Senate Runoff Raises Debate Stakes

Debate prep is futile.

The idea is simple. Put the candidates in front of an audience or on TV, ask them some questions, and let the voters get a reasonable look at who'll go to Washington to bicker on their behalf.

The candidates want a commercial featuring their best aspects and their opponents' worst ones.

The panelists want it to be revealing — especially if that means one of the candidates will make a career move that either propels them into office or expels them into history's bin of asterisks. "Oops." "There you go again." "You're no Jack Kennedy." That sort of thing.

Everybody overthinks it, so what you get are long-winded land-mine questions from the panelists and stock campaign answers from hopeful contestants.

Not making news has become the norm. It's boring, so it's hard to get people to watch. And they don't really have to: If it makes news, it'll appear in other places. If it doesn't, that's an hour that wasn't wasted watching a generic political show. And if it comes back up, the sponsors almost always leave it online, sometimes forever.

Candidates are trained to answer questions in a way that steers the audience away from the questions and back to their answers. You can tell this is about to happen when the answer begins with, "that's a very good question..."

If a candidate wants to talk about border security, questions about immigration policy will end up with answers about border security.

Gov. Ann Richards, frustrated during her 1994 reelection race about George W. Bush's "just four things" message discipline, complained that if you asked him what time it was, "he'd say it was time for tort reform."

Journalists on debate panels know that most politicians get into debates for one of two reasons — either to try to jump their opponent, or to make a necessary public appearance without getting jumped. The U.S. Senate debate on the Republican side originally figured as Ted Cruz, the jumper, and David Dewhurst, the jumpee. Cruz spent the first round of the primary getting Dewhurst, the establishment candidate, out in public for a fight. It didn't work, but now it's a runoff and Dewhurst has to play. He'd like to score some points on Cruz. Jump ball.

On the Democratic side, former state Rep. Paul Sadler, who despite his service is widely unknown to voters, is trying to knock off Grady Yarbrough, who has never held office but who turned out to have the second-favorite name among the unknown Democrats in the May primary. Sadler hopes enough voters see the two of them, and believes that will make the differences obvious. He's the jumper in that one.

The Republicans go on Friday night (6/22) and the Democrats will be taped on Tuesday for broadcast on Wednesday (6/27).

Heated Arguments

Summer is simmering to a start in Texas, and inmates and their families are renewing their annual calls for cooler conditions in the state’s lockups. 

While advocates worry particularly about heat conditions in a prison unit with recent water shortages, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court is now considering arguments in a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Criminal Justice alleging that the sweltering living quarters constitute cruel and unusual punishment. 

TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said that the agency recognizes its responsibility to provide adequate water for inmates and that it strives to mitigate the effects of extreme heat.

“The agency is committed to making sure that all offenders and staff are safe,” he said.

Just 19 of the 97 TDCJ prison facilities are fully air-conditioned. Another 37 are partially air-conditioned, and nine are ventilated with tempered air that is blown over cooled coils.

At the Connally Unit in Kenedy, about 60 miles southeast of San Antonio, a malfunction with the city’s water well has caused shortages for weeks. The unit is not air conditioned, and with the Texas summer setting in, temperatures in the area are expected to rise into the triple digits soon. Advocates are worried for the prisoners’ safety.

Normally, inmates are provided ice water to cool off during the hot summer months and stave off the adverse affects heat can have on the brain and other organs.  The current water shortage should not excuse prison officials from providing adequate drinking water, Michelle Smith, prisoners’ rights attorney with the Texas Civil Justice Project, wrote in a letter Tuesday to the criminal justice department.

Excessive heat is even more worrisome, she said, for inmates who are elderly or ill, and she urged TDCJ to move those who are at high risk to other units while the water problems are fixed.

“Under the United States Constitution, prison officials must provide remedies for heat, including fans, ice water, and showers. Failure to do so is cruel and unusual punishment,” Smith wrote. 

On Wednesday, Clark said water pressure had been restored at Connally and normal operations resumed, although the city asked the unit to conserve water. Now, he said, inmates are showering every other day. During the water interruptions, he said, TDCJ brought in three 500-gallon water trucks and a 6,000-gallon water tanker. Ice and water, he said, were distributed throughout the unit. 

