Rick Perry and Bill White are starting to engage on a daily basis. The shape of their election fight is starting to solidify, ads are in the works on both sides and if you count third parties on the Democratic side, already running.

Mark Barack Obama's fundraising visit to Texas and the campaign gyrations leading up to it in your diary as the public start of the 2010 general election for governor, get your pizza and wings, and settle in for the show.

Campaigns traditionally start around Labor Day. It's more accurate to say they start at about the same time public school students return to class (August 23, if you don't have a school calendar on the fridge). Vacation season is over for most folks at that point, and they're settling into the fall, the football and election seasons.

Maybe, however, not the debate season. Perry, after talking to the Texas Association of Broadcasters, told reporters he won't debate until White releases personal tax returns from his time as assistant U.S. secretary of energy. "I suggest there's something there, or he would have already laid them out and said, 'Not a problem,'" Perry said.

White countered a few minutes later (the two appeared about 20 minutes apart at the TAB's convention and weren't in the room at the same time), saying he's disclosed far more than the governor has. And he reopened his criticism of Perry's blind trust. "People know a lot less about Rick Perry's income, assets, and debts than they do mine. That's a fact. As governor, I would not hide assets in a blind trust."

They're sparring on ethics and each other's finances as much as on issues, and on similar tacks. White says Perry has become wealthy while serving the last quarter century in government jobs and raises questions about how that's possible. Perry accuses White of using his public positions in state and local government to create opportunities he's exploited floating between the public and private sectors. White unveiled an ethics proposal this week that would limit contributions from people a governor appoints to office; White himself has received roughly $2 million in political contributions over the years from people he appointed as mayor. He says the city's contribution limits were within what he's proposed for the state. And he says Perry has been particularly abusive of the appointment process, with more than 1,000 appointees listed among his donors and 44 appointees who've given $100,000 or more.

It's not all ankle-biting. Perry gave the broadcasters his standard stump speech on the strength of the Texas economy, on the problems the state has with the federal government and about some of his campaign proposals, such as requiring a two-thirds vote of the Legislature before taxes can be raised (right now, a simple majority can raise taxes). Perry again scolded the Obama administration for not sending more troops to secure the border and said, "it's only a matter of time" before drug cartel violence in Mexico spills over into Texas.

White's pitch shared some elements of Perry's. He touted the state's economic strength, but took the time to argue that Perry had nothing to do with the state's present prosperity, and he said the state should focus on education to maintain its economic position, cutting dropouts and increasing graduation rates.