Sherry Boyles, a former statewide candidate and co-founder of a Democratic PAC that supports female candidates, left that group earlier this month to pursue other opportunities. She's leaving an organization that spent 81 percent of the money it raised in 2005, even though that was a political off year with only one election.

Kelly White is the new chief at Annie's List, a relatively young fundraising and political group that supports pro-choice Democrats running for state office. The group was started by Boyles, who ran unsuccessfully for Railroad Commissioner in 2002, and former Rep. Ann Kitchen, D-Austin. Kitchen and some of the original board members left in 2004, less than a year after the group's startup, and Boyles was in control until this month.

Annie's List spends more on administration and fundraising than on support for political candidates, its stated purpose. Last year — an off year with only one election — the group spent more than 80 percent of the more than $325,000 it raised. The money went to salaries and other administrative expenses ($115,376), fundraising events ($60,823), catering and other food ($29,384), travel ($23,476), printing and photography ($15,363), office expenses ($9,470), and furniture and "décor" ($8,753). Politics ranked eighth in spending: Annie's List gave $1,000 to Rep. Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles, R-Alice, to help cover the costs of her election contest. And they contributed $6,000 to Rep. Ana Hernandez, D-Houston, who won a special election to replace Rep. Joe Moreno, who died in a highway accident last spring.

Boyles was paid $81,400 in consulting and management fees and bonuses and was reimbursed for over $2,600 in travel and mileage expenses. That was about 25 percent of what the PAC collected from donors last year.

The $7,000 that went to candidates was a relatively minor piece of the budget for Annie's List, and accounted for slightly more than2 percent of what the group raised from political donors. The PAC raised $325,293 in 2005, spent $270,475, and ended the year with $61,924 in the bank and with $5,000 in outstanding loans.

Boyles wasn't available for comment.

White, who's replacing Boyles, was one of the group's top candidates in 2004. She lost a very close race to Rep. Todd Baxter, R-Austin, that year, and briefly considered running in last Tuesday's special election to replace him. Now that she's at Annie's List, the group is endorsing Donna Howard in the runoff for that HD-48 seat (against Republican Ben Bentzin). White was Howard's campaign treasurer, a position she gave up to take the job with Annie's List (Howard is now listed as the treasurer of her own campaign).

The organization had some successes in the 2004 cycle. They backed two incumbent-killers, for instance: Alma Allen, who knocked off Ron Wilson in the Democratic primary, and Veronica Gonzales, who won a contested primary against Roberto Gutierrez and others, and then won a close general election race.

White won't talk about happened before she took over, but says she wants the group to spend its time and money on candidates and on "campaign infrastructure" like training political workers and block walkers and such to help inexperienced and understaffed campaigns. Her background is in the nonprofit world, and she says she'll model Annie's List on that sector, with no more than 25 percent of what's raised going to administrative expenses (had that been the case last year, the PAC would have entered 2006 with more than $200,000 in its war chest).

They're also encouraging donors to put up at least $100 for the group and to commit to another $200 in contributions to candidates that can be made later through the organization. They'll collect checks from their donors — made out to candidates rather than the PAC — and pass them along in bundles.

White is talking to other candidates around the state and says the group will soon make some endorsements for the regular primaries.

Party Animal

Milton Rister, who has been a Republican political consultant, a state employee, a candidate for office in two counties, and a Republican Party official, is the leading candidate to take the helm at the Texas Legislative Council.

That's the state agency that drafts legislation for members of both parties and provides in-house legal services on everything from redistricting to rule interpretations. The post has been open for two years, since Steve Collins left to join the legislative staff at the University of Texas System. Collins' predecessor was Bob Kelly, who like Collins, didn't come from a background of partisan politics.

Rister ran for county office in Midland and got to know House Speaker Tom Craddick there. He moved to Austin with the Clayton Williams campaign almost 17 years ago. He was the treasurer and manager of Craddick-sponsored political action committees designed to take control of the Texas House — "76 in 96, Eight in '98" — and he was a research consultant to Texans for a Republican Majority PAC, the Free Enterprise PAC, and the Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC. All of those were important in Republican efforts to win a majority in the Texas House and to elect a speaker, an effort that finally paid off after the 2002 elections, when a new GOP majority elected Craddick speaker.

