Enlarge Graphic by Callie Richmond / Becca Aaronson / Todd Wiseman

Texas, it’s official: We have the worst rate of health insurance coverage in the country. The U.S. Census Bureau released the 2011 Current Population Survey data on income, poverty and health insurance this week, finding that one in four Texans, more than 6 million people, had no health insurance in 2011.

That is a huge financial burden on the health care system in Texas that ultimately falls on Texas employers and the insured. The Texas Medical Association reports that in 2003 — when only 5.1 million Texans were uninsured, according to the CPS data — hospitals spent $208 million treating uninsured patients. “To cover these costs, hospitals charge insured patients higher prices, which in turn drives up insurance premiums,” according to the TMA's analysis.

Before delving into the political context and consequences of this issue, let’s take a closer look at the CPS data. (Keep in mind, it shows state and national trends over time and doesn’t provide many demographic details on poverty and health insurance coverage by state. More information on the demographics of poverty and health insurance coverage can be found in the American Community Survey data for 2011 that will be released by the U.S. Census Bureau next week. For 2010 information from the ACS on the demographics of the uninsured, check out this Texas Tribune interactive.)

The graph below shows a breakdown of Texas’ 2011 insurance market, according to the CPS data. Just over 50 percent of Texans had private employment-based health insurance coverage. The next largest group is Medicaid, followed by Medicare. Combined, government health insurance covered 7.1 million Texans while private health insurance covered 14.4 million.

Click on any of those bars to see the number of Texans in that insurance category over time. Looking at all of the annual trends, one thing is immediately obvious: While Medicaid and Medicare enrollment continues to grow, growth in private employment-provided insurance has plateaued. That isn't just a Texas trend, either. Nationally, the CPS data shows in 2011 there was no statistical change in the number of people with private insurance — the first time in 10 years that there wasn’t a decline — and enrollment in public insurance programs grew for the fifth consecutive year.

The growth in public insurance “can be driven by more kids. This could be driven by elderly. It could be driven by a bunch of other things,” said David Johnson, chief of the housing and household economy statistics division at the U.S. Census Bureau. “We don’t know what’s going to happen next year when states choose other things.”

We’ll get to that in a minute.

First, compare the number of uninsured in Texas (here's a county-by-county map of uninsured in the state) to the United States as a whole and to Massachusetts, the state with the lowest rate of people without health insurance. This graph shows the percent of the population that wasn’t covered by health insurance in 2001, in 2006 — the year former Massachusetts Gov. and current presidential contender Mitt Romney passed state health care reform — and 2011.

Texas has had a higher rate of uninsured than the national average for quite some time. And Massachusetts started with a much lower rate of uninsured than Texas. But five years after Romney’s health care reform took effect, the rate of uninsured is only 3.4 percent, which is 4.5 percent lower than that of Hawaii, the state with the second-lowest rate.

The Massachusetts health insurance reform law, like the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, requires everyone to purchase health insurance.

"We said, look, if people can afford to buy it, either buy the insurance or pay your own way. Don't be free riders and pass on the cost of your health care to everybody else," Romney said in 2008, the first time he ran for president, according to a CBS News report.

Romney wants to repeal the federal law, but if it remains in place, Texas has four more years to get its act together before the individual mandate that requires everyone to either purchase health insurance or pay a tax takes effect.  

To get everyone insured, the federal legislation would expand the eligibility requirements of Medicaid in 2014, providing a large federal match for the first few years before shifting a greater portion of the financial burden to states, and set up a health insurance exchange to inform consumers — who will pay premiums on a sliding scale, depending on their income — of their health plan options.

But Texas Republicans have been highly opposed to the individual mandate and the state health insurance exchange that would go with it. Attorney General Greg Abbott fought the individual mandate all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost. And Gov. Rick Perry has said Texas will not accept funds to expand Medicaid or set up the health insurance exchange, in which case the federal government will set up the program for Texas.

Perry’s still hasn’t specifically outlined the “health care solutions that are right for the people of Texas,” to which he continuously refers. Kaiser Health News has reported that Texas businesses — from insurance companies to private employers to hospitals — are putting pressure on the governor to expand Medicaid, because without that expansion, they’ll be forced to continue footing the bill for the uninsured.

