The Texas Association of Business's BACPAC released its endorsements today for the primary runoff. BACPAC endorsed the following candidates:

Supreme Court, Place 3                    Debra Lehrmann
State Representative, District 47        Paul Workman
State Representative, District 83        Charles Perry
State Representative, District 127      Susan Curling

Also, the Houston Association of Realtors endorsed Dan Huberty in House District 127, and former Texas GOP Chairman Tom Pauken endorsed Workman in HD 47.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit yesterday rejected an attempt by the late William Wayne Justice (a federal district judge at the time of his death) to micromanage the state's bilingual education programs from a federal courthouse. Yesterday, the court reversed a year-old Justice ruling and sent the case back to the lower courts with specific instructions to narrow the scope of the case. The Fifth Circuit's ruling both savings the state hundreds of millions of dollars and preserves state control over education. Click here to read the ruling.

LSR's Managing Editor William Lutz appeared on WFAA's "Inside Texas Politics" yesterday. He blasted the proposed federal health care bill and explained what its $24 billion in unfunded mandates to the state budget could mean for average Texans. (Lutz's commentary starts at about 7:15 into the program, or -8:45 remaining). Inside Texas Poltiics airs every Sunday at 9 a.m. on WFAA-TV, Channel 8, in North Texas.

Attorney General Greg Abbott announced he'll join with other states in mounting a legal challenge to President Barack Obama's health care bill. "The federal health care legislation passed tonight violates the United States Constitution and unconstitutionally infringes upon Texans' individual liberties," said Abbott in a statement issued Sunday evening right after the vote. "To protect all Texans' constitutional rights, preserve the constitutional framework intended by our nation's founders, and defend our state from further infringement by the federal government, the State of Texas and other states will legally challenge the federal health care legislation."

Abbott was just one of many Texas elected officials who blasted the health care bill last night. Texas Conservative Coalition President Wayne Christian announced plans to file legislation prohibiting implementation of the bill by the State of Texas.

Over the weekend, Rep. Eddie Rodriguez (D-Austin) was arrested and told the Statesman he was booked for DWI. This was -- admittedly -- a busy news weekend. The story appeared on the front of Sunday's city-state section below the fold. Click here to read the story. 

In May 2008, Rep. Mike Krusee (R-Round Rock) was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. Charges were later dropped. But not until Krusee was the subject of three articles in the Austin American-Statesman, including one published Feb. 1 on politicians refusing breath tests, that the archive shows as appearing on page A1. Former Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos (D-Austin) also pled no-contest to DWI in 2001, which later became the subject of his opponent's attack ads in Barrientos's successful 2002 re-election campaign.

Some of our Republican readers may wonder how the coverage afforded to the three incidents compares. So far, the Rodriguez incident has received similar coverage to a similar incident committed by a Republican elected official. Stories also appeared in the Krusee case when he was charged, and the feature piece I mentioned above, but the Rodriguez case has not progressed that far yet. Barrientos got more press than either the Krusee or Rodriguez incidents but that was largely because his opponent ran TV ads showing the video from the police car -- depicting the administration of a field sobriety test to Barrientos.

In the shuffle and commotion caused by the President's socialist takeover of the health care system, other news understandibly is getting less attention. That said, Sunday's Austin American-Statesman has a front-page story questioning campaign donations provided toTexas politicians -- notably Gov. Rick Perry, several members of the Congressional delegation, and Third Court of Appeals Justice Alan Waldrop -- by Triton Financial CEO Kurt Barton, who is now the subject of a federal lawsuit alleging securities fraud. Click here to read the Statesman's story. The Statesman's story says the plaintiff's in the lawsuit may seek recovery of both the political donations and a donation to University of Texas Athletics.

So why are we -- a political publication -- spilling ink over this? After all, the Statesman's story mainly involves campaign donations, not public funds.

