TRAIL BLAZERS

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins and several Democrats voted Thursday in North Oak Cliff.

Watkins, who is unopposed for the March primary, was joined by County Judge candidate Clay Jenkins, District Clerk Gary Fitzsimmons, County Clerk John Warren, District 4 County Commission candidate Elba Garcia and Judge Martin Hoffman. Watkins said he hoped the crew of candidates would help move Dallas County forward.

The above photo was taken by Claire Jordan and shows Watkins and company walking into the Oak Cliff Sub-Courthouse.

County Judge Jim Foster was also at the polling location Thursday.

As with other areas across the county, poll workers and campaign volunteers greeted voters as they ventured into the courthouse. The workers, for the most part, stayed the legal distance from the polling place.

Early voting for the March 2 primary began Tuesday.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, said that one of his first thoughts about the apparently intentional plane crash earlier today in Austin was being "concerned that this is where fanaticism can lead."

"Like the larger-scale tragedy in Oklahoma City, this was a cowardly act of domestic terrorism," he said through his office. "Stack's [the pilot] apparent website message reflects the steadily increasing flow of 'the government is out to get me' paranoia. That so many have already contributed to a Facebook page as 'fans' of this terrorist attack on public servants is a truly appalling expression of extremism, which Americans will overwhelmingly reject."

Austin Bureau chief Christy Hoppe, who is traveling with Gov. Rick Perry as he campaigns, reports that Perry just took a moment in Sugar Land to make a statement about the plane crash in Austin.

Perry said he was trying to be very cautious with information and was still finding out details himself. But "anytime you have an aircraft that hits a building particularly after 9/11, there is always great speculation about how or why that occurred."

"Our hope is that the days of flying aircraft into buildings or some structure is over," Perry said. "But you always have some exposure in a free society."

The governor appeared to be getting updates by e-mail from his homeland security and emergency preparedness officials. He also appeared to take a long phone briefing before his appearance at the Sugar Land Chamber of Commerce.

Perry told Hoppe afterward the pilot is thought to be local to Austin. Some initial reports suggested he might have come from Waco.

When agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples joined Governor Rick Perry and attorney general Greg Abbott to challenge the threat of greenhouse gases this week, his opponents pounced.

"The idea that this will somehow hurt Texas agriculture is a laughable one that only someone like Todd Staples could dream up," said Democratic contender Hank Gilbert in a statement. "In point of fact, Texas stands to gain substantially from bioenergy production and refining."

Texas is suing the Environmental Protection Agency over its authority to regulate greenhouse gases. Staples says such regulation would be costly and wound the state's farmers and ranchers.

Gilbert pointed to a Supreme Court decision more than a year ago that called for EPA regulation of carbon dioxide. He said the state's action was a "waste of taxpayer funds" and "an election year stunt."

His Democratic opponent, Kinky Friedman, voiced a similar mantra when he showed up for a meet-and-greet at a Dallas coffee shop this morning.

"Staples has taken a play from the Rick Perry playbook," Friedman said with a cigar in one hand and an espresso in the other.

Continue on the jump...

Dick Armey, the former House majority leader and Republican congressman from suburban Dallas - and moving force in the Tea Party movement - issued a scathing critique this morning of President Barack Obama.

"You're intellectually shallow. You're a romantic. You're self-indulgent. You have no ability," Armey said, calling Obama "the most incompetent president perhaps in our lifetime."

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering organized by the American Conservative Union, Armey said he got a laugh when Obama appeared at the House GOP retreat a couple of weeks ago and declared, " `I am no ideologue.'

I thought to myself, Mr. President, you are only just that. ... There's nothing so arrogant as a self-righteous income-redistributor."

A few thousand conservative activists have converged on Washington for the three-day confab that one speaker a couple of years ago jokingly referred to as the family reunion of the vast right-wing conspiracy.

Armey used his 15-minute keynote slot this morning to accuse Obama of manufacturing crises in health care and climate change in order to ramrod big government solutions that would put Washington in control, sabotage the economy and redistribute income.

But he saved some of his fire for the Republican Party, in whose ranks he rose to nearly the top in the 1990s as the No. 2 leader in the House. The unrest in America reflected in the Tea Party movement, he said, predates Obama's election. Republicans, he argued, lost their way. Now that there's a "tidal wave of fear and anxiety," conservatives have once again captured the attention of Republican officialdom.

"This grassroots movement that's taking back America is a thousand points of entrepreneurial lights for liberty," Armey said. "We don't need a top dog. We're all pulling together... Let's fight this monstrous big government that's out of control and bankrupting the next generation."

Control of Congress is within reach for the GOP in November, Armey said, but he put serious rhetorical distance between the party itself and conservative activists, and said Republicans will be punished if they abandon principals again, as they did the last time they were in charge.