Rister helped draw the political district maps used in that election, and helped again when Republicans drew congressional maps to take over the state's delegation to Washington, D.C. He worked for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst as head of Senate research — a job he left for six months in 2004 to serve as executive director of the state GOP.

Democratic legislators are antsy about the selection. Lege Council has traditionally been a keeper of secrets for legislators of both parties (that history has some holes in it, but it's generally true). And the Democrats are worried Rister won't be a neutral player. Craddick and Dewhurst have apparently agreed on the pick. But the legislators on TLC — appointed by those two — still have to vote on a director. They're scheduled to meet February 1.

Putting the Politics Back in the Mix

The traditional bit with judges running for election is that they run as candidates of political parties and they don't take positions on issues that might someday come before them. They do accept money from lawyers and parties who might have business before them, but they don't discuss those issues in public. And in some places, they've been barred from taking part in partisan or seemingly partisan activities.

The ban on talking about issues slipped a few years ago when the U.S. Supreme Court said it violated free speech. Most judicial candidates are reserved about politicking, but they're free now to talk issues, to debate political positions and, by inference, to bang on their opponents like everyone else in politics.

Now, some federal courts are knocking down restrictions on politicking. The Supremes declined to hear a case out of Minnesota, where lower federal courts struck down state laws that barred direct contributions and partisan politicking in judicial races.

Minnesota was one of 29 or 30 states — we've seen different counts from people who are supposed to know what they're doing — that was trying to prevent judges from directly soliciting campaign contributions. That'll apparently become legal again, at least in the federal appellate district that includes Minnesota; federal courts here and elsewhere are free to follow or to ignore the precedent should lawsuits be filed. Texans will be happy to note that the post-game editorials used the Lone Star State as one of the examples of judicial races run amok.

Minnesota's law prevented judges from raising money for themselves, from identifying themselves as members of political parties, and from attending partisan events, among other things. The state's Republican Party and a candidate there sued; a federal appeals court said the restrictions violated free speech protections in the First Amendment. A Texas judge can call anyone and ask for a political contribution. As it stands in Minnesota and elsewhere in the 8th U.S. Circuit, judges can be barred from one-on-one or small group solicitations. But they can solicit money by letter and in front of large groups.

In an earlier, related case that did get to the U.S. Supreme Court, the justices ruled (5-4) that candidates can't be barred from stating their views on legal questions. And the issues raised in the Minnesota case could come up again, if someone sues and it winds its way up through the courts.

Disappearing Act

It's a little thing, but the two top photos in the "campaign photos" section on Ben Bentzin's website have changed.

The Republican House candidate, who faded in the closing days and almost lost the special election to succeed Todd Baxter, has edited Gov. Rick Perry off of his website. Perry made an election eve appearance on Bentzin's behalf, and political rivals made hay of it, noting the juxtaposition of Perry's appearance and Bentzin's dive at the end of the campaign (a 46-40 advantage in early voting turned to a 55-34 deficit in Election Day voting. With those results combined for a total, Democrat Donna Howard missed an outright victory by just 73 votes).

The Bentzin folks pooh-poohed talk of a Perry Effect after the election ended, blaming the turn on negative mailers from the local wing of the Democratic Party. But Perry's face is gone from www.benbentzin.com. A spokesman says the website is being revamped and that Perry quotes and such will be included in the revisions.

We got several reports of Perry emails sent on Bentzin's behalf that got stalled somewhere on the Internet before they finally landed in voters' inboxes. The vote reminders, sent around lunchtime on Election Day, landed on Sunday, five days after it was over. And they included the now unfortunate tagline: "I look forward to celebrating a tremendous victory when the polls close tonight." They've got a digital "Rick Perry" signature, and included a return address at the Guv's Internet domain.

The runoff election between Howard and Bentzin is set for Valentine's Day. Election officials held a drawing, and Howard's name will appear first on the ballot.