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Texas Court of Criminal Appeals presiding Judge Sharon Keller and Democratic challenger, lawyer Keith Hampton

Democrat Keith Hampton is focusing his campaign to lead the state’s top criminal court on winning over Republicans. That strategy, he says, is the key to defeating Sharon Keller, the controversial long-time incumbent, and becoming the first Democrat to win a statewide election since 1994.

“This race really is not a matter of Democrat versus Republican or conservative versus liberal,” Hampton said. “It’s about right and wrong for people.”

Keller, the presiding judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, has in recent years been a lightning rod for criticism and controversy at the court. Keller did not respond to requests for comment for this story. But Todd Olsen, a political consultant who has worked for decades on judicial campaigns, said that while the judge’s public troubles and recent judicial voting trends make her vulnerable, Hampton has a steep hill to climb to make her weakness into his win.

“He has to run a race, and he has not so far shown that he intends to do so,” Olsen said.

The Court of Criminal Appeals is the last judicial stop in Texas for criminal cases, taking the role in criminal law that the Texas Supreme Court has in civil law. The nine judges make life-or-death decisions in death penalty cases, and their rulings set jurisprudence in criminal cases for lower courts. The presiding judge does much more than issue decisions from the bench, though, leading commissions and advisory boards that set criminal justice policy statewide.

“The presiding judge traditionally sets the tone for the court itself and how it conducts its business internally,” said Shannon Edmonds, spokesman for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association. 

In recent years, the tone for Keller, who in 1994 became the first woman to serve on the court, has been a controversial one.

She drew national attention to the court in 2007 when, on the day of a death row inmate’s execution, she refused to allow his lawyers to file a last-minute appeal, saying the court had closed at 5 p.m. 

Then, in 2010, the Texas Ethics Commission fined Keller $100,000 for failing to disclose sources of income on her personal financial statements from 2004 to 2008. It was the largest such fine in the ethics commission’s history. 

But Keller has received wide praise for her work as chairwoman of the Task Force on Indigent Defense, which has brought a sea change in how the poor in Texas are represented in court.

And that role is a critical one for the accused who cannot afford to hire lawyers, said Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, which represents death row inmates.

“You can’t just think about this job as purely an appellate job,” Kase said. “There is a policy role that accompanies it that can change how public defense is practiced within this state.”

Hampton, an Austin defense lawyer who has tried death penalty cases from accusation through appeals at the U.S. Supreme Court, said he would bring a new philosophy to the court.

“My view includes two components,” he said. “One is fairness of the process. The other is getting it right. The result does matter. Have you achieved justice in the end of the day?”

Hampton, who has more than $14,000 in his campaign coffer, said when he speaks to moderate Republicans about the differences between himself and Keller, they are won over. Democrats are already likely to vote for him. It’s those undecided moderate GOPers, he said, who are critical to his victory. The challenge, he said, is reaching them with his limited funds.

“It’s a function of money,” he said. “If they know about the race they will not vote for her, and they will vote for me.”

Like other Republican judicial candidates, Olsen said, Keller has had difficulty raising money. In the first six months of 2012, she received just one $500 contribution. And in recent elections, he said, Democratic judicial candidates have gained ground against their Republican opponents.

Those factors combined with Keller’s negative history, he said, combine to make her a weaker candidate. But Hampton’s relatively meager fundraising for a statewide campaign that typically requires millions for effective advertising, isn’t likely to be enough to push out even a weakened incumbent.

“He just needs more resources to do it,” Olsen said. 

Editor's Note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Keith Hampton has more than $14,000 in his campaign account. An earlier version of this story reported an incorrect amount.

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This week on the Texas Weekly Newsreel, we take a look at some races that aren't necessarily on the the radar, but that candidates and consultants are trying to promote as competitive.

You can view the video at: https://trib.it/NqxCCV

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We're scouring the ballot this week and next, asking the insiders who they think will win key statewide, congressional and legislative races in November.

The quick version? They pick Sharon Keller for reelection as presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals; state Rep. Randy Weber, R-Pearland, in the CD-14 contest; state Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, in the CD-23 race; and Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, in her reelection bid in SD-10. There is plenty of room for argument, as you'll see in the full comments (attached) and in the sampling below. 

