Enlarge Illustration by Todd Wiseman

There's a great blog for redistricting mooks, run by Dallas attorney Michael Li. He doesn't have a client in this, but he's interested in it to an almost absurd level and is the only one we know of who's keeping track of documents and personalities and arguments on a close basis. We check his blog, at TxRedistricting.org, for regular fixes on the trial in San Antonio.

Before the big redistricting trial began this week, Li said he's watching to see whether Republicans can hang onto their base without stampeding Hispanic voters to the other side. And while there's not a lot of precedent-setting material in the case, he and others in the political mapping bidness are watching to see whether anyone successfully challenges the Voting Rights Act — specifically, Section 5, which requires Texas and other mostly southern states to get federal preclearance for any changes in maps or voting procedures.

The Texas cases are moving on two tracks. Instead of asking the U.S. Department of Justice (part of a Democratic administration) for pre-clearance, Attorney General Greg Abbott sent that request to the federal courts in the District of Columbia. They haven't set trial dates yet, but they're meeting with lawyers and assembling legal briefs this month. They could set those dates in a conference on September 21, but that's a guess based on conversations with some of the lawyers involved in this.

The San Antonio track started this week with hearings (see our coverage of the opening arguments here) that are scheduled to end on Mexican Independence Day, September 16. Judges are funny, huh? The three-judge panel hearing that case includes Orlando Garcia, a former state legislator who's now a federal judge, Xavier Rodriguez, a former Texas Supreme Court justice who lost that job in a Republican primary — a loss that some attributed to his Spanish surname, and Jerry Smith, a Houston-based justice on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Garcia was appointed by Bill Clinton, Rodriguez by George W. Bush, and Smith by Ronald Reagan.

Don't expect a ruling out of San Antonio quickly. Some of the lawyers — and this requires more lawyers than a Hollywood divorce — say the Texas judges might hold their ruling until the DC courts are finished. That could be November, or even December.

Enlarge Bob Daemmrich

State Sen. Dan Patrick holds a short press conference on his intentions to run for U.S. Senate on May 27, 2011.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, is still in the maybe column in the race to replace U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. He's wealthy enough to run dollar-for-dollar against Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, but Dewhurst has won four statewide general elections in a row to none for McCaul. As a side note, McCaul and Ted Cruz, the former state solicitor general who's also in the Senate race, are often touted as attorney general candidates in 2014, when AG Greg Abbott is expected to run for governor.

Sometimes, it's news when they don't run. State Sen. Dan Patrick won't join the race for U.S. Senate and says he'll stick around here to keep a hand in the governor-lite governor succession race.

The Senate would replace David Dewhurst if he leaves, and would replace both him and Rick Perry if the governor moves out. Patrick might or might not get the votes to hold one of those jobs, but he wants to have an influence. "I want to be in the middle of these decisions so that I can be sure we have the right conservative in that position, if it's not me," he said.

In any case, he says he will "consider very seriously" running for the lieutenant governor's post in 2014. Dewhurst is running for the U.S. Senate, and Patrick and others are betting he'll be long gone by 2014.

• Tony Dale, a veteran and a member of the Cedar Park City Council, will announce for the Texas House in the next few days in the new seat in Williamson County — HD-149. He'll face former Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale (who served from Tomball and then moved) in that primary. But he apparently won't face Ted Pataki, son of former New York Gov. George Pataki; the younger Pataki looked but won't get in. Pataki filed what appears to be a closing campaign finance report with the Texas Ethics Commission.

• Dr. Greg Bonnen, a Friendswood Republican and the brother of state Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, will run for the Texas House seat currently occupied by Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood.

Taylor will run for the state Senate next year, leaving an open seat. Bonnen is a neurosurgeon and the chairman at Houston Physicians' Hospital in Webster. He starts with an endorsement from Dr. Kyle Janek, a former state senator from that area who now lobbies in Austin.

Bonnen won't be alone in that HD-24 race: Rhett Eubanks, who runs a family-owned trucking business in Friendswood and works as a volunteer at the Harris County Sheriff's office, says he'll be in the GOP primary, too.

