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Political Report

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The Legislative Report
By SHEILAH PEPPER
The Gazette Staff
These may seem like the dog days on the political scene, but beneath the surface, the pots are bubbling.
Republican State Representative Linda Harper-Brown has been and is a major target for the state Democrats. The Texas Democratic Party recently filed an ethics complaint against her with regard to cars she has been using, provided by her husband. He provides some accountant services to a company called Durable Enterprises Equipment Ltd., which does some business with the state, including the department of transportation. Harper-Brown sits on the House Transportation Committee.
The vehicles she has been using are part of a compensation package her husband receives. Mr. Brown has been doing this work since before his marriage.
Harper-Brown said she had expected the Democrats to push for investigations and that she would be ultimately cleared of any wrongdoing. Apparently, there is no current law that requires the spouses of state officials to file financial disclosure statements.
You may not be able to wrap your head around this tidbit. In the face of strong criticism, the Texas Education Agency may have to retool or eliminate the practice of counting as passed students who fail state-mandated tests, who are "expected to pass in later years."
This is termed the Texas Projection Measure and was first used last year. It basically gives credit to schools under the Texas and federal academic accountability systems for students who don't pass the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, but are "expected to do so within three years." In a recent letter to administrators throughout the state, Education Commissioner Robert Scott said he will review the measure because students' and educators' "hard work is being overshadowed by criticism of the use of TPM for state accountability purposes."
State Rep. Scott Hochberg, who chairs an appropriations committee overseeing the education budget, called the commissioner's proposals "lipstick on a pig."
"You don't make an invalid measure valid by doing less of it. I think we should start from scratch and develop a real measure of the progress students make in schools," Hochberg said. "That's what this is supposed to be, but it never measured progress." Hochberg is a Houston Democrat.
On the funding raising scene, the ART ( Associated Republicans of Texas) is taking a more active role that the group has in several years of past elections cycles.
ART has raised $1.5 million this year alone and has over $1 million on hand. They are apparently going to focus on competitive Texas House races in districts seldom, if ever, held by a Republican.
Out on the stump, both Gov. Rick Perry and his Democrat opponent Bill White recently spoke to the Texas Farm Bureau 2010 Presidents' Conference. White went after Perry for a 2007 veto of a bill related to an eminent domain issue concerning diminished access to a roadway. Perry said at the time that state law already allowed for compensation if an owner's access was substantially diminished.
Perry, for his part, continued his attach on Washington and ignored White. White said Perry thought attacking Obama would make farmers forget the 2007 veto.
However, the Farm Bureau endorsed Kay Bailey Hutchison in the gubernatorial primary.
This fall, the Green Party will appear on the ballot after much legal wrangling in which the state Democrat Party implied that Perry operatives were aiding the effort to get enough names on a petition, by covertly funding that effort.
So, the drum beat quickens as November rises on the horizon.