"They must come to us and show they're worthy of our loyalty.... When we help you win back that majority that you love so much, we will be aware of your penchant for drinking backslider's wine. And when you think you're going to slip back to being those same people that broke our heart just those few months ago, those few years ago, we're gonna be there" to hold you accountable, he said.

Two more items from this morning's Rick Perry Q&A with the press after he voted for himself in the GOP primary for governor:

1) Asked if he thinks he will stay out of a primary runoff, Perry said, "That's my intention. So we're going to go work hard today and fight through March the 2nd. And hopefully, at 8 or 9 o'clock [that night] we'll be able to say thank you for all the work and let's all get together and focus on November."

A runoff would be held April 13 if no one gets a majority of votes cast in the primary. It would drain off some resources the ultimate GOP nominee would prefer to hoard until the fall contest. Still, the Republican nominee in Texas probably can tap an almost endless supply of campaign money. So a runoff really only would help the Democrats' pick by shortening the time the Rs have to heal fresh flesh wounds.

2) Perry said he doesn't think voters are confused by his TV commercial's talk of a state budget surplus when media accounts for days have been full of talk about a possible $15 billion budget shortfall. Though the Perry camp keeps referring to a state rainy day fund as a "surplus," which it's really not, and while actual general fund surpluses have vanished with a lot of Texas jobs and sales tax, the governor said most of the confusion "is in the camps of my opposition."

He said voters see through various claims and counterclaims. He said they know that Texas didn't get to be greatest state for jobs by accident, but by conservative fiscal policy over the past 8 years. "They're not swayed by ads that aren't correct," he said of opponents' ads. "A few television ads or radio spots or newspaper advertisements are not going to sway many people from the truth."

Buried under the news that the state of Texas is challenging the notion that greenhouse gases are bad for the environment is Democrat Barbara Ann Radnofsky's take on it all.

Radnofsky, of course, is challenging Republican incumbent Greg Abbott for attorney general. (Neither have primary challengers.) Abbott this week joined Gov. Rick Perry and Agricultural Commissioner Todd Staples in a lawsuit contending that proposed new carbon emissions limits by the federal Environmental Protection Agency are the result of "tainted data" and would hurt the Texas economy.

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Democrats and Republicans are marking today's one-year anniversary of the $787 billion stimulus package with a propaganda war. Democrats say stimulus opponents want it both ways, by arguing against the package while also attending ribbon-cuttings for stimulus-funded projects and trying to wangle funds for home-state projects. Republicans call the whole thing a colossal waste of money, with too little bang for the buck. And they reject the allegations of hypocrisy. Isn't the job of a politician to bring home the bacon even if they didn't want the pig slaughtered in the first place?

As Sen. John Cornyn wrote today on Twitter (so you'll have to forgive the grammar and shorthand), there is "no contradiction to vote against reckless stimulus but if [the Democratic majority is] hellbent to spend the money anyway, make sure Texas gets fair share."

Much of the Democrats' fodder for the hypocrisy allegation comes from a small handful of news stories, echoing around the liberal blogosphere.

Yesterday's Wall St. Journal offered details on a number of GOP lawmakers who have pushed for home-state projects, despite opposing the stimulus. The Journal found two letters from Cornyn to the Environmental Protection Agency supporting grants for "clean diesel" projects in San Antonio and Houston. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison signed one of those letters, supporting funds for the Port of Houston, which last August announced a $9 million grant.

Last week, the Washington Times focused on lawmakers who sought funding from USDA and other agencies under the stimulus, none from Texas. Since yesterday, Democratic operatives have filled reporters' inboxes with preemptive attacks against them and other GOP officials, accusing them of political posturing.

The DNC and other Democratic groups have also been highlighting the fact that 19 Texas Republican congressmen supported funding for NASA under the stimulus, as reported last fall by the Houston Chronicle.

The White House cites estimates today that show 147,000 jobs saved or created in Texas under the recovery act, and more than $9 billion spent, with more in the pipeline.

"President Obama's Economic Recovery Act has saved or created thousands of jobs in Texas and brought our economy back from the brink, despite concerted efforts from Perry, Cornyn, and the Republican Party to see it fail," Democratic Party spokesman Ricardo Ramírez said.

Cornyn spokesman Kevin McLaughlin called the Democratic attacks a "red herring meant to divert from the fact that [the] stimulus has grossly underperformed.... If Democrats insist on spending taxpayer dollars then Sen. Cornyn will fight to ensure that Texas gets our fair share," he said.

Five senior campaign staffers for Democrat Farouk Shami have resigned, citing "strategic differences" with other Shami aides.

