Texas Democrats Look for a Turnaround

Boyd Richie might get his wish. The head of the Texas Democratic Party has been hoping to start his state convention with a little love at the top of the ticket.

There’s one week to go ’til the state convention for the Democrats and some counties are still ironing out what they see as kinks in their delegate selection. The Texas Democrats haven’t been so divided about their candidates in decades, so the selection process is about as competitive as the presidential race itself.

Travis County prosecutors have issued subpoenas in their investigation of the so-called Ghost Worker case. The primary House committee investigating that affair has, as a result, pulled up (a second committee hasn’t changed course, but could). And the piles of Open Information Requests from politicians, partisans and the press should start yielding some results in the next week or so.

It’s the kind of Special Deals for Politicians saga that can taint the whole institution: Texas lawmakers are accused of lying about their employees to obtain benefits to which those workers would not otherwise be entitled.

You’ll hear Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst mentioned if you start a conversation about the next governor’s race, but the stars are aligning to send him to Washington, if he’s interested.

Gov. Rick Perry, talking to reporters from The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, became the first candidate to say — without reservations — that he’ll be on the gubernatorial ballot in 2010.

In the only statewide runoff race — the Democratic battle for Railroad Commission — political novice Mark Thompson outran Dale Henry, who was making a third run for a job on that regulatory panel. Thompson got 59.2 percent of the vote, and will challenge Republican incumbent Michael Williams.

We take you now to Runoff Land, where a handful of candidates are still smacking each other for a chance at their party’s nomination.