Enlarge Bob Daemmrich

Texas Gov. Rick Perry departs a private plane at the San Antonio International Airport during a campaign stop on November 1, 2010

Saddle up, buckaroos and buckarettes. We're going on our second presidential ride in 12 years. It doesn't matter who your candidate is or what your politics are, the presence of a Texas governor on a national ticket means some changes around here.

You remember how this goes, right?

• Ongoing national coverage of everything that's good and bad about Texas. Jobs. Health care. Highways. Prisons. Guns. Executions. Fracking. Everybody from Kalamazoo to Wasilla banging on doors from Paint Creek to Austin, putting together stories and research and whatnot about this latest Texas politician to take a try at the White House.

• The quiet that comes over a government in power while the political proctologists prowl and probe. How's that state budget working out? Which agencies got cut and might be hurting? What's in the files on economic development and where'd those jobs come from? How does public education compare? Higher education? What's with that budget trick on Medicaid and how's that different from spending the state's Rainy Day Fund?

• The heavy pleas for campaign money that come automatically with a local candidate. Texas is one of the ATM states, shoveling big money into national campaigns. And with a local pol on the ballot, the draw will be even stronger. It could pinch downballot candidates, too; this is a redistricting election, with new maps in place and everyone up for election. It's a hard time to be rich and politically active. Feel their pain.

There's the reputation thing, too, the Texas aura. Gov. Rick Perry, for better or for worse, will be the state's chief ambassador as long as he's running. He's the lens through which most of the country will see us.

So stand up straight and mind your accent.

The expectation as we come upon this issue's deadline is that Perry will announce, in drips, for a week or so. He'll be in the money game quickly, and he'll set up a campaign office and start spending time in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, just like all the other Republican wannabes.

The apparent staff lineup won't surprise Perry watchers: Dave Carney as lead consultant, Rob Johnson running the campaign, Ray Sullivan in charge of communications, Deirdre Delisi on policy, Mark Miner doing the run-and-shoot spokesman duty, aided by former Perry press secretary Robert Black.

The campaign has already hit fundraisers with emails detailing the initial push for money. The New York Times snagged a copy that said the campaign will do four days of money events at the end of this month, in Texas, Oklahoma and New Orleans. The email, signed by George Seay of Dallas, ended with a short-lived call for secrecy. "It is imperative this e-mail is not shared with anyone not a supporter of Governor Perry. We are trying to run a tight, disciplined 'ship,' with zero interaction with nonsupporters or the media. Thank you for your full cooperation with this methodology."

Enlarge Illustration by Todd Wiseman

The governor's former legislative director has a Super PAC to support the run for president, and now there's another such PAC — headed by former Perry chief of staff and legislator Mike Toomey.

The PAC — "Make Us Great Again" — is backed by Toomey, now a lobbyist, and Brint Ryan, head of the Dallas accounting firm Ryan & Co. Ryan is a financial supporter of Perry and other top Republicans in Texas. Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts but must remain independent of any campaigns — they cannot legally coordinate their activities.

It's a dogpile. Earlier, former legislator and Perry aide Dan Shelley announced two political action committees geared to helping the governor win the support of veterans.

And it's competitive, too. In their pitch, Toomey and Ryan urge potential supporters to ignore other independent efforts for Perry in favor of the new organization. They've hired Elizabeth Blakemore and Cynthia Wiedemann from Texas to help with their fundraising.

The committee filed organization papers at the end of July with the Federal Election Commission. The treasurer is Paul Kilgore, a former aide to Newt Gingrich, among others, who now runs a Washington, D.C.-based campaign finance firm called PDS Compliance. In its filing, the PAC says it was not formed solely to support one candidate.

Enlarge Illustration by Todd Wiseman

This week, Martin Robles became Texas' ninth execution of the year. Convicted in a Corpus Christi gang shooting, his death was not among the most controversial to happen on the watch of Gov. Rick Perry. During his decade in the Texas governor's office, Perry has overseen more than 230 executions, more than any governor in modern history.

Despite the controversy that has surrounded some of those cases, experts say that Perry's death penalty record is likely to help more than it hurts him as readies a White House bid.

