I hope this won’t be seen as poaching; a lobbyist sent me the story from Capitol Inside. Here are the first two paragraphs: There’s speculation that State Rep. Joe Straus may be seriously considering a race for the Texas House’s top leadership post if no other candidate catches fire soon as a leading challenger to Speaker Tom Craddick. A San Antonio Republican who’ll be entering his third term in January, Straus hasn’t filed as an official candidate for speaker and says that he isn’t planning to seek the leadership position at this stage of the competition for it. But even though Straus says he hasn’t been campaigning for speaker, he hasn’t shut the door on a possible race for the job that Craddick won initially six years ago. * * * * Later, the story speculates that Straus might have a hard time winning the votes of some conservative Republicans, because his family has the Retama racetrack in San Antonio, and gambling is anathema to most conservatives. Straus is going to be prominent in Republican circles for many years. He can afford to wait.