Yet Another Sign

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison told her colleagues in the Senate that she won't be seeking reelection to her Senate leadership job, and on a little (but not much) more private level, she's telling colleagues she'll soon form an "exploratory" committee to start raising money and gathering intelligence in anticipation of a 2010 run for governor.

Hutchison, who strongly considered running for the top state job in 2002 and again in 2006, has been telling potential supporters and campaign finance people that she'll run in 2010. But giving up power in Washington, D.C., is further than she's gone before. You know the difference between being involved and being committed? When you have bacon and eggs for breakfast, the chicken is involved. The pig is committed. Hutchison isn't all in yet, but she's going that way.

She's the policy chair of the Senate Republican Conference. Asked about what she said to the Republicans, her office issued a statement. "In order to explore new opportunities that many Texans have asked me to consider, I informed my colleagues in the Senate today that I would not seek re-election as Chair of the Republican Policy Committee. I have been honored to serve in the leadership for eight years, and have especially enjoyed shaping our policy positions in my current role; however, it is in the best interests of the conference to elect a new policy committee chairman who can commit full attention throughout the next Congress to Policy Committee responsibilities."

Gov. Rick Perry has said he'll run for reelection to a third term. There's no reason not to believe that, but Perry's also got to preserve his power going into the 2009 legislative session; being a lame duck wouldn't help with the Legislature in town.

We're told that state Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, is close to the $300,000 mark with her federal fund-raising for a potential U.S. Senate race. She's in "exploratory" mode right now, saying she's interested in running if Kay Bailey Hutchison's seat becomes available. Hutchison hasn't announced, but didn't get out a can of RAID when Shapiro got in, and they have at least one major consultant in common.

All in One Stable

A new group formed to push the Legislature to allow more gambling opportunities at Texas racetracks puts all the ponies in one corral.

Texas HORSE — which stands Horse Organizations for Racing, Showing and Event — consolidates the American Quarter Horse Association, American Paint Horse Association, National Cutting Horse Association, Texas Arabian Breeders Association, Texas Quarter Horse Association and Texas Thoroughbred Association. They say they want to present "a unified front" next year in yet another effort to legalize casino-style games at the state's 13 licensed tracks.

The racing industry, with the sometimes on-and-off support of such state leaders as Gov. Rick Perry, then Agriculture Commissioner and now Comptroller Susan Combs, and former Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, has been trying to convince lawmakers since 2003 to open up the state to the kind of gambling that's long been legal in all the U.S. states that border Texas.

But each session, the effort sputters. And it doesn't seem to matter whether the state's facing a daunting budget crisis, like the near-$10 billion hole in '03, or the coffers are overflowing, as Combs is projecting, informally, for 2009.

"It is time to put Texas horses and Texas horsemen out in front of this legislative effort," said Jim Helzer, an Arlington quarterhorseman who was elected president of the new group at its organizational meeting in July. "Passage of (new gambling legislation) will have a tremendous positive impact on the agricultural economy and on rural development in Texas."

Under the proposal being backed by HORSE, the money generated from additional gambling would be pumped into a Performance Horse Development Fund, which would be used to promote such non-racing equine activities as cutting, reining, barrel racing, team roping, Western pleasure, rodeo and trail rides.

There would also be money for the racehorses and for such initiatives as health care for low-income Texans and for better roads and highways, they say.

State Rep. Sid Miller, the Stephenville Republican who chairs the House Agriculture and Livestock Committee, said he expects to hear pitches from HORSE and some of the other pro-gambling organizations when his panel meets next week (October 1) at Tarleton State University to discuss ways to bump up purses for a variety of horse events.

But Miller remains skeptical that the 81st Legislature will have any greater appetite for gambling that the ones that came before.

"I expect we'll hear all sorts of proposals for VLTs (video lottery terminals) and everything else, but I'm just not convinced they can pass," Miller said. "I agree we need to do something for the horsemen, but I think we need to be looking at other alternatives."

One option, he said, would be to follow Kentucky's lead and levy a sales tax on horse-breeding fees. And even as HORSE and other groups continue to explore ways to make gambling more appealing to lawmakers, forces on the other side are gearing up to go toe-to-toe with them.

Weston Ware, who over the past two decades-plus has waged battles against pari-mutuel betting, the lottery, and casinos, has reactivated his group Texans Against Gambling with online petitions and money-solicitations of $10 to $100 to counter the much better-financed pro-gambling organizations. He said 250 online signatures were gathered within the first week of his plea.

"We put lawmakers on notice that voters across the state will oppose any action that might lead to expanded gambling in Texas," Ware said.

—by John Moritz

Seeing Red, Feeling Blue

Democrats in HD-52 say Williamson County is headed in their direction. They've got quite a rally going around their candidate, Diana Maldonado. But Republican candidate Bryan Daniel says he doesn't think the district is going blue, and other Republicans say the Democrats are misreading the results of the 2006 elections.

