Among Austin-area conservatives (yes, there are some), no agency of local government (other than maybe the Austin City Council) is a bigger target than Capital Metro. The Austin-area transit provider is bad even by the standards under which transit agencies are judged. Now the non-partisan Sunset Advisory Commission has produced staff recommendations which basically confirms everything Austin conservatives said about the agency: that it wastes money, that it suffers from misplaced priorities, that it needs major reform. Frankly, there's not much to add to this excellent report, so I highly recommended clicking here to read it in its entirety.

Now that the staff recommendations have been published, the Sunset Commission will have hearings in May, and will make decisions in July. www.sunset.state.tx.us has more details on the process.

LSR Managing Editor William Lutz gave a commentary on WFAA's Inside Texas Politics Sunday. Lutz discussed the Tea Party movement and how the press thinks the movement is wimpy. Lutz suggests making an impact in the May school board races is one way the Tea Party Movement can get the respect it deserves. Inside Texas Politics airs every Sunday at 9 am, WFAA, Channel 8 in North Texas. We post a copy of the program below: (Lutz's commentary starts about half-way into the program).

Democratic Gubernatorial nominee Bill White is making the GOP spin machine's job too easy. In 2002, Democrat Tony Sanchez made a campaign issue out of alleging that Gov. Rick Perry hasn't held a private sector job. Perry turned that into an instant campaign issue noting that he worked on his family ranch and served in the military. That attack boomeranged on Sanchez, and now it appears White may be repeating that mistake. Today's Wichita Falls Record-News reports that White criticized Perry for not holding a private sector job in a speech in Wichita Falls.

It didn't take long for the GOP to fire away at White.

LSR Managing Editor William Lutz will appear on WFAA Television's Inside Texas Politics this Sunday at 9 am. The program airs on Channel 8 in North Texas. Lutz will be discussing the upcoming school board elections and how a few organized TEA Party activists could make a big difference in those elections.

The front page of today's Austin American-Statesman has yet another story about a bunch of academics whining because the State Board of Education thinks our children should be taught patriotism. Click here to read.

Here's the deal, it is next to impossible to get tenure in subjects like history if one thinks America is the greatest country on earth. The only "research" that gets published in scholarly academic journals (a requirement for tenure) is research on how the U.S.A. is racist, sexist, classist, etc. I regularly talk with college students, and what goes on in academia today (with some exceptions) is largely indoctrination, not education. Students will spend four years learning about "institutional racism." What the members of the elected State Board of Education are trying to do is balance that out.

LSR Managing Editor William Lutz was quoted in a front page story in yesterday's Austin American-Statesman examining the impact of yesterday's primary runoffs. Click here to read Jason Embry and Tim Eaton's story from yesterday's Statesman.  In the story, Lutz notes that Tea Party activists didn't rewrite the rules of politics, but on the margin, they were helpful in defeating Reps. Tommy Merritt (RINO-Longview) and Delwin Jones (RINO or perhaps D-Lubbock) and also played a role in Van Taylor's victory over Mabrie Jackson. Lutz also discussed the impact of gun owners on Jones's defeat by Charles Perry.

In last week’s issue, LSR printed that Supreme Court candidate Rick Green was endorsed by Americans for Prosperity. The organization does not endorse. Instead, Americans for Prosperity – Texas executive director Peggy Venable endorsed Green in her personal, rather than organizational, capacity. LSR regrets the error.

When all was said and done on election night, two incumbents, Reps. Delwin Jones (R-Lubbock) and Norma Chavez (D-El Paso) went down. Incumbent Rep. Fred Brown (R-College Station) won re-election easily. The end result of this evening's runoff is the House will likely take a right turn headed into 2011.

The 2010 primary could be one of the best in recent memory for conservatives. Voters have already retired one of the most liberal Republicans in the House, Rep. Tommy Merritt (RINO-Longview) and could be well on their way to retiring another, Delwin Jones of Lubbock. In HD 83, challenger Charles Perry won all four counties in the district for early vote and has a 2,000 vote lead heading into election day.

LSR Managing Editor William Lutz -- a regular GOP primary voter -- received an auto dial message from former Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff endorsing Marsha Farney's bid for the State Board of Education at his home this evening. Ratliff noted that Farney puts her own children in public schools as a reason to elect Farney.

Ratliff is a former Chairman of the Senate Education Committee and author of SB 1 (1995) -- a rewrite of the Texas Education Code. SB 1 transferred a lot of power and influence over the education system from the elected State Board of Education to the appointed Texas Education Agency Commissioner. His son Thomas recently won the Republican nomination for the State Board of Education in a neighboring district over former board chairman Don McLeroy. Ratliff is viewed with suspicion by many conservative Republicans because of his moderate voting record, which included opposition to the GOP Congressional redistricting bill in 2003.

Farney faces State Republican Executive Committee member Brian Russell in the general election.

A few minutes ago, we received the following letter from Mr. Dick Brown, regarding our blog post from this morning:

Dear Mr. Lutz, 

Tuesday night, I was home, examining campaign ethics reports in preparation for an article I was writing. When I examined Judge Debra Lehrmann's contribution and expenditure report for her Supreme Court race, I was quite disturbed to see the name of one of the most notorious lobby groups in Austin adorning her report -- Texans for Economic Development. Specifically, lobbyist Dick Brown -- whose employer is listed on her report as Texans for Economic Development -- gave $1,000.

Sen. Eliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso) and former Rep. Paul Moreno (D-El Paso) held a news conference Monday to announce their endorsement of Naomi Gonzalez for state representative.  Though that was the stated purpose of the conference, that wasn't what the press conference was about. It was, instead, a 13-minute slam on the incumbent Rep. Norma Chavez (D-El Paso).

Moreno and Shapleigh compared Chavez to U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, former House Speaker Tom Craddick, George W. Bush, and the Grim Reaper. (Well, actually, they never compared her to the Grim Reaper, but Moreno did go so far as to suggest that she is not Cesar Chavez's friend.)

Their biggest complaint -- however -- is that Chavez is an ineffective legislator. Well, it takes one to know one. When Paul Moreno calls someone ineffective, I take what he says very, very seriously, since Moreno took being ineffective in the Texas House and developed it into a fine art form. He was there 40 years. How many bills did he pass?

Anyway, the El Paso Times wrote up the endorsement. And we post the youtube video below for your viewing pleasure. After all, we know the whole House is going though inflammatory-Moreno-personal-privilege-speech-withdrawal.

Attorney General Greg Abbott announced that five more states – Arizona, Nevada, Mississippi, Indiana, and North Dakota – have joined the lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s government takeover of the health care system.

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."