Before we get to that: Paul Sadler, as executive director of the Wind Coalition — lobbying for clean energy — has been on the list of insiders for some time. We didn’t think to take him off when he declared for U.S. Senate — our mistake — and that’s why he was among the voters on last week’s survey, which included the question, “Who do you think will win the race for U.S. Senate?” We can guess how he voted, but we don’t have a way to check that, since we set up our surveys to keep the votes separate from the names of the people who cast them. However he cast his vote, Sadler got hammered in the survey: 96 percent of the insiders predicted Republican Ted Cruz will win that race. You’ll see Sadler’s name in the list below, as this survey was done before one of our readers caught the good. It’s been removed from future surveys.

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

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Who do you think will win the race for presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals?

• "Still not time for a D. But if Keith wins somehow, will Terry Keel go back to practicing criminal appellate law?"

• "Keller was cleared of the alleged misconduct charges, and Hampton doesn't have the money to remind people of it all."

• "Sharon 'hang 'em high' Keller is most in step with Texas."

• "Keller will win. It's a shame."

• "Even though I know R's and D's that agree she is not fit to serve on the bench, she will win because of the low level of communication in the race and the partisan leanings of the state."

• "Pure partisan, R trumps D."

• "Sadly, no one knows anything about this race, so it will largely default to a generic D vs. R matchup. Hampton will probably mop up on endorsements from newspapers, etc., which will close the gap a bit. But Keller should still win."

• "Sharon is an excellent judge. The media needs to recognize her stellar qualities."

• "D's cannot win."

• "I'm pretty sure 'Whom did you say?' will beat 'Who's that other one again?' "

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

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Who do you think will win the CD-14 race?

• "District favors an R, and Nick can't run against the ghost of DeLay again."

• "The district has a heavy African American voting population. Republican/Tea Party has for some reason seemed to have teed off on black folks, protestations aside Nick does well with average folks"

• "This one may sneak up on people. District is marginally Republican, but Lampson will get a homer vote out of Jefferson County, as well as some crossover from Clear Lake folks who remember his support of NASA. Will be close."

• "This election should turn out record numbers of conservatives who rightly FEAR for our country if BHO is re-elected. Weber is a fine conservative."

• "Nick is a serious candidate but the playing field is tilted too far against him."

• "It will be close but Weber's negatives outweigh his positives."

• "Any Republican will win in this election."

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

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Who do you think will win the CD-23 race?

• "Too early to predict the outcome of this race at this time."

• "Mr. Gallego goes to Washington!"

• "Voters in the district have known Pete for a lot longer than they've known Quico. They trust Pete and will send him to Washington."

• "When a candidate blows through 4 campaign managers, the problem isn't the campaign managers."

• "Pete had to outspend Ciro by 12-1 and get help from outside groups to win. Quico will have money and will bring the fight to Pete."

• "I don't know of any group of voters in Texas who want to elect another big government liberal, which is what Gallego has proven to be."

• "The final result in CD23 may end up being lopsided but there is no way to predict that now. On paper, this is the most competitive Texas race this fall, with the possible exception of Davis/Shelton in SD10."

• "Mayor Castro did a great job improving Gallego's chances with his convention speech."

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

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Who do you think will win the SD-10 race?

• "As much as I disagree with Sen. Davis, she appears to be outworking Rep. Shelton. I hope I am wrong on this one!"

• "No Obama coattails or a weak Brimer to carry Davis over the finish line this time around."

• "Without a Libertarian, it's quite an uphill race for Sen. Davis."

• "Shelton is a Tier II recruit at best and SD-10 has only gotten to be more favorable territory for Davis since her victory in 2008. Republicans should be wary because the more they target her the stronger they make her following statewide."

• "This will be the litmus test for Democrats. If they can hold their ground here there may be hope for them statewide in the next decade."

• "She's not running against Brimer; she has a legislative record; she's not running against Brimer; the presidential race won't bring more Ds to the polls; she's not running against Brimer; there's no Libertarian; and she's not running against Brimer."

• "Brimer lost this seat last time by running to the courthouse instead of to the voters. I don't expect Shelton will make the same mistake."

• "Wendy is the next Dewhurst, needs to stop measuring curtains."