Perry has overseen nearly half of the 470 executions in Texas since the death penalty was reinstated in 1974. In that time, public opinion has evolved as DNA evidence and other modern forensic science developments have exonerated many wrongfully convicted inmates across the country. More than 130 death row inmates nationwide have been exonerated since 1973 — including 12 in Texas — according to the Death Penalty Information Center. A 2010 Gallup News poll found that public approval of the death penalty had dropped from an all-time high of 80 percent in 1994 to 65 percent in 2009.

In Texas, public opinion about the death penalty is resoundingly positive. In a February 2010 poll University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll, 53 percent of respondents said they strongly supported the death penalty and other 25 percent supported it "somewhat." Nearly three fifths, 59 percent, said they believed the death penalty is implemented fairly in Texas.

Perry has commuted the death sentences of 31 inmates. The great majority of those — 28 — involved cases in which the defendant was a juvenile at the time of the crime. The governor was complying, somewhat reluctantly, with a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that states could not execute those who were younger than 18 at the time of their crime. In two other cases, Perry commuted to life in prison the death sentences of inmates who were proven mentally retarded, another group of individuals the nation’s highest court has excluded from the death penalty.

And in the remaining case, Perry commuted the death sentence of Kenneth Foster to life in prison after his attorneys argued he was not the shooter in the May 1996 murder for which he was convicted but only drove the getaway car. 

Perry’s tough-on-crime stance is likely to help him among conservative voters in the GOP primary. “There’s not a lot of concern among his target audience with these kinds of questions,” said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas.

The question is whether that stance will sell in a general election, should Perry win the Republican nomination for president. Independent voters, who tend to be less staunch supporters of the death penalty nationally, may have trouble supporting a candidate so entrenched in capital punishment. 

Enlarge Illustration by Todd Wiseman

Decennial redistricting will likely produce at least one primary challenger for veteran lawmaker Tracy King, D-Batesville. King represented House District 80 from 1995 to 2003 and then regained his seat in 2005.

Redistricting has pulled HD-80 into a swath of Webb County, which includes the city of Laredo on the Texas-Mexico border. That has Webb County Pct. 3 Commissioner Jerry Garza seriously considering a run for the House.

“[Right now] I am just trying to see what kind of support I would get. Obviously the demographics are really good for somebody out of Webb County,” Garza said during a recent interview. His current duties in the court preclude him from making a formal announcement for months, he said, but he appears in the process of already crafting his pitch to potential voters who for more than a decade have associated the district with King.

It’s not about what King isn’t doing or hasn’t done, Garza said, but rather what the commissioner said is his own best move forward.

“It has absolutely nothing to do with Rep. King and everything to do with what I feel I can offer," he said. "A different perspective and a little change is not necessarily a bad thing."

Laredo is traditionally thought of as Democratic state Rep. Richard Peña Raymond’s turf, and that’s not likely to change. His district remains largely concentrated within the city’s limits, but the new HD-80 includes the outskirts on the city’s north side, where Garza resides and where he represents the county.

Asked whether he’s concerned the maps will hold up to legal challenges, Garza said the battles over redistricting usually involve U.S. House seats and state Senate districts. But, he said, he’s willing to see what happens.

“I have a pretty high-risk tolerance," he said, "so I’ll take my chances if I do decide to go that route."

* * *

John Bustamante, a San Antonio patent lawyer who is the son of former U.S. Rep. Albert Bustamante, D-San Antonio, will run for Congress next year. He's seeking the Democratic nomination for the CD-23 seat now held by first-term U.S. Rep. Francisco "Quico" Canseco, R-San Antonio.

That could be a busy primary. Former U.S. Rep Ciro Rodriguez, the Democrat who lost the seat to Canseco last November, is nosing around. Others could get in, too; state Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, is among those who've been mentioned as possible candidates, and he says he's considering it; and Manuel Pelaez-Prada, an attorney who's also the chairman of the Brooks Development Authority, is also looking. The district is geographically huge, stretching from San Antonio west to El Paso County.

Bustamante comes in with a known political name, but that could work against him as well as for him. His father was a Bexar County commissioner and county judge who served in Congress from 1985-93. His political career ended when he was convicted of accepting bribes and was sent to prison for more than three years.

The younger Bustamante went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then to law school at the University of Texas.

* * *

Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth says he'll run for another term in the Texas House. One change; he's ditched longtime political consultant Bryan Eppstein for the Murphy-Turner outfit.