Simple. Given the lack of credibility Wall Street has right now, the next big political quagmire in Texas politics may involve one of the state's large investment funds. In 2005, the Legislature passed legislation exempting from public disclosure which private equity investments are made with public funds. (The names of the private equity funds and returns are disclosed but not the specific investments made by the private equity funds.) In addition, several state investment funds have been the subject of careful scrutiny by legislative committees or recently made controversial management decisions. Elected officials should tread very carefully on how state investment funds are managed -- particularly when those decisions affect large camapign donors. The facts in yesterday's Statesman story may not be  a smoking gun, but does provide yet another example of why statewide elected officials would be wise to proceed with caution with this industry.

LSR Managing Editor William Lutz will appear on tomorrow's edition of Inside Texas Politics with Brad Watson. He will be discussing the problems with the unfunded mandates in ObamaCare. Inside Texas Politics airs at 9 am Sunday on Channel 8 WFAA in North Texas.

With a possible showdown vote on the federal health care bill coming as soon as Sunday, state leaders from both parties are rallying the troops. Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and Speaker Joe Straus sent a letter to the Texas Congressional Delegation urging members of Congress to vote against President Barack Obama's health care bill and its unfunded mandates to state government. Click here to read the GOP leadership letter. 

Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston) has sent a letter to the Texas Congressional delegation endorsing President Barack Obama's health care bill. Coleman's letter is signed by several prominent Texas House Democrats. It argues the unfunded mandate numbers mentioned in the Republican letter are out of date. Click here to read the Democratic letter.

The Texas Medical Association has also issued a statement calling on Texas members of congress to reject the health care bill. "Unlike the American Medical Association, we do not believe that passage of HR 3590 and the accompanying reconciliation bill are steps in the right direction. Our position on health reform remains steadfast: Keep what’s good in the health care system and fix only what’s broken," wrote the TMA's President William Fleming III and President-elect Susan Rudd Bailey. Click here to visit TMA's page on health care reform.

Gov. Rick Perry has called special elections for the vacant Senate seat in District 22 and the vacant House seat in District 100 and set the date for May 8. These are the seats vacated by Sen. Kip Averitt's (R-Waco) resignation and Rep. Terri Hodge's (D-Dallas) resignation after her guilty plea in federal court to a felony charge. The filing deadline is April 7, and early voting runs from April 26 to May 4. All candidates from all parties file on the same ballot for special elections. There are no primaries. If no candidate receives 50 percent of the vote, then Perry will schedule a runoff approximately one month later. The winner of the election serves the unexpired term, which lasts until Jan. 2011. Eric Johnson defeated Hodge in the primary and is unopposed in District 100 for the full term, while new nominees for the Averitt seat full term have not yet been selected.

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.

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.

Rick Perry won spectacularly without a runoff. Victor Carrillo was defeated in the GOP primary for Railroad Commissioner. Linda Chavez-Thompson won the Democratic lieutentant governor's race and will join Bill White on the ticket. Hector Uribe is the Democratic nominee for Land Commissioner, and Hank Gilbert was nominated for the Democrats over Kinky Friedman for Agriculture Commissioner. The list of defeated House incumbents is as follows: Tommy Merritt, Tara Rios Ybarra, Terri Hodge, Betty Brown, Dora Olivo, and Al Edwards.

We now feel more comfortable calling some of the closer, late-breaking races. the list of incumbents that have been handed walking papers has now grown to include Reps. Tara Rios Ybarra (D-South Padre Island), Betty Brown (R-Terrell), and Al Edwards (D-Houston). Edwards lost by a mere 11 votes, so this could flip in a runoff. Also, add Rep. Norma Chavez (D-El Paso) to the list of incumbents forced into runoffs.
Here are the races we are now calling (in addition to the ones listed in our previous post):

As of this writing, it looks like incumbent Railroad Commissioner Victor Carrillo was defeated in the Republican Primary by David Porter. It also appears like incumbent Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman won over Rose Vela. Meanwhile on the Democratic side, former AFL-CIO officer Linda Chavez-Thompson appears to have won the lieutenant governor's primary outright.  It appears Hank Gilbert has won the Democratic primary for Agriculture Commissioner. The Democratic land commission primary between Bill Burton and Hector Uribe may still be too close to call.

