(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 and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison have each released new attack ads saying ... well, not much new.

Here's Perry's:


Here's Hutchison's:


Here's the script for Perry's ad:

Read More »

Speaker Joe Straus released his picks for a select committee designed to recommend changes to the transportation financing situation in the Lone Star State.

Straus selected a diverse sampling of opinions on transportation policy reform to comprise the newly formed House Select Committee on Transportation Funding -- from House Transportation Committee Chairman Rep. Joe Pickett (D-El Paso) who led the fight to block the expansion of toll roads in the previous session, and Vicki Truitt (R-Southlake) who said a plan to give large metro areas the power to call elections to raise gasoline taxes and other fees in order to build toll roads was "fall on my sword"- worthy.

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.