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Here are the top political headlines from Washington, the campaign trail, Austin and Dallas.
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Points from Washington
1. Insight from Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Monday has added another layer to the growing Ukraine drama, Tom Benning reports. Perry acknowledged that he asked President Donald Trump "multiple times" to call Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy -- but not about former Vice President Joe Biden, the topic that has caught Trump in an impeachment inquiry. The former Texas governor said at a press conference in Lithuania that he encouraged Trump to speak to the Ukrainian leader about energy, according to CNN and Politico. to CNN and Politico. "Absolutely, I asked the president multiple times: 'Mr. President, we think it is in the United States' and in Ukraine's best interest that you and the president of Ukraine have conversations and discuss the options that are there,'" he said . "So absolutely yes." His account appears to confirm an Axios report from Saturday that Trump told House Republicans that he called Zelenskiy at Perry's urging to discuss liquefied natural gas. Perry has indeed worked on issues related to liquefied natural gas in Ukraine and other Eastern European countries, adding plausibility to the request. But Trump never brought up the topic on his call with Zelenskiy, according to rough transcript provided by the White House.
Perry also addressed reports that he would be leaving his post soon, by saying he had no plans to do so in the next month.2. Former U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions is downplaying meetings that he had with two Soviet-born businessmen that are now ensnarled in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. During a recording Friday for Sunday's edition of Lone Star Politics on KXAS-TV (NBC5), he acknowledged that he met with business partners Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman when he represented Dallas County's District 32 in Congress. Sessions noted that the men, who told him they were partners in a business called Global Energy Producers, are working with Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who was on the board of a leading Ukrainian gas company. Sessions said he didn't talk with the partners about the Bidens.
3. Washington Bureau Chief Todd Gillman reports Texas Republicans in Congress regularly denounce China as an authoritarian, communist regime that manipulates its currency, dumps products on the U.S. market, steals trade secrets and threatens regional stability. But after President Donald Trump publicly urged China last to investigate Joe Biden -- the Democratic front-runner for 2020 -- just two expressed disapproval -- Will Hurd of San Antonio and Michael McCaul of Austin.
4. Meanwhile, some Texas Republicans on Monday criticized Donald Trump's declaration that U.S. troops would allow Turkey to attack Syrian Kurds who have fought as U.S. allies for years to tamp down the Islamic State. The president later threatened to destroy the economy of Turkey, a NATO member, if it goes too far against the Kurds. But that did little to mollify concerns overseas or in Congress after Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw troops and get them out of the way of Turkish forces. Todd Gillman reports that Sen. Ted Cruz said it would be "disgraceful if we sat idly by while Turkey slaughters the Kurds, as public reports suggest that Turkish leader Erdogan explicitly told President Trump he intends to do. Kurds risked their lives--for many years--to fight alongside us."
5. Paul Cobler reports that he NBA and the Houston Rockets are facing a barrage from across the political spectrum after backing away from general manager Daryl Morey's support for Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, accused the NBA of "shamefully retreating" in the face of pressure from China. Beto O'Rourke, a Democratic contender for president who challenged Cruz last year, called the NBA's apology to China an "embarrassment."
Points from the trail
1. Sen. John Cornyn is in strong financial shape heading into the 2020 campaign, with nearly $11 million stockpiled after raising $3.2 million in the last three month reporting period. Todd J. Gillman reports that's his best quarter yet. The Cornyn campaign provided an early peak at its quarterly tally. Campaigns have until Oct. 15 to file reports with the Federal Election Commission.
2. In 2020, when women will have had the right to vote in U.S. elections for 100 years, their voices and their votes will be in high demand. MarĂa MĂ©ndez reports that women made up 53% of all voters in the country in 2018, helping Democrats retake the U.S. House. In Texas, where they also make up a large share of the electorate, women in 2018 helped elect three Democratic women to Texas' congressional delegation, including the state's first two Latina congresswomen, and were key to Democrats flipping 12 seats in the Texas House. While Democrats are building a community of support for the women who became politically engaged in 2018, more Republican women are running for office and calling for their male-dominated party to modernize their messages to women voters.
