Enlarge photo by: Caleb Bryant Miller/Bob Daemmrich

House Speaker Joe Straus and the man in the running to unseat him, state Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa.

House Speaker Joe Straus is moving quickly to squelch any talk of a speaker's race. His office released two letters this afternoon — one from conservative leaders expressing support for him, and another that emphasizes his strengths as House leader.

Your afternoon reading: John Cornyn seeks help for Joe Miller in Alaska, and the Texas press looks back on Election Day

In a pivotal decision, the Texas Supreme Court has ruled that the Open Beaches Act may not allow the state to ask landowners to remove private property if a hurricane or other natural disaster moves it within the public section of a beach.

Embattled former Dallas state Rep. Terri Hodge hasn't even finished serving her year in prison for lying on her tax returns. But her successor, freshman Democratic Rep. Eric Johnson, is already pledging to file legislation that would prohibit lawmakers who commit felonies from receiving state pension benefits.

View county-by-county thematic maps visualizing the partisan breakdown and turnout in the 2010 governor's race. 

The Perry-for-president talk is nothing new, but you might not have known it this week.

Gov. Rick Perry's new book, Fed Up!, has 56,000 words, but "federal," "government," "people," "Washington" and "states" are the most commonly used. 

Your afternoon reading: a death in the House and Rick Perry on Today

State Rep. Edmund Kuempel, R-Seguin, died this morning of an apparent heart attack. He was taken to Austin's Brackenridge Hospital with heart problems; an aide in his Capitol office said his defibrillator went off and said he was taken to the hospital.

Texas is — at least geographically — more red after Tuesday's GOP wave.

It wouldn't be a tsunami without a little aftershock.

Republican Dan Neil, who lost to Democratic Rep. Donna Howard in Tuesday's HD-48 election by a mere 15 votes, released a statement tonight saying he's going to wait for every legal vote to be "received and counted" before he decides his next course of action — namely, whether to ask for a recount.

"I can swim against the stream and have done so repeatedly, but I can't swim against a tidal wave," he says.

House Speaker Joe Straus says he's now got 130 votes for re-election as speaker — and that the only thing new is that 99 Republicans instead of 76 will make the House a much more conservative body. But State Rep. Warren Chisum says he will continue the challenge to Straus that he announced three weeks ago.

Your afternoon reading: further Republican gains, speaker's race drama and Rick Perry on The Daily Show