The Evening Brief: April 19, 2012

Culled:

• Rick Perry endorses David Dewhurst for Hutchison’s Senate seat (Houston Chronicle): "The favor has been repaid. Texas Gov. Rick Perry this morning endorsed David Dewhurst for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Dewhurst, the state’s lieutenant governor, was a strong supporter of Perry’s ill-starred presidential campaign and stumped for Perry before the Iowa caucuses. In a tweet this morning, Dewhurst (@DavidHDewhurst) declared, 'I’m honored that veteran and conservative champion @GovernorPerry is endorsing our campaign for U.S. Senate.'"

• Texas math standards seek to exceed national ones (The Associated Press): Texas' top education official said Thursday that the state should hammer out new K-12 math curriculum standards that are better than national requirements adopted almost everywhere in the country, or delay approving anything until it can.

• Inflating Senate candidates' cash disclosures? Money for runoff or fall (The Dallas Morning News): "There's a dirty little secret to these federal elections. When self-financing rich guys plop down their own money, they can use it any time. But individuals can give a federal candidate only $7,500, with one-third of that eligible for use before the primary, one-third before a primary runoff and the remainder before the November general election. As a result, the all-important cash on hand figures we gave you for the Senate Republican candidates in this post on Tuesday are really a life or death matter only for tea party favorite Ted Cruz and former NFL player Craig James, not the millionaires David Dewhurst and Tom Leppert."

• Texas' Attorney General endorses Kelly Hancock in Senate race (Fort Worth Star-Telegram): "Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today threw his support behind state Rep. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, who is running for the open Texas Senate District 9 post."

New in The Texas Tribune:

• Scott Thurman: The TT Interview: The director of The Revisionaries, a new documentary about the Texas State Board of Education’s battle over science and history education, on whether there are any villains in the film and the process of getting content into textbooks.

• Pat Wood: The TT Interview: The former chairman of the Public Utility Commission, a Port Arthur native, on the reasons behind the long-term power crunch in Texas (including whether deregulation had anything to do with it), his role in the wind boom and the future of solar power.