The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC), which is the state legislative version of the DCCC/DSCC, has been promoting 40 essential candidates to support this year. So far, two of them are TexBlog PAC endorsees - Diana Maldonado and Chris Turner. That's great news, but it can be even better. Take a minute and go to their essential races page and nominate Sherrie Matula for inclusion. Or pick your own favorite candidate if you prefer. Let's get the national folks paying attention to us for a change.

Philip Martin documents the "No Good, Very Bad Week" that HD32 GOP challenger Todd Hunter had in his effort to unseat State Rep. Juan Garcia.

And speaking of Hunter, an ad that was being run for him against Rep. Garcia by the Nueces County GOP has been pulled by local TV stations because it was false.

I'm not going to say that Bill Dingus has a shot at knocking off Speaker Tom Craddick in HD82. As Greg suggests, topping 30% would be a pretty strong result in that district. But that doesn't mean Dingus isn't giving it the old college try. Check out the ads he's running and see for yourself.

Tony Goolsby ducks a debate in HD102. This was after shopping a phony story about a push poll. He does have a history of running nasty campaigns, after all.