Since there have been occasional posts here about Texas politics, I thought I'd drop some very recent and very big news: Bill White, the Mayor of Houston, is running for governor. He just announced this afternoon, switching gears from his previous plan to run for Kay Bailey Hutchison's vacated Senate seat. In a related story, Hank Gilbert is leaving the governor's race to run for Agricultural Commissioner, the office he ran for in 2006.

My excitement about a potential White candidacy has grown in the past few weeks the more I've read about him. To get an idea of just why White's such a big deal, Texas Monthly has an excellent profile of him here.

If you're pressed for time, just read the first part, which I consider the most important part: it details White's response to the flood of refugees Houston received from New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. This was a very new story to me, and I was moved to read it. That virtue we were saying is so rare among "progressives" these days- compassion? White has it. That alone makes me want him as my governor.