TDCJ is monitoring the water situation, Clark said.

Many of the prisons were built long before air conditioning was standard and prison officials have said that Texas taxpayers have little appetite to spend money to make scofflaws more comfortable during their incarceration.

Clark said a detailed analysis of the cost to provide air conditioning at all TDCJ units had not been done, but retrofitting the facilities, he said, would be “extremely expensive.”

Inmates can buy fans to keep cool, and when the temperatures skyrocket, prison officials implement system-wide protocols to prevent overheating. Inmates are allowed more water, additional showers, and work hours and outside activity are reduced. Prison staff are trained to identify signs of heat-related illness.

The letter from the civil rights project comes just two weeks after the federal court in New Orleans heard arguments in its lawsuit against TDCJ alleging that the conditions are unconstitutional.

The Texas Civil Rights Project sued the TDCJ in 2008 on behalf of Eugene Blackmon, a 63-year-old minimum-security inmate with high blood pressure who was serving three years in the Garza East Unit in Beeville. Blackmon is now out of prison, but he said he suffered dizziness, nausea and headaches when the temperature in his cell soared up to 130 degrees Farenheit.

The civil rights organization said in oral arguments on June 5 that they weren’t calling for air conditioning in all the prison units, but instead for appropriate accommodations for the high temperatures.

Prison officials argued in court documents that Blackmon did not show he suffered physical injury and that the issue was moot since he was no longer in that prison.

If the lawsuit is successful, it could affect prison conditions in the hot, humid southern states of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. 

Perry's UI Bet Pays Off

When the Texas economy started tanking in early 2009, the national media chided Gov. Rick Perry for refusing $555 million offered by the federal government to help pay for unemployment insurance benefits. “If Washington really wanted to help Texans, they would have sent us this money without strings attached,” Perry said at the time.

The governor's critics have said the move to reject the funds backfired, because a few months later Perry turned around and asked the Feds for a $170 million loan to cover the skyrocketing number of unemployment claims in Texas. But a loan was likely his plan all along, and frankly, it worked out fine.

The governor's supports say the $555 million offer was a political power play by the federal government, which Perry had little incentive to accept. The “strings” attached to the money would have forced Texas to enact new laws extending benefits to more workers. That would have given the Obama administration an opportunity to claim credit for increasing benefits while leaving Texas to foot the bill after the federal funding dried up. It's still debatable whether that would have cost more or less than $555 million. Over five years, the required changes could have cost Texas $23.1 million to $2.9 billion, according to estimates done at the time by the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Rather than bow to federal demands, Perry vollied back, saying the Fed’s stipulations would put an undue burden on struggling Texas businesses by forcing Texas to raise taxes on employers. Even if unemployment rates skyrocketed — which they did — Perry knew he had the option to apply for a zero-interest loan through a federal program designed to help states get through short-term deficits in their UI trust, which the state had done in 2003 under the Bush administration.  

Perry’s original loan request was just pennies compared to the federal advance Texas actually received from July 2009 to April 2011 — $3.78 billion. That partially helped cover the $3.8 billion and $2.9 billion in unemployment insurance benefits for more than 774,400 and 674,000 claimants in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

The billions Texas borrowed from the federal government to cover unemployment benefits from July 2009 to April 2011 have already been repaid. Lisa Givens, spokesperson for the Texas Workforce Commission, says Texas is also on track to repay $1.46 billion in outstanding bonds over the next 10 years.

The irony of Perry’s plan is that the state doubled the average tax rate on employers from 2009 to 2011, from .99 percent to 2.03 percent, as state law required the Texas Workforce Commission to set higher rates to replenish the rapidly dropping UI trust during the height of the recession.

It will still take Texas some time to refill the UI trust, but the average tax rate has already dropped slightly. Texas taxes the first $9,000 wages paid by employers; most of the revenue arrives during the first quarter of the year. As of May 2012, Texas had collected more than $1.6 billion in revenue for the UI trust and 154,772 unemployed Texans received benefits. 

