The Evening Brief: May 9, 2012

New in The Texas Tribune:

• Club for Growth Targets Dewhurst With $1 Million Ad Buy: "The Club for Growth announced a $1 million ad buy targeting Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on Wednesday. The new 30-second ad accuses the U.S. Senate hopeful of being a 'moderate.' Watch the ad, which will air across the state."

• Texas Inmate Has Long History of Running for Office: "West Virginia primary voters delivered a shocking result on Tuesday, voting in large numbers for an inmate serving a 17-year sentence in Texarkana. It's perhaps the convict's most successful run, but hardly his first."

• University of Texas Law School Selects New Dean: "Ward Farnsworth, an associate dean at Boston University School of Law, will take over as dean of the University of Texas School of Law on June 1."

Culled:

• Lawmakers cheer, knock gay marriage news (Politico): "Liberals on Capitol Hill cheered President Barack Obama announcement Tuesday that he now backs gay marriage, while social conservatives dismissed the move as an election-year ploy to rally his base and divert attention from the economy. 'There appears to be a plan to try to distract Americans from the thing they care most about, which is too many people out of work and the sad state of the economy, and the runaway and reckless spending going on here in Washington,' Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who heads Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, told POLITICO."

• NRCC Chair Pete Sessions sticks by forecast: GOP gains in November (The Dallas Morning News): "Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions, the chief House GOP campaign strategist, predicted today that his side will actually win seats this fall — bucking the consensus of outside analysts and the recent warning from House Speaker John Boehner that Democrats stand a one-in-three chance of reclaiming the majority."