Our thanks to this week's participants: Cathie Adams, Jenny Aghamalian, Clyde Alexander, George Allen, Jay Arnold, Charles Bailey, Tom Banning, Walt Baum, Eric Bearse, Dave Beckwith, Rebecca Bernhardt, Andrew Biar, Tom Blanton, Hugh Brady, Steve Bresnen, Chris Britton, Blaine Bull, Lydia Camarillo, Kerry Cammack, Marc Campos, Thure Cannon, Corbin Casteel, William Chapman, Elna Christopher, Rick Cofer, John Colyandro, Harold Cook, Beth Cubriel, Randy Cubriel, Denise Davis, Hector De Leon, June Deadrick, Nora Del Bosque, Tom Duffy, Richard Dyer, Jack Erskine, Jon Fisher, Wil Galloway, Norman Garza, Dominic Giarratani, Bruce Gibson, Stephanie Gibson, Jim Grace, John Greytok, Clint Hackney, Anthony Haley, Wayne Hamilton, Bill Hammond, Adam Haynes, John Heasley, Jim Henson, Ken Hodges, Laura Huffman, Richie Jackson, Cal Jillson, Jason Johnson, Mark Jones, Robert Jones, Lisa Kaufman, Robert Kepple, Richard Khouri, Tom Kleinworth, Pete Laney, Luke Legate, Richard Levy, Elizabeth Lippincott, Homero Lucero, Matt Mackowiak, Bryan Mayes, Parker McCollough, Mike McKinney, Robert Miller, Mike Moses, Steve Murdock, Craig Murphy, Keir Murray, Keats Norfleet, Pat Nugent, Gardner Pate, Bill Pewitt, Tom Phillips, Wayne Pierce, Richard Pineda, Royce Poinsett, Jay Pritchard, Jay Propes, Bill Ratliff, Tim Reeves, Jeff Rotkoff, Jason Sabo, Paul Sadler, Mark Sanders, Andy Sansom, Jim Sartwelle, Stan Schlueter, Bruce Scott, Steve Scurlock, Bradford Shields, Christopher Shields, Dee Simpson, Jason Skaggs, Ed Small, Martha Smiley, Todd Smith, Larry Soward, Dennis Speight, Steve Stagner, Jason Stanford, Keith Strama, Bob Strauser, Colin Strother, Charles Stuart, Michael Quinn Sullivan, Sherry Sylvester, Jay Thompson, Russ Tidwell, Gerard Torres, Trent Townsend, Trey Trainor, Ware Wendell, Darren Whitehurst, Seth Winick, Alex Winslow, Lee Woods, Peck Young, Angelo Zottarelli.

Enlarge Todd Wiseman

Monday, Sept. 17:

• House Human Services Committee hearing (10 a.m.)
• Fundraiser for U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz; Austin Club (4-6 p.m.)
• Fundraiser for Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon; Austin Club (noon-1 p.m.)

Tuesday, Sept. 18:

• Fundraiser for Rep. Ron Reynolds; Kim Son Ballroom, Stafford (6-8 p.m.)

Wednesday, Sept. 19:

• Reception for House candidate Gene Wu; Austin Club (4:30-6:30 p.m.)

Thursday, Sept. 20:

• Fundraiser for Rep. Armando Walle; Austin Club (4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m.)

Friday, Sept. 21 - Sunday, Sept. 23:

• The second annual Texas Tribune Festival, on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin

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Bill Hammond is the CEO of the Texas Association of Business.

Employers know it. Community colleges know it. Military recruiters know it. And now the ACT test confirms it. Texas local school bureaucrats are not graduating enough of our students ready for college or career.

According to the ACT results announced this week, fewer than a quarter of our graduating students are ready for college. Just 9 percent of black students are ready for introductory science courses in college. Only 13 percent of Hispanics have the necessary skills.

The sad reality is that the true picture is even worse. The numbers above are the percentages for those who took the test, which was only 39 percent of high school seniors. Sadly, more than 25 percent of our students dropped out before they could even take the ACT.

This is shameful and unacceptable.

The vast majority of good jobs in Texas will require credentials earned after high school. Yet the vast majority of our young people cannot garner these credentials.

The school bureaucrats blame everyone but themselves. They complain that 12 years was not enough time to get students over even the low bar of TAKS. They complain that the expectations of the new accountability system, to get students ready for college or career, are somehow unfair, even though they supported this legislation just three years ago. And they complain constantly that they need more money. Cumulatively, they've gotten at least $70 billion over and above the cost of inflation and enrollment growth plus the costs of special needs students over the past 14 years. Look at the results that investment has brought us.

This is bureaucracy at its worst: demanding more money, less accountability and less responsiveness to taxpayers and parents while producing results that do not meet the needs of our young people or our economy.