Taylor's jump is based on Mike Jackson's jump; the state senator will run for Congress in a newly created district in Southeast Texas. Here's another game of hopscotch about to be underway: State Rep. Randy Weber, R-Pearland, announced this week that he will announce next week his intentions in CD-14 — the congressional seat now held by Ron Paul. Weber says in his announcement — hold that suspense! — that "the fundraising effort for the exploratory committee was an unqualified success." He's in. Paul, who's seeking the Republican nomination for president, isn't seeking reelection to Congress.

• Ken King, a Canadian Republican (that's Canadian as in Texas Panhandle, and not Canadian as in Yukon) will run for the Texas House in HD-88, the district where Reps. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, and Jim Landtroop, R-Plainview, were paired. Chisum isn't running for reelection — he plans to run for the Texas Railroad Commission. King is president of the Canadian ISD board and the vice president of a well services company.

• Grant Stintchfield, a former TV reporter, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram he will challenge U.S. Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Coppell, in the GOP primary next year.

• Take state Rep. Sid Miller, R-Stephenville, off the congressional list. He announced he will instead run for reelection to his state House seat.

• State Rep. Erwin Cain, R-Como, says he hasn't decided whether to run for reelection but will, and soon. And he says rumors of a run for county judge are wrong, as the county judge is a friend of his. The freshman rep was paired with Dan Flynn, R-Van, in redistricting. He says he wanted to recover from the session and get some work done: "I've just not given it that much thought," he says.

• Democrat Keith Hampton will take another run at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, this time against Rick Perry appointee Elsa Alcala, who'll be defending her appointment to the court at the ballot box next year.

• Republican Wade Brown of May, Texas (it's north of Brownwood, between Fort Worth and Abilene) will challenge U.S. Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Midland, next year. He's a veteran (Marines) and this is apparently his first run for office. There's a Democrat in that CD-11 race, too: Jim Riley of San Angelo. The biography on his website is eight pages long and when you reach page nine, it says "Under construction." Happy reading.

Enlarge Bob Daemmrich

Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett (center with glasses) at the State of the Judiciary speech in the House chamber on February 23, 2011.

Austin lawyer and anti-affirmative-action advocate Steven Wayne Smith is planning a return to the Texas Supreme Court.

Smith, who did not respond to requests for comment, will challenge Justice Don Willett in the 2012 Republican primary, according to a campaign filing with the Texas Ethics Commission.

It will be his fifth run for a spot on the high court, where he served from 2002 until 2004, but he is perhaps better known for successfully litigating an anti-affirmative-action case against the University of Texas School of Law for its race-based admissions policy on behalf of four white students. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1996 decision from the U.S. 5th Circuit in 2003.

Smith first ran for the court in 1998, when he took on GOP incumbent Deborah Hankinson. In 2002 he defeated newly appointed justice Xavier Rodriguez in the Republican primary in an upset victory, where he spent only $9,500 to his opponent’s $550,000. Many observers at the time attributed Rodriguez’s loss to the perils of having a Hispanic last name in a Republican primary.

During the 2002 race, Smith filed a lawsuit against a provision in Texas law that that barred judicial candidates from stating opinions on any issues that would come before their courts. A federal court ruled in his favor, saying the rule violated the First Amendment.

Smith lost the seat in 2004 to current justice Paul Green, after every living former state Supreme Court justice came out to oppose his candidacy. Gov. Rick Perry also took the unusual step of endorsing against a Republican incumbent in that race, giving his nod to Green instead. During the campaign, Smith attributed the governor’s endorsement to “sour grapes” because he had defeated Rodriguez, his appointee.

Smith has also challenged Willett before, in the 2006 primary, shortly after Perry appointed him to fill an open seat.

In an email, Willett said he was confident that primary voters would “once again put their trust” in him given his “stout record of principled judicial conservatism.”

“It’s always unfortunate when a perennial candidate thumbs his nose at voters who have repeatedly said they’re not interested,” he wrote. “Such defiance sends a very insulting message: ‘Texas GOP voters, you just don't get it.’” 

