Though the article didn't take into account Texas women when it said that women usually prefer Democrats and men Republicans, at least one report on a recent poll is expressing shock that more females surveyed preferred Rick Perry to Bill White.

"The voter gender gap usually goes like this: Across the country, men prefer Republicans, while women prefer Democrats. But this year in Texas, there's something unusual going on. Republican Gov. Rick Perry has a significant lead over Democrat Bill White among women," reported the Austin American-Statesman.

The poll, conducted by Blum & Weprin Associates Inc., reported 50 percent of women preferred Perry while 40 percent preferred White. In terms of both genders, the survey said, Perry was ahead 46-39.

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Bill White highlighted plans today intended to attract new industries, businesses and high-wage jobs to Texas by promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Meanwhile, the Rick Perry campaign is calling the plan remarkably similar to an earlier plan that would send electric utility costs even higher than they have been lately.

That there will be three lecturns at an upcoming televised gubernatorial debate is no surprise.

That it won't feature Republican Gov. Rick Perry is also no surprise to those following the back-and-forth between the incumbent and Democratic rival Bill White -- but it may surprise viewers who will expect the usual Republican-Democratic slugfest.

The Austin American Statesman reported Libertarian Kathie Glass and Green Party nominee Deb Shafto today accepted invitations from several high-circulation newspapers and KLRU-TV of Austin to participate in an Oct. 19 debate. [...]

Before we dismiss Shafto's and Glass' inclusion in the debates as simple courtesies, let's take a look at the situation about half a year ago when another longshot was given a chance to share the spotlight.

Following the release of the "Kristi Works for ACORN" attack site, the Republican Party of Texas is going a step further and asking for Rep. Kristi Thibaut (D-Houston) to resign her position on the board of a controversial organization via a new video. Houston Votes, the group recently discovered to have turned in thousands of incorrectly filled out voter registration applications, is said to have many former ACORN activists on board, including Thibaut.

The HD 133 race, featuring Thibaut and Republican Jim Murphy, is one of several hot contests the Republican Party is hoping to swing to the GOP this November. The Thibaut campaign has not returned LSR's calls.

The following is the GOP YouTube ad, followed by a Thibaut TV ad released just last week.

The State Board of Education voted 7-6 around 1 p.m. this afternoon to approve a resolution calling for equal treatment of the world's religions in school textbooks -- then reconsidered and again approved the document, with amendments.

The vote came after nearly four hours of debate and attempts at other amendments.

Texas Farm Bureau endorsed a whole slew of candidates for statewide, judicial, and House and Senate district races. But over the past few weeks the group had been silent on the gubernatorial contest ...

... until this afternoon, when the board of the group's Agriculture Fund (AGFUND PAC) decided to remain neutral in the top-of-the-ballot race.

It may come as no surprise that in the first few months of Texas GOP chairman Steve Munisteri's administration a foray into college activism would occur. After all, Munisteri is one of the founders of the Young Conservatives of Texas -- a college-based activist and issue advocacy group -- and received much support from them during his campaign for chairman.

Munisteri announced at a press conference Sept. 17 (about the party's debt-reduction efforts) that a Republican newspaper for college students was in the works. According to a press release received from RPT today, that effort will be a resurrection of an older publication that Munisteri, as well as RPT communications director Chris Elam's father Mark Elam, were involved with -- the Texas Forum. Below is the RPT release on The New Texas Forum, set to debut next month.

"A rabbi, a priest and an imam walk into a building," a downtown Austin Baptist minister said, meeting laughter at a press conference this morning.

That's not a joke, according to University Baptist Church pastor Rev. Larry Bethune, but an attempt to seek "peace and mutual understanding" -- concerned that a resolution before the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) is feeding a recent wave of anti- Islamic sentiment.

The Texas Faith Network (a project of the pro-secular Texas Freedom Network's education fund), hosted the press conference this morning at the William B. Travis Building in Austin to oppose a resolution being put forth by SBOE conservatives. The resolution demands equal treatment of Islam and Christianity in school textbooks in public schools, and decries Arab ownership of certain textbook company interests.

Ministers speaking at the presser said they were concerned the resolution would chip away at progress made toward interreligious understanding. But when LSR asked if anyone had spoken with the author of the resolution, all answered that they had not made an effort to compromise with him.

Rep. Jim Keffer (R-Eastland) signed a novelty check in the amount of $200,000 today at Republican Party of Texas headquarters -- symbolic of a continuing effort to reduce the party's debt which a year ago was near a million dollars.

Keffer and Republican Party of Texas (RPT) Chairman Steve Munisteri spoke at a press conference this morning at party headquarters that its "Debt Busters" committee is well underway and putting a dent in the state GOP's deficit. The amount of debt left is $150,000, Munisteri said.

Repeating the usual "more than any other state" line, the Perry campaign released a new television ad on Sunday, again hailing Texas' job creation rate as compared to the rest of the United States.

The ad features Gov. Rick Perry flipping around a sign on a hardware store's glass door from "Sorry We're Closed" to "Texas is Open for Business."

The Bill White campaign of course criticized the ad, wondering why there was no mention of the estimated $18 billion budget shortfall. White campaign rep Katy Bacon likening Perry to "a rooster who crows in the morning and thinks he made the sun rise."