* * *

Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen, will run for reelection after all. There was some question about that after lawmakers redrew the South Texas political map. In their efforts to protect fellow Republican Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, lawmakers upended Gonzales' HD-40. She's been scouting the new district and decided to run after all.

* * *

Bennett Ratliff picked up an endorsement from Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, in his race for the HD-115 seat. Ratliff, a Coppell school board member and the son of former Sen. Bill Ratliff and brother of State Board of Education member Thomas Ratliff, wants to replace Jim Jackson, the Carrollton state rep and former Dallas County Commissioner who announced his retirement earlier this summer.

* * *

Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, R-Irving, might not be paired with freshman Rep. Rodney Anderson, R-Grand Prairie, after all; his campaign is telling the Austin American-Statesman he's going to challenge Sen. Chris Harris, R-Arlington, in 2012.

* * *

Put Ted Pataki — the son of the former New York governor and now an employee of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst — on the list of people looking at an open House seat in Williamson County. He told the Austin American-Statesman that he's looking at it.

Enlarge Illustration by Todd Wiseman

Heading into the 82nd legislative session, 88 percent of Texas voters surveyed by the Texas Poll hoped for more public education funding. It’s not likely to surprise anyone, but now we can officially say: Nothing’s changed.

In a survey conducted by the same firm in July on behalf of the Texas Association of School Boards, 90 percent of Texans say public education could use some more state money.

Furthermore, they appear to be placing the blame at the feet of legislators. Eighty-five percent said lawmakers did not make education a priority, and 75 percent believe lawmakers should not have cut funding. On the flip side, 4 percent said cuts were necessary.

A local tax to boost public ed funding got the support of 69 percent of Texans (76 percent of those with kids in schools). 

Not everyone expects to feel the pain of budget cuts. Only 48 percent — or as a TASB press release said, “nearly half” — expect their local school district to be “affected greatly.” Forty-one percent said their district would be affected but could make it work. Five percent did not expect any change. 

The telephone survey polled 1,000 adult Texans. It has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.

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We'll get to the details soon enough, but the headline is that our insiders think Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is the candidate to beat in next year's U.S. Senate race. 

Most — 69 percent — say he'll win the GOP nomination, and almost that many — 64 percent — say he'll win the election.

The details are interesting. Former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz is the favorite of 24 percent of the insiders for the primary and 18 percent in the general election. They think Ricardo Sanchez, the only declared Democratic candidate, will win that primary, but only 2 percent think he could win the general election. Another ten percent think that Tommy Lee Jones, whose name keeps coming up, would win the Democratic primary.

The levels of certainty are interesting. Only 3 percent chose "don't know" as their answer for the Republican primary. On the Democratic side, that shot up to 36 percent. In the general, just 7 percent took that option.

No other candidates broke the 4 percent mark, either in the primary or the general.

We allowed open answers on each of the horse-race questions. A full set of those is attached, but here's a sampling:

Who'll win the Republican primary for U.S. Senate?

• "Might take a runoff, but don't see anybody else with the $$$ to win against Dewhurst"

• "I realize that Cruz is building up names hand over fist, but Dewhurst has some good bragging rights with the right after this session, and he has a ton of cash which, in a federal race, is a serious political asset. His downside is he is not much of a speaker or glad hander, but in a primary like this it that may be overrated."

• "Is this the list? When's the filing deadline? Not til December? This question is best left unanswered for the moment."

• "The tea pot is hot in this state. Cruz will enjoy strong grassroots support and will draw a sharp contrast with Dewhurst."

• "Dewhurst is obviously odds-on favorite. If TEA gang gets organized for Cruz, it could be interesting."

• "The real winners will be the political consultants that work for Dewhurst and Leppert. They are going to make enough money to pull the USA out of the economic slump."

Who'll win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate?

• "The US Senate race is no country for old men."

• "If Democrats will put some money into this, Sanchez provides an incredible opportunity: a Latino military hero is an image Latinos identify with and he could drive turn out in the general."

• "Again, perhaps there'll be better choices. Not that Tommy Lee Jones isn't a good choice. But I don't remember him saying anything about running."

• "Some other yet to be identified candidate."

• "Does it matter?"

Who will win the U.S. Senate seat next November?

