the fund: directing payments to victims.

“What’s kind of frustrating, or sad, is that there are so many good competing interests,” Whitmire said, adding that the state isn’t likely to have any more money during the next legislative session than they had in the last. In the interim, he said, they’ll be looking for solutions to keep funding the increased need for services with a dwindling state budget.

Enlarge Julian Aguilar

U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso

Former President Bill Clinton will visit El Paso later this month to endorse U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes. The incumbent faces a tough primary challenge this year.

• U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison endorsed Jason Villalba of Dallas in the open HD-114 Republican primary.

• Democrat Sylvia Romo got the political blessings of former U.S. Rep. Bob Krueger and his wife, former New Braunfels Mayor Pro-tem Kathleen Krueger, in her bid for a new congressional seat that includes parts of San Antonio and Austin and points in between. Romo, Bexar County's Tax Assessor-Collector, faces U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Austin in that race.

• Attorney General Greg Abbott is still politically busy, endorsing Rep. Marva Beck, R-Centerville, over a primary challenger; House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, who's got three challengers; Rep. Barbara Nash, R-Arlington; and Barry Smitherman for the Texas Railroad Commission. Pitts also picked up the endorsements of the NRA and the Texas State Rifle Association.

• Rep. Alma Allen, D-Houston, won endorsements from the GLBT Political Caucus and the Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas Action Fund; she's got a primary challenger this year.

• Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, picked up an endorsement from Texas Right to Life for his primary rematch with former Rep. Tommy Merritt, also R, also Longview.

• On the web: Senate candidate Ted Cruz has a new website — dewbious.com — hitting Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for his claims on budget and spending. Dewhurst says he's a conservative; Cruz says the lite guv is really a moderate.

Giovanni Capriglione, challenging Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Southlake, for the second time, is battling her with a website for the second time. This time, he's got "Liberal at heart" as the headline on VickiTruitt.org. She left a vestige of the last campaign on the web to torment him back: CorporateGraveRobbers.com. These things accumulate. His old one is still around, too: TruittBlewIt.com.

The Texas Home School Coalition PAC launched RobEissler.org to attack the chairman of the House Education. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, has a primary opponent.

• Tom Leppert's new TV ad in that race talks about those two while ignoring Craig James. The former Dallas mayor says he knows how to create jobs and the others in the race don't.

• It was Pledge Week for U.S. Senate candidate David Dewhurst. He signed what's known as the Grover Norquist pledge against tax increases for the Americans for Taxpayer Reform Group. And he signed Americans for Prosperity's "Defending the American Dream" pledge and their "Taxpayer Funded Lobbying Pledge," and their "No Climate Tax Pledge," promising his support for small government, for prohibition of lobbying by public entities or their hired representatives, and his opposition to climate change-related taxes.

• The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association's PAC is dribbling out endorsements one at a time. Most recently: Sen. Jeff Wentworth, in a reelection dogfight in SD-25; Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, in SD-30; Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, in SD-31; Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, in SD-4; Rep. Ralph Sheffield, R-Temple, in HD-55; Tony Dale, R-Cedar Park, running in the open HD-136; Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, in the open HD-24; Bennett Ratliff, R-Coppell, in the open HD-115; and Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, who's got a primary opponent.

• Michael Williams got the endorsements of the state's two Republican National Committee members, Bill Crocker and Borah Van Dormolen. Williams, a former Texas Railroad Commissioner and a one-time general counsel for the Republican Party of Texas, is running in the crowded race for CD-25.

• The new Texas Conservative Roundtable issued candidate ratings that differ in some significant ways from rankings issued by other conservative groups, but that didn't stop winners from claiming their victories. Rep. Wayne Christian, R-Center, is touting the scores he got. The ratings raised some eyebrows, giving top scores to legislators who aren't at the top of some rankings and lower scores to those who got high scores from other groups.