Pick a Name, Any Name, and Put it in a Poll

Somebody over at Zogby International — a polling company — is playing the political equivalent of fantasy football: Their work for The Wall Street Journal includes a head-to-head race between U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, who ran two years ago against John Cornyn but hasn't publicly expressed any interest in, well, a couple of years. They've got her winning that one 56.4 to 33.2 in a January 19 survey with a +/- 3 percentage point margin of error. That was well after candidate filing deadlines, and they tried Hutchison against the leading Democratic opponent, Houston lawyer Barbara Ann Radnofsky. Hutchison had a 56.9-31.8 advantage in that one. They included four candidates in their gubernatorial survey and came up with Rick Perry at 38.3 percent, Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Chris Bell tied at 17.9 percent, and Kinky Friedman at 14.4 percent. They didn't include Bob Gammage, who'll face Bell in the Democratic primary.

We Now Interrupt the Elections...

Another special election is getting underway, as we noted last week. New since then is the date: Voters in Grand Prairie will replace Rep. Ray Allen, a Republican, on Feb. 28. Candidates have until the end of business on Monday (1/30) to sign up. So far, three have done so: Republican Kirk England, Libertarian Gene Freeman, and Democrat Katy Hubener. Those three are also running for a full term in Allen's job in November.

Political Notes

Retired General and former presidential candidate Wes Clark made the rounds in Texas, endorsing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bob Gammage in Houston and then zipping down to Corpus Christi to endorse Juan Garcia III, a former naval aviator challenging Rep. Gene Seamon, R-Corpus Christi, in HD-32. Gammage was active in Clark's Texas campaign in 2004. Garcia served under Clark's NATO command.

• House Democrats are going every which way in the governor's race. State Rep. Garnet Coleman endorsed Chris Bell, a fellow Houston Democrat, in the gubernatorial primary. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, is flying the Gammage flag. Dunnam's the head of the House Democratic Caucus. Reps. Jose Menendez and Robert Puente of San Antonio are in the Bell camp, as is Jim Solis, D-Harlingen.

• Former U.S. Rep. Dick Armey, who now lives in Bartonville, endorsed Tan Parker in the GOP primary race to succeed Rep. Mary Denny, R-Aubrey. Bartonville is in the district.

• Supreme Court Justice Don Willett picked up endorsements from James Dobson of Focus on the Family and from the political action committees of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association and the Texas Civil Justice League, a tort reform group.

• The Texas Parent PAC, which bills itself as a bipartisan group formed in frustration over the school finance impasse, endorsed two candidates, including a challenger to a House committee chairman. They'll support Anette Carlisle, an Amarillo Republican running against Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas, the chairman of the House State Affairs Committee. And they'll back Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock, who is being challenged by a couple of his fellow Republicans. That group is backing both Democrats and Republicans, but is generally situated on the opposite side of House leadership on public education.

• Marta Mattox, bride of former congressman and Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox, has gone into the water bidness. She's selling Longhorn Water — having won permission to use the UT logo — at a time when things featuring that orange bovine are kinda popular. They had a first edition bottle that's now selling on eBay. The brand is Texas Crystal and they're selling it in high-end grocery stores.

Government in Action

Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who's also running for governor, says her agency will audit the state's contract with Cassidy & Associates, a Washington lobby firm. That inquiry follows charges from Texas Democrats that the state was laundering money through those lobsters to Republican committees and causes. Strayhorn said the audit will focus on the $330,000 deal between the firm and the state's Office of State-Federal Relations. Gov. Rick Perry's office has defended the contract and another like it, saying the lobbyists were able to increase the state's share of federal funds. State legislators — Democrats and Republicans — beat the comptroller by a day or two; they're also planning a review. Perry's political and government offices both issued statements with roughly the same reply to Strayhorn's announcement: She doesn't have the legal authority to do the audit.

• The attorney general's office is training cops and prosecutors in 44 counties in the finer points of voter fraud. AG Greg Abbott's efforts are aimed at 44 counties that are either big enough or historically crooked enough at election time to merit extra attention. That second group includes 18 counties with "a history of voter fraud." Abbott's office has prosecuted four cases of fraud referred to it by the Secretary of State's office. Two involved illegal possession and transport of ballots, another a candidate was collecting absentee ballots, and a fourth where a woman was voting absentee — very absentee — for her dead mother.

• The Texas Veterans Land Board voted to freeze rates at the state's six nursing homes for vets. That'll save about 600 people up to $1,500 a month, according to Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson. A bond restructuring is one reason rates aren't rising in those homes.

