Ever since Ted Cruz announced that Sarah Palin is endorsing him in his bid for Senate, we've been clustered around the office phone (we only have one), waiting patiently to hear a robo-call from ex-Alaska Governor Palin. It never came. That's because, as it turns out, Palin's calls may have been accidentally going out to Kansas voters instead.

Tim Carpenter is a political reporter at the Topeka-Capital Journal. Last week, he was also the lucky recipient of a call from Palin encouraging him to support Ted Cruz, "a conservative you can trust to stand on principle and change the way Washington does business," as she told him enthusiastically, if somewhat automatedly.

"It was a one-sided conversation with Palin, of course," Carpenter wrote on his blog, Political Runoff, "but it felt as if I was sitting down to a chat with folks back on the farm over a dinner of cornbread, beans and burgers. The country's most famous non-candidate was confiding in me, a guy from tinytown Missouri, the no-nonsense, no-spin version of how I should vote in the Texas GOP primary."

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The Washington Blade, D.C.'s main LGBT news outlet, is reporting that Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson has placed Chief of Staff Murat Gokcigdem on leave following questions about a 2010 e-mail.

According to the piece, staffer Chris Crowe was seeking a letter of recommendation from Johnson for a position in Obama's Treasury Department. Gokcigdem wrote Johnson an email about Crowe, who is gay. But he accidentally sent the message to Crowe instead.

"It is my personal belief that he has contacts there," Gokcigdem wrote. "And they, as a group watching and supporting each other if you know what I mean."

Crowe died of a staph infection in 2011 following an open-heart surgery to treat complications from meningitis.

The dust up comes as Johnson is in the midst of her toughest reelection fight in years. It also serves as yet another reminder to double-check that "to" field before you hit send. 

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This is known as irony. Please don't put coffee cups in the real ballot box.

With early voting for the May 29 primary election already underway, and with the federal government's tet-a-tet with Texas over its 2011 voter ID law far from settled, the ACLU of Texas wants to remind you that no, you don't need to show an ID to vote and if a poll worker asks you for one, you can tell them to shove it. More precisely, you should inform them in measured tones that "(t)he Photo Voter ID law has not been approved by the Justice Department and is not yet in effect," per the ACLU's recommendation.

The ACLU is not the first to point this out, but Terri Burke, executive director of the organization's Texas arm, said the language on the back of voting registration cards has prompted confusion.
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Domingo Garcia makes it rain on a redistricting commission meeting.

It costs north of a million bucks to win a U.S. House seat these days. Winning District 33, the new DFW block carved out of the totally riveting and not at all arcane redistricting process, should cost considerably less, thanks to a shortened primary and probably noncompetitive general. Still: It will still cost a pretty penny.

Luckily for lawyer, politico and giving husband Domingo Garcia, when it comes to funding his political interests, pretty pennies are not in short supply.

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I, the overbylined, hereby solemnly swear that Unfair Park ("The Blog") will not, under any circumstances, devolve into a sycophantic shadow booster for the long-shot congressional aspirations of Jason Roberts ("That One Biker Guy"), even in the event that one Robert Wilonsky ("Biker Guy's Cyber-Boyfriend") returns to the blog after realizing that his new employer keeps actual water in the water cooler.

No, really, I swear. But come on: That's a slick poster.

Photo by Anna Merlan

If you happened to stumble upstairs at the Londoner last night, you might have wondered just what the hell was going on. Why were so many of these men wearing suits to the bar? Is that a sweater vest in the corner? Everyone's throwing the word "santorum" around with such enthusiasm -- have we stumbled upon some sort of bizarre fetish club? And good Lord, is that Tom Leppert?

Yes it was, in fact, dropping by the monthly meeting of the Dallas County Young Republicans.

"I know I'm interrupting the beers and the conversation," Leppert said. (He really was. The lone Ron Paul guy in the room, who was wearing a name tag that read "Wesley Snipes," was in the middle of telling Greg and me what an "insufferable douchebag prick" Rick Santorum is. It was getting interesting.) But this country, Leppert continued, "is in a real dire position." In a 15-minute sort of greatest-hits package, Leppert and the YRs fixed that right up.

"I'm not much of a politician," Leppert said, with apparent sincerity. "But I am a business person. A conservative business person. I was never able to solve a problem with a sound-bite."

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Photo by Anna Merlan

Let's just call it: Everyone in town is running for Congress.

Okay, not everyone, but the race for the newly-created, much-argued-over Congressional District 33 has gotten very, very crowded, especially on the Democrats' side.

Last night we watched as former Dallas city council member -- and mayor pro tem, state rep and redistricting commissioner -- Domingo Garcia, about whom we've written approximately a million times over the years, announced his own candidacy. The shindig, which took place on the top floor of the Oak Cliff Tower, the massive building where his law practice is based, drew a couple hundred people, lots of cameras, and some very big-name supporters: current city council member Delia Jasso, Dallas County treasurer Joe Wells, former DISD board member Ron Price, and district clerk Gary Fitzsimmons.

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​Like I said yesterday, Rick Santorum's in town today raising money for his campaign. This morning it was coffee at a country club -- Royal Oaks, to be specific, on Greenville Ave., where cups were filled for $1,000 a pop, $2,500 if you were among the "hosts." Then it's off to Westlake and a visit with Glenn Beck. Wonder if he met with First Baptist's Robert Jeffress, who was indeed on with former WFAA'er Bill O'Reilly last night singing Santorum's praises as a man who can inspire evangelical voters. Watch below.More >>

Photo by Dylan Hollingsworth

Rick Santorum during his visit to Plano earlier this month

​Says here Rick Santorum's coming back to town tomorrow for a fundraiser on behalf of his Red, White and Blue Fund super PAC, which declined to nail down the Dallas date; it also doesn't appear on his official campaign schedule, and his campaign folks haven't responded to our queries either. But a Friend of Unfair Park who, ya know, knows says it's a done deal. The timing's certainly right, given his sizable lead in the Texas Tribune/University of Texas poll released earlier this week.

And if even if he wasn't coming to town tomorrow, well, it's worth directing your attention to this just-dispatched note from none other than First Baptist's Robert Jeffress: "Is Satan alive and active as Rick Santorum said he is in a 2008 speech? Catch me tonight on The O'Reilly Factor!" Jeffress, of course, is referring to remarks Santorum made in Florida in 2008, when he said, "Satan has his sights on the United States of America" -- remarks again making the rounds, which tickles Romney supporter Chris Christie.

Which reminds me: North Texas transplant Glenn Beck was on O'Reilly last night pitching his summertime wingding "Restoring Love," which includes the love-in at Cowboys Stadium at the end of July. Biggest Tea Party ever!More >>

​So says CNN: "The Texas governor will make the announcement before the CNN debate in South Carolina." And Politico: "Texas Gov. Rick Perry is expected to end his presidential campaign Thursday and endorse Newt Gingrich." (Ooooh, speaking of.) A press conference has been scheduled for 10ish this morning, after which last-place-in-South-Carolina Rick Perry will shoot something, anything.