About an hour ago, I called the Senate Committee on Nominations to find out how Shanda Perkins's Board of Pardons and Paroles confirmation hearing went this afternoon. Shortly after that, I received a call from Beth Shields, communications director for state Sen. Mike Jackson, the Republican from La Porte who chairs the committee. Shields very kindly said she would look for the results of today's hearing. Eleven minutes ago, she sent this e-mail:
By a vote of four to one, Shanda Perkins' nomination to the Board of Pardons and Paroles will be recommended by the Senate Nominations Committee to the full Senate for confirmation.In a follow-up call, Shields says the lone dissenting vote was state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, a Democrat from El Paso. (Among those who recommended the confirmation were state Sen. Jane Nelson of Flower Mound, a Republican, and former Austin mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat.) Her nomination will go before the full Senate next week -- "most likely," Shields says. When I asked whether the committee had received any calls about Perkins's nomination, she said yes, though "not a lot of calls in a while."