• Movie of the Week: Cell phone records. Gubernatorial candidate Bob Gammage wants to outlaw the sale of cell phone records and to crack down on anyone caught doing anything illegal with those records now. Several third-party companies obtain those records from cell phone companies and sell them, though most people assume their calls are secret. A day later, Attorney General Greg Abbott launched an investigation of the practice; he says it's already illegal.

Political People and Their Moves

This is about the time in an election year when you'd see the Texas Poll hitting the field, but Scripps Howard — the news company that owns the poll — has closed its Austin news bureau and doesn't plan to do any polling right now. Officially, they're looking for alternatives for the poll, either trying to find a buyer or a partner or a business model that'll make it work.

That bureau had two reporters when it closed at the end of December; Ty Meighan says he's still looking for work in a shrinking news business, and Tim Easton has been writing for the Texas Observer. That's the old Harte-Hanks bureau; Scripps bought that company's papers a few years ago and the Austin guys were writing for newspapers in Abilene, Corpus Christi, San Angelo, and Wichita Falls. Libby Averyt, editor of the Corpus Christ Caller-Times (and a former intern in the Austin bureau that just closed), says the company decided to concentrate on local news.

Texas Tech Chancellor David Smith is leaving that post at the end of the month, and the board will start a search for a replacement. Smith headed the old Texas Department of Health before following John Montford to Lubbock; Montford, a state senator, went as chancellor, and Smith went to the medical school. Montford eventually went to SBC, and Smith moved into his spot. Among the names we've heard as possible replacements: state Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, former congressman and railroad commissioner Kent Hance, former House Speaker Pete Laney, former Texas Education Commissioner Mike Moses, who was superintendent of both the Lubbock and Dallas ISDs, and former regent Bryan Newby, who is now the general counsel to the governor.

House Speaker Tom Craddick named Ike Sugg of San Angelo to the Sunset Advisory Commission, a panel that includes legislative and citizen members. Sugg's a rancher and the president of the Bar None Hunt Co.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed Joe Bob Hinton of Crawford and Elaine Mendoza of San Antonio to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. He's the retired president of Mobil Oil Corp. Europe. And she is president and CEO of Conceptual Mindworks and former chair of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber.

The Guv also named three people to the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which is supposed to help untangle the scandals that have plagued crime labs over the last several years. Austin criminal defense lawyer Sam Bassett, Debbie Lynn Benningfield of Hockley, deputy administrator in the latent lab section of the Houston Police Department, and Alan Levy of Fort Worth, chief of the criminal division for the Tarrant County District Attorney, all join that panel.

Deaths: Garth Jones, a fixture in the Texas Capitol press corps for decades, retired from the Associated Press, after a bout with pneumonia. He was 88... John Michael "Mike" Quinn Jr., who left political (and other) reporting at The Dallas Morning News and other publications behind to teach journalism at the University of Texas. He was 76.

Quotes of the Week

Bernard Rapoport of Waco, who is ignoring the Democrats and supporting independent Carole Keeton Strayhorn over Republican Rick Perry, in The Dallas Morning News: "The thing we have to worry about right now is who has a shot. And the only two people who seem to have a shot at it are Strayhorn and Perry."

State District Judge Robert Francis, quoted by the Associated Press on opponent Terry Keel'seffort to push him off the ballot for a faulty application: "It's hard to win if you're not on the ballot. If you're the only one on it, it's dang hard to lose."

Rebecca Knight, an English teacher in Bonham, talking about the state government with the Paris News: "I thought legislators would look out for me the way I look out for my students. Boy, was I wrong."

Hereford cattleman Johnny Trotter, quoted in The Wall Street Journal on plans for an ethanol operation that'll be fueled with cattle manure he's been paying to get rid of: "If you ask if I like it, sure I like it. It's like finding $350,000 in the road."

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Texas Weekly: Volume 22, Issue 28, 30 January 2006. Ross Ramsey, Editor. George Phenix, Publisher. Copyright 2006 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 (800) 611-4980 or email info@texasweekly.com. For news, email ramsey@texasweekly.com, or call (512) 288-6598.

