2010: Clean Slate

Remember Van Taylor? The one-time congressional candidate plans to run for the Texas House — for seat opened when Rep. Brian McCall decided not to seek reelection. If you're the sort of nerd who follows this stuff, you've already noticed the change in locale. Taylor ran for Congress in 2006— against U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco. At the time, Taylor hailed from West, a small town on I-35 north of Waco where everybody stops for kolaches and gasoline. He got a full-court press in that one, with endorsements from Gov. Rick Perry and several members of the Bush Administration (the district's most prominent resident at the time was George W. Bush), and from then U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert. He took shots from Edwards for owning, according to his financial disclosures at the time, $5 million to $25 million in Exxon stock. At the time, gas prices were high enough to be a political issue. Taylor managed only 40 percent in the election.

Now he's in Plano for an open seat race in the Texas Legislature. He joins a field that includes former Plano City Councilwoman Mabrie Griffith Jackson and businessman Wayne Richard. Taylor's a Harvard grad and served in the first Iraq conflict with the Marines.