White supporters point to his strong base in Houston (the state’s largest city), his family roots in San Antonio and his ability to speak fluent Spanish which is seen as a draw in the bluest part of the state, south Texas. The most recent poll by Rasmussen showed Perry with a 49%-to-43% lead over White. The popular ex-mayor, who served in the Clinton Administration as deputy secretary of energy, may still be considered an underdog, according to Richard Murray, political scientist at the University of Houston, but he has “a real chance of winning.” Murray expects White to have adequate campaign funding due to his connections with deep-pocket donors, support from the Democratic Governors’ Association and, perhaps, even his own personal resources — he gave his own first mayoral campaign a $2 million kick start. (White, a lawyer, worked for an oil company and then ran a Houston energy investment group after leaving the White House.) Plus, White is a disciplined campaigner who will run a focused campaign, Murray says. (See how Rick Perr turned around the GOP battle for Texas.)

Still, some longtime Texas observers are not buying into rosy scenarios for Perry’s challenger. “It is going to be uphill for White to win,” says Cal Jillson, political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “Texas is the largest red state in the country. It tends to vote Republican by an eight, nine, ten points margin.” That is in a normal year, Jillson says, not one where the political mood is downright rebellious.

White supporters point to his strong base in Houston (the state’s largest city), his family roots in San Antonio and his ability to speak fluent Spanish which is seen as a draw in the bluest part of the state, south Texas. The most recent poll by Rasmussen showed Perry with a 49%-to-43% lead over White. The popular ex-mayor, who served in the Clinton Administration as deputy secretary of energy, may still be considered an underdog, according to Richard Murray, political scientist at the University of Houston, but he has “a real chance of winning.” Murray expects White to have adequate campaign funding due to his connections with deep-pocket donors, support from the Democratic Governors’ Association and, perhaps, even his own personal resources — he gave his own first mayoral campaign a $2 million kick start. (White, a lawyer, worked for an oil company and then ran a Houston energy investment group after leaving the White House.) Plus, White is a disciplined campaigner who will run a focused campaign, Murray says.

Still, some longtime Texas observers are not buying into rosy scenarios for Perry’s challenger. “It is going to be uphill for White to win,” says Cal Jillson, political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “Texas is the largest red state in the country. It tends to vote Republican by an eight, nine, ten points margin.” That is in a normal year, Jillson says, not one where the political mood is downright rebellious.
For more read the Times article

For the past six years, Texas Gov. Rick Perry has lorded over a controversial stash of taxpayer money known as the Texas Enterprise Fund, dispensing huge sums—$345 million and counting—to large corporations, ostensibly to spur job growth. Critics call it the governor’s slush fund. “He takes from us so that he can play with his corporate slush fund and award his friends’ businesses,” said Debra Medina, one of Perry’s two challengers for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, at a recent candidate’s debate.

Perry defends the fund as a much-needed economic-incentive program. He credits the disbursements with creating 55,000 jobs in Texas and helping keep the state’s economy out of recession. Whether the program has boosted the state’s economy depends on your point of view. But at least one Texan has greatly benefited from Enterprise Fund outlays—Rick Perry.

Many companies that have received money from the fund have, in turn, aided the governor. An Observer investigation has found that 20 of the 55 Enterprise Fund companies have either given money directly to Perry’s campaign (through their political action committees or executives) or donated to the Republican Governors Association, a Washington, D.C.-based group that Perry presided over in 2008.

The 20 companies have received a combined $174.2 million from the Enterprise Fund. During the same time period, those 20 corporations have donated $2.2 million to Perry and the governors association. Several companies made donations around the time they received grants from the Enterprise Fund. It’s even possible that taxpayer money from the fund came full circle into Perry’s own campaign.

Perhaps no company better illustrates the flow of money than Hewlett-Packard Co. In October 2006, the California-based technology giant received $3 million from the Enterprise Fund to open four data centers in Texas that were supposed to create 420 jobs. The project didn’t exactly go well—the centers never opened, and Hewlett-Packard later had to repay its grant. Nary a Texan got a new job. But before the deal fell apart, Perry and his political allies took in their share of money.

For more go to the Texas Observer article.

The actual debate over social studies curriculum standards at the State Board of Education on Wednesday could not compete with the sideshow.

A gaggle of television cameras, including several from Fox News and its affiliates, jammed into the meeting room to chronicle the Texas Textbook War, as the news network dubbed it.

The war pits defenders of traditional values who say American history is under attack by politically correct revisionism against board critics who are calling for a “smarter State Board of Education.”

The news network has fanned the flames over the standards that will serve as the framework for the state’s future history, government and economics textbooks and lessons.

As a result, the much-hyped meeting had become “probably one of the top news stories in the nation,” state Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van , observed.

Several board members seemed enamored by the attention, but the Texas Education Agency wasn’t so pleased with the coverage from Fox News.

The agency issued an unusual news release Wednesday stating that Wednesday morning’s “Fox & Friends” show “repeatedly broadcast highly inaccurate information” about the debate.

