UNDER THE DOME

Medina touts Latino family in new ads

Eggy errand keeps senator's ego in check.

Medina touts Latino family

Republican Debra Medina says she'll be the first candidate in the 2010 governor's race with Spanish-language TV ads.

In the 30- and 60-second spots, which she says will start airing today on Univision in the Rio Grande Valley, Corpus Christi and Laredo, Medina, a Wharton businesswoman, tells viewers that she's like them: a proud Texan.

In the ads, an announcer says that Medina "shares our values about the importance of family, hard work and faith. She also understands that the money we work so hard to earn should be for us and not for more taxes."

The announcer calls Medina "alguien como nosotros" — "someone like us."

Medina, who doesn't sound at all like a native Spanish speaker, says: "Who is going to think more about Latino families? Rick Perry, Kay Bailey Hutchison or me, who has a Latino family?" The ad then shows Medina with her husband and two children.

Medina's cultural heritage is German and Bohemian, she told my colleague Gardner Selby last month in an e-mail. "Being married, however, to someone with a Mexican American heritage, I certainly embrace the culture," she wrote.

But before she explained that, she told Selby, who had asked her whether she considers herself Latina: "I'd not consider myself anything other than a wife and mother, a nurse and a patriot. I believe we too often get into race when it's immaterial."

— Corrie MacLaggan

Eggy errand keeps ego in check

As a state senator, Austin Democrat Kirk Watson picks up plenty of awards. But he says his wife, Liz, who has known him since elementary school, keeps him grounded.

In his e-mail newsletter Monday, Watson shared a story of how on a recent day when he was honored by Marathon Kids, he sent his wife a text message reminding her that he was heading to Whole Foods to pick up the award.

She texted back, "That's great," and her husband wrote in his newsletter: "My ego momentarily ticked up a bit."

Then he read the rest of her message: "While you're there, pick up some eggs and whatever else you want."

"So I shook some hands," Watson wrote, "thanked folks for the award, headed downstairs, made a beeline for the egg cooler, checked out, headed home, and made myself some dinner.

"Yeah, I had eggs."

— Corrie MacLaggan