The Texas economy is clearly improving, even if the unemployment rate flat lined at 6.9 percent in May. Although nearly 870,000 workers are still unemployed, the current unemployment level is good enough to disqualify Texas for the third tier of emergency unemployment insurance covered by the federal government. Starting in July, the length of benefits will drop from 73 weeks to 60 weeks. (Keep in mind Texas only covers a maximum of 26 weeks, and the Feds supply funding for the remaining 34.)

"Our state's unemployment rate has remained below the national unemployment rate for 65 months, and May marked the 22nd consecutive month that Texas has added jobs," TWC Chairman Andres Alcantar said in a statement this week.

Guest Column: Obama's Immigration Policy is Correct

Two years after the DREAM Act failed to pass in Congress, hundreds of thousands of young immigrants in America, DREAMers, finally have the opportunity to live the American Dream. They were brought to this country by their parents in search for a better life and opportunity. Like parents all over the world, they want the best for their children. For years, these young immigrants have lived in our country and have learned the American way of life but have lived in the shadows. They have been taught that obtaining an education pays off, but have yet to see the fruits of their hard work as they live in undocumented status.

On June 15, President Obama announced that certain young immigrants will be eligible to receive deferred deportation action and will be eligible to apply for work authorization permits. For young DREAMers, this means that after living in this country for the majority of their lives, they will finally be able to have a career and will no longer have to live in fear of being deported to a country they do not know and separated from their family. This is the humane thing to do, as these young people are Americans in every sense of the word, except they don't have a piece of paper stating that they are American.

Like many young immigrants, I am elated over President Obama’s executive order. I share in their joy because I was once in their position. Although I was too young at the time to fully comprehend the life-changing effect the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 had for many families, I remember our family’s excitement to know that we would finally be able to come out of the shadows and no longer have to live in fear of being deported. I believe it was at this point that my life’s path took a new direction. After becoming a naturalized citizen, I continued to work hard in my studies, earning a scholarship to attend and graduate from the University of Houston. I graduated from The University of Texas Law School. My commitment to public service has taken me to my current office of state representative. All this became possible because of bipartisan comprehensive immigration policy.

This new immigration policy will also change the path for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants. Albeit temporary, the president’s executive order will provide relief to approximately 800,000 young immigrants that do not have criminal histories and are currently in school, have graduated from high school, have obtained their GEDs, or are honorably discharged veterans of the Coast Guard or Armed Forces of the United States. Many DREAMers have already obtained their college degrees but are unable to utilize their skills and training because of their undocumented status. By allowing these individuals to obtain work authorization permits, our local, state and national economies will benefit. There will be the benefit of having an increase in our taxable income base when these individuals are allowed to practice in their trained professions, and an increase in jobs when the entrepreneurs are allowed to open businesses that create additional jobs.

Throughout the many visits I have made to schools and community gatherings across the State of Texas, I have met many outstanding young men and women who are products of our public schools and universities but cannot seek employment because of their legal status. I have met valedictorians, honors graduates, engineers, teachers, architects and nurses who live in the shadows even though there may be a need for their skill or trade. DREAMers have worked tirelessly urging our federal leaders to give them a chance and finally their voices have been heard and action is being taken.

In contrast, the Republican approach and proposed solution to our broken immigration system has been simply focusing on increasing deportations. In support of their position, they have looked to Arizona and Alabama as practical solutions to immigration. Our immigration problem is not a simple problem that can be fixed with nothing more than deportations. The Republicans take the position that changes in immigration policy that will provide relief for young college educated students will encourage illegal immigration. They ignore the fact that immigration is driven by supply and demand for cheap labor. That demand has dropped off significantly in recent years and is reflected by a sharp decrease in immigration. Comprehensive immigration policy must address all facets of this issue.

While this new immigration policy is a small step in the right direction, it changes the focus of our nation's immigration policy towards the ultimate goal of comprehensive immigration reform. We cannot continue to ignore the problems in our broken immigration system. I applaud President Obama for doing the right thing and giving these young people the opportunity to succeed.