The Republican primary for the open Supreme Court seat is way too close to call. Former Rep. Rick Green (Dripping Springs) appears to have the upper hand in making one of the runoff slots, though even Green is about a percent and a half above his closest challengers. For the second runoff slot, there is a close contest between Jim Moseley, Debra Lehrmann, and Rebecca Simmons.

Here are the major contested legislative races where LSR believes all is said and done.

So far, incumbent Reps. Tommy Merritt (Longview), Dora Olivo (Rosenberg), and Terri Hodge (Dallas) failed to win re-election. Reps. Delwin Jones (R-Lubbock) and Fred Brown (R-College Station) have been forced into runoffs. ...

(Editor's note: This blog post was written by LSR Contributing Editor William Murchison, who was at the Hutchison event in Dallas tonight.)

Former Texas GOP Chairman Tom Pauken is signing his book "Bringing America Home" at the Twig Book Shop in San Antonio tomorrow (March 3) from 4-6 p.m. Pauken is a frequent contributor to this publication and a wealth of information on the conservative movement. We highly recommend this event to our San Antonio readers:

Book signing for Bringing America Home
Wednesday, March 3, from 4 to 6 p.m.

      The Twig Book Shop
      200 E Grayson, Suite 124
      San Antonio, TX 78215
      1(210)826-6411

Democrat Farouk Shami has unveiled an official theme song for his campaign: "Farouk is on Fire". Here's the catch -- it's a Hip-Hop song by Houston artist J. Xavier. It's probably slightly better than what you'd see on the old Gong Show, and it's not quite as corny as the old Jim Mattox theme songs, but it's not exactly in any danger of climing the Billboard charts either. We post the YouTube below. Listen and see what you think:

(Editor's note: We are posting the oped from this week's issue to this blog.)

What started as a local race between Rep. Todd Smith (R-Euless) and Jeff Cason took on a new tone when Texans for Lawsuit Reform founder Dick Weekley and fellow TLR donors Leo Linbeck III and Harlan and Trammell Crow funded the Citizen Leader PAC, which launched attacks on Smith via the web, mailers, and phone calls.

Political consultant Bryan Eppstein is known for his often-outlandish attacks on his clients' opponents. But we think Eppstein may have outdone himself this time. Throughout this cycle, Eppstein is summoning the supernatural in his political attacks used in his representation of Rep. Vicki Truitt (R-Keller). Truitt is under fire in her district for sponsoring the local option tax increase bill, which would have allowed local government to put tax increases for rail on the ballot.

In response to attacks from Texans for Fiscal Repsonsibility's Michael Quinn Sullivan, Eppstein called him "demonic" in a Fort Worth Star-Telegram article.

But his attack website on Truitt's opponent Giovanni Capriglione takes the cake. Capriglione is under fire because, according to the Star-Telegram, "is a vice president in a company whose holdings include a cemetery in which workers were accused of digging up hundreds of graves to increase profits." Capriglione denied having any ownership stake in the firm, and said the company made the investment before he joined it.

Nevertheless, the Truitt campaign (an Eppstein client) set up www.corporategraverobbers.com to draw attention to the issue. We aren't endorsing the content, but it's one of the most creative political attacks I've ever seen, even if the connection to Capriglione may be a bit tenuous. The website shows a picture of someone who looks like Capriglione digging up a grave and replacing it with another coffin. Eerie organ music plays in the background.

Click here to view the Truitt campaign's attack website.

The Washington Examiner recently published a column by LSR Managing Editor William Lutz on the governor's race. Basically, Lutz noted that if the election for governor had been held in 2008, Perry probably would have been in deep trouble, but now he has a commanding lead. The column argues that -- whatever one thinks of Perry's governing -- he is an outstanding campaigner who has benefitted from recent events. It also discusses some of the message problem with U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's campaign and the likely fall of Debra Medina. Click here to read Lutz's column.

One of the things that has always baffled me about the Texas Legislature is how ANY Republicans believe that the University of Texas administration is conservative (or fiscally responsible, for that matter). True, some UT regents write big checks to politicians. But I know some Texas legislators who usually aren't influenced by that stuff who sincerely think the UT administration is conservative. It's as if anyone who wears a coat and tie is suddenly right-wing.