• Mineola school superintendent Mary Lookado got the endorsement of former Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff for her Republican primary challenge to Rep. Brian Hughes, R-Mineola. Hughes countered with endorsements from the GOP chairs of each of the district's six counties.

• State Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, running for an open congressional seat in CD-33, won endorsements from the Dallas County Young Democrats and the Dallas County Chapter of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats.

• TEXPAC, the Texas Medical Association's political arm, endorsed Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless, in his bid for the open SD-9 seat in the Senate. He faces fellow state Rep. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, in that one.

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With the Texas Ethics Commission up for Sunset Review this year, we turned to the state's ethics laws for this week's survey of political and government insiders. First, we asked whether the TEC should have more regulatory and enforcement powers, a question that elicited a "yes" from 57 percent of the insiders. A strong majority — 77 percent — said lobbyists who fail to make required disclosures or who fail to register should face tougher penalties than they currently face.

Should lawmakers be stripped of their state pensions for violating the state's ethics laws? This got a split response, with 42 percent saying yes and 37 percent saying no. In their comments, several insiders said it should depend on the severity of the violation.

Finally, we asked about third-party groups — those not set up for specific candidates or initiatives — and whether they ought to abide by the same reporting requirements as everyone else. Four of five respondents said yes.

The full set of verbatim comments is, as always, attached. Here's a sampling:

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

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Should the Texas Ethics Commission have greater regulatory and enforcement powers?"

• "Not unless the commission had greater autonomy."

• "Of course they should have more enforcement authority...but they should also have the power to dismiss 'petty' complaints."

• "There is no deterrent factor under current statutes."

• "How about it consistently enforce current regulations before granting it additional powers."

• "They should enforce what is already under their purview. Also, Ethics Commission needs to be funded to upgrade their technology to allow greater transparency and ease of review. The agency needs the right tools and staff to handle their current responsibilities."

• "The present system is largely complaint driven. It would be nice for the sheriff to act before he got a call from the posse."

• "They also need to be independent and free of partisan control."

• "People are quick to say 'more rules, harsher penalties' when they think the changes would create some immediate pain for their current enemies, but - as the old saying goes - be careful what you ask for."

• "The Ethics Commission has the horrible job of trying to regulate political speech. To give them more power to do so would idiotic. Why the left feels the need to regulate the first amendment is a 'mind boggling thing'"

• "But if the Ethics Commission gets enforcement powers, it'll just want to use them. Total buzz kill."

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

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Should there be stronger penalties for lobbyists who fail to register or make required disclosures?

• "Depends on the type and degree of the non-compliance."

• "Yes, with a caveat. The commission should not impose fines on someone who corrects a disclosure filing on their own. The current policy is to fine folks who self report errors in their filings. So, who on earth would ever correct a filing?"

• "But not for small or technical violations. Forgetting to report one dinner, no. But large sums + intent to conceal, yes."

• "Not unless there is some documented evidence of widespread failure to register or disclose."

• "Especially those that don't register. Lobbyists that are lawyers are making a mockery of the system. They are doing 'legal work' and therefore don't report."

• "The penalties are already pretty tough, but they're simply not enforced."

• "Maybe the media can do a better job of exposing abuse. That'd be a bigger club than a new rule."

• "Lobbyists who opt out of abiding by existing rules have an unfair 'market advantage'. It's in the best interests of all lobbyists to weed them out of the Capitol."

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

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Should legislators who violate state ethics laws be stripped of their state pensions?

• "Depends on the extent of the violation"

• "Not until there is better distinction between true violations and lesser penalties."

• "But only in severe cases. The reporting laws are tricky and mistakes are made. But if there is an intent to conceal and a large sum involved, then pensions should be lost. E.g., Joe Driver"

• "Kinda depends on the specific facts, no? Which state ethics laws? Intent to violate or inadvertently did so? Multiple offender/violator? If we do go along this, it shouldn't be limited to legislators. Executive branch officials should play by these rules, too. As should executive and legislative staffers."

