The Evening Brief: April 18, 2012

Culled:

• John Cornyn, declaring ‘the Republican primary is over,’ endorses Romney (Houston Chronicle): Texas Sen. John Cornyn fell in line behind other top Republicans Wednesday and endorsed Mitt Romney for the Republican nominee. … Cornyn downplayed the endorsement Wednesday, but stressed the need for the party to unify behind a single candidate. 'The Republican primary is over. Mitt Romney will be our nominee and I will strongly support him in every way that I can,' Cornyn said. 'But I think endorsements, frankly, are kinda overrated, so I don’t think its going to affect the outcome of the election.'"

• Source: Jindal convinced Perry to oust trusted adviser (The Daily Caller): "A well-placed source who worked on Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential campaign tells The Daily Caller that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and his staff helped convince the one-time GOP front-runner to oust his trusted strategist Dave Carney. 'You cannot question Governor Jindal’s influence with Governor Perry. He definitely played a big part,' said the source." From the Houston Chronicle: "Jindal’s political guru, Timmy Teepell, quickly disputed the report, firing off a tweet to Lewis declaring: '@mattklewis your story about @bobbyjindal is not true.'"

• U.S. Senate Dem candidate Paul Sadler turns to Texas women (The Dallas Morning News): "Paul Sadler, running a Quixotic race for U.S. Senate as a Democrat in a ruby red state, won some cheers from a crowd over this weekend on his new theme: standing up for women. Supporters posted a clip from his speech on YouTube, and Sadler sent out an email urging potential voters to take a look. The theme is interesting, given all the War on Women rhetoric. He says the Republican candidates for Senate argued in last Friday night's debate over which one of them could undo the federal health care law the fastest. … 'All four of those men,' Sadler said, referring to the GOP candidates, 'were brought into this world by a woman. And a woman could take them out.'"

New in The Texas Tribune:

• Planned Parenthood Branches Vote to Merge: "The boards of three regional Planned Parenthood branches — North Texas, Central Texas and the Capital Region — have voted to merge, forming a $29 million-per-year mega-organization with 26 clinics up and down the Interstate 35 corridor. It is the eighth-largest Planned Parenthood affiliate in the nation."

• Leppert Has Spent "Several Million Dollars" for TV Ads: "U.S. Senate candidate Tom Leppert said he has recently invested 'several million dollars' to run campaign commercials between now and the May 29 primary."