Evening Texas Round-Up

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Thu Oct 21, 2010 at 08:00 PM CDT

• Continued analysis of Harris County turnout suggest that it is more Republican than we would like. Via Burka and Kuffner.


• Democrat Jeff Barton running for Hays County Judge is calling out his anonymous attackers to 'put on their big boy pants' and meet him at high noon in Kyle.


• Young people are apparently not very enthused about voting this fall. That lines up with the lower than expected turnout at places like UT-Austin so far. Travis County revised UT's Tuesday turnout downward by nearly 300 votes due to a clerical error, meaning there was essentially no 'Bill White Bump' from the otherwise awesome Rally for Competence at UT Tuesday.


• Republican nominee in HD-47 Paul Workman has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.


• Back to Basics PAC has a new ad out. Watch below or on their website.



• The Travis County District Attorney's office says they've looked at the Teacher Retirement Service scandal already that Bill White made a splash with on Tuesday. Result? Nothing illegal, even if unethical. That was a 'big thing' that ended with a disappointing fizzle.

  A top Travis County prosecutor said Wednesday his agency already has investigated Democrat Bill White's allegations of wrongdoing at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and closed the case because no criminal violations were discovered.

  White accused Gov. Rick Perry of "raiding" the teacher pension fund for the benefit of some of his campaign donors because investments were made with the donors' companies. White produced a memo from last August that he claimed was the "smoking gun."

  ...

  "We weren't able to identify any criminal violations," Neal said. "We wouldn't reopen this case unless new facts come to life."



• It's a little rough, but the fact that there is a TV ad of some sort available for Jeff Weems is a good sign. I'll have more extended thoughts on the Railroad Commission race in a separate post.  



• This is kind of awesome, click through to see the picture. Shaq, in Cambridge, with an "I ActBlue" sticker on.