Ana Hernandez Luna, D-Houston, is serving her third term in the Texas House of Representatives, representing District 143.

Guest Column: Obama's Immigration Policy is Wrong

Jose Aliseda
Jose Aliseda

Suppose for a moment that you are the victim of a theft of a substantial amount of money. Let’s suppose further that you know who the perpetrators are. They are your neighbors, a mother and/or father criminal team, who have used and are continuing to use their ill-gotten gains to build a home next to yours and provide their children with a nice lifestyle. You go to law enforcement expecting swift justice and the recovery of your money, only to be told that your money will never be recovered because it might harm the children of the perpetrators, who through no fault of their own are enjoying the fruits of their parents' crimes.

Think about it. Does that sound like the fair and just result? A major tenet of our justice system is that wrongdoers, and even those who may innocently benefit from their wrongdoing, should not be allowed to profit from that wrongdoing. So it is that if you purchase an item in good faith from a thief, upon the discovery of its true nature, the law requires that it must be returned to its rightful owner and that you, perhaps, lose the money you spent on it.  Our prisons are full of people whose children are suffering because of their parent’s actions. But it is because of their parent’s actions that they are suffering and not the actions of a society whose very foundation is based on the rule of law.

So I find it hard to swallow the rationale of President Obama, or for that matter, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, who say that the children of illegal aliens are the victims of some kind of wrong perpetrated on them by American society and that we must rectify it by allowing them to live their dreams and, in effect, grant them amnesty from their parent’s wrongdoing. I am a lawyer. I have practiced criminal law in one capacity or another for almost 30 years — as a naval officer, prosecutor, judge, parole board member, legislator and a defense lawyer. With the exception of defense lawyer, every one of my public service jobs required me to take an oath that contained the words to uphold and defend the Constitution, and some went even further to require me to swear to uphold the laws of our nation, and of our state.  Needless to say the law and upholding the law has been my career.

Laws are passed by legislatures, and in the case of federal immigration laws, enforced by the U.S. Departments of Justice and of Homeland Security —agencies under the President. I consider the President’s actions unconstitutional, illegal, a breach of the separation of powers, and little more than political pandering.  On January 1, 2013, I will be sworn in as the District Attorney for the 156th Judicial District in South Texas. How do you think the citizens there would react if, upon taking my oath of office, I announced that thieves would no longer be prosecuted by my office? My citizens would quickly move to remove me from office and the thieves would run rampant in the streets in the meantime. Prosecutorial discretion is one thing — done on a case-by-case basis — but blanket policies publicly pronounced by someone in authority who has taken an oath to the contrary to those policies, do little more than promote lawlessness, disrespect for the law, and undermine our whole system of government.

I am a legal immigrant to this country. My parents and I followed the law, waited in line, and did things the right way at a cost of significant time and treasure. My father, my brother and I have served in the U.S. Armed Services to defend this country. To say that service is the equivalent of college is an insult! Just like you, I resent people who cut in line and add insult to injury by inviting others to join them, whether they are children or not. Furthermore, lest you think that the only profit that the children of illegal aliens have drawn from their parent’s wrongful actions in American society is their residency, consider that their parents might have:

  • accessed Medicaid for them as a minor and to do so they would have fraudulently filled out paperwork applying for it when it is illegal and a crime to do so,
  • driven without a driver's license in a state that does not allow illegal aliens the right to a driver’s license,
  • accessed our public highways while driving and not maintaining proper liability auto insurance as required by the state,
  • worked without a Social Security card/number, or with an illegally obtained one,
  • illegally accessed programs such as food stamps or federal free lunch,
  • failed to file income tax returns, or worse still, filed income tax returns only to be given an earned income tax credit refund, which is essentially welfare,
  • taken a job from a legal resident.

I could go on and on, but my point is that this whole illegal immigration problem has cost America more than it knows, and until our borders are secure, it will continue to do so. Granting de facto amnesty will only make the situation worse.

Jose Aliseda, R-Beeville, represents the 35th District in the Texas House of Representatives and is running for district attorney on this year's ballot.