Two long-serving legislators want House Speaker Tom Craddick and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to back away from plans to hire Milton Rister -- who made his name in Republican electoral politics -- as head of the nonpartisan and nonpolitical Texas Legislative Council.On the eve of the TLC's vote on a new director -- the agency has been without a leader for two years now -- Reps. Paul Moreno, D-El Paso, and Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston -- say it won't do to have a legislative agency headed by a guy who spent the last 20 years trying to knock Democrats out of the Legislature. Their letters follow (or click here for a .pdf with all four pages in it):

The Texas Legislative Council ignored the noise from Democrats and voted -- with one NO -- to make Milton Rister the new director of that agency.Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, said he was voting against the hire because Rister, as a campaign operative, helped the FreePAC group that targeted Wentworth and several other moderate Republicans a couple of election cycles ago. Several lawmakers, including a couple of Democrats, said they were satisfied that Rister will do a good job in spite of his partisan past. The TLC is a legislative agency that does everything from bill drafting to computer tech work for lawmakers of both parties in both the House and the Senate.

Two elections in February and a candidate on another candidate's payroll in Houston.Voters partaking of the special election to replace Rep.-turned-lobster Ray Allen, R-Grand Prairie, will see three names in the hat. Republican Kirk England, Libertarian Gene Freeman and Democrat Katy Hubener will all be on the ballot on February 28. Edward Smith, who's still on the GOP primary ballot, didn't sign up for the special, and England and Hubener and Freeman will go another round in November. There's some question about whether voters will see Smith's name when they vote in the GOP primary in HD-106; the address he listed when he signed up is represented by Toby Goodman, R-Arlington, and a Dallas judge ordered him off the ballot. But the GOP still has him on their "final" list. Whether he's there or not, he's ineligible for the post. The special election arsenals start small. England had $1,550 in the bank at the first of the year and Hubener had $8,345. The Texas Ethics Commission didn't list a report for Freeman. One of Hubener's contributors, for $1,000, is Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth. The election is on February 28, and early voting starts February 13. In the runoff for HD-48 in Austin, Republicans are trying to double-down and defeat Democrat Donna Howard, who surprised almost everybody by nearing winning outright in the first round. As with the HD-106 race, the contestants will meet again in November for the benefit of the same voters. Republican Ben Bentzin is getting daily help from elected officials like Susan Combs, and both she and John Cornyn have signed off on written appeals on his behalf. Bentzin was already winning the finance war, for what that's worth. Reports on file with the Texas Ethics Commission have him spending $262,708 getting his 5,125 votes (that's $51.26/vote), while she spent $69,982 getting 6,705 votes ($10.43/vote). That runoff is on Valentine's Day and early voting starts February 6. Dorothy Olmos, who lost in the first round of the special election to replace the late Rep. Joe Moreno, turned up on the payroll of Laura Salinas, who lost in the runoff to Ana Hernandez. Olmos and Charles George were knocked out in the first round of that race (both are running in the regular election as Republicans, though they were in the first round as Democrats), and both endorsed Salinas in Round Two. One of her expenses in that runoff was $1,000 to Olmos for "field campaign work." One more item of note from Salinas' last report. Texans for Lawsuit Reform stayed with her, to the tune of $20,000 for the runoff. But they weren't the biggest contributor. That designation falls on former state Rep. Roman Martinez of Houston, who contributed $68,278.13. His wife, former Rep. Diana Davila Martinez, was Salinas' campaign treasurer. Salinas is her niece. None of this will be on the test at the end of the semester.