Democrats need to win five seats to take over the House, and this is one of several they're counting on. Republican incumbent Mike Krusee has held the seat since 1993. In 2006, he defeated Democrat Karen Felthauser by only 2,333 votes (50.4 percent to her 44.2 percent — Libertarian Lillian Simmons got 5.3 percent and she's going for it again this year), and Felthauser did it without much money and with no significant outside help. It looked to some like Democrats were rising in the district. Others thought the result had more to do with dissatisfaction over the incumbent than in any change in the electorate. About the same number of Democrats turned out for this year's primary (16,870) as for the 2006 general election.

"Since the primary, the energy is really picking up," says Maldonado, a former Round Rock School Board Trustee. "We have so many groups coming out to block walk — high school seniors, the UT Democrats and even a group from San Angelo came out."

She says some of her Democratic friends have had to "go Republican" in the past to maintain their businesses or form associations, but "with a good slate of Democratic candidates, they are able to come out and be themselves." Maldonado also says growth and changing demographics in Williamson County mean a shift to the left.

Daniel isn't buying it.

"I haven't seen evidence of a huge shift in conservative versus liberal," he says. "People are going around saying District 52 is becoming more liberal, but I'm certainly not seeing that in the issues with my voters. I think they're the same as they've been in the last eight to ten years."

Daniel, an agricultural insurance exec, says growth has certainly brought new voters and with that, an atmosphere that invites political discussion, but overall, he believes Williamson County has retained conservative values.

Mid-year reports with the Texas Ethics Commission shows Maldonado is way ahead financially with almost $139,000 in contributions and just over $129,000 left over in cash. She's been campaigning since July 2007. Bryan had raised about $60,000 since the primary and held on to half of it, but he didn't start raising money until January. New reports are due soon — 30 days before the November 4 election.

The candidates aren't getting after each other too much — both say in their own words that they're focusing on the issues, from toll roads to the margins tax. (You can catch videos of their recent debate in Hutto here.)

But, Maldonado has criticized Daniel for taking contributions from Bob Perry of Perry Homes in Houston — in light of the Sunset Advisory Commission's recommendation to abolish the Texas Residential Construction Commission. "It's a problem if we want change," she says. "We have to be committed to make sure we don't have anymore cronyism, scare tactics and back room deals that the current leadership has put us in."

Daniel says that Maldonado takes donations from trial lawyers and has no room to talk. Maldonado says trial lawyers are playing because there's a speaker's race underway and she's a vote against the incumbent, Tom Craddick of Midland. Daniel hasn't specified whether he'll support Craddick if elected.

"He's proven to be very conservative," she says. "It's the same tired politics, he's pretty much going down that path."

The only thing these candidates really agree on is their parties' respective presidential tickets — both are sure the top of the ticket is going to bring big crowds to their downballot race.

—by Karie Meltzer

Storm Damage

Hurricane Ike threw a campaign curveball at the candidates in CD-22. U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford, who's also busy with congressional work on the Wall Street bailout, is taking a complete break from campaigning. His opponent, Pete Olson, is trying to balance campaigning and recovery efforts.

The district covers four counties — Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston and Harris. Damage and power outages were pretty widespread, and there are still hundreds of thousands of homes and offices without power. With so many displaced voters, the candidates have lost ad space all around. But that's not a total loss, politically — they gained face time with voters.

"He was all over the district," says Lampson spokesman Trevor Kincaid, "talking to people on the ground and calling mayors to make sure the federal and state governments were responding to their needs."

Lampson also helped get a mobile FEMA unit set up in Galveston.

"He hasn't been able to be here constantly," says Sue Funkhouser, chair of the Brazoria County Democrats, "but he's made his presence known. I don't know that he's been necessarily hurt by this."

Power outages forced the Olson campaign to shut down for a while, but they're getting back into the game. "We spent that time volunteering in the district and we're slowly beginning to campaign in the district where it's appropriate," Olson says. "There are certainly some areas that have a long way to go."

Both campaigns say their main focus is getting the district back to some state of normalcy, so there's no clear vision of how the next few weeks will play out.

Even debates are shaky. Olson wanted four, but Lampson just agreed to one. Then he cancelled one scheduled for October 20 at the Rosenberg-Richmond Chamber of Commerce. That didn't make the chamber's CEO Gail Parker too happy. They had another debate scheduled for October 1 at the Hilton Houston NASA Clear Lake (say that five times fast), but the hotel suffered major damage. It's safe to say next week's debate might not happen, even though the campaigns are looking for a new location.

"The campaign is on the back burner," says Kincaid, "but we're looking forward to a debate. It's just a question of where and when."