An article from yesterday's Daily Texan ought to put that notion to rest once and for all. The President of the University of Texas attends a gay rights conference and endorses one of the top priorities of the campus left -- domestic partner benefits. This in spite of the fact that 2/3rds of the Texas Legislature and the vast majority of Texans voted to ban same-sex marriage and other similar arrangements. In fact, the article basically insinuates that the UT administration supports "creative" legal strategies to get around that provision of the Texas constitution. Click here to read the Daily Texan article about the UT administration endorsing domestic partner benefits. This article is a real doozy. The article notes that University of Texas at Austin President William Powers attended a summit organized by the Pride and Equity Faculty and Staff Association and Equality Texas. (Note: Equality Texas used to be called the Lesbian and Gay Rights Lobby.) The article reports UT President Bill Powers as saying:

“This is about equity, human rights and human beings, and it affects the competitiveness of our University when we recruit people,” Powers said in a welcome speech. “There are things, if we are creative, that can be done. This is important work. It’s wide-ranging work.”

Dallas Television Station WFAA broadcast interviews with all three Republican candidates for governor. All can be viewed at WFAA's website.

Click here to hear Gov. Rick Perry's interview.

Click here to hear U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's interview.

Click here to hear Debra Medina's interview.

Have tort reformers finally succeeded in exterminating plaintiff's attorneys?

The plaintiff's bar's arch-enemy Allstate Insurance Company just got a $1.1 million check of tax dollars from Gov. Rick Perry's Texas Enterprise Fund, and we haven't heard a peep of protest from either the trial lawyers, trial lawyer-friendly consumer groups like Texas Watch, nor the trial lawyers' subsidiary -- the Texas Democratic Party.

This is way out of character for these groups, who usually never pass up an opportunity to bash an insurance company.

Gov. Rick Perry's campaign is running a radio ad accusing U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of not being a fiscal conservative. The ad features Tom Schatz, chairman of the council for Citizens Against Government Waste.

We post the ad below, and the script under "Read more":

The Texas Alliance for Life PAC released its slate of endorsements. Click here to see the slate in PDF format.

Otherwise, we post the entire list below.

The Baylor University Board of Regents has named former federal judge and special prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr as the 14th President of Baylor. The Waco Tribune-Herald has a story on the announcement. Click here for the official Baylor website announcing the change. Baylor will host an online event at 3 pm Feb. 16 (Tuesday) announcing the change.

Baylor has been in a very public battle for its identity the past few years. With Starr at the helm, it's obvious Baylor is positioning itself as one of the nation's premier conservative, Christian universities. Baylor University is the nation's largest Baptist university.

Gov. Rick Perry, FOX News contributor Andrew Napolitano, Attorney General Greg Abbott, and Supreme Court Justice Don Willett will speak at the Texas Conservative Coalition's 10th Amendment Town Hall tomorrow (Monday) morning in Plano. The event will take place at the Plano Centre and goes from 8:30 to 1:30. For registration, click here. To find out more information, interested folks can visit the Texas Conservative Coalition website.

Just when we thought Democratic Candidate for Governor Farouk Shami couldn't stick his foot in his mouth any farther, WFAA's Inside Texas Politics broadcasts the remainder of its interview. Among other things, Shami accuses his opponent -- former Houston mayor Bill White -- of being insensitive to African-American-owned businesses. The show also features a full interview with former Mayor White. Having watched several televised interviews and one debate, I think White presents himself and his ideas well to the media. He comes across as a normal, common-sense guy (especially compared with everything else that's gone on this past week.) It's a tough year for Democrats, but he is a formidible opponent for the Republican nominee. Anyway, we post a link to Inside Texas Politics below. But don't say we didn't warn you -- it's painful watching Shami self-destruct.

