Official site of Tribune News serving Tomball, Magnolia and Waller

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A month after losing a costly and long-coveted bid for the U.S. Senate, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on Tuesday turned his political sights back on the Texas Capitol and said he would seek for a fourth term in his powerful state office.

The line of prominent Republicans eyeing the lieutenant governor's seat in 2014 is already growing long, and Dewhurst's announcement at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., didn't change their plans — or even convince them that Dewhurst would really be on the ballot in two years.

"As I see this today, there's no way to know who will be running for lieutenant governor in 2014," said Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, who is also in Tampa this week and had already put his name in the field.

Dewhurst, 67, was first elected lieutenant governor in 2003 and had spent much of the past two years positioned as the favorite to succeed Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Despite a once commanding lead in the polls and spending millions of his vast personal wealth, though, Dewhurst lost the GOP runoff in July to tea party insurgent Ted Cruz.

The defeat left Dewhurst's political future murky, particularly as an entrenched member of the state's Republican establishment whose conservative record was assailed by Cruz and his restless supporters in the party.

Dewhurst's spokesman, Matt Hirsch, said Dewhurst has moved on from his loss to Cruz and delved back into the business of state affairs. The Texas lieutenant governor presides over the state Senate and wields considerable influence over state policy.

Earlier this week, Dewhurst appointed lawmakers to chair several powerful committees in the upcoming legislative session, including the finance committee, which drafts the budget.

"He was always concerned what was best for the state of Texas," Hirsch said. "He feels there's a lot of work left to be done."

Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson has also announced he intends to run for Dewhurst's seat. Patterson is a former state legislator who has led the Texas General Land Office since 2002. State Comptroller Susan Combs is also widely mentioned as a potential candidate.

Dewhurst had been mum on his political future since losing to Cruz. He has acknowledged missteps in his campaign and believed that many voters angry at Washington were out to punish government officials at all levels. Cruz has never held elected office, but his victory in the runoff vaulted him to Republican stardom and even a headlining address at the party's convention this week.

Before losing to Cruz, Dewhurst had been undefeated in elections since his first run for Texas Land Commissioner in 1998. He personally spent nearly $20 million on the Senate run.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and a top lawmaker unveiled legislation Wednesday that they say will improve health care for the poor and disabled while fighting fraud, but they ruled out expanding Medicaid under an Obama administration effort to provide health care to 1.5 million uninsured poor people.

Dewhurst and Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, said her Senate Bill 7 would change how health care providers are paid to encourage quality of treatment over quantity or procedures, while redesigning long-term care for the profoundly disabled. Nelson said the state lost $6 billion in Medicaid fraud between 2004 and 2011 and her Senate Bill 8 would detect fraud earlier and more effectively punish those responsible.

"When you defraud the system, you are stealing from the taxpayers, children, the frail, the poor, the elderly and Texans with disabilities. It is crime against our most vulnerable citizens, and we have to change our approach to stopping it," Nelson said.

Medicaid is a joint state and federal program in which Washington provides roughly $2 for every $1 the state spends. In return, the state must follow federal regulations.

Dewhurst said health and human services have grown from being 20 percent of the state budget to 30 percent since 2003, and Medicaid costs have doubled. During that same period, though, Texas lawmakers have cut spending to other programs and federal lawmakers have expanded the number of services required under Medicaid.

As part of the Affordable Care Act designed to make sure all Americans have health insurance, the Obama administration has offered to pay Texas almost all of the costs of expanding Medicaid coverage to an additional 1.5 million to 2 million poor and uninsured people. Health care advocates almost universally support Medicaid expansion and some economists say it will financially benefit the state.

Gov. Rick Perry, though, has rejected the proposal saying it undermines states' rights, and Dewhurst on Wednesday reiterated his opposition.

"We carefully cover under Medicaid those populations that we feel need the help of the state and cannot care for themselves," Dewhurst said. "In 2003 we made a decision to exclude adults — able-bodied — who can go out and work, and that's the target population for Obamacare."

Dewhurst said he would rather see the federal government exempt Texas from most Medicaid regulations and allow the state to spend the money how it sees fit, something known as a block grant.

"Our care would be better if the state of Texas had the flexibility to focus on where needs are because one size does not fit all in health care," he said. "But we have not been successful under either the Bush or Obama administrations to get a block grant."

Online:

Senate Bill 7: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=83R&Bill=SB7

Senate Bill 8: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=83R&Bill=SB8