Some things in government, as at the pharmacy, are contraindicated. For instance, you can say INCOME or PAYROLL or GROSS RECEIPTS, but you can't use any of those terms in close proximity to the word TAX.Just look at what happened to John Sharp, head of the governor's tax reform panel, who had to back out of too close an encounter between TAX and GROSS RECEIPTS in his comments after a speech to a trade group. Sharp sent an email to reporters after the first couple of stories just to make sure they didn't put all those dangerous things too close to each other. "That particular option can no more be called a gross receipts tax than a sales tax can be called an income tax," he wrote. "Although they use similar basis, a gross receipts tax to business connotes a tax on the entire gross receipts of a company. That is far from the case with this option. It is accurate at this stage to say... it is a revision of the state's franchise tax and some people have referred to it as a tax dealing with margins, but it is not and never will be a gross receipts tax." The next day's headline in the Houston Chronicle indicated there might still be a problem: "Commission's Chief Backs Gross Receipts Tax." Something similar happened to lawmakers who devised the current corporate franchise tax in 1991. It's based partly on "earned surplus," a term that corresponds to a word in our own language: income. Republicans called it an income tax, but it passed and has never been successfully attacked in court. A tax on gross receipts wouldn't be illegal, but might as well be: It wouldn't pass political muster. Whatever they finally call it, the scheme Sharp and his committee are talking about is one we outlined broadly back before Christmas.
Advisory commissions like this one don't have to post their meetings or even allow the public to watch, but they've been working behind the scenes on ways to raise enough state money to finance a cut in local school property taxes. They want $5.5 billion to $6 billion, which would knock as much as 50 cents off of local taxes. In what looks like their favorite proposal of the moment, a company would start with its gross receipts. It would have the choice of subtracting Costs of Goods Sold, or its payroll and benefits, and it would pay a one percent tax on what's left. Capital-intensive companies would probably opt to subtract the costs of the things they're selling, so they wouldn't pay taxes on car parts or computer parts or whatever they're making. Labor-intensive outfits, where people are the highest cost items, would subtract payroll and benefits. Companies would be allowed to "apportion" their revenues and costs so they wouldn't be paying state taxes on business that's done elsewhere. They're still fiddling with the details, talking to big taxpayers, key legislators and anyone whose opposition could feasibly break the deal. But some details are ripening. Sole proprietorships probably wouldn't be included in the new tax base, since there is almost no way to tax them without violating the state's ban on personal income taxes. Taxes would be aimed away from partners and toward their partnerships to avoid similar problems. Small businesses -- those with gross receipts of less than $300,000 -- probably would pay no tax at all. There would probably be a cap on the amount of income for one person that a company is allowed to subtract from gross receipts; some of the discussions have put that at $300,000. People could still have higher salaries than that, but the higher amounts wouldn't be deducted from a company's tax base. State leaders near and far from that panel are also talking about putting more money into education, but they're playing with the wording. They want to limit the number of things that can go wrong in a special session by ignoring what's not absolutely needed. But they have to have enough sweeteners in the package to attract enough votes to get a solution through both houses. The state has $3 billion to $4 billion in the till -- money that wasn't budgeted and money that's pouring in unexpectedly because of things like high oil prices. Some of that could be spent on education without raising state taxes above what's needed to replace local tax cuts. Those who feel the need would get to call the tax plan a shift instead of an increase. Those who want more money in the schools would have cover, too. Republicans who want education reform in return for new money might be convinced to wait for the regular session, and Democrats who want more money into the schools would have to wait to get a permanent fix.

The state's solicitor general says there are five ways to get the Texas Supreme Court out of the school finance business. Ted Cruz -- who argued the school finance case in court -- is telling lawmakers and tax panels and anyone who wants to know just what'll get the judges out of the school finance business.What he says is important because it rules out other arguments. Once lawmakers pick from Cruz's list, they'll have four fewer things over which to disagree. 1. A constitutional amendment allowing a statewide property tax. Cruz says that would be the easiest and simplest legal way out of the court case. When he told a Senate about it recently, he added that he wasn't talking about politics and popularity. Just law. 2. A reform in the state system that ends reliance on property taxes. The legal trouble is that the courts think the state is forcing school districts to set property tax rates at or near a particular rate. That's an illegal state property tax. Taking property taxes out of the system might create other problems, but it would solve this one. 3. Raise the state's cap on local property taxes. That would make the legal claims disappear, at least for a while. Several lawmakers point out that it would cause other disruptions in the school finance formulas, but Cruz is talking only about the current school finance case. Raising the cap by 15 or 20 cents -- to $1.65 or $1.70 -- would kill the argument that the state has stolen "meaningful discretion" over tax rates from local officials. 4. Reduce the requirements the state puts on districts, by lowering what they're required to do, and thus reducing the price of doing it and the pressure to set higher local property tax rates. We understood it this way: If you want to buy a car and you don't want to spend more money, you have to settle for less car. 5. Give the districts more money without lowering the state cap on property taxes. This appears to be the most likely political solution. If lawmakers can agree on a big, new business tax and to use the money to raise state spending on schools and to ease pressure on local school spending, school districts will regain their discretion over property tax rates. Cruz and other state lawyers say the state's probably on safe ground if most districts have tax rates 20 cents or so below a state property tax cap. State leaders are starting to talk like they're willing to limit what's up for discussion in a special session. House Speaker Tom Craddick said this week that education reforms could come up during a special session or later, in next year's regular session of the Legislature. Up to now, he's been saying education reform ought to be part of the package when school finance comes up. Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, started off a session of her school finance committee by saying last year's efforts failed because lawmakers "tried to be too broad and tried to do too much." Maybe they'll shrink the battlefield this time.