At mid-year, Lampson was ahead in the money game with about $1,600,000 in donations. He'd spent just over $600 thousand. Olson had raised about $1,300,000 — but his spending (lots on consultants) left him with just over $200,000 in cash. He says the funding situation is what led him to launch a new campaign Web site about Lampson's record.

"We're acting like we're behind," says Olson, "When people say this is a Republican district and stronghold and we should win comfortably, I don't believe it. We're not acting that way."

—by Karie Meltzer

Nope

The Texas Supreme Court, without comment, left the Democratic and Republican presidential tickets on the Texas ballot, denying a Libertarian claim that the two parties missed a state deadline.

Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr sued the state, saying the major party conventions nominated their candidates after the state's statutory deadline had passed. Barr contended he was the only candidate with the legal right to appear on the Texas ballot.

The Supremes disagreed, without offering any written opinion or explanation. Your ballot will have Barr, John McCain and Barack Obama on it.

The big parties lauded the decision, but the chairman of the Texas Libertarian Party said it left questions unanswered: "We are naturally disappointed that the Supreme Court has refused to enforce the law against Republicans and Democrats in this case, when courts have repeatedly enforced the law against Libertarians, other minor parties, and independents in past cases," said Pat Dixon. He complained that the lack of a written opinion leaves unclear whether and when the deadlines are meant to be enforced.

Russell Verney, a spokesman for the Barr campaign, had a similar reaction. "The Court’s one-sentence denial deprived us, and the voters of Texas, of any explanation of the Court's reasons for arbitrarily exempting the Republicans and the Democrats from the clear deadline set forth in the law," he said. "Third parties and Independent candidates are consistently told that deadlines are deadlines. Texas has somehow determined that deadlines are just suggestions but we are left without the guidance of the Court’s reasons."

Political Notes

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn hit the airwaves (after a hurricane delay) with an ad calling for change in Washington, D.C., and another calling for help for Texans set back and displaced by storms. Both Cornyn ads — like the Republican incumbent's new website — are in black and white. The first, called "Palo Duro," will air in 16 Texas TV markets and also in online ads on more than a dozen Texas newspaper websites. And they're holding off in Houston and Beaumont, where people are dealing with aftereffects of Hurricane Ike, for at least a week. The second ad, called "Help," is airing in 18 TV markets, including Houston and Beaumont. Democrat Rick Noriega hasn't yet announced an ad campaign for the last weeks of the election season, but he does have a response ad — called "All by Himself — on the Internet.

• Two of Corpus Christi's TV stations refused ads from the Nueces County GOP, saying the commercials tying an indicted lawyer to Democratic officeholders didn't pass their fact checks. The party revised the ad to keep it on a third station. It tries to link money donated by Mauricio Celis to Reps. Juan Garcia of Corpus and Abel Herrero of Robstown. The ads say Celis gave to a PAC that in turn gave to the two candidates and says their elections were tainted as a result. Herrero has said he took the contributions in good faith and did nothing improper. Garcia's campaign has documented the PAC's spending to show that it had used all of Celis' money and replenished its balance with other contributions before giving to Garcia. After Celis' indictment, both candidates made charitable contributions with the money he'd donated this cycle.

• The Texas Farm Bureau's AGFUND — that's their political action committee — endorsed U.S. Sen. John Cornyn for reelection over Democrat Rick Noriega. The PAC affiliate of the Texas Association of Realtors endorsed Bryan Daniel over Diana Maldonado in HD-52. Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, picked up the Texas Parent PAC's endorsement; she's running against Republican Pamela Waggoner. Rep. Juan Garcia, D-Corpus Christi, got an endorsement from CLEAT (the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas) in his race against former Rep. Todd Hunter.

• House Speaker Tom Craddick is hosting a funder for Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, in Austin early next month — no surprise there. But the special guest is interesting: Karen Hughes, former top aide to President George W. Bush.

• Nine Republican House candidates — only two of them current incumbents — made the list of people who'll benefit from a "Red River Rivalry Fundraiser" in Dallas on the Friday before the UT-OU football game. The roster: Rep. Tony Goolsby and former Rep. Bill Keffer of Dallas, Rep. Bill Zedler and Mark Shelton of Fort Worth, Ralph Sheffield of Temple, Tim Kleinschmidt of Lexington, Mike Anderson of Mesquite, Ken Legler of Pasadena, and Bryan Daniel of Georgetown. All but one of those is considered a real race: Sheffield is running against Democrat Sam Murphey in a solidly Republican district, but some political types on both sides have that contest on their "sleeper" lists.

• They delayed elections in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina and even after Gustav. Now a group of Texans is asking for a delay not in the election date but in the deadline for voter registration. The law gives Texans about a week — until October 6 — to sign up. These folks are asking Gov. Rick Perry to extend the deadline because of Ike: League of Women Voters of Texas, Houston Votes, Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, Common Cause, and the People for the American Way Foundation.

