Free Republic

The Democratic nominee for the Texas governor’s race, Bill White, continues his downward spiral in his campaign against Texas Governor Rick Perry, the Republican nominee. His sparsely-attended political gatherings are showing its effects on opinion polls. According to the Houston Chronicle, “a new Rasmussen Reports poll of Texans finds Texas Gov. Rick Perry with enough support to win the election for the first time this year. Former Houston Mayor Bill White in the meantime has lost ground, despite a round of television advertising.” Apparently, Mr. White is losing support in his home-base of Houston. The ‘Bill White Houston Political Machine’...

HOUSTON -- Counties that were saddled with chaos and traffic-choked highways before Hurricane Rita are defying an order from Gov. Rick Perry to empower one person to make evacuation decisions during a disaster. Instead, a group of elected Gulf Coast leaders adopted a different plan Tuesday that puts the authority in the hands of a 15-person committee _ even though the ultimate power to evacuate still rests with individual counties.

Mayor Bill White spoke Wednesday about city integrity following the bribery indictment of a one-time aide to former Mayor Lee Brown. Oliver Spellman, who until last Friday also worked as a top aide to County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia, has been charged with criminal conspiracy to obtain bribes as a public official. It stems from allegations he helped a consultant in Cleveland, Ohio win City of Houston contracts. Mayor White says all contracts handled by Spellman are under review, and corruption will not be tolerated. "I've said in public microphones for two years, public contracting should be clean and transparent, no...