• "The 2012 election is going to see one of the most overwhelming "throw the bums out" results in decades, if not in history. Someone who has stature, credibility and NO elected office experience has a real shot."

• "Cruz will effectively exploit the anti-Washington sentiment in this state. The smarter minds in the GOP will understand he can be another Rubio, spreading the enduring-if-not-empirical ethic of Horatio Alger and helping to blunt the ugly nativism running rampant through the party."

• "Dewhurst starts as frontrunner. His race to lose."

• "Money. Money. Money."

• "I believe there has been a serious oversight in this list. The field is not yet settled for this race. Watch out for Michael McCaul. He has the conservative record to win a Republican primary, the cash resources to beat Dewhurst and would run an efficient campaign with real professionals, contrary to the other candidates currently in the field."

After convicting fundamentalist leader Warren Jeffs, a jury took less than half an hour to return a life sentence against him on two counts of sexual assault. Jeffs, a polygamist, claimed that wedding underage girls was a basic tenet of his religious beliefs. After several outbursts in the courtroom and warnings from the judge, Jeffs remained silent during the sentencing.

The state’s power grid strained to keep up with record-breaking temperatures. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid operator, sent out pleas on hot afternoons asking electric consumers to conserve as much energy as possible, especially during peak hours of 3 to 7 p.m. The looming threat of rolling blackouts never (yet) materialized, but with no end to the soaring temperatures in sight, ERCOT continues to urge conservation.

The statewide drought is also having some unexpected and less obvious effects. As the ground dries out, shifting soil has damaged infrastructure in cities like Kemp, a town of 1,150 residents southeast of Dallas, where burst pipes forced the city to shut off water for 48 hours. The city planned to hand out bottled drinking water and nonpotable water for residents’ other needs.

Fallout from last week’s release of school ratings — lower ones, based on a new formula — saw school officials spinning to explain why so many schools failed to meet federal No Child Left Behind Act standards. Almost half of Texas school districts failed to show that they were making adequate yearly progress as defined in the law, double the number from last year. The Obama administration has revealed plans to issue waivers to failing districts if they meet certain other criteria. But Texas won’t make a final decision on pursuing waivers until the details of the federal plan are revealed in September.

A soldier accused of plotting to kill Fort Hood soliders was indicted on three charges and held without bail. Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo went AWOL from his post in Fort Campbell, Ky., and was arrested after police received a tip from a gun store where he had gone to buy supplies. A search of his motel room revealed an unregistered handgun and materials for making explosives, along with an article about making a bomb at home.

Texans may be uneasy about border traffic, but there are some loads they welcome: shipments of fruits and vegetables. Mexico is the leading producer of imported produce in the United States, and much of the volume comes through Texas. The USDA reports that more produce moved through Texas than Arizona as of the end of June. Growers in Mexico, conscious of rising diesel costs, have found they can save money if they cross the border in Texas on their way to the Midwest or East Coast.

A shake-up at the University of Texas is the latest in a series of maneuvers by President Bill Powers to cut costs. UT is facing a 16 percent cut in state funding and has been forced to reorganize campus wide to become more efficient and save money. The latest casualty is Don Hale, whose position as vice president for public affairs is being eliminated. The Office of Public Affairs is also being eliminated, and its employees are being transferred to other departments.

The Austin City Council has directed staffers to craft a plan to phase out plastic bags at retailers and grocery stores. Many cities in Texas have considered banning the bags for environmental reasons, but so far Brownsville is the only one that has implemented a ban.

Rick Perry appointed Mary “Missy” Medary of Corpus Christi as judge of the 347th Judicial District Court in Nueces County. Medary is a municipal court judge and magistrate for the City of Corpus Christi.

Deaths: Charles Wyly, an entrepreneurial Dallas billionaire who was also a major donor to Republican and conservative causes, in a traffic accident in Aspen, Colorado. He was 77.

Perry also appointed Ashley Johnson of Dallas and Henry Virgil Justice III of Kerrville to the Texas Judicial Council. Johnson is an attorney at Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher. Justice is president of First Insurance Agency of the Hill Country.

The governor appointed Michael “Mike” McKinney of Austin to the State Cemetery Committee. McKinney is executive vice president of the Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas.

Rene Ramirez, chief of staff to Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen, is leaving after more than 15 years to try his hand at lobbying.