• That Houston conference on transportation we told you about last week? Moved to December 3, courtesy of Ike. You can get details from the Texas Lyceum, which is hosting.

• The next turn of the screw in the Brimer-Davis eligibility fight is set for Thursday, October 2, when the two sides argue before the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas. Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, sued to knock Democrat Wendy Davis out of contention, saying she wasn't off the Fort Worth city council soon enough to qualify for the Senate race. The courts might not be able to take her off the ballot this late, if they think that's the thing to do, but they could tell election officials not to count the votes of an illegal candidate.

• The Speaker's Golf Tournament raised $590,000 for childhood immunizations according to Speaker Tom Craddick's office. That money goes to the Caring for Children Foundation.

• Joan Huffman, one of six candidates running for Sen. Kyle Janek's open SD-17 seat, signed the Grover Norquist tax pledge, saying she will "oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes." That's sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform — Norquist's group. Huffman joins 15 challengers in Texas and 38 state legislators (including Janek) who've taken the pledge.

• Michael Skelly is touting, in his plea for funds, a new poll showing him seven percentage points behind U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, and saying he started 20 points back.

Political People and Their Moves

The new deputy executive director at the Teacher Retirement System is Brian Guthrie, until recently the number two guy in Gov. Rick Perry's office of budget, planning and policy. That came on a 5-4 vote, with some teacher groups nervous about the Guv's influence at TRS.

The Texas Observer has a new editor: Bob Moser, a writer and editor for The Nation and former editor of the Independent Weekly, will take over next month. He's the replacement for Jake Bernstein, who left for a reporting job with New York-based Pro Publica.

Bob Strauser is retiring from Baker Botts, but not from lobbying. He's opening a legislative consulting shop of his own. Strauser says he'll share offices with former Sen. Buster Brown starting next month.

The latest escapee from the Pink Building is Royce Poinsett, general counsel to House Speaker Tom Craddick. He's joining the lobby team at the McGinnis Lochridge & Kilgore law firm.

David Dunn is the founding executive director of the Texas Charter School Association. He's got a lot of history in Texas, but was most recently chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.

Anne Dunkelberg of the Center for Public Policy Priorities won the distinguished public service award from the alumni association at UT's LBJ School of Public Affairs. She's a 1988 grad.

Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, is getting this year's National Distinguished Advocacy Award from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. That national group picks one state lawmaker for the award every year.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed former Houston Oiler Matthew Cody Carlson of Austin to the Governor’s Advisory Council on Physical Fitness. Carlson is now a private investor.

Perry named Bob Barnes of Granbury (formerly of Odessa, where he ran for state office) to the board of the Texas Mutual Insurance Co. Barnes has a real estate and management company and is a former CEO of Schlotzsky's Ltd.

He named three to the State Board of Podiatric Medical Examiners: Dr. James Michael Lunsford of Katy; Dr. Joe Martin Jr., a podiatrist with the Scott and White Clinic of College Station; and James Michael Miller of Aledo, a retired Fort Worth police supervisor.

Speaker Craddick reappointed Kathleen Hartnett White to the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan Advisory Board. She's a former Texas Commissioner on Environmental Quality who now works at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an Austin-based think tank.

Deaths: U.S. District Judge Barefoot Sanders of Dallas, a one-time U.S. Senate candidate and three-term Texas state representative who presided over long and contentious lawsuits desegregating the Dallas public schools and overhauling state schools for mentally disabled Texans. He was 83.

Quotes of the Week

Houston Mayor Bill White, angry about a line of supplies that wasn't getting to the line of people who needed them, quoted in the Houston Chronicle: "You need to be getting these (bleeping) trucks out of here."

Former Public Utility Commissioner Julie Parsley, quoted in a Houston Chronicle story about whether the state's utilities should upgrade to more hurricane-resistant infrastructure: "If you've got a lawn chair that's flying through the air at 100 miles an hour, it's going to take out a line."

Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, quoted by the Associated Press on whether to build along the beaches on the Texas coast: "You want to have at least a complete all four seasons and find out what Mother Nature is actually going to do until she finishes what she's going to do."

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, quoted by The New York Times from an address in England: "At this point I should note that for the first time, both the United States secretary of state and secretary of defense have doctorates in Russian studies. A fat lot of good that's done us."

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Texas Weekly: Volume 25, Issue 37, 29 September 2008. Ross Ramsey, Editor. Copyright 2008 by Printing Production Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. One-year online subscription: $250. For information about your subscription, call (512) 302-5703 or email biz@texasweekly.com. For news, email ramsey@texasweekly.com, or call (512) 288-6598.