The Gossips were not surprised by the endorsement of State Representative Peggy Hamric by State Senator Jon Lindsay for the Senate District 7 seat he is leaving. Lindsay the first Republican elected County-wide in Harris County and one of the real gentlemen in the state Senate said "Her positive campaign is refreshing to the usual "attack my opponent rhetoric" that we are hearing from her opponents" Peggy has also been endorsed by State Reps Beverly Woolley and Martha Wong, as well as other elected officials in Harris County community; County Attorney Mike Stafford, County Clerk Beverly Kaufman, Commissioner Jerry Eversole, Constable Glen Cheek and Constable Ron Hickman. Meanwhile another State Rep has taken a position in this race. State Rep. Debbie Riddle has endorsed Dan Patrick. Riddle is a horse trainer and looks good in bluejeans but is considered somewhat of an outsider in the Harris County delegation. So far State Rep. Joe Nixon has yet to pick up any big endorsements from his Harris County Republican colleagues or if he has they are not listed on his web site.

And the Gossips hear that one of the Enron defendants who goes on trial at the end of this month has been attending and praying at minority churches in the Houston area. Looking for divine intervention or just trying to relate to some of the prospective jurors as some skeptics are asking? It could be that he and his family are just doing what they had been doing for many years by attending these religious events.

And remember when the Joe Nixon campaign said the Patrick should disclose all the "free" time he used to promote his campaign on his radio station? They thought it might be around $ 3.2 million. Well the Gossips learn from The Quorum Report that " Radio talk show host Dan Patrick reports raising $348,269. However, that number includes $119,542 in in-kind dollars from Houston Broadcasting, owner of his KSEV radio station. In addition, another $23,644 of in-kind contributions from C&M Marketing is part of the contributions total. Backing out those two-in-kind contributions results in Patrick actually raising $105,083. However, because of $250,000 he loaned the campaign, Patrick leads the cash on hand race with $314,690". Now for a guy who has had lots of past problems in business loaning your campaign $250K is pretty good. Now let's see if he spends any of it.