With the final reading of changes to the English and Language Arts textbook standards revisions approved today, a highly anticipated discussion over changes to Social Studies requirements began. Fifty-four persons were signed up to speak as of this morning, not including three Texas House members who popped in to share their two-cents worth on the changes. By 4:15 p.m., all but 12 persons on the sign-up list had spoken.

East Texas Legislators Reps. Dan Flynn (R-Van) and Wayne Christian (R-Center) spoke prior to public testimony, outlining the details of a letter (viewable here) from the 60-legislator Texas Conservative Coalition.

"We fear that State Board members have been pressured throughout the TEKS revision process to wash the TEKS clean of any references to Judeo-Christian faiths while promoting references to other religions," the letter read. ...

After winning the GOP Primary 60-40 percent, Sen. Kip Averitt (R-Waco) announced his resignation less than a week following the election.

"Your vote of confidence last Tuesday, election day, was most gratifying.  I am humbled by your support," Averitt said, in a press statement.  "Now, the time has come for me to step down."

Averitt indicated he would resign as of midday March 17, allowing Gov. Rick Perry to call a special election for May 8 to fill his seat.

LSR Managing Editor William Lutz recently published an opinion column in The Washington Examiner discussing this week's primary for governor. My basic point is that in most Republican primaries, it's the social issues that dominate. But this year was different: fiscal conservatives made their voices heard, and Gov. Rick Perry got renominated by appealing to fiscally conservative values. Click here to read the column.

Here is a key excerpt:

Immediately after Gov. Rick Perry's victory in the Texas GOP primary, the press in began trying to discount the Tea Party movement. It had not met the artificially high expectations set for it, neither in the governor's race nor in down-ballot challenges to sitting Republican members of Congress.

But this misses the larger point. After years of playing second fiddle to Texan values voters, fiscal conservatives made their voices heard in Tuesday's Texas Republican primary. Although social issues like abortion, guns, and prayer in school still mattered in this race, taxes and government spending took center stage, up and down the ballot.

One of the battlegrounds in the upcoming general election will be the judicial races in Dallas and Harris County. Democrats have started taking county-wide judicial races, but the GOP thinks it has the opportunity to take these back. Some of the newly-elected judges in these counties are "accidental judges," lawyers of questionable experience who just happened to file at the right time and sometimes have baggage from the past that the GOP hopes to exploit in November. A Houston Democratic judge just gave the Republicans an issue they could only dream about last week -- the Death Penalty.

Today's Houston Chronicle writes about the ruling of Judge Kevin Fine that the Texas Death Penalty is unconstitutional. It notes that Fine -- elected in the 2008 Democratic sweep of Harris County local judgeships -- is a recovering campaign addict who once questioned a rape victim on the stand during punishment phase of a trial.

A press release from the Van Taylor campaign informs us that Wayne Richard, a former candidate in the three-way race for HD 66 (Brian McCall's open seat), has endorsed Taylor in the runoff.

Taylor, a Marine Reservist and investment banker, took 33.5 percent of the vote on Tuesday to former Plano City Council member Mabrie Jackson's 41 percent. Richard was edged out of the runoff after taking 25.5 percent of the vote, placing third. The Taylor campaign's press release said that Richard's base of support should remain through April and put Taylor over the top.

LSR Managing Editor William Lutz was quoted in the Texas Tribune's article on Victor Carrillo's surprise defeat in Tuesday's primary. Click here to read the story.