First transportation, now abortions and minimum sentencing: Ramping up speculation that Gov. Rick Perry will run again in 2014, the governor has added two more items to the call for the special session.

Perry added transportation funding to the call late yesterday, signalling the possibility that a bipartisan agreement to fix the state's ailing road system may have been struck. There were a few brief hours of relief from Democrats who thought that he may steer clear of the kind of divisive legislation that sets progressive blood boiling, but no such luck.

Just after midday, Perry's staff added two items:

Legislation relating to the regulation of abortion procedures, providers, and facilities.

Legislation relating to establishing a mandatory sentence of life with parole for a capital felony committed by a 17-year-old offender.

The addition of abortion is not so surprising: Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and the right wing rump has been pushing Perry to add that to the call since day one of the special. Even before this new proclamation, state reps had filed 14 new abortion bills, in the desperate hope that Perry would open that particular floodgate.

The mandatory minimum sentencing seems like a much more baroque request. Scott Henson of the Grits for Breakfast blog has been tracking this issue for a while, and has a great potted explanation. The measure seems intended to fill a gap between Texas law, which treats 17 year olds as adults, and the rulings of the US Supreme Court, which holds them to be minors. According to Henson, "SCOTUS rulings banning the death penalty and life without parole (LWOP) for juveniles have left Texas with no legal punishments on the books for 17-year olds charged with capital murder. They can still be charged with 'regular' murder, which could get them a sentence of up to 99-life, but with the eventual possibility of parole."

This, of course, has got Texas' hang' em high prosecutors in high dudgeon, and they got Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, to carry new mandatory minimums for 17 year olds in Senate Bill 187 in the regular session. That measure passed out of the Senate and got as far as the House calendar, but never got a floor vote.

This leaves us with three questions. One, out of the huge stack of dead bills, why did Perry pull this one out for a second shot? Two, since back in 2011, they pulled the plug on his sanctuary cities request in 2011, will legislators move on all these measures? And three, how does this factor into Perry's election plans for 2014, and has he added these measures to start bolstering his extremely flimsy Tea Party support?