Texas Weekly Newsreel: Senate Runoff Debates

This week, the volume goes up in the U.S. Senate primaries, with debates for the Republicans on Friday and the Democrats next week, sponsored by KERA Dallas, the Tribune, Hearst, Univision and others.

Inside Intelligence: In Those Congressional Runoffs...

The insiders continue to work their way through the runoff ballots this week, looking at a couple of Democratic and a couple of Republican races for Congress.

If their hunches and guesses are right, the winners on this list of candidates will be Randy Weber, Ciro Rodriguez, Roger Williams, and Marc Veasey.

Most just made their picks and moved on, but some left comments about the races and the players, and those follow below.

Who do you think would win a CD-14 runoff held today?

• "Endorsed by Ron Paul will carry the day!"

• "Paul announcement is huge"

• "Ron Paul's blessing will go a long way in that district."

• "No idea."

• "Weber today, but if Harris can raise some $$ she may have a chance."

• "Randy Weber's future is so bright he has to wear shades."

.

Who do you think would win a CD-23 runoff held today?

• "Appears to be an SA driven district."

• "San Antonio turnout, whatever it will be, will trump all the cacti in West Texas."

• "The primary result and recent events reveal the Gallego has a lot of work to do, but with the right resources and focus, he can still win."

• "Gallego has the campaign talent to get across the finish line."

• "Counties where Ciro ran well all have multiple runoffs. It won't be close."

Who do you think would win a CD-25 runoff held today?

• "Roger finally gets his due."

• "Everyone knows Roger Williams founded the Baptist church."

• "In a low turnout runoff in the middle of July, Ron Paul supporters will once again show their strength."

• "Williams has this one all but sewn up."

• "No idea."

• "Roger spent a ton of money to get to his top #, tea party will carry the day for Riddle"

.

Who do you think would win a CD-33 runoff held today?

• "Latino Democrats will no longer have an axe to gripe about not having a Latino Congressional seat in both Houston and Dallas. The outcome in this race will clearly articulate that there are NO Latino leaders left in the Democratic Party. They whine about low turnout within the "sleeping giant," but the fact is that they are not sleep. They just don't care about what is being offered."

• "40% of billboards in DFW area have Domingo's picture. Too much name ID"

• "Dallas already voted Garcia out once."

• "As best I can tell, Veasey has the momentum."

• "Nano idea."

• "By his own admission, Domingo is far more effective out of office. He is singularly responsible for the President's deportation executive order, after all."

• "Does it matter. I think they are the same person"

• "Veasey's Republican primary vote will harm him. Obama's ruling on the DREAM Act may provide the boost in Latino turnout Garcia desperately needs."

Our thanks to this week's participants: Adam Haynes, Alan Gray, Allen Blakemore, Andrew Biar, Andy Sansom, Angelo Zottarelli, Anthony Haley, Bee Moorhead, Bill Hammond, Bill Pewitt, Bill Stevens, Bill Ratliff, Bob Strauser, Bradford Shields, Brandon Aghamalian, Bruce Gibson, Bruce Scott, Bryan Mayes, Cal Jillson, Cathie Adams, Charles Stuart, Charles Bailey, Chris Britton, Christopher Shields, Clint Hackney, Clyde Alexander, Colin Strother, Corbin Casteel, Craig Murphy, Dale Laine, Dan Shelley, Daniel Gonzalez, David Dunn, Deborah Ingersoll, Denise Davis, Dennis Speight, Ed Small, Elna Christopher, Eric Glenn, Gardner Pate, George Allen, Harold Cook, Hector De Leon, Homero Lucero, Hugh Brady, Jason Sabo, Jason Johnson, Jason Skaggs, Jason Stanford, Jay Arnold, Jay Thompson, Jay Propes, Jeff Eller, Jeff Rotkoff, Jenny Aghamalian, Jerry Philips, Jim Henson, Jim Grace, Jim Sartwelle, John Colyandro, Jon Fisher, Julie Shields, June Deadrick, Karen Reagan, Keir Murray, Keith Strama, Ken Hodges, Ken Whalen, Kerry Cammack, Kinnan Golemon, Kraege Polan, Larry Soward, Laura Huffman, Lee Woods, Lisa Kaufman, Luke Marchant, Luke Legate, Lydia Camarillo, Mark Jones, Mark Sanders, Matt Mackowiak, Michael Wilt, Michael Quinn Sullivan, Mike McKinney, Mike Barnett, Nef Partida, Neftali Garcia, Nora Del Bosque, Norman Garza, Pat Nugent, Peck Young, Pete Laney, Phillip Martin, Ramey Ko, Randy Cubriel, Rebecca Bernhardt, Richard Khouri, Rick Cofer, Robert Miller, Royce Poinsett, Ruben Longoria, Russ Tidwell, Scott Gilmore, Seth Winick, Shanna Igo, Snapper Carr, Stan Schlueter, Steve Scurlock, Steve Holzheauser, Steve Bresnen, Thure Cannon, Tim Lambert, Tim Reeves, Tom Banning, Tom Blanton, Tom Kleinworth, Tom Phillips, Tom Spilman, Tony Goolsby, Trent Townsend, Trey Trainor, Tris Castaneda, Walt Jordan, Ware Wendell, Wayne Hamilton, Wil Galloway, William Chapman.

