Via the Quorum Report, the exploratory campaign committee for Chris Bell has been fleshed out. The name most likely to turn heads is Joe Trippi. Click the More link for the full story.

We ran into former Congressman Chris Bell at the Capitol this afternoon. He was in town touching base with legislators and Democratic poohbahs as part of exploratory effort.

Bell has two campaign operations in motion. One is in his hometown, Houston. For the time being, the other is shared office in Austin with his media/research operative, Jason Stamford. Bell presumes that his official campaign office will ultimately be in Austin.

While his effort is still deemed "exploratory", Bell has already assembled a campaign team. Heidi Kirkpatrick is doing fundraising. Joe Trippi is bringing his experience with the Howard Dean presidential campaign to bear building Bell's internet community.

Bob Doyle has been retained as general consultant. Doyle is a DC based and specializes in winning GOP leaning consgressional seats with Blue Dog Democratic candidates.

Neil Kammeron of Fenn Communications has been retained to do media. Duane Baughman will do mail. Baughman has done mail for both Howard Dean and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Bell will make his first Capitol appearance as a potential gubernatorial candidate before the Capitol Area Democratic Women at Nuevo Leon on April 14. The next day, he will be speaking to the Young Democrats at their state convention.