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State Rep. Brian McCall, R-Plano

Brian McCall, a key member of House Speaker Joe Straus' leadership team, won't seek reelection next year

Rick Perry leads Kay Bailey Hutchison by 11 points in a new Rasmussen survey that's out this morning.

Hmm, maybe the Great Burka is right.

Former VP Dick Cheney is coming back to Texas. He'll be at a Houston fundraiser for gubernatorial hopeful Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Republican Brian Walker, who lost a close race to Democrat Chuck Hopson in 2008, endorsed Hopson's reelection bid next year — now that Hopson has switched to the GOP.

Rep. Brian McCall, R-Plano, is endorsing State Board of Education wannabe Thomas Ratliff, an important move because Collin County is a key part of that race's geography.

Bill White is still running for the U.S. Senate, according to aides and to White himself, in response to a flurry of weekend rumors that he's switching to the race for governor.

Today in El Paso, County Attorney Jose Rodriguez announced he is running for the state Senate seat that Democrat Eliot Shapleigh is giving up.

El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez is expected to announce tomorrow at an El Paso press conference that he will run for the Texas Senate seat that state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh is vacating.

Albert Alvidrez, a former governor of the Tigua tribe in El Paso, is mulling a run for the Texas Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Sen. Eliot Shapleigh. But having Alvidrez in the Senate might not earn the tribe another vote for gambling rights.

El Paso Republican Rene Diaz invited us at The Texas Tribune this morning to join him on his "journey" as he runs for the Texas House. Diaz is going to run for the HD78 seat that Democrat Joe Moody now represents.

Another Texan is running for the U.S. Senate -- but in an actual race, not a hypothetical one that depends on dominoes falling, and not in Texas. Austin native Carly Fiorina, the ousted CEO of Hewlett-Packard and a chastened adviser to John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, made formal today her plans to seek the Republican nomination for the California Senate seat now held by Barbara Boxer.

So Houston hair-care king Farouk Shami is in the race, pledging to spend $10 million to win a Democratic primary in which the majority of voters are still undecided. Among the interesting things to watch will be the dynamic between Shami and his rival for the nomination, Kinky Friedman, as the two are well acquainted: Shami was the subject of one of Kinky's fawning TEXAS MONTHLY columns (edited by yours truly) back in 2003 -- the sort of piece in which he would go all gooey over someone he professes to love, like Racehorse Haynes or Jim Nabors.

El Paso business developer Jay Kleberg confirmed Sunday that he will run as a Republican in 2010 against state Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso.

The Texas Association of Manufacturers — one of the first groups to back the 2006 rewrite of the corporate franchise tax — endorsed Gov. Rick Perry over U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the 2010 gubernatorial race.