Tuesday Roundup: Up Close and Personal

The Dallas Mayoral race is very close, according to the Dallas Morning News. Apparently, Tom Leppert is ahead of Democrat Ed Oakley 47%-45%, and the election may depend — believe it or not — on turnout. This is gonna be close, but Oakley's network from three terms on the city council could give him a small advantage in GOTV. Caveat: That's a pretty big "could." Early voting ends today.

Also on the Dallas race, the Chron has a story about how Dallas could become the first large American city to elect an openly gay mayor. I don't know if Oakley's election would signal more about the Dallas electorate or about the city itself, but it would be significant.

If you'll remember, from this legislative session, a bill colloquially known as "The Toll Road Moratorium That Excludes Most Toll-Road Projects," you'll be glad to know that Governor Perry signed it into law today. I expect this is an issue that's going to come up again the next time the legislature convenes, once they figure out that nothing they had originally intended to stop with the bill Perry vetoed has actually stopped.

This is an uncomfortable situation for the FBI: a $3.6 million Gulfstream appropriated for counter-terrorism missions is now being used as a personal appearance transport for FBI Director Robert Mueller. This isn't the jet's sole function, but it has happened enough for some Senators to start asking questions.

W. Gardner Selby muses in today's Statesman that retiring Secretary of State Roger Williams is planning a run for office. He has apparently recently remarked that he might have his eyes on Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's seat, which would set him for several years of fundraising and a 2010 race. He's definitely going somewhere, and bears watching.

Finally today, don't believe the hype about the flood being over: several papers are running stories about what will happen to water supplies and availability in Texas over the next fifty years or so, and things could get complicated.