• "Not all state ethics laws are equal, so the severity of the penalty should mirror the severity of the violation. But certainly a double-dipping violation like Joe Driver's should meet the minimum threshold for losing or reducing the amount of the legislator's state pension."

• "Do you honestly believe the Leg would penalize themselves?"

• "This is the real leverage. For major offenses that are unworthy of the office, you should lose the privileges of the office. Eric Johnson has shown political courage in bringing this issue to the forefront."

• "Personal experience with TEC shows that they are quick to bring down the hammer on tiny (but indisputable) technical violations while doing little or nothing about matters of substance. I would hate to see someone stripped of her pension for being 2 days late on a filing, or for putting the information in the wrong box."

• "They should literally be stripped and paraded through the streets past a taunting populace, but I'll settle for their pensions."

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

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Should third parties doing 'educational' campaigns during election season have the same reporting requirements as candidates and other campaigns?

• "While I don't think it would make a difference in the outcome of elections, I think it would lead to better policy because Legislators would have 'enemy lists'."

• "Everything should be transparent and reported."

• "Disclosure is always best."

• "We should always know where our 'education' is coming from and who is paying for it."

• "I'm sure unions and trial lawyers who 'educate' the electorate would like to have the same reporting requirements as candidates and other campaigns."

• "Grass roots lobbying is not presently covered. The state would be well served by a limited organizational disclosure of the existence and purpose of these organizations and who runs them."

• "If the third party includes the name of a candidate in its educational campaign, then it should be subject to reporting requirements. Heck, I would go further and say third party 'educational' campaigns that include the names of candidates in its 'educational' activities should not be eligible for tax exemptions."

• "No the right to petition the government and engage in political speech should not be burdened by reporting requirements."

• "The NAACP conducted ''educational campaigns'' and the powers that be in Alabama demanded that they disclose their membership lists. The NAACP refused, and the Supreme Court correctly recognized that citizens have a right to associate free from intimidation and reprisal. See NAACP v. Alabama (357 U.S. 449). Should Hamilton, Madison, and Jay have been forced to submit to 'reporting requirements' when writing the Federalist Papers?"

• "This is a GREAT idea, since I was kind of tired of that stuffy 1st Amendment thing anyway."

Our thanks to this week's participants: Keir Murray, Craig Murphy, Steve Murdock, Bee Moorhead, Robert Miller, Kathy Miller, Mike McKinney, Parker McCollough, Dan McClung, Bryan Mayes, Phillip Martin, Luke Marchant, Matt Mackowiak, Vilma Luna, Homero Lucero, Ruben Longoria, Leslie Lemon, Luke Legate, Donald Lee, Pete Laney, Sandy Kress, Tom Kleinworth, Richard Khouri, Robert Kepple, Mark Jones, Cal Jillson, Deborah Ingersoll, Shanna Igo, Ken Hodges, Jim Henson, John Heasley, Susan Hays, Adam Haynes, Albert Hawkins, Bill Hammond, Wayne Hamilton, Clint Hackney, John Greytok, Daniel Gonzalez, Eric Glenn, Bruce Gibson, Dominic Giarratani, Norman Garza, Wil Galloway, Alan Erwin, Jack Erskine, Jeff Eller, Richard Dyer, David Dunn, June Deadrick, Hector De Leon, Randy Cubriel, Harold Cook, John Colyandro, Lawrence Collins, Rick Cofer, George Cofer, Elna Christopher, William Chapman, Corbin Casteel, Tris Castaneda, Thure Cannon, Marc Campos, Jay Brown, Andy Brown, Chris Britton, Steve Bresnen, Hugh Brady, Tom Blanton, Allen Blakemore, Andrew Biar, Amy Beneski, Dave Beckwith, Walt Baum, Jay Arnold, Doc Arnold, George Allen, Clyde Alexander, Victor Alcorta, Jenny Aghamalian, Brandon Aghamalian, Cathie Adams, Gene Acuna, Angelo Zottarelli, Peck Young, Seth Winick, Michael Wilt, Ellen Williams, Woody Widrow, Darren Whitehurst, Ken Whalen, Ware Wendell, Trey Trainor, Trent Townsend, Russ Tidwell, Jay Thompson, Sherry Sylvester, Leslie Sullivan, Colin Strother, Bob Strauser, Keith Strama, Jason Stanford, Steve Stagner, Dennis Speight, Larry Soward, Todd Smith, Martha Smiley, Ed Small, Steve Scurlock, Bruce Scott, Stan Schlueter, Jim Sartwelle, Andy Sansom, Jason Sabo, Kim Ross, Tim Reeves, Karen Reagan, Bill Ratliff, Ted Melina Raab, Jay Propes, Kraege Polan, Royce Poinsett, Tom Phillips, Jerry Philips, Bill Pewitt, Gardner Pate, Nef Partida, Pat Nugent, Keats Norfleet.

