Publishing van de Putte

Sen. Leticia van de Putte has been very high-profile for the last couple of days: With pre-filing of legislation for the next session starting yesterday, the Texas Senate Democratic Caucus chair has put out six press releases announcing her new bills.

But the biggest publication? A political biography. Tomorrow she will be joining Sharon Navarro, author of Latina Legislator: Leticia Van de Putte and the Road to Leadership, for a book signing in San Antonio's central library.

That's normally a sign of bigger ambitions (even Pres. George W. Bush helped crank out A Charge to Keep), and with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison looking likely to give up her DC seat to get caught up in the seemingly inevitable 2010 gubernatorial fight between Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, van de Putte could become a good contender to switch one senate for another. She's already got a pretty good national profile, having previously served as co-chair of the Democratic National Convention and president of both the National Conference of State Legislatures and the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators: That could only help in the essential fund-raising struggle in two years time.