Welch's Sparkling Juice

Bill Welch's fundraising woes are over, thanks to an enormous wad of campaign cash from sources other than his personal piggy banks. The Republican nominee for Travis Co.'s HD 47 seat collected nearly $700,000 in the last month, most of it from major GOP PACs, including House Speaker Tom Craddick's Stars Over Texas. (Democrat Valinda Bolton raised $277,820 in the same period.) Quorum Report did the math on both candidate's big contributions, but Welch's were particularly intriguing because of his previous fundraising problems. QR pointed out that more than $250,000 of Welch's winnings came from Texans for Lawsuit Reform. The sudden windfall effectively kills the buzz that Welch was having to self-finance his campaign because his old primary rival for the House seat, Susan Combs, a GOP leader and the party's nominee for comptroller, still harbored a grudge against the man she beat in '96. For whatever reason, the rumored money embargo has been lifted.