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Rick Perry now has a presidential debate behind him, so we asked our insiders for their first impressions. Most thought the Texas governor's performance was "good." A few (15 percent) thought it was "great," and only 8 percent thought it was "poor." Having seen Perry on stage with seven other presidential candidates, almost half of our insiders think he's on his way to the Republican nomination, and 32 percent give that prospect a "maybe" rating.

And then there were the comments, which are more interesting (as usual) than the tallies. We've put all of them in one document, which is attached, but here's a sampling:

How did Perry do?

• "He did OK - not good, not poor. He started strong, but faded badly. Clearly, he has much work to do to be comfortable discussing major issues."

• "Rough around the edges, but getting his sea legs on the national stage. If he continues to improve, he'll be unstoppable for the nomination. People question lines like 'Ponzi scheme', but it's red meat to primary voters!"

• "The disconnect between the pundit class and Republican voters is more surprising than anything he said in the debate that could be considered controversial, e.g., Social Security, climate change."

• "Solid B. lots of attention will be paid to the Ponzi Scheme comment, but he doubled down on his anti-Washington rhetoric... needs to be sharper, more substantive in next couple debates... answer on death penalty was absolutely perfect"

• "Good, not great. Strong open. Stumbled midway. Great recovery on death penalty. Ponzi scheme will haunt him. General election prospects in flux."

Now that you've seen him with the other candidates, do you think Perry will be the Republican nominee?

• "He's too far out of the mainstream. Even today's Republicans aren't going to be comfortable with a nominee who is going to scare old people by calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme."

• "None of the other candidates have the political moxey to go toe to toe with Governor Perry. One of them will need to hire Karl Rove to have any chance to beat Governor Perry."

• "It's most definitely a Perry/Romney show unless one of them commits a major error. Romney (and Huntsman) are the most electable of the group, but Perry will play the primary voter the same way he has played conservatives in TX - masterfully. And no one on the outside will understand how he did it."

• "It's the Perry-Romney show and who do you think the GOP base will elect? Not Romney."

• "Team Perry is the only campaign who is running to win a Republican Primary Election. He is feeding the red meat machine and will be rewarded. Who cares about a general election if you can't win your primary."

What were the high and low points of the debate, and what did you find surprising?

• "I was surprised that Governor Perry publicly dissed Karl Rove. I was impressed with Governor Huntsman. He was poised but he missed his opportunity to back up his comments about his Republican competition. I wondered as bad as President Obama is doing in the public opinion polls how could he still be leading the individual Republicans in the field. The debate illustrated why President Obama still has hope, the Republicans are playing to a very small and extreme group of voters who have lost favor with the general public."

• "The realization that Galileo was outvoted and thus science just cannot inform policy in regard to the environment. The high point of the debate for me was Perry's mocking facial gestures when Romney was standing up to his condescending rhetorical bullying. I find it amazing that Newt Gingrich gets to renew his franchise on relevancy. Ron Paul still comes off as the nice cranky guy who lives down the street who will lecture you if you walk by his house."

• "Highs: Perry survived and was able to handle the pressure; Romney became a player again; Huntsman won't die that quickly. Lows: Watching Bachman's presidential ambitions come to an end; Determining that Ron Paul's public service career just ended; Surprising: Rick Perry handled the pressure."

• "I suspected that the others would attack Perry, but I was still surprised by it - I guess in bar fights and debates you should always knock the Hell out of the biggest dude in the room first. Ron Paul looked like the whiney old man who lives at the end of your block bitching about the garbage truck."

• "The audience applause at the death penalty numbers in Texas was appalling."

