This week bloggers are all over the board on politic-centric posts. They're also talking about goings on in the government, making and breaking news and putting the spotlight on people they know (or at least know of).
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Positioning, Fundraising, and Politicking
Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones will run for Kay Bailey Hutchinson's seat if the senior senator steps down to try for governor, reports Dallas Blog. More from Capitol Annex. Also on the KBH front, Annex says she's cooking up an event featuring the notorious Karl Rove.
Burnt Orange Report went on "strike" to raise $1,000 for Democrat Chris Bell's stab at the state Senate seat being vacated by Republican Kyle Janek. It took 12 hours to get the cash. "Thank you very much!" says Bell. (Seeing the success, Texas Cloverleaf is copying Burnt Orange, but with double the goal.)
FrontBurner, D Magazine's blog, says it's no surprise that Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, holds fundraisers in Las Vegas: He's raised more than $20,000 from professional poker players.
Liberal-leaning blog Brains and Eggs says don't give money to Barack Obama — give to down ballot Texas Democrats instead. And Half-Empty has the skinny on the new headquarters for Fort Bend County Democrats.
House District 52 hopeful Diana Maldonado chats with Off the Kuff, while Texas Politics, the Houston Chronicle's blog, has podcast interviews with Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine and Senate hopeful Rick Noriega .
Texas Kaos highlights the congressional battle between GOP incumbent Michael McCaul and Democrat Larry Joe Doherty, saying that Doherty is doing well financially and that the district is trending blue. And Policy Spotlight takes a gander at the House District 55 landscape after the retirement announcement by state Rep. Dianne Delisi, R-Temple.
State Rep. Elliot Naishtat, D-Austin, calls mean rachel's bluff and finagles her into agreeing to design a website for him. Kaos has the second TV commercial released by Democrat congressional hopeful Michael Skelly. And Yeah, right, whatever has Senate hopeful Rick Noriega on video saying that Pres. George W. Bush compared oil to crack. (Bush actually said that America is "addicted" to oil.)
Texas on the Potomac, the Houston Chronicle's blog, lists the top recipients of campaign money from Houston's upper-crust River Oaks neighborhood, ZIP code 77019. And here's a video discussion among Trail Blazers bloggers about top topics in the state political realm.
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Productivity Watch
Do you know how much time Texas judges spend on cases? After reading this Grits for Breakfast post, you will. Blue Dot Blues rounds up the action during Friday's after hours, GOP-only House session. And Ellis County Observer has issued an open challenge to public school teachers to debate vouchers.
Spotlight says the Texas Conservative Coalition will issue recommendations before the next session on changing the state's new business tax.
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Seriously
KVUE's Political Junkie files a blog on obtaining chicken fried steak at the Capitol Building. Chronic, the Austin Chronicle's blog, brags about attending the GQ/Huffington Post party after Netroots Nation. And In the Pink Texas and a Dallas Morning News Trailblazer blogger team up for an online panel via "some new, exciting platform" called ooVoo.
If inmates riot in Mineral Wells, and there are no media around to report it, did it really happen? Texas Prison Bid'ness says yeah.
Website BlogNetNews.com ranks the Texas blogosphere according to "influence." (Burnt Orange is currently the most influential liberal blog; the Ellis County Observer is the head elephant.)
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Miscellany
Texas GOP political director Hans Klingler hosts a YouTube spot about Todd Hunter, who's taking on state Rep. Juan Garcia, D-Corpus Christi. On-air personality Junkie is impressed with Klingler's performance.
In case you missed it on television, Austinist posts the video and photo released by the Texas Department of Public Safety in connection with the torching of the Governor's Mansion. Meanwhile, Texas Politics interviews a Texas Ranger about the arson.
Capitol Crowd is passing the hat on behalf of former "Person of the Week" Alex San Martin, whose apartment was destroyed in a fire.
Tex Parte Blog tells all about Juan A. Sepulveda , a San Antonio lawyer tapped to lead the Obama campaign in Texas.
And Harold Cook's lips will turn blue if we don't finally link to something he told our editor about just before said editor left town on vacation. Here's the link.
This edition of Out There was compiled and written by Patrick Brendel, who hails from Victoria but is semi-settled in Austin. We cherry-pick the state's political blogs each week, looking for news, info, gossip, and new jokes. The opinions here belong (mostly) to the bloggers, and we're including their links so you can hunt them down if you wish. Our blogroll — the list of Texas blogs we watch — is on our links page, and if you know of a Texas political blog that ought to be on it, just shoot us a note. Please send comments, suggestions, gripes or retorts to Texas Weekly editor Ross Ramsey.