You have heard them complain about the STAAR exams. Well, now we know that STAAR is just one of the many messengers with the same message. Let me repeat the ACT results: fewer than a quarter of our students who make it to graduation are ready for any sort of college. This problem is confirmed tragically by the additional fact that almost half of the students in our community colleges cannot even take courses than earn credit toward a degree without passing through developmental education.

We need to wake up, and wake up now, to the deeper truth that it is time to stop blaming the messengers. It is time to fix the problem.

Tom Pauken, former chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission, said in The Texas Tribune that he wants to change the state's new accountability system because somehow that will help youngsters get technical jobs. He is wrong.

We do indeed need to get more youngsters ready for all sorts of jobs, including those in technical and manufacturing fields. But it is the old system that has failed to prepare students for both college and career. That is why we passed House Bill 3, legislation that has led to standards, testing and accountability that align perfectly with getting young people ready for the full spectrum of good jobs and opportunity. Give the change a chance to work, please!

Readers of the Tribune also have seen the views of a professor who opposes accountability. Based upon opinions with no grounding in peer review or published research, Walter Stroup attacked the theory behind state testing. It turns out that the theory he attacked has been established in research for more than 50 years, used in the best assessments in the world and designed to be sure that the tests are unbiased and fair. The tests, it turns out, are indeed quite sensitive to learning the state’s fine new standards.

In the face of all of the naysayers, we must stay the course. But staying the course does not mean that our new reforms are perfect. If there are tweaks that are needed, let us make them. If there are transitions that are needed, let us have those transitions. Business and civic leaders must listen to and work with educators who are ready to take responsibility and move forward with a proper implementation of these policies.

We now have a strong, forceful and intelligent commissioner, Michael Williams. I am confident that he will lead all of us to solutions and to ways of going forward together.

Parents know. Our citizens and employers know. Our leaders know, too. We must bring all of our young people to a diploma that means they are ready for college or career. It is that simple.

But it will not be easy. It will mean higher standards than the ones that we are used to. It will mean having tests that produce reports that make us uncomfortable. And it will mean accountability that will pinch, especially for those who are part of the problem, not the solution.

We have a lot of hard work ahead of us. Let us do it. Our kids will win, and our beloved state will win.

Hammond, a former state legislator, is president and CEO of the Texas Association of Business

A new state law requiring periodic voter purges has rankled some residents and county officials. The law requires the secretary of state’s office to compare its lists of qualified voters against Social Security master death lists and remove from the rolls anyone who shows up as deceased. More than 72,000 Texans have been targeted as potentially dead, and the majority of them will have to respond to letters within 30 days or face having their names removed from the rolls. Harris County received a list of more than 9,000 such voters but has decided not to purge the names until after the November election, drawing criticism from state officials. But Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Don Sumners responded that his department wanted more time to verify voters status. 

A new executive director, Mike Griffiths, is making big changes at the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. Griffiths has a plan for the agency that’s a combination of the former juvenile corrections and probation programs. The agencies had been in hot water for years following abuse and cover-up scandals. Lawmakers were happy with the progress being made, which included a cancellation of raises announced in April by the agency’s former executive director, Cherie Townsend. Griffiths also announced that the new department will be reorganized, and he met with staff to let them know about the jobs that would be available to them. As part of the reorganization, executives were asked to justify their value to the agency.

A whistle-blower who helped expose misdeeds at the Texas Youth Commission has won an appeal upholding the $1 million awarded to him resulting from his firing. Dallas attorney Chris Koustoubardis sued the state after he was fired from his administrative law judicial position at the agency. He claimed that he was owed damages under the whistle-blower protection law because he reported on illegal activities he witnessed. A jury awarded him almost $700,000 in 2010, and a judge added to the total an amount that Koustoubardis would have been paid if he hadn’t been fired. That amount has been accruing interest, bringing the award up to about $1 million.

The party just kept on going for Julián Castro (and his brother, Joaquin) upon returning home after their appearance at the Democratic National Convention. Per their custom, the brothers hosted a birthday party for themselves and were surprised to find a record crowd in attendance. Their new popularity helped Joaquin Castro’s final fundraiser of the season surpass expectations, drawing more than 250 attendees and an estimated $50,000 in donations. Julián did his part for his brother: In his speech at the party, he asked the crowd to vote for his brother on Election Day and to also to endorse his plan for expanded pre-K in the San Antonio area.

