Capitol Annex has learned that the Governor’s Office is trying to get House Speaker Tom Craddick and Lt. Governor David Dewhurst to agree to increase the SOS’s salary from a “Group 4″ to a “Group 5,” which would allow Governor Perry to set a salary for Wilson of as much as $149,052 per year.

Dewhurst and Craddick, of course, are the co-chairs of the Legislative Budget Board which has some sway over spending and appropriations when the Lege isn’t in session.

Along the same vein, it is also rumored that Speaker Craddick is doing what he can to get some appropriations money for a few House members who remained loyal to him throughout the session but, sadly, didn’t get any good payola for their districts in the appropriations bill.

We’ll keep our ears to the ground on this, and see if we hear any more. As always, if you have any more information, send it to us at tips@capitolannex.com.

Dewhurst told a meeting of the Austin American-Statesman editorial board that he had not yet made up his mind about a run in three years. He had, however, developed a list of things he needed to accomplish in the 2009 Legislative session.

“If I do the things I need to do to put myself in a position to win, if I run for governor, I expect to win,” Dewhurst said.

The lieutenant governor did not elaborate on what it was that he needed to do to position himself for the state’s top job. As he has said in the past, he has been urged to run by many but will not decide before he has had a chance to get the legislation on his agenda passed in the Senate in the next session.

A bid by Gov. Rick Perry for a fourth term in 2010 would influence Dewhurst’s decision, although Dewhurst said he could not be certain Perry will want another four years. U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has made overtures that she would like to return to Texas and run for governor. Dewhurst said he can’t be sure what her intentions will be in three years.

You won’t see more dodging and weaving than that unless you’re driving in Dallas traffic.

The ad, which you should see if you enter “jessica law texas” in Google’s search engine, reads:

Pass Jessica’s Law in TX
Protect our Kids: 25 Yrs Minimum Sign our Petition Today!

The ad takes readers to a portion of Dewhurst’s campaign website where they can actually sign a “petition,” although it’s unclear to whom the petition would ever be delivered.

“My argument is that if they show that predilection, that progression toward violence, let’s keep them in prison forever,” Walsh said at a news conference with Dewhurst in the Capitol. “But maybe not the death penalty.”

I always thought, if you were going to have a “celebrity” endorsement of a proposal, you should make sure first that the endorser supports your proposal one hundred percent.

This kind of reminds me of Secretary of State Roger Williams appointing that guy who hadn’t voted in 15 years as an ambassador of voting.

Around the state Capitol, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is generally considered a more “moderate” Republican than the other two members of the top leadership trio — Gov. Rick Perry and Speaker Tom Craddick.

But — shhh —don’t talk about that too loudly, lest you spoil Dewhurst’s effort to polish his image among the many Texas Republicans who are decidedly more conservative and who may hold the key to his political future.

That’s funny. I’ve never considered David Dewhurst a moderate. I guess I missed the memo on that.

Of course, the interesting thing about Dewhurst is that he has money—Tony Sanchez type money (well, maybe not that much of it)—and could easily pour enough cash into his own gubernatorial campaign to possibly thwart a candidate from the “far, far right” or, at minimum, go through a primary without Leininger and (Bob) Perry cash and not blink an eye.

After all, that’s what this is about: Dewhurst eventually succeeding Perry. Of course, I continue to maintain that Dewhurst would rather serve in the U.S. Senate. As I recall, he was rumored to be heavily considering that job back in 2001, until Senator Box Turtle came along and thwarted his plans.

And, Dewhurst may end up, like Perry, becoming an “accidental governor,” although we can hope that isn’t the case. It seems more and more (especially with all that talk of “tax rebates” and what not) that Perry is playing to a national stage and hoping for a Number 2 Spot on a Presidential Ticket.

After all, when was the last time a Governor of Texas mentioned an African nation in his or her inaugural address? I have by no means read all of the inaugural addresses, but I’d hedge my bets on the answer being “never.”
Back to Dewhurst, though, it seems the major complaints about him not being “conservative enough” have to do with fiscal matters:

A Democratic majority, for example, wouldn’t have bridged the $10 billion revenue shortfall in 2003 with only budget cuts and higher college tuition. Democrats most likely would have found an assortment of taxes to raise to minimize the disruption to public services.

But Dewhurst and the Senate helped soften some of the spending cuts in 2003, and during last spring’s special session on school finance, they led the way to securing a modest teacher pay raise.

Then, catch this:

According to friends and associates, he also is more moderate philosophically than many of the conservative voters and activists in his own party.

I don’t know how “moderate” Dewhurst could be and have been elected Lt. Governor. It seems to me, in the Republican Party’s modus operandi of “purge the moderates,” Dewhurst would have been primaried back in 2002 if, for example, he had closet feelings that, say, abortion might be OK every once in a while.

The same ideas in the “plan” were espoused in the TV ad I mentioned in an earlier post.

The ad actually started out like a typical negative ad, with the blustery announcer voice and the headlines flashing across the screen.

Then you see Dewhurst’s smiling face asking everyone to “join” him in doing the right thing: getting a teacher pay raise, fixing Texas schools, helping starving children in China, sending Bibles to Peru, keeping the pet population under control via spaying and neutering, promoting abstinance-only sex education, giving to the poor, helping the homeless, fixing FEMA and all those other lovely abstract ideas everyone loves to support but can’t seem to fix.