Gov. Rick Perry conducted a heck of a campaign against Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison en route to winning the Republican nomination for governor. He has cleared a big hurdle in his quest for a third full term.

The scaffolding is down from the 1909 Courthouse in Canyon.

The exterior renovation is complete and the building looks pretty spiffy. But the question now, as always, is this: What happens now?

The inside of the structure is still a rat hole. It is unoccupied and it likely will stay that way for a good while. Yet many well-intentioned historical preservationists persuaded enough Randall County voters to pony up the public funds to fix up the exterior of the building.

I would agree that the building has a number of possibilities. It could become a museum; a private firm — such a law firm or an insurance agency — could move in; the Chamber of Commerce might consider using it.

But it’s quite clear that the county has no use for it.

The head-scratcher, though, is that the county had to pay a good bit for its exterior makeover.

As a Randall County resident, I’m truly glad the building looks so good — especially with the clock tower sitting atop it. I’m equally troubled, though, that the county is stuck with a pretty shell of a structure with a future that might be determined eventually, but likely will sit empty for a good, long while.

Are there any takers out there?

It’s becoming clear already, barely a day after the Republican primary vote for House District 87, that Rep. David Swinford didn’t do his chosen successor, Victor Leal, many favors with his endorsement.

Those wacky Texas Republicans were at it again Tuesday. There’s so much to say about the election, but we’ll start with this: What in the world produced the Railroad Commission upset of incumbent Victor Carrillo in the Republican primary?

Carrillo is a one-time Taylor County judge, geologist and lawyer. He has served a stint as chairman of the three-member Railroad Commission. He’s smart, savvy and well-versed on the energy issues for which the RRC is responsible.

But he lost the renomination battle to a guy from Giddings, accountant David Porter, who spent next to zero money and almost as little time campaigning for the office.

Does that remind you of anything? Oh yes. How about the 2002 state Supreme Court Republican primary race between Justice Xavier Rodriguez and challenger Steven Wayne Smith? Rodriguez was appointed to the seat by Gov. Rick Perry. He was supremely qualified. He, too, lost to a no-name upstart who barely campaigned for the office.

The prevailing feeling then was that Smith won because Rodriguez’s surname worked against him. Carrillo predicted something like that would might occur now, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

Well, did it?

One can draw only that conclusion, given that Porter lacks the qualifications and knowledge that the incumbent possesses.

If so, it is a sad testimony to prejudice.

I just heard about the new cast of “Dancing With the Stars,” but one name just jumps out at me.

Don’t tell my sons this, but I learned something this morning: Length of years doesn’t equate to depth of knowledge.

My MP3 music player, which I strap onto my arm when I work out in the morning at the Amarillo Town Club, began acting up. It wouldn’t change songs. It was in “Repeat” mode. It was driving me nuts.

I looked around the gym and saw mostly more mature individuals. I probably was the oldest one in the room. But then it came to me: I’ll ask a young woman who works at the Town Club. Her name is Amanda, who — I learned not long ago — is just 23 years of age. She’ll know how to fix it, I thought.

Hey, Amanda, do you know much about these gadgets? I asked her, pointing to my maddening MP3. Sure, she said.

She took all of about, oh, three minutes to navigate her way around the various displays, finding the menu. She fixed it. Presto! Voila!

There you go, she said.

The moral of this little tale? Despite what I told my sons when they were growing up — that old folks know everything — I learned a lesson I knew intuitively already: When it comes to these techno-gizmos, the younger you are the more apt you are to know how to fix them.

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Gov. Rick Perry are taking the term “retail politics” quite literally.

The term usually refers to politicians’ public appearances that put them in direct contact with the people whose votes they are seeking. The idea is to see — and be seen by — as many voters as possible.

But get this: The two leading Republican candidates for governor have come to Amarillo in recent days and made campaign stops at small venues that specialize in the sale of goods and/or services.