Following a vote by the Texas Transportation Commission to set the speed limit at 85 on two sections of toll road 130, TxDOT and the builder of the road, the SH 130 Concession Company, found themselves on the defensive. They claimed charges that the speed limit was unsafe don’t apply to this stretch of road because it is flat and straight and has been engineered for the higher speed limit. 

In advance of the November Formula One race, Gov. Rick Perry and his wife traveled to Italy to tout the event and Texas business. Perry scheduled meetings with business and government leaders to promote investment and trade between Italy and the Lone Star State and took in the Italian Grand Prix. The race prompted him to wax poetic about the upcoming debut of Formula One in Austin, saying the race is more viewer-friendly and that drivers are showing interest in the layout of the track.

The University of Texas at Austin scored big when it was awarded a federal grant to spend on nanotechnology research. The school expects to expand its engineering faculty and graduate student program with the $18.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, which will be paid out over the next five years to UT and two academic partners, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of New Mexico. Researchers will focus on how nanoscience can be applied to innovations in the marketplace, and the grant is expected to stimulate local economies and help Austin maintain its high-tech reputation.

Gov. Rick Perry has said he won't rule out a future run for president. Not everyone buys it, but a couple of recent press releases from his state office — both following national headlines instead of state or local ones — seem to bear out his interest in speaking out on national and international affairs. Perry followed formal GOP rival Mitt Romney in his political critique of the attacks that killed four Americans in Benghazi, blaming the current administration for the troubles there.

“Muammar Qadaffi was an evil oppressor who murdered innocent Americans. But in the naïve belief that America could 'lead from behind' in the operation to remove him, this President allowed Libyan rockets and artillery to be scattered to the terrorist winds and had no plan to secure the country. Now we have these brazen attacks on our mission in Benghazi, and the violent death of our ambassador.  

“Combined with President Obama’s shameful lack of leadership in Egypt that culminated in the burning of our flag in our own embassy in Cairo yesterday, it is no wonder our enemies in the region are emboldened and our allies are afraid."

In the second release, Perry renewed his year-old criticism of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke after the Fed announced it will try to stimulate the economy by buying mortgage bonds and other assets until there is some improvement in the job markets. Perry said it's the wrong policy, noted its proximity to the November elections, called it "the mother of all bailouts," and said. Bernanke should resign. 

Reps. Lyle Larson, R-San Antonio, and Four Price, R-Amarillo, were appointed to the Texas Republican Representatives Campaign Committee, a PAC focused on Republican campaigns for the state House. They're joining a group that already includes Harvey Hilderbran of Kerrville, Larry Phillips of Sherman, Bill Callegari of Katy, Myra Crownover of Denton, Jim Keffer of Eastland, Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham, and Wayne Smith of Baytown.

That group recently scooped up a $150,000 contribution from House Speaker Joe Straus, who has said he'll support Republican candidates — so long as they're not running against Democratic incumbents. That's not always popular with partisans, but Straus is following the precedent set by previous speakers. 

The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association's PAC endorsed state Rep. Randy Weber, R-Pearland, in the CD-14 race to replace U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Surfside. That's a Republican district, but Democrat Nick Lampson, a former congressman, is in the hunt, saying internal polling and relatively high name ID show he can compete. His campaign points to a couple of judges who did well in that district in their statewide races; Bill Moody, running for Texas Supreme Court in 2006, got 50.6 percent there.

Milton Rister, long of tooth in Republican government and political circles in Texas, is the new executive director of the Railroad Commission. Rister was most recently with Gov. Rick Perry's office. On the way there, he also worked for former House Speaker Tom Craddick, for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and served as head of the Texas Legislative Council. 

The CD-23 race between U.S. Rep. Francisco "Quico" Canseco, R-San Antonio, and state Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, will feature at least one Spanish-language debate. Sponsored by AARP and San Antonio's Univision, that will be taped on Sept. 25 and will air on Sept. 29. 

State Rep. Stefani Carter, R-Dallas, joins the Black Leadership Council for the Romney campaign. She did some surrogate speaking for the campaign at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. 

Oscar Rodriguez was named president of the Texas Association of Broadcasters, replacing the late Ann Arnold as head of that trade group. He's been with TAB for 18 years.

Deaths: Bob Gammage, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, state representative (one of the Dirty 30 who battled with then-Speaker Gus Mutscher in the early 1970s), state senator, congressman, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate (in 2006). He was 74.