Politex

In Austin, 40 is the new 50

Over 100 lawyers from area district attorney offices are sitting in a conference room at the Fort Worth Convention Center this afternoon, getting a 3.5 hour crash course on how the Legislature changed state laws.

Robert Kuemple, executive director of the Texas District & County Attorneys Association, is holding the seminars around the state to bring the state's prosecutors up to speed.

Every lawyer in attendance picked up an 80-page booklet covering all of the new laws, crimes and penal code tweaks they all need to know. Most go into effect on Sept. 1.

So how many new laws did the Legislature actually inflict upon Texas?

Forty, down from 50 new laws in 2007 and 49 new laws back in 2005, Kuemple said.

That doesn't count the dozens of changes to current laws, many of which were written in such a way to make it unclear how judges will interpret them, according to the TDCAA's Legisalative Update booklet.

Kuemple and his colleague W. Clay Abbott, also with TDCAA, tried to get the marathon session off to a light start. They delivered a quick recap of the session, which included the Statesman's Ken Herman's collection of zany comments from lawmakers, as well as footage of Rep. Betty Brown making her now in-famous Asian names remark. The crowd laughed the most at a clip of Stephen Colbert mocking Gov. Rick Perry's secession speak.

"That's the kind of things we put up with this session," Kuemple said.

-Aman Batheja

Is Hutchison's camp trying to spread a rumor that Perry is gay? (updated)

The sniping between Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Gov. Rick Perry's campaign teams took a new turn today, a day after Hutchison sparked a war of words by announcing her plans to relinquish her Senate seat in the fall.

Today's battle stems from a blog post by Gardner Selby at the Austin American-Statesman, who took a close look at one of Hutchison's campaign Web sites, www.standbykay.com.

The site contained 2,200 hidden phrases. Among the phrases: "rick perry gay." (The list also includes every county in Texas and "fort worth straw poll.")

Hutchison's campaign told Selby that the campaign uses a web tool that generates the list hourly in an effort to determine what kind of searches people are doing related to Perry and Hutchison's names. The list is intended to help Hutchison’s campaign decide where best to purchase online advertising for the campaign, Selby reported.

Hutchison's campaign told Selby the phrase would be immediately removed from the hidden list on the site.

Selby posted the full list of hidden phrases here.

In a statement, Perry campaign manager Mark Miner called the "secret language" in Hutchison's site "repugnant and slanderous." 

"This deliberately offensive act is not the result of staff error; it is the result of a negative and divisive tone set by the candidate herself," Miner said. "Sen. Hutchison has undertaken a dirty, slash-and-burn campaign since January by putting out at least six attack mail pieces against Gov. Perry, countless negative press releases and now this outrageous, slanderous tactic on her website. A campaign’s behavior is a reflection of the candidate and Sen. Hutchison should take personal responsibility for these actions.  This type of nasty attack may work in Washington DC, but it has no place in Texas. Sen. Hutchison should be ashamed and embarrassed.”

-Aman Batheja

Federal funds for FW flood project

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison announced Thursday that the full Senate has approved a bill that includes $500,000 for the Fort Worth Central City flood project.

The funding was in the Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill for fiscal year 2010. The Senate version must now be reconciled with the House version, according to a Hutchison press release.

This funding, according to the release, will be used to replace an aging levee system in Fort Worth's central city area, and will include a levee system, bypass channe and other improvements.

-- Anna M. Tinsley

Is she or isn't she retiring from the Senate

WASHINGTON - Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, seemed to make it crystal clear this morning on Mark Davis’ WBAP-AM radio show that she was definitively giving up her seat in the "October/November timeframe."

But confusion reigned by the afternoon when Hutchison seemed to vacillate.

"I did not realize this was going to be something that would be construed as different from what I've been saying," Hutchison told reporters. "I had said that I would be leaving probably some time toward the end of the year, late fall. And that's what I said in this interview."

But she left the door open for staying.

Hutchison complained, as she did on Davis' show, about Perry’s long tenure, which would reach 15 years if he served another term.

"Nobody expected him to run for 15 years, and I think there's a chance that he wouldn't run because he would see how divisive it is and that he's trying to stay too long and that he can really help in many ways if he doesn't run, in which case I could then be able to stay in the Senate all the way to the end."

And her preference? "To stay all the way through the election but for it being very difficult with the governor continuing to run."

Hutchison said she was really trying to send Perry a message.

"I was really trying to say to him he could step back here, and he's really trying to hang on too long and maybe he'll rethink," she said.

-- Maria Recio

Perry may move up special election to replace Hutchison

Gov. Rick Perry said he might move up the date of the special election to replace Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison because too many important things are going on in Washington, D.C.

Perry answered reporters questions at R.L. Turner High School in Carrolton after a ceremonial bill signing of House Bill 3, an education accountability bill.