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

Friday, April 13:

• U.S. Senate debate for Republican candidates; hosted by Belo; Austin (7 p.m.)
• Fundraiser for Railroad Commission candidate Greg Parker; New Braunfels (11 a.m.)

Sunday, April 15:

• Fundraiser for Texas Senate candidate Elizabeth Ames Jones; San Antonio (4 p.m.)
• Reception for Texas House candidate Robert Thomas; Austin (6 p.m.)

Monday, April 16:

• School finance lawsuit hearing begins in courtroom of District Judge John Dietz; Austin
• House Government Efficiency and Reform Committee hearing (10 a.m.)
• House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee hearing (10 a.m.)
• House Ways and Means Committee hearing (2 p.m.)
• Fundraiser for Texas House candidate Chris Paddie; Austin (4:30 p.m.)
• Fundraiser for Texas House candidate Tony Dale; Austin (4:30 p.m.)

Tuesday, April 17:

• House Redistricting Committee hearing (10 a.m.)
• Fundraiser for Texas Farm Team Fund with guest Jeb Bush; Austin (8 a.m.)
• Fundraiser for Texas House candidate Bennett Ratliff; Austin (4:30 p.m.)
• Fundraiser for U.S. House candidate K.P. George; Sugar Land (6 p.m.)

Wednesday, April 18:

• State Board of Education meeting; Austin (9 a.m.)
• House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee hearing (10 a.m.)
• House Agriculture and Livestock Committee hearing (1 p.m.)
• Fundraiser for Texas House Democratic Caucus; Buda (1 p.m.)
• Fundraiser for Texas House candidate Ryan Downton; Austin (6:30)

Thursday, April 19:

• State Board of Education meeting; Austin (9 a.m.)
• House Agriculture and Livestock Committee hearing; Bastrop City Hall (10 a.m.)

Friday, April 20:

• State Board of Education meeting; Austin (9 a.m.)

Texas toddlers being held in restraints as dentists at corporate-run clinics performed unnecessary root canals were among the dental horror stories told this week at a House Public Health Committee hearing at the state Capitol. Witnesses accused the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners, which regulates dental licensing in Texas, of ineptitude, a pattern of withholding or obscuring negative information about dentists, and failure to act against corporate-run dental clinics committing Medicaid fraud and harming patients. Others came to the board’s defense, saying that the new leadership is trying to fix mistakes from the past and that the board lacks the resources to do its job well.

Before Texas’ leading Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate joined in a live television debate (set for Friday night), a text message from one candidate to another brought about accusations of cheating. Former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz texted former ESPN Analyst Craig James on Wednesday afternoon suggesting a question setting up another candidate, David Dewhurst. Now they'll probably talk about the texting; Cruz wanted James to ask about Dewhurst skipping candidate forums around the state. 