Mike McCormick, former presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, was hired by the Employee Retirement System to determine whether Bill Ceverha, a member of the board, had any conflicts of interest between his duties there and his duties as treasurer of the Texans for a Republican Majority PAC.Ceverha declared personal bankruptcy after losing a court fight over corporate contributions to TRMPAC that weren't reported as required. He was also a registered lobbyist but says he ended those duties before joining the board. Democrats complained on both counts, and Ceverha asked ERS to do a due diligence report to see for itself whether there's a problem. McCormick will make $100 an hour, up to a maximum of $20,000.

From Travis County to Scotland...Travis County prosecutors extended their inquiry into the political life of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land. They sent subpoenas to several people who went on what has become a famous golfing trip to Scotland with DeLay, lobbyist-turned-felon Jack Abramoff and others, and also want records of that trip from airlines and others. Separately, DeLay filed reports of his defense fund spending for the the fourth quarter of 2005. It totaled $239,257, according to Political Moneyline, including $150,000 in legal fees to his lead lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, and $45,000 in legal fees to others. He raised $181,851. That trip took place in 2000. The prosecutors started this chase about three years ago with questions about Republicans and conservative groups activities in the 2002 state legislative elections. • Carole Keeton Strayhorn got a flat response to initiative and referendum when she talked at the GOP's state convention in 2004, but she was already making trouble for Gov. Rick Perry and it's safe to say she was talking to his crowd. But she didn't give up on I&R. Strayhorn, running as an independent, says Texans ought to have a direct say in the laws they follow, and made some suggestions herself. She says I&R might have solved school finance, toughened penalties for crimes against children, stopped illegal immigration, cut property taxes and outlawed toll roads. • Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett is getting the lion's share of endorsements in his primary fight against former Justice Steve Smith, but the Young Conservatives of Texas are endorsing Smith. They cite, among other things, his work as a lawyer on the Hopwood case, where four Anglos challenged the University of Texas on minority admissions to its law school. • Donna Howard picked up an endorsement from the Texas Parent PAC, the first Democrat to get that relatively new group's nod. They previously made endorsements in two Republican primaries, picking an incumbent in one and a challenger in another. Howard's in the HD-48 special election to succeed Todd Baxter, who resigned from the Legislature. Her opponent is Republican Ben Bentzin. • Help from the Big Three: Rep. Kent Grusendorf's funder in Arlington next week features Gov. Rick Perry and House Speaker Tom Craddick in person, and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in name. Grusendorf, chair of the House Education Committee, drew a challenge from fellow Republican Diane Patrick, a former member of the State Board of Education and the Arlington school board. • Democrat Katy Hubener picked up an endorsement from the Texas State Teachers Association. She's in a special election to replace Rep. Ray Allen, R-Grand Prairie, against Republican Kirk England and Libertarian Gene Freeman.