LSR has received the following statement from the Farouk Shami campaign on the WFAA interview:

"Farouk Shami, like most Americans, still grapples with the events that transpired on September 11, 2001.  When asked, in an interview earlier this afternoon as to whether or not he believed 9/11 was an inside job, Farouk responded with the fact that he did not know.  To say that he believes otherwise is at best mischaracterization of his comments and at worst yet another attempt to discredit Farouk Shami.  Farouk has shown his unwavering support to the victims of 9/11 by visiting New York and donating millions of dollars to help business owners who were affected by the tragedy." 

Two days, two candidates make very controversial comments on television. This time it's Farouk Shami's turn.

WFAA's website has a clip from the upcoming Inside Texas Politics, which airs Sunday at 9 am on Channel 8 in North Texas, featuring Democratic candidate for governor Farouk Shami. During the interview, Shami was asked to clarify his answer during the Democratic debate about whether he supports mandating employers use the e-Verify program. In his answer, he noted that a majority of the workers in his factory are African-American or Hispanic. Then he said: “A majority of the people are going to be Hispanic and African-American. You don't find white people who are willing to work in factories. And our history proves, you know, lots of time when they, you know, the white people come to work in a factory they either want to be supervisors or they want to be, you know, paid more than the average person. And unfortunately they exit.”

Then Shami is asked about the flap over Debra Medina's appearance on the Glenn Beck show and whether he believes the government had a role in the 9/11 bombings. According to the WFAA website, Shami said, “I'm not sure. I am not going to really judge or answer about something I'm not really sure about. But the rumors are there that there was a conspiracy. True or not? It's hard to believe, you know, what happened. It's really hard to comprehend what happened. Maybe. I'm not sure.”

We are embedding the whole clip below and our readers can see Shami's comments for themselves.

 Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston) took aim at the University of Houston for proposing a 3.95 percent tuition increase. "Increased tuition combined with higher fees, costlier books, and a sagging economy is pricing Texans out of higher education," said Whitmire. "Texas families cannot bear the increased burden, especially when many families and students are struggling to pay current tuition and fees at our universities."

(Updated at 1:36 pm to include Gov. Rick Perry's statement; updated at 3:12 p.m. to include U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's statement).

Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina made an appearance on the Glenn Beck Show this morning, and her answer has been the talk of Texas Republicans -- especially on Twitter and Facebook. Beck asked Medina, "Do you believe the government was any way involved with the bringing down of the World Trade Center on 9/11?"

Medina responded: "I don't have all of the evidence there, Glenn. So I'm not in a place; I have not been out publicly questioning that. I think some very good questions have been raised in that regard. There are some very good arguments, and I think the American people have not seen all the evidence there. So I have not taken a position on that."

Employees of the Gov. Rick Perry campaign have forwarded this clip on Twitter and Facebook. LSR received an official statement from Perry today at 1:36 p.m.: "Today's comments were an insult to the thousands of Americans who lost loved ones on 9/11 and the military men and women who are overseas protecting our country. President Bush worked tirelessly to protect our nation from additional terrorist attacks and anyone who would suggest 9/11 is a conspiracy involving the Bush administration should be ashamed."

LSR also received the following statement from Medina's other primary opponent, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I know exactly who was responsible for the horrific attacks on September 11th – Al Qaeda terrorists who declared war on America. To suggest otherwise is an affront to the men and women who are sacrificing their lives to root out the terrorists in Afghanistan and around globe. Ever since that tragic day, I have fought tirelessly to ensure that we hunted down the Islamic extremists who target our nation. No one stood closer to President Bush and Vice President Cheney in their efforts to defeat the terrorist threat to our freedom.”

Later -- after the show -- the Medina campaign issued a statement clarifying her position: "I was asked a question on the Glenn Beck show today regarding my thoughts on the so-called 9/11 truth movement. I have never been involved with the 9/11 truth movement, and there is no doubt in my mind that Muslim terrorists flew planes into those buildings on 9/11. I have not seen any evidence nor have I ever believed that our government was involved or directed those individuals in any way. No one can deny that the events on 9/11 were a tragedy for all Americans and especially those families who lost loved ones."

Given the strong feelings people, and particuarly Republican primary voters feel about 9/11, this could well be a game-changer. Beck claimed Medina's comments were "the fast way back to four percent [in the polls]." Rather than try to characterize Medina's comments ourself, we post a link below to a youtube clip of Beck's program: (We also post a full copy of Medina's post-show statement on the inside page).