3. Dallas Republican Pete Sessions, bounced from Congress by Democrat Colin Allred in 2018, formally announced Thursday he's running for the Central Texas congressional seat held by retiring U.S. Rep. Bill Flores. The 17th Texas Congressional District is considered a safe Republican seat, stretching from Waco to suburban Austin to Bryan and College Station. Sessions is a Waco native but doesn't currently live in the district.
4. Gromer Jeffers analyzes the 2020 presidential election -- highlighted by potential impeachment -- and says it is a referendum on Donald Trump's behavior as president. That means an already divided country will takes sides, with the few Americans who describe themselves as independent voters in the middle. In 2016, Trump won independent voters in key swing states, and they could play a role in next year's showdown. But for the most part the presidential election will be a gritty base fight won by the campaign and political party that drags the most voters to the polls. All other issues, including health care, guns and education, are props in the great horse race.
Points from Austin
1. Watchdog columnist Dave Lieber wants you to meet House Bill 2840, which became law last month. The law requires all government meetings (city councils, county commissions, school boards, hospital districts, public colleges) to open up their meetings to public comments in a much bigger way. Until now, allowing the public to speak was not mandatory under law. Now it is. Under the new law, a person can speak to a government body at the start of the meeting, at the end, and most important, before a vote on every listed agenda item.
Bob's Breakdown
Robert T. Garrett is the Austin bureau chief for The Dallas Morning News. A fifth-generation Texan, he has covered state government and politics for decades. Here, Bob offers his take from the Capitol.
· Should tech giants that provide the platforms for social-media messages be required to tip off the cops when they see posts that are hate-filled and menacing? Can that be done without infringing on Texans' First Amendment rights? At Brookhaven College in Farmers Branch on Thursday morning, the House Select Committee on Mass Violence Prevention & Community Safety will hear from Facebook, a former FBI official and three professors about the possibility of greater cooperation between digital media and law enforcement, panel Chairman Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, announced Tuesday morning. The mass shootings in El Paso and Midland-Odessa inspired Speaker Dennis Bonnen to create the panel.
Speaking of Bonnen, the flap over his secret meeting with a conservative activist in June continues to percolate. Next Tuesday, a Travis County district judge will hear arguments on whether an audio recording of the meeting should be released to the Texas Democratic Party. It claims that Bonnen's discussion with Empower Texans chief Michael Quinn Sullivan about targeting 10 Republican House incumbents in next March's primary was coordination that amounts to creating a political action committee. Failure to register it was a campaign-finance law violation, lawyers for state Democrats allege. Sullivan has said Bonnen and then-House GOP Caucus Chairman Dustin Burrows offered to give writers for his website House media credentials next session in exchange for help from Empower Texans in defeating the 10 GOP incumbents. Sullivan said he rebuffed the offer.
Sullivan has ridiculed the Democratic suit, and he'll get a hearing on his motion to dismiss it on Oct. 30. Bonnen, meanwhile, has next week's House GOP Caucus retreat at a golf resort in Travis County to worry about. It won't necessarily lead to any immediate action. But it's the first gathering of the House's more than 80 Republicans since the scandal broke in late July. Thirty had the temerity to sign a letter, quickly rebuffed, that asked for the caucus to meet in September, to fill a musical-chairs opening created by Burrows' resignation as caucus chairman. The theory is that Bonnen didn't want a gathering while passions ran high over his alleged targeting - and his halting, uneven explanations of the June 12 Sullivan meeting.
Points from Dallas
1. Dallas County elections are set for a major upgrade in November. Beginning this fall, voters will be able to cast their ballots at any polling location in the county, instead of at an assigned precinct. And they'll use new touch screens, instead of paper ballots, to mark their decisions. The sweeping changes this year -- a dress rehearsal of sorts before the 2020 election when turnout is expected to be at historic levels -- aim to expand access and make voting easier. But Nic Garcia reports that they come with substantial risks, experts warn. Some counties that have gone to countywide voting centers have seen long wait times and lower turnout -- especially among Hispanic voters.
2. Dallas won't bill President Donald Trump for any added security costs when he holds a rally at American Airline Center later this month keeping with its practice of not billing dignitaries when they visit, officials said. Trump's planned Oct. 17 Keep America Great Rally has renewed questions about the stress it puts on local law enforcement officers to protect the president, keep traffic moving and maintain order in the streets -- and the bills his campaign hasn't paid in other cities including El Paso.
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