Campaign director and senior strategist Vince Leibowitz, press secretary Charlie Ray, communications director Kelly Love Johnson and two other senior campaign officials -- whom Leibowitz wouldn't name -- quit after a series of press releases went out without the paid political professionals' authorization or knowledge. Several were traced to Farouk Systems official Jessica Gutierrez and a Rio Grande Valley publicist hired separately by the Houston businessman, who is making his first political race.

"The reason that the majority of the senior staff stepped down is the result of strategic differences between the paid political staff and other staff on Farouk's campaign," Leibowitz said. "Clearly, at the end of the day, the paid political staff was not the opinions that Farouk chose to abide by."

Asked what damage the internal discord and resignations could do, two weeks before the primary, Leibowitz said, "I can't speak to that and wouldn't want to hazard a guess."

He said he'll still vote for Shami as the change candidate in the race against former Houston Mayor Bill White and five minor candidates.

Shami appeared to wound himself last week with comments that whites aren't willing to work in factories and that a conspiracy of government involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks was possible.

Gov. Rick Perry said after casting an early ballot today that it's out of bounds to ask him if another four year term as governor would be his last.

In a recent debate with GOP primary opponents, Perry said that he intends to serve out a third full term, voters and God willing. In other words, he doesn't intend to run for president or vice president in 2012.

Today, outside a Randall's grocery in south Austin where he and wife Anita voted, Perry tried to duck the question of whether he might seek a fourth term as governor in 2014. He's been governor since Dec. 20, 2000.

"I think that is a totally inappropriate question from the standpoint of I have no idea what I want to be doing past November, other than getting to be the governor of the greatest state in the nation," he said. "I'll let you ask that some other time when it's more appropriate. Thank you all for coming."

Perry countup: This Dec. 20 will mark a decade of Perry as governor. He gets to that milestone whether he wins or loses the March 2 primary and the Nov. 2 general election. His current term expires next January. So if he wins re-election, he can serve until January 2015. He could keep running. Texas has no term limits.

Last night in Fort Worth I asked Roger Staubach to concede that Drew Pearson pushed down Minnesota Vikings cornerback Nate Wright to catch the "Hail Mary" pass that gave the Dallas Cowboys a victory in the 1975 playoffs.

He refused to admit the truth and stuck to the story he's been telling for years. Monday marks the second time I've asked him about the circumstances of that legendary pass.

A full disclosure is necessary. I've been cheering for the Minnesota Vikings most of my life. And though I was a little kid, I was very much hurt that the Cowboys had to resort to cheating in order to beat the heavily favored Vikings.

I also acknowledged that as a fan of the Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Vikings, I'm either cursed on born under a bad sign.

Click here to hear what Staubach said about Kay Bailey Hutchison and her campaign for governor. His remarks on that lucky pass follow.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, down in the polls in her race for governor, received inspiration Monday from somebody who knows about comebacks.

Cowboys legend Roger Staubach introduced her at a rally in Fort Worth.

Staubach, also known as Captain Comeback, beat a great Minnesota Vikings team in the 1975 playoffs by throwing a deep pass to Drew Pearson after the wide receiver eluded (or pushed down) cornerback Nate Wright.

"He shows you can come from behind. He invented the Hail Mary pass," Hutchison said. "It's looking better all the time."

Hutchison and Staubach are linked through sports and politics.

The senior senator was a University of Texas cheerleader when Staubach led his 9-1 Navy team on the field against the undefeated Longhorns in the 1964 Cotton Bowl.

"We have had a long friendship," Hutchison said. "It was forged through the animosity of that Cotton Bowl game."

There were no Staubach miracles that day. To Hutchison's delight, Texas won 28-6.

"I was a cheerleader on Jan. 1, 1964," she recalled telling Staubach in later years. "I thought he was going to come across his desk and relive the whole game."

In the race for governor, the roles have been reversed. Hutchison is the quarterback of the campaign. Staubach is cheering her on in her contest against incumbent Rick Perry.
Unlike 1964, they are on the same team.

Bill and Rita Clements have signed up for team Perry, although last June they were named as sponsors of a fundraising event for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, as reported by my colleague Wayne Slater.

The former governor said he's not switching sides, saying he and his wife always have been supporters of Perry.

"He's done a good job," Clements said.

He said that he encouraged Hutchison to seek the office. "She's done a find job of representing Texas in the U.S. Senate," Clements said, "And if she asked me if I'd be in favor or not of her running (for governor), I'd say why not," Clements said.

But he also said he wishes she would remain in Congress and that, "I've been supporting Rick for a long time."

Breaking news from Indiana: Democratic centrist Evan Bayh won't seek a third Senate term. That's a huge pickup opportunity for Republicans -- and extremely welcome news over at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, where Texas Sen. John Cornyn has been laboring for over a year to chip away at the Democrats majority and even maybe perhaps if the stars align, retake the majority.