A new poll by Public Policy Polling shows gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina in striking distance of a runoff. Medina polled 24 percent among likely Republican primary voters, compared with 28 for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and 39 percent for incumbent Gov. Rick Perry. Click here for full poll results.

Gov. Rick Perry released a new ad -- titled "1993" -- taking aim at U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's record in the Senate. We post the ad below, followed by the script and Hutchison response:

Today, Gov. Rick Perry released a new ad highlighting the accomplishments of his term as governor. We post the ad below (following the ad, we post a script and the Hutchison camapign's response):

The Bill White campaign for the Democratic nomination for governor has released its second campaign ad highlighting White's background and upbringing. We post below.

LSR Managing Editor William Lutz will be appearing on WFAA's Inside Texas Politics with Brad Watson at 9 am this Sunday. Lutz will be delivering a commentary calling for the E-Verify System to become mandatory for all Texas employers and slamming the candidates for governor for being soft on illegal immigration. Inside Texas Politics airs on WFAA-TV, Channel 8, in North Texas.

In this week's issue, we were pleased to publish an interview with Commissioner of Higher Education Raymund Paredes. We have featured this article on our website, making it available to the general public. Click here to read the main portion of the interview, publishing in this week's Lone Star Report.

Due to space reasons, we were unable to publish the entire interview in this week's issue. We publish the remaining portion of our discussion with Dr. Paredes below:

Kay Bailey Hutchison's campaign for governor has just unveiled a new television ad slamming both Gov. Rick Perry and lobbyist Mike Toomey -- his former chief of staff. The ad notes that Toomey represented Merck, the pharmaceutical company that made the controversial vaccine against HPV (the Human Papiloma virus) that Perry tried to mandate to 6th-grade girls -- until the Texas Legislature intervened. We post the ad below. Click "Read more" for the the script as well as Perry's response:


 

TEXPAC, the political action committee affiliated with the Texas Medical Association, announced its slate of endorsements for the 2010 primaries today. “TEXPAC is proud to announce its selection of candidates in their respective party primaries who are committed to stand firm with Texas patients and for their physicians,” said Susan Strate, MD, chair of the TEXPAC Board of Directors. “We believe these candidates will listen to their patients’ and physicians’ concerns and will work on their behalf to improve the accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency of Texas’ health care system.” TEXPAC is encouraging its members to get out and vote on March 2.

We post the slate of endorsements below:

Texans for Fiscal Responsibility issued another set of endorsements in state house races yesterday, including some Democrats. "We're pleased to stand alongside these men and women, as they seek to bring commonsense solutions to the practical issues facing Texans," said Michael Quinn Sullivan, president of Empower Texans and treasurer of the PAC. "In uncertain economic times, Texans are demanding policy leaders who are committed to wisely stewarding the taxpayers' resources to the benefit of all Texans."
 

Specifically, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility endorsed the following incumbents: Rob Eissler in HD 15, Ryan Guillen (D) in HD 31, Todd Hunter in HD 32, Aaron Pena (D) in HD 40, and Rob Orr in HD 58.  The group endorsed the following additional candidates in open seats or against incumbents: Pat McGuinness in HD 50, Larry Gonzales in HD 52, Yolanda Sotelo Garza in HD 74, Jim Landtroop in HD 85, Victor Leal in HD 87, Barbara Nash in HD 93, Lyle Larson in HD 122, and Jim Murphy in HD 133 

 

Last Friday's Belo debate has been archived online on the WFAA Television website. To make it easier to view the debate, the producers have broken up the debate into four files. We post a link to each below, for those of our readers who are interested in replaying portions of the governor's debate:

Belo Debate Part One

Belo Debate Part Two

Belo Debate Part Three

Belo Debate Part Four

Democratic candidate for Governor Bill White unveiled a new television ad today. The ad focuses on education and what White would do to cut dropouts and improve test scores. The ad will run in both English and Spanish. Click below to view the full English-language version of the ad: