Tex-Blog Corral (and other great candidate news)

Let's begin with two Galveston-area Democrats who have declared their intentions to run for office in 2008, Joe Jaworski for SD-11 and Judge Susan Criss for the Texas Supreme Court, and wrap up with Glen Maxey for Travis County tax assessor-collector.

I met both Criss and Jaworski through our mutual association with the Van Os campaign in 2006. They were each strong supporters of David's, which naturally means they are both progressive Democrats. They are also the brightest of legal minds and once again are precisely the kind of people we need to get elected to public office.

Criss has served as the judge of the 212th District Court in Galveston since 1999 and has presided over many significant cases, including the semi-sensational Robert Durst murder trial. Judge Criss attended the Juneteenth Filibuster for Freedom last summer in Galveston with her father, SD committeeman Lloyd Criss, and has a great blog herself. She's challenging yet another odious Republican, Phil Johnson.

Joe Jaworski (yes, he's related) will take on Mike "Inaction" Jackson for the right to represent the Eleventh Senate District of Texas in 2008. Jaworski has served most recently as mayor pro-tem of Galveston and practices law in the family firm; Jackson was just named "furniture" in Texas Monthly's annual "Best and Worst Legislators" edition.

Glen Maxey makes a return to electoral politics after being narrowly defeated for Texas Democratic Party chair at last June's state Democratic convention in Fort Worth. He's challenging 16-year incumbent Nelda Wells Spears. Maxey intends to emphasize the "voter registration" responsibility of the TA-C job:

"There are basically four functions in the office," said Maxey -- taxes, fees and fines, vehicle titling and registration, and voters' registration -- and he describes its current operations as "fairly efficient but not being used to its potential," especially concerning voter outreach and registration. "We're not using the power of the office to achieve 100-percent registration of eligible voters," he said.

And here's more from around the Tex-blogosphere:

It's 11:30, do you know where your blogger is?

McBlogger sees "little Patty Rose" at one of his favorite Austin bars.

Taking Texas Back

Texas Kaos continues its podcast series, hosted by Refinish69.

This week features an interview with Mike Engelhart, who is running for 151st District Court judge in Harris County. I first met Mike when we worked on Barbara Radnofsky's US Senate campaign in the last cycle. He's also a blogging judicial candidate.

Going Public

Capitol Annex takes a look at the implications of the IPO of Kolberg Kravis Roberts, which is presently negotiating to purchase utility giant (and coal plant builder) TXU.

Do you want Blackwater types patroling our border?

South Texas Chisme writes about DynCorp International, a Virginia-based military security firm, stating it could train and deploy 1,000 private agents to the US-Mexico border within 13 months, offering a quick surge of law enforcement officers to a region struggling to clamp down on illegal immigration.

And Don't Forget that Senate Race

Burnt Orange Report reminds that John Cornyn reeks and either Mikal Watts or Rick Noriega is a vast improvement (Watts not so much, but that's just my humble O).

Half Empty explores the idea of another draft movement. Why not draft Mikal Watts For Chief Justice of Texas 3rd Court of Appeals?

Border sheriffs ask: "Where's our money?"

Remember all that money that was allocated by the Lege for border security? Border sheriffs want to know why their buddy Rick Perry isn't giving more of it to them. Off the Kuff takes a look.