Free Republic

AUSTIN – For the first time in more than a decade, trial lawyers – a key source of campaign cash for Democrats – are betting big on the party's candidate for governor. Plaintiffs attorneys gave more than $1.9 million through June, the most recent figures available, to Democrat Bill White's campaign. And a Houston lawyer is bankrolling a political committee with $3 million to help beat incumbent Republican Rick Perry.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White entered the State Board of Education controversy Tuesday, saying experts should review some 100 changes made by the GOP majority. History professors and social science teachers proposed new curriculum standards for Texas public schools. The board changes, many of them controversial, came from on overly political process, White says. "Individual school board members are no doubt sincere in their beliefs, and some of the changes can be debated by reasonable people. But, under the leadership of another extreme Rick Perry appointee, the amendment process injected politics into our school books and classrooms," said Bill White....

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White released his income tax returns Tuesday for the entire time he served as Houston mayor, disclosing $11.8 million in adjusted gross income over six years, largely related to his energy career, including investments, fees and sales of stock in companies on whose boards he served. ...White previously had released his 2009 return and said he released the 2004 to 2008 returns to “call his (Perry's) bluff.” ...“This partial release of some tax returns creates further questions about how Bill White profited while serving Houston as a part-time mayor,” Miner said, citing work by BTEC Turbines,...