The Calendar

Friday, June 22:

  • Fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson; Houston (6 p.m.)

Monday, June 25:

  • Capitol Commission Legislative Golf Classic; Austin (1 p.m.)

Tuesday, June 26:

  • House Energy Resources Committee meeting (9 a.m.)
  • Joint Interim Committee to Study Human Trafficking meeting (10 a.m.)

Wednesday, June 27:

  • House Energy Resources Committee meeting (9 a.m.)
  • House Natural Resources Committee meeting (9 a.m.)
  • House Agriculture and Livestock Committee meeting (10 a.m.)
  • House Border and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee meeting (10 a.m.)
  • Hispanic Republicans of Texas fundraiser; Austin
  • Fundraiser for U.S. House candidate Nick Lampson; Houston (5:30 p.m.)
  • Fundraiser for Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio; Dallas (11:30 a.m.)

Thursday, June 28:

  • House Natural Resources Committee meeting (9 a.m.)
  • House Economic and Small Business Development Committee meeting (10 a.m.)
 

The Week in the Rearview Mirror

The big announcement this week that the Texas A&M University System had been awarded a $176 million grant was greeted with enthusiasm throughout the state. The federal grant, along with millions from the state and private donors, will be used to build a facility that will develop and manufacture drugs that fight pandemic infections, as well as potential bioterrorism. A&M’s contract with the federal government will be in place for 25 years, giving the center the opportunity to attract additional public and private funding.

Historic furnishings were returned to the Texas Governor’s Mansion this week in preparation for the homecoming of Gov. Rick Perry and his wife in late July. The family moved out for a renovation of the historic house in 2007 and were prevented from coming back sooner by an arson attack in the summer of 2008. The furnishings had been removed in advance of the remodeling project and were protected from fire damage. Returning to the mansion: Sam Houston’s four-poster bed, Stephen F. Austin’s writing desk, as well as valuable art works and the Governor’s Memento Collection, an accumulation of gifts received by Texas governors over the years.

Lawmakers got an earful in hearings this week about the new public school standardized test, known as STAAR. Results for the test, which replaced the TAKS exam, were recently released and showed an unexpectedly large number of ninth graders failing the test in multiple areas. Officials concede that there’s always an adjustment period when a new test is introduced, and education officials have been given a four-year period to finalize the standards. But the results were so poor in algebra, biology, English and world geography that school districts are already allocating extra money for summer school. And the suspended rule that the test count toward 15 percent of a student’s final course grade continues to be a contentious issue. It’s unclear whether the rule will ever take effect.

The Obama administration’s announcement that it will consider issuing work permits to immigrants who entered the country as children has resulted in a flood of phone calls and contacts to attorneys and organizations specializing in immigration law. But without a process in place, it’s unclear to even those specialists what steps immigrants need to take. Officials with the Department of Homeland Security have said that it will take them up to two months to create an application process for eligible participants.