Our thanks to this week's participants: Gene Acuna, Cathie Adams, Brandon Aghamalian, Victor Alcorta, Clyde Alexander, Jay Arnold, Louis Bacarisse, Dave Beckwith, Allen Blakemore, Hugh Brady, Steve Bresnen, Linda Bridges, Chris Britton, Andy Brown, Lydia Camarillo, Snapper Carr, Tris Castaneda, George Cofer, Rick Cofer, Lawrence Collins, John Colyandro, Kevin Cooper, Hector De Leon, Tom Duffy, David Dunn, Jeff Eller, Alan Erwin, Gay Erwin, Ryan Erwin, Terry Frakes, Bruce Gibson, Daniel Gonzalez, Thomas Graham, Alan Gray, Clint Hackney, Wayne Hamilton, Bill Hammond, Albert Hawkins, Jim Henson, Shanna Igo, Deborah Ingersoll, Mark Jones, Sandy Kress, Nick Lampson, Pete Laney, James LeBas, Donald Lee, Luke Legate, Richard Levy, Matt Mackowiak, Luke Marchant, J. McCartt, Dan McClung, Bee Moorhead, Steve Murdock, Craig Murphy, Keir Murray, Keats Norfleet, Todd Olsen, Nef Partida, Gardner Pate, Bill Pewitt, Jerry Philips, Tom Phillips, John Pitts, Royce Poinsett, Jay Propes, Bill Ratliff, Carl Richie, Kim Ross, Luis Saenz, Mark Sanders, Jim Sartwelle, Stan Schlueter, Bruce Scott, Dan Shelley, Christopher Shields, Dee Simpson, Ed Small, Todd Smith, Larry Soward, Dennis Speight, Jason Stanford, Bob Strauser, Colin Strother, Sherry Sylvester, Trey Trainor, Ken Whalen, Darren Whitehurst, Christopher Williston, Seth Winick, Eric Wright, Peck Young, Angelo Zottarelli.

Gov. Rick Perry took time off the presidential campaign trail to fly back to Texas and oversee the severe wildfires charring Central Texas. In Bastrop County, outside of Austin, fires have burned more than 34,000 acres, obliterated about 550 homes and killed at least four. The fires have taxed resources to capacity, and the state has filed for federal assistance several times since Perry’s declaration of a state disaster in April. Federal dollars are now coming in the way of seven grants and visits by FEMA to affected areas. Additional firefighters are also on the way after the Texas Forest Service requested help from outside agencies. Help is also expected from other areas of the state and from other states.

New jobs may be coming to Texas from an unlikely source: Mexico. Following the easing of punitive tariffs enacted by Mexico in 2009 against U.S.-made goods in response to a discontinuation of a cross-border trucking program, long-haul trucking companies in Mexico have applied to make deliveries into the U.S., and the Transportation Department has announced that two of them are close to gaining approval. The firms will be able to restore deliveries of American goods to the Mexican market, and a study has estimated this will bring about 12,000 jobs to the U.S.

Warren Chisum had it all planned out: He’d retire from the Texas Legislature and get himself appointed or elected to the Texas Railroad Commission. The seat that was up for grabs this spring, though, went to former Public Utility Commission Chairman Barry Smitherman, who’s replacing Michael Williams, now running for Congress. The other option was to run for the seat being vacated by Elizabeth Ames Jones, who’s running for Kay Bailey Hutchison’s U.S. Senate seat. The race is now looking a little more challenging for Chisum than anyone could have predicted: The latest entry in the race is Christi Craddick, daughter of the former speaker of the Texas House and an oil and gas attorney. Craddick is eligible for some or all of her father’s collected campaign funds, estimated at $1.2 million.

Texas A&M’s departure from the Big 12 did not go quite as smoothly as hoped. After receiving the blessing of the other members of the Big 12 to leave their conference and head to the Southeastern Conference next year, the Aggies found themselves under threat of legal action from one or more of the members of the Big 12. The SEC announced that the move would have to be put on hold until the objections could be addressed. No announcement was made revealing which of the Big 12 teams objected to A&M’s departure.

The Texas Police Chiefs Association was forced to take down its website to evaluate security after it was reportedly hacked. A group calling itself Anonymous reportedly hacked into the site and replaced the home page with a list of law enforcement officials whose email accounts had been hacked. The executive director of the association, James McLaughlin, acknowledged that the group had taken the site offline but insisted that it only lists names and contact information.

A remedial math pilot program at Texas State University will expand to 15 community colleges across the state, with funding of $1 million coming from Complete College America. The program addresses deficiencies in students’ math skills by offering remedial math and a college-level math course to students in the same semester. The program’s success rate has risen from 37 percent to 74 percent, and the hope is that similar results will be seen at community colleges.