Bayh's decision adds to the string of good news for Chairman Cornyn. First, the Republicans win Ted Kennedy's old seat. That got Democrats down to 59 seats out of 100. Now this.

The march toward 50 or 51 is gathering steam, and as it does, the prospect of serving as a Republican in the U.S. Senate looks more and more enticing. Will Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison start getting cold feet about her announced plan to quit after the March 2 primary, win or lose?

Texas farmers, ranchers and Willie Nelson aren't the only ones interested in the agriculture commissioner race this year.

Green groups are taking closer notice of the Democratic primary as links between environmental awareness and agricultural development strengthen.

Read more here.

UPDATE: The Texas Environmental Democrats announced their endorsement of Gilbert today.

More than a year has passed since President Barack Obama took office. He has yet to nominate a U.S. attorney for any of the four posts in Texas - a point driven home this afternoon when the judges of the Houston-based Southern District of Texas appointed assistant U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno to serve in the post, starting on Sunday.

He replaces another court-appointed chief prosecutor, Tim Johnson, who is returning to private practice. Johnson took over from a Bush appointee in November 2008.

Why no Senate confirmed U.S. attorney -- in Houston, Dallas or the other two districts?

There's an impasse between Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, both Republicans, and the Texas Democrats in the U.S. House. The senators have reviewed applicants and made recommendations and in some cases there is even some overlap with some of the names sent to the White House by Texas Democrats, led by Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Austin. But the White House counsel who'd been negotiating with both sides, Greg Craig, quit several months ago -- not that this ever seemed to be a high priority -- and Obama has yet to step in and either work it out or pick a fight.

Texas also has several vacant federal judgeships, by the way.

Democratic candidate for governor Farouk Shami said that this morning during a taping of WFAA's Inside Texas Politics.

The hair-care magnate said that he has more Hispanic workers at his Houston factory. And he added: "A majority of the people are going to be Hispanic and African-American. You don't find white people who are willing to work in factories. And our history proves you know lots of time when they, you know, the white people come to work in a factory they either want to be supervisors or they want to be, you know, paid more than the average person. And unfortunately they exit."

He also followed Debra Medina down the 9-11 conspiracy path. Find more in WFAA's story here. And you can see the entire Shami train wreck at 9 a.m. Sunday morning on Channel 8.

It's still anybody's guess.

The first poll for the agriculture commissioner primary shows the race too close to call. Kinky Friedman leads Hank Gilbert 32 percent to 27 percent, according to a new University of Texas/Texas Tribune analysis. The difference is within the poll's margin of error.

Author-musician Friedman brings name identity to the race but he's been criticized for knowing little about the position. Gilbert, an East Texas rancher with a heftier sum of cash on hand, has snagged the endorsements of most prominent Democratic organizations. But his campaign has been haunted by a $100,000 contribution from Farouk Shami days after Gilbert switched from the governor to the agriculture commissioner race.

The San Antonio-Express News and the Austin Chronicle recently joined Gilbert's list of supporters. Friedman's endorsements include former agriculture commissioner Jim Hightower and The Dallas Morning News editorial board.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican incumbent Todd Staples in the fall.

Nothing especially surprising about incumbents from the same state and party supporting each other for reelection.

So, all else being equal, it wouldn’t be too newsworthy that today, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, announced an endorsement from Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble – except that one of Poe’s former staffers is challenging Brady in the March 2 primary. So, note to Melecio Franco, who spent about two years working for Poe as a congressional caseworker, the ex-boss isn’t on your team.

“"Kevin Brady has been a proven, effective leader in the conservative opposition to dangerous economic policies of this administration. Kevin Brady is the only candidate in the race with the experience, vision and understanding needed to meet the critical challenges facing this country,” Poe says in a statement released by the Brady campaign. “I’m looking forward to continuing to work with him and am proud to support Kevin for reelection."

The latest political pairing: an entertainer known for his quick wit and anti-establishment stance, and a quiet businessman turned prominent Texas politician.

Agriculture commissioner candidate Kinky Friedman has decided to back fellow Democrat Bill White for governor.

"The reality is he has a really good chance of winning," Friedman said at his Medina ranch on Thursday. "I said to him, 'I'm an outsider and you're an insider. Let's keep it that way.'"

At the onset of his campaign, Friedman said he wouldn't endorse a gubernatorial candidate in the primary. He has praised the former Houston mayor, but also considers White's Democratic opponent, Farouk Shami, a good friend. Shami contributed significantly to Friedman's 2006 race for governor. But this time, Shami bankrolled and endorsed rival Hank Gilbert, saying he was a better fit for the agriculture commissioner position.

And Friedman says White has a greater chance of revitalizing the Democrats' standing in state politics.

"He has a quiet strength," he said. "We make a good team."