Perry mocked Hutchison's announcement this morning that she would resign in October or November, and suggested he wasn't convinced she would actually step down from her position.

That's why he wouldn't speculate on appointing a replacement.

“I got some very important decisions ot make on a daily basis," Perry said. "Trying to follow a moving target of there’s going to be a senate opening, there’s not one. Why waste one bit of my energy? We’ve got work to do in this state. I’m going to stay focused on leading this state.”

With important issues like health care reform going on in the halls of Congress, Perry said he may move up the special election before May 2010, when it would normally occur should Hutchison resign in the fall.

"For us not to have someone in the United States Senate looking after Texas interests, I think, is irresponsible," Perry said. "Maybe the Senator should think about that rather than the other things she’s thinking about."

When told by a reporter that Hutchison had remarked that 15 years in the governor’s mansion is too long for one person, Perry said, “I guess 15 years in the United States Senate is not too long.”

-Aman Batheja

Hutchison says she'll leave the Senate in October or November

AUSTIN - After months of speculation, U. S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison confirmed Wednesday that she plans to resign her Senate seat to run for governor sometime around October or November.

Hutchison dropped the bombshell disclosure in an interview with Dallas talk show host Mark Davis on WBAP Radio.

She said she will formally announce her entry into the Republican primary race against incumbent Gov. Rick Perry in August.

"Then the actual leaving of the Senate will be sometime -- October, November - that, in that time frame," she said.

-- Dave Montgomery

Turner gets praise from consumer watchdog group

AUSTIN - Texas Watch, which claims 10,000 members and advocates for homeowners rights and insurance reform, has named Rep . Chris Turner, D-Burleson, as its Freshman of the Year for his efforts in behalf of "Texas families, consumers and workers" during the 2009 Legislature. 

"During his first term in the Texas House, Rep. Turner showed that he is not afraid to stand up for the needs of homeowners and small businesses," Alex Winslow, executive director of the organization, said in a press release announcing its freshman-of-the-year choice.   

One of Turner's bills, requiring retail electric providers to give 30-days notification before a fixed rate contract expires, was included in a measure that passed the Legislature toward the end of the session.  The Tarrant County freshman also introduced several other consumer-oriented bills aimed at reforming insurance practices. 

--Dave Montgomery

Cornyn votes "no" on Sotomayor

Sen. John Cornyn voted "no" on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as the Senate Judiciary Committee approved her selection by 13 to 6.

Here's Cornyn's statement this morning in the committee before the vote:

"First, while Judge Sotomayor’s record as a judge on the District Court and the Second Circuit is generally in the mainstream – some of her decisions demonstrated the kind of liberal judicial activism that has steered the court in the wrong direction over the last few years. These decisions are related to the Second Amendment, the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment, and the New Haven Firefighters case." 

"Second, many of Judge Sotomayor’s public statements about judging include very radical ideas on what the role of a judge is.  She has said:  there is no neutrality in law; legal uncertainty is a good thing because it allows judges to change the law and make policy; foreign law can get the “creative juices flowing” as judges interpret the U.S. Constitution; and ethnicity and gender can and even should impact a judge’s decisionmaking."

"Third, this committee gave Judge Sotomayor the opportunity to explain the reasoning behind some of her most controversial decisions – as well as put some of her public statements about judging into the appropriate context – but she did not clear up the confusion over what kind of Justice she would be."

"Because I cannot be sure which Judge Sonia Sotomayor we will see on the Supreme Court, I must vote against her nomination. The stakes are simply too high for me to confirm someone who could redefine “the law of the land” from a liberal, activist perspective."

-- Maria Recio

Buzz over Perry's states' rights views continues

Reaction to Gov. Rick Perry's move to raise the spector of a showdown with Congress and the Obama administration over the right of states to manage their own health care programs continues to generate headlines on political blogs nationwide. It's a continuation of Perry's theme that Texans know better than politicians inside the Washington beltway how to manage their own affairs. It started with his decision to reject some stimulus funding, and shows no signs of letting up. Below is a cartoon making the rounds on the Web.

-- John Gravois

Berman: Perry's health care bombshell another reason to endorse him

Just a few weeks ago, Tyler State Rep. Leo Berman was mulling a run for governor.

Earlier this month, Berman dropped his bid and endorsed Gov. Rick Perry. Perry, in turn, backed four issues that Berman said were the main reasons he was thinking about running to unseat Perry.

Perry's latest news -- that he would invoke state's rights protections in resisting President Obama's healthcare plan -- gives Berman more proof that he made the right call, he said.

"I agree with Governor Perry," Berman told S-T columnist Bud Kennedy. "I think Obama's heathcare plan is a disaster."

Berman said recently that he believed Perry's recent talk about state's rights and secession have helped him politically and was a major reason why Berman wasn't likely to go through with a primary challenge.

-Aman Batheja