Maybe Ben Barnes?

Harvey Kronberg has a Buzz™ out that Ben Barnes is being recruited to run for Senate against John Cornyn. Apparently, in recent days there was a meeting of what Kronberg calls "Democratic muckety-mucks" who lobbied Barnes to consider becoming a candidate. Something to think about is found in the Quorum Report subtitle for the story, which was, "Fund raising would not be the issue."

The dollar number coming out from stories about the meeting is $25 million, which everyone agrees would be enough to make some magic happen. While I don't have hard numbers on this, it is suspected that Barnes could put in seven figures. The political triangulations are Legion — Barnes is pro-business, having made his fortune as an entrepreneur, and he is free from the sort of albatross-style ties which have been weakening Cornyn over the last several years.

We didn't mention Barnes as a potential challenger in our initial take on the race back in January; the idea comes as a surprise, but a Barnes candidacy, allegedly pushed for by the mucketies at the meeting, has its meritorious points. I'll need more time to consider the impact of such a candidacy before I hold forth on it, but I'm pretty sure this would be a fun race to watch.