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t review a ruling that went in Time Warner Cable’s favor against the state of Texas. The state had appealed a lower court’s decision that it had discriminated against Time Warner when it allowed smaller cable television companies to use a statewide franchising system, but required Time Warner to also maintain municipal agreements with cities that had a population of 215,000 or more. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case, without comment.

Following the announcement of $2 billion in state funds earmarked for relieving road congestion, a Houston-area organization is publicizing the need to rework U.S. 290 in that city. Growth in the northwest quadrant of Houston has led to excessive backups that last throughout the day, and projections say it will get worse with continued population growth. The Houston-Galveston Area Council predicts that improvements to 290 will garner about $350 million of the funds, and will allow work that would have been spread over 20 years to be completed in five to six years.

Four species of salamanders are up for listing as endangered, and U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, announced that he would file legislation to stop any proposals to list the Central Texas salamander. His legislation would take the form of an amendment to an environment appropriations bill, and would specify that no funds could be spent to add the blind salamanders to the endangered list. Carter’s concern is that listing the salamanders would hinder development in Williamson, Travis and Bell counties by imposing specific rules on future building. Environmental groups protested that the area’s rapid growth warrants the protection of the salamander’s rapidly declining habitat.

Political People and their Moves

Gov. Rick Perry set a special election to replace the late Rep. Ken Legler for November 6 — the same day as the general election. Legler's widow, Barbara Legler, is planning to run for the rest of his term, which ends in January; filing for that election ends August 23. The winner of the special election will be replaced by the winner in a newly drawn HD-144. That general election race will pit Republican David Pineda against Democrat Mary Ann Perez against Libertarian Robb Rourke

Ray Sullivan, late of Perry's presidential campaign, is reopening his public affairs business. Sullivan was Perry's chief of staff and worked in the George W. Bush administration, too. 

Jay Pritchard joins The Richards Group, where he'll work for political and lobby clients. He's a veteran of several campaigns and worked in the Legislature a decade ago.

Jesse Lewis resigns as executive director of the Republican Party of Texas, and will lobby. He'll be replaced by Beth Cubriel, the party's organization director. And Chris Elam adds the deputy executive director title to his job handling communications. 

This week's endorsements include:

Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, R-Parker, for Steve Nguyen in the HD-115 runoff against Bennett Ratliff.

Attorney General Greg Abbott and state Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston for Greg Bonnen in the HD-24 runoff against Ryan Sitton.

Heidi Theiss, the third-place finisher in that HD-24 race, for Sitton.

The Texas Hospital Association's PAC for Ken Sapp in the HD-91 Republican runoff against Stephanie Klick.

Scott Sanford, the only candidate still standing in Collin County's HD-70, for Jeff Leach over Jon Cole in the GOP's HD-67 runoff.

The PAC affiliated with the Texas Association of Manufacturers for Barry Smitherman, who's seeking election to the Texas Railroad Commission.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Surfside, for Rep. Randy Weber, in the race for Paul's CD-14 seat. Paul, running for president, decided not to seek another term in Congress.

U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Conroe, for Felicia Harris in that CD-14 race.

U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, for Jamaal Smith in the Democratic runoff for HD-137 against Gene Wu.

Quotes of the Week

This is all about the November elections and getting votes from people who are illegally here.

U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, on the Obama administration's recent suspension of the deportation of some illegal immigrants

Just as I use the post office, I use government highways, I use the banks, I use the federal reserve system, but that doesn’t mean you can’t work to remove this in the same way on Social Security. In the same way with Social Security, I am trying to make a transition.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, who collects Social Security and is also urging young people to opt out of it, on MSNBC

There are all these drug addicts, drug dealers, people who do nothing in the United States, and you’re going to kick people like me out. Why?

Tomás Isidoro, a carpenter deported to Mexico after 25 years in the U.S., along with his U.S.-born children, in The New York Times 

You’re preaching to the choir.

Outgoing Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, to superintendents expressing concerns about a rule calling for high school students’ end-of-course exams to count for 15 percent of their final grades

This is something that could not have happened without Barack Obama and Rick Perry.

Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp on securing a $286 million contract for a federal biosecurity center