And it aimed to set the record straight: Christmas, Veterans Day and Independence Day are all in the standards; U.S. history before 1877 will, indeed, be taught; and Abraham Lincoln and George Washington have not been removed.

For more read the Statesman Article.

Perry’s campaign staff and his vast web of former staffers and advisers love to work themselves into a lather whenever an opponent gives them an opening for criticism. They hit the phones, call their favorite reporters and ask some variation of, “Can you believe he (or, in the primary, she) would say that? At a time like this?”

So it was Tuesday, when White said at a breakfast hosted by the Texas Tribune what he’s said previously: He won’t rule out raising taxes as a solution to a budget shortfall expected to be at least $11 billion next year. Of course, he’s not saying he wants to raise taxes, either.

White told the American-Statesman editorial board before the March primary that he didn’t know whether the shortfall could be closed without higher taxes.

“First of all, I’m not going to pretend that I’m dictator,” he said then. “I’m going to be governor, and if we don’t have a bipartisan group in the Legislature working with me who knows that I come to the table without strings attached, it’s going to be a lot harder for us to get the solution to these problems.”

For more go to the Statesman article.

Attorneys general, former lawmakers and a slew of lawyers have ascended to the Texas Governor’s Mansion, as have a flour manufacturer, a housewife and a couple of oilmen. Bill White, if he beats Gov. Rick Perry in November, would be the first mayor to make that triumphant trek to Austin.

“Local politics is designed to piss everybody off, so it’s never been a very good entrée for career building,” said James Riddlesperger, a political scientist at Texas Christian University.Still, a big-city mayor who was re-elected twice by huge margins would seem to have a leg up in his quest for higher office, even as his opponent’s oppo-research team truffles for “sanctuary city” pronouncements, budget problems, ties to Washington and other nutritious campaign fodder.

The former Houston mayor arguably is the strongest gubernatorial candidate Democrats have nominated since Ann Richards in 1990. Not only is he a proven fund-raiser, but his business background makes it a challenge for Republicans to label him as Barack Obama’s Texas twin.

As in any election, money is key. What White does with that money is vital, said Garry Mauro, a former Texas land commissioner who lost to George W. Bush in the 1998 governor’s race.

“First of all, he’s got to define himself, because the Perry people will be happy to do it for him,” Mauro said. “Bill White is a liberal Democrat who supports Obama and health care. If this election is about Obama and health care, Bill White loses. If he makes this race about the governor’s record — the failure of secondary and primary education, higher education out of reach of most middle-class families, clogged roads — then he’s got a chance.”

For more go to the Houston Chronicle article.

“This decision applies specifically to this particular case and does not waive the death penalty in Texas.  Democrats believe that individuals who commit violent crimes and are found guilty in a fair trial should be punished harshly.  We strongly support justice for victims and their families and believe in upholding their rights in court.”

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(http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6897252.html):

“Esta decisión por parte de la corte solo se puede aplicar a el caso en cuestión, y no anula la pena de muerte en el estado de Texas. Los Demócratas creemos que los individuos que cometen un crimen violento y que son declarados culpables en un juicio justo, deben ser sancionados con severidad. Damos nuestro fuerte apoyo a las víctimas y a sus familias y creemos en la protección de sus derechos en las cortes.”

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Despite Gov. Rick Perry’s decisive victory in the Republican primary and the GOP dominance in the state, Senior Editor Jennifer Duffy points to signs of Perry fatigue. She argues that Democratic nominee Bill White’s history as a businessman and moderate, as well as solid fundraising stats, will help protect him from getting called a “screaming liberal Democrat.”  They also predict that Democratic lite guv candidate Linda Chavez-Thompson will help turn out the Hispanic vote — presumably a boon for White.

Most interestingly, Duffy says that had U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison won, the open-seat contest would have lent itself to the state’s traditional Republican voting patterns. But she says Perry’s incumbency may be enough of a liability to elect White.

Some excerpts from the release:

…In the end, voters still saw a nasty and expensive primary, but it fell short of the bruising slugfest most had predicted. Although Medina took 18 percent of the vote, she didn’t force a run-off as Perry took 51 percent and Hutchison fell far short of expectations at 30 percent. Hutchison’s candidacy seemed doomed almost from the start. Citing Hutchison’s 17-year tenure in the Senate, Perry attacked her early and often as a creature of Washington and a symbol of all its problems. Apart from going after Perry for being the state’s longest serving Governor who is now seeking a third full term, Hutchison never seemed to find a message that resonated with voters. …

It’s also worth mentioning [Debra] Medina’s performance. Medina was a favorite of Tea Party activists, but many observers believed that she had irreparably damaged her candidacy in February when she suggested that she had some empathy with those who believe the theory that the September 11 attacks were an inside job. On one level, Medina’s 18 percent is impressive for an underfunded candidate. On another level, though, the Tea Party in Texas is believed to be one of the largest and most active in the nation. If their candidate could pull just 18 percent under those circumstances, it may not bode well for other Tea Party candidates across the country. In fact, none of the Tea Party candidates running in Congressional races gained any significant ground on GOP incumbents in Tuesday’s primary.

For more go to the Texas Tribune article.