A half-dozen members, past and present, of the Texas congressional delegation are in the million-dollar-club.In incomplete returns (the Federal Election Commission doesn't have everyone's year-end report online yet), these Texans had at least $1 million cash in their political accounts at the end of the year: U.S. Reps. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio, $2.1 million; Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, $1.8 million; Joe Barton, R-Ennis, $1.7 million; Jeb Hensarling, R-Dallas, $1.1 million; Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, $1.1 million; and former U.S. Rep. Jim Turner, D-Crockett, $1 million. • U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, got to the end of the year with $293,833 on hand. One opponent in the Democratic primary, Ciro Rodriguez, had $43,070 in the bank. The other, Victor Morales, had $11,126. • Two Republicans want to challenge U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, in November. Van Taylor had $628,698 on hand at year end; Tucker Anderson had $66,391. • It didn't show up in his report, but the Texas Club for Growth did a $12,000 poll for former state Rep. Wayne Christian, R-Center, in late November. They said in their report that it was an in-kind contribution and that he wasn't a candidate at the time. He wants his seat back from Rep. Roy Blake Jr., R-Nacogdoches, who won it while Christian was trying for a spot in Congress. The Club listed only three contributors in the second half of 2005: James or Cecilia Leininger (the "or" is listed in the report), $13,000; and $7,500 each from Al Hartman Partnership LLP of Houston and Michael Boylan of Houston, both of whom listed their occupations as real estate. James Cardle, the treasurer, was paid $10,000 for four months of consulting. The group listed a $3,000 expenditure for website design, but we couldn't locate a website for them. Cardle says it's still under construction. • Here's another new-ish group with an influx of money to spend. The Texas Republican Legislative Campaign Committee, formed last year, got $50,000 from Dr. James Leininger and $100 from John Norwood of Midland. Those were their only revenues. The group had two big expenses: They paid $20,000 to Anthem Media of Austin and $15,000 to Keep Texas Strong of Georgetown. Both expenses were for consulting. Anthem is a GOP consulting firm headed by former Midland County Judge Jeff Norwood. The Texas Ethics Commission hasn't posted any reports from Keep Texas Strong on its website, if in fact it has any. The group's post office box in Georgetown is also listed as the box for Williamson County Clerk Nancy Rister's campaign and for Ace Research (listed in other reports as A.C.E. Research and Technology), a firm headed by Milton Rister, her husband. He's the new head of the Texas Legislative Council and is presumably out of the political consulting business. Ace was active less than a month ago, though; Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC paid them $2,750 for consulting on January 6.

Rep. Frank Corte Jr., R-San Antonio, will soon be on his way to Iraq -- not on a political junket, but as a member of the Marine Corps Reserve.He's one of a handful of state legislators on part-time military status, and the second called to full-time duty in recent months; Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, returned late last year from a tour with the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. Noriega's wife, Melissa Noriega, served in his place in the House while he was overseas. Corte says he'll name his wife, Valerie Corte, as "temporary acting representative" to hold his spot should there be a special session while he's in the Middle East. That session is expected between now and June 1, the date by which the Texas Supreme Court expects the Legislature to enact a constitutional school finance plan. Related: Harrison Keller, the director of research and top education wonk for House Speaker Tom Craddick, joined the Navy Reserve and expects to go into Naval Intelligence training. He'll still be around for a special session on school finance (and denies that's why he signed up) and for other momentous events, like the pending birth of his first child.

Former state Rep. Glen Maxey of Austin, a political and policy consultant and the only openly gay lawmaker in state history, might run for chairman of the Texas Democratic Party.He says he's thinking about it and wants to hear from other Democrats. In the meantime, one of the bloggers with the Burnt Orange Report -- Karl-Thomas Musselman of Austin -- has registered and fired up a website to promote Maxey's candidacy (www.draftmaxey.com). Maxey says Texas Democrats need to work on grassroots organizing and local JP and constable and county commissioner races. He's also interested in putting new technologies into the mix. But, he says, it's early and he's not sure he'll jump in. Current TDP Chairman Charles Soechting has said he won't seek another term at the state convention in June. Boyd Ritchie, an attorney from Graham, Charlie Urbina Jones, an attorney from San Antonio, and Sherry Boyles, who recently left Annie's List and moved to Dallas, have all indicated some interest in the job.

Wright, Mullins, Smith, Horn, and StewartFormer Dallas ISD Superintendent Linus Wright and Phillip Mullins, a utilities station operator at the University of Texas, are Gov. Rick Perry's latest picks for the board of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. Wright, who's now a consultant, is a reappointee; Mullins is new to the board. Rep. Wayne Smith, R-Baytown, will chair the House County Affairs Committee. Speaker Tom Craddick named him to replace Rep. Ray Allen, R-Grand Prairie, who resigned. Rep. John Otto, R-Dayton, will take the vice chair spot Smith had held. Addie Horn is the new commissioner of the Department of Aging and Disability Services, known to state employees as DADS. She had been the deputy commissioner and replaces Jim Hines, who retired. Deaths: Former state Rep. Vernon Stewart, who represented Wichita Falls from 1952 to 1972 and helped turn Midwestern State University into a publicly funded institution. He was 76.