Perry stopped the other day at a Coulter Street strip-mall shoe store and returned today for a meeting at a local real estate broker’s office. Hutchison campaigned recently at a Plains Avenue saddle shop and returned this week to a popular Paramount Boulevard restaurant.

I was wondering: Whatever happened to those town square political rallies? They used to produce big crowds to cheer on whatever the candidate had to say. Gov. Perry and Sen. Hutchison could have sent their respective faithful into a frenzy at Potter County Courthouse square, creating a big news event for television and, of course, for the newspaper. The last major political public rally I attended, I think, was in 1988 when the Rev. Jesse Jackson campaigned for president in Southeast Texas. It was a big deal and Jackson energized a lot of people all at once.

Perry and Hutchison, though, have settled for these intimate venues where only a few dozen people could meet them, shake their hands, pat them on the back and offer them good luck as they head down the stretch.

I prefer the big rallies, either as a partisan or a journalist. And the big rallies still fit the description of “retail politics” that allow rank-and-file voters to see the candidates in the flesh.

Amazing. I hope you don’t actually take yourself seriously, John. “Ethnic Pride”? It couldn’t possibly be that he’s a small businessman who will look out for the interests of other small businessmen, could it? In case you’ve somehow missed them, there are Leal signs in front of many non-mexican restaurants like Olive Garden, Chick-fil-a and Kabuki, just to name a few. Please only write something if it is worth reading. Your trashy blog posts make me sick.


The above statement came from someone who objected — obviously — to an earlier blog posting.

I’ll admit right here that I have missed seeing the Texas House District 87 campaign signs in front of the eating establishments noted in the respondent’s message. My intent merely was to comment on what I had physically seen in my travels around Amarillo.

Perhaps I don’t get out enough and haven’t visited every single corner of our city, which comprises more than 100 square miles, over the past several weeks. We’re kind of spread out, right?

So, most of the individual’s complaint about my blog post is noted with respect.

I do object to one thing the individual wrote. The writer calls the posts “trashy.” I presume this person means all of them. I think some of them, at least, are rather clever. But that’s just me, I guess, tooting my own horn.

Well, the weather prognosticators got it right concerning our winter. They told us we’d have a colder-than-normal winter, with more snow than normal. They shot and scored with that one.

Now comes word that the Panhandle spring is going to be, um, more explosive and unpredictable than normal. That’s got to send chills up our spines if the weather folks have that one pegged, too.

Does this mean the vaunted March winds will be windier? Will the storms dump more rain than normal? Will the hail stones be larger than usual? Will we see more tornadoes than we usually do?

My wife and I will have visitors from out of town arriving in mid-March. It will be my sister and brother-in-law. Sis asked me about two weeks ago about the weather here in March. I giggled a little over the phone — and told her it’s difficult to describe the weather here. She’s been here twice already: once in December 1999 and once in late summer 2005. The spring is altogether different.

The National Weather Service predicts that it’s going to be even more unsettled than usual.

I’ll need to remind her of the popular Panhandle saying: “If you don’t like the weather, wait 20 minutes … “

The experts are blaming all this on the Pacific Ocean water temperatures that are driving all these storms inland.

Poor El Nino. “He” gets blamed for everything.

This might not seem like a big deal, but it kinda-sorta is, given what I’ve witnessed in recent election cycles.

Potter County Precinct 3 Justice of the Peace Frank Frausto has placed campaign signs throughout his precinct that urge voters to “elect” him to the office he currently occupies. He doesn’t use the term “re-elect,” because he hasn’t been elected yet to the seat to which he was appointed by county commissioners.

Why make note of this? Well, during the 2009 Amarillo ISD trustee election, I saw signs touting the candidacies of two incumbents that said voters should “re-elect” them, even though neither of them hadn’t been elected to their offices. Both of them, John Ben Blanchard and Mary Faulkner, had been appointed to fill vacancies created by resignations. Thus, their signs weren’t truthful. Both of them won election, and they’re both doing fine jobs on the Amarillo school board.

But kudos should go to Judge Frausto for using precise language in his effort to win election to public office.