Planned Parenthood branches in Texas have filed a federal lawsuit in an effort to block their exclusion from the state's Women's Health Program. After Texas' Republican leaders indicated their intent to start enforcing a state rule that bans "affiliates" of abortion providers from participating in the Medicaid-funded contraception and cancer-screening program, the Obama administration pulled federal financing from the program. Gov. Rick Perry has vowed that the state will find the money to continue the program without federal help — and that the rule banning Planned Parenthood clinics will stand. No clinics participating in the program have performed abortions. The lawsuit asks the court for an injunction to stop enforcement of the rule so that the Planned Parenthood clinics would be able to remain in the program past April 30.

A group of Texas lawmakers recently sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative and former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk asking him to consider including Mexico, whose five largest trading destinations include the trade districts of Laredo, El Paso and Houston, in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. They argue that including Mexico could add to the 6 million jobs supported by the current trade relationship. But others have reservations, citing how expanded free trade agreements like NAFTA could lead to lower wages in partnering countries and a loss of jobs in the U.S.

Even as the presidential field narrowed with Rick Santorum’s exit from the race, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul's chances of winning the Republican nomination don't appear to be any stronger. But the longtime Texas congressman isn't slowing down, and on Tuesday night — after Santorum suspended his campaign — Paul started a three-stop Texas town hall tour with a visit to the Texas A&M University campus.

Kerry Max Cook will get access to the DNA testing that he hopes will help bolster his claims of innocence in the 1977 murder of Linda Jo Edwards and force the court to exonerate him of the crime more than a decade after he was released from prison. But Cook will have to continue his quest in the same county where he had been found guilty twice before, though both convictions were overturned. Cook, who was released from prison more than a decade ago after spending about 20 years on death row, was convicted at age 22.

Buddy Garcia, a former aide to Gov. Rick Perry who has been serving on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, will take the empty seat at the Texas Railroad Commission until a new commissioner is chosen in the elections. Perry could have waited until after the May primaries (0r the July runoffs) and named the winner of the GOP contest between Warren Chisum, Christi Craddick, Roland Sledge, and three others. Or he could have appointed one of them, effectively making an endorsement in that race. This appointment dodges that bullet, gives Garcia another notch on his resume, and clears the way for Perry to name someone new at TCEQ.

Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, appointed Charles Matthews and Andrew Card Jr. to serve on the Select Committee on Economic Development.  Card, former chief of staff to President George W. Bush, is Acting Dean of The Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M University, and serves on the Advisory Board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Matthews, an attorney, served as Vice President and General Counsel for ExxonMobil until 2010.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed Stephen Bristow of Graham as judge of the 90th Judicial District Court in Young and Stephens counties. Bristow is an attorney in private practice, former Young County attorney, and former district attorney for Young and Stephens counties.

Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson named Lubbock County’s court administration director, David Slayton, the new administrative director of the Texas Office of Court Administration. Slayton was previously the court services supervisor for the U.S. District Court in Dallas.

Lt. Governor David Dewhurst appointed Jan Newton to the Sunset Advisory Commission. Newton is currently serving on the Northeast Power Coordinating Council.

Kim Bonnen re-joined the Locke Lord Texas Public Law Group. Most recently, she was an associate with Vinson & Elkins. She's married to Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton.

Lidia Agraz has been named executive director of the Texas Book Festival. She is a former vice president of government relations and public affairs for Time Warner Cable in Central Texas. 

Press corp moves: Dave Montgomery, late of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which closed its Austin bureau earlier this year, is joining the Fort Worth Business Press. He'll report from Austin for that publication, which is run by a former Startlegram publisher, Richard Connor.

Deaths: Bernard Rapoport, former chairman of the University of Texas Board of Regents, a generous philanthropist and a liberal stalwart who helped finance Democratic candidates and causes for decades. He was 94.

Carlos Truan, a Corpus Christi Democrat who started in the Texas House in 1969 and in the Senate, where he later became dean, in 1977. He was instrumental in establishing bilingual education in Texas public schools. Truan was 76.