After officially being taken under the wing of the Texas Land Office, the Alamo could soon get new leadership. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas has been overseeing the Alamo’s operations, but a bill passed during the legislative session gave authority to the Texas Land Office to negotiate a contract with the organization for day-to-day operations at the site. The Land Office has been publicly exploring re-establishing the role of an executive director to supervise the 100 or so employees currently employed at the landmark. 

A Catholic priest in El Paso is facing criticism from his diocese for creating several controversial advertisements that ran in the El Paso Times. The ads attacked homosexuality and tried to influence voters in a recall election involving the mayor and two City Council members. The priest, the Rev. Michael Rodriguez, insisted that he wrote the ads out of a moral obligation to oppose any form of support for civil unions or same-sex marriage, but the vicar general in the diocese, Anthony Celino, insisted that the Catholic Church cannot take a side in the political dispute and characterized the ads as the personal opinion of Rodriguez.

The state attorney general’s office announced that it hired a law firm on a contingency basis to assist with the state’s Medicaid fraud lawsuit against two large pharmaceutical companies earlier this year. Wright & Greenhill, a private firm, won the case with an award of $56.5 million but will keep $17.3 million as its fee. The firm is also in negotiations with a third drug company, in which it will earn roughly the same percentage of any award: one-third. The other states involved in the case against the drug companies used the public attorneys in their state offices and will get to keep all the money in their coffers. Attorney General Greg Abbott has contended that his staff of 698 lawyers was not enough to handle the litigation of the complex cases.

Officially, now: Former legislator, Railroad Commissioner and Comptroller John Sharp is the new chancellor at the Texas A&M University System, having sat as the apparent pick for the required 21 days. Now he's got a salary.

The Texas Democratic Party announced some new hires: Cindy Flint as primary and convention director, Brian Hodgdon as Texas VAN (Voter Activation Network) director, Rebekah Anthony as finance coordinator and Rebecca Acuña as deputy political director for base outreach. Flint served as director of administration at the Travis County Democratic Party and worked with the Texas Federation of Teachers. Hodgdon has served as a chief of staff in the Texas House and as policy director for the Texas House Democratic Caucus. Anthony worked as a political associate for the Angerholzer Team, a consulting firm. Acuña most recently served as communications director for Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston.

Linda Flores takes over as interim executive director at the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, replacing Edward Serna. She's been the agency's chief financial officer since April 2010, and worked a several state agencies and for the City of Corpus Christi before that. The board is conducting a search for the position.

Luis Gonzalez is the Department of Public Safety's new assistant director and chief of the Texas Highway Patrol, the first Hispanic to hold that job. He was a regional commander of a region that includes Austin, San Antonio and Waco. Duane Steen is the new regional commander for DPS's Region 2, which includes Houston, Beaumont and Bryan/College Station. Steen, with the agency since 1981, is the first African-American to serve as a regional commander for the DPS.

Kyle Kamrath is bailing on the Capitol to lobby for the Texas Apartment Association. He worked for Rep. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, and for Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston.

Howard Baldwin will be he interim commissioner at the state's Department of Family and Protective Services, where Anne Heiligenstein is retiring. Baldwin is currently the interim chief at the Texas Department of Rural Affairs and worked at the attorney general's office and at the old Department of Protective and Regulatory Services, which became DFPS.

President Obama appointed Gregg Costa to be a federal judge in Galveston. He's an assistant U.S. Attorney and a former law clerk to the late William Rehnquist, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed Dr. Robert Schmidt of Aledo to the Texas Racing Commission. He's an orthopedic surgeon.

This initially slipped by us, but Jeff Boyd, who was the governor's general counsel, is now Perry's chief of staff. He replaces Ray Sullivan, who moved over to the governor's presidential campaign. The campaign, meanwhile, doled out some titles to people who've been over there for a few weeks, to wit: Rob Johnson, campaign manager; Deirdre Delisi, policy and strategy director; Wayne Hamilton, political director; Sullivan, communications director; Eric Bearse, deputy communications director; Mark Miner, national press secretary; Robert Black, travel press secretary; and Katherine Cessinger, state press director.