Perry Wants MORE Wiretapping, Casteel Campaign is Ugly, Madla Needs a Savings Account

Here are a few things that might interest you political savy weekend readers.

The Denton Record has Gov Good Hair on the record saying we need MORE wiretapping in Texas. With all the back and forth on the presidents illegal wiretapping story, Gov Perry has proposed a few things that would make George Bush's life a little easier in Texas.

• Expanding state wiretap authority – currently limited to murder and drug trafficking investigations – to include kidnapping, aggravated assault and extortion. Law enforcement officials would still need to secure a warrant from a state district judge.

• Updating conspiracy statutes to better encompass terrorist organizations and international crimes, including smuggling humans and drugs and setting up false charities and businesses to funnel money.

• Ensuring the Department of Public Safety has sufficient resources to deal with border threats.

On the campaign front, in House District 73, Carter Casteel is one of the harder races of her career against Nathan Macias. The Express-News has the story on the battle of who is more conservative.

Casteel has been a fantastic legislator and in reality this is a race on vouchers not qualifications, and her opponent is really John Leininger, not Macias.

Down in Senate District 19, the man who had an entire party fit in his trunk is now spending a lot of money to do it. Frank Madla represents one of the poorest districts in the state and the Express-News shows that he has spent more than $1.6 million of campaign funds in three years.

Some expenses include, $180,000 on food and beverages since mid-2002, including more than $19,000 at Piccolo's, a restaurant on San Antonio's Northwest Side, which he visited 106 times.

He spent more than $19,000 at Gabriel's liquor store in the same time frame; more than $7,000 on bottled water; nearly $87,000 on an Austin apartment and more than $50,000 on lodging.

The full run down and what Madla endorsers are saying can be found at the Express-News.