| Tom Schieffer announced today that he will drop out of the Texas Democratic primary race for Governor. His campaign made the announcement official this afternoon. He also went on to say that he will endorse Houston mayor and current U.S. Senate candidate for Texas, Bill White. Schieffer had been running since March, and despite his aggressive travel across the state, was never able to fully get his campaign off the ground. Bill White (@billwhitefortx) had, up until today, strongly denied that he would switch to run for Governor. As recently as last Friday, he told current Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith that he had filed to run for Senate and would run for Senate. (Source: Texas Tribune) However, White admitted that conversations about switching over to the Governor's race increased after Hutchison's announcement that she would not resign her U.S. Senate seat -- making what White had anticipated to be a May 2010 U.S. Senate election to fill Hutchison's seat pushed back to at least November 2010, and possibly as far as November 2012. Now, the person who has what one of our writers called, "Texas Democrats' First Truly Statewide Campaign of the 21st Century" will, most likely, be running for Governor. Kay Bailey Hutchison's decision was the first domino to fall. Why did she decide to stay in office, and not resign to run against fellow cheerleader and Republican extremist, Governor Rick Perry? The conventional wisdom says that she couldn't have beaten Rick Perry in the Republican primary. Perry's dramatic and almost insane outreach to the Republican base -- noted most recently in his public comments that President Obama is "hell-bent on taking America towards a socialist country" -- have helped him lock up a lead in the polls. Hutchison hasn't helped herself, having failed to define her campaign or message at all in the months she's had the chance. But will her disappointment and failure among the chattering class of Texas political insiders translate to electoral defeat on primary day? We'll have to see -- but if she's shown no signs of political life, let alone strength, until now, then the answer will most likely be a resounding yes. Rick Perry must be kicking himself. Last week, he had a presumptive lock on another four years for Governor (or two, if his Presidential campaign kicks off the way Paul Burka believes it will). Perry dropped a much more effective TV ad than Hutchison (watch both of them on Jason Embry's First Reading blog) and it looked like he only had to beat severe underdogs for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in order to win re-election. Now, he will have to face a formiddable opponent in Bill White -- and these very real election possibilities from a recent poll by the Texas Tribune: Perry polls in a virtual tie with an unnamed Democrat, getting 34 percent to the Democrat's 33 percent. Eight percent would vote for a third-party candidate, and the rest haven't decided.
Meanwhile, we have to wait and here on other possibilities for the full ticket: - Hank Gilbert -- a favorite among our BOR readers -- now must decide if he stays in the Governor's race, or looks elsewhere. His campaign spokesperson, Vince Leibowitz, has said that he's staying, but the rumors are that he would be willing to switch to a downballot statewide race. Both the Agriculture Commissioner's place (which Hank ran for in 2006), and the Land Commisioner race (which holds a seat on the 5-person Legislative Redistricting Board, which is obviously important for the upcoming redistricting cycle in 2011) are places he's rumored to consider switching to.
- Farouk Shami -- he went live with his :60 television ad today. (The Dallas Morning News has it here). Shami has previously pledged to spend at least $10 million in the primary. Will he stay in the race, with White switching over?
- John Sharp -- will now presumably have the Senate field to himself, at least in the very near future. If the election doesn't happen until 2012, then perhaps he'd find himself a challenger -- but to be honest, no one is concerned about that race at the moment, and until Hutchison officially resigns her post or officially does not file for office, we'd expect there not to be much news on this race for some time.
We will, of course, have more news and analysis in the coming days and weeks, as the conversations take place about who should go where. We welcome your comments and ideas below. In the mean time, remember: Today's announcement is encouraging, but it only raises the bar on how much work we must do to actually win in 2010. Texas Democrats will not retake Texas just because someone with money and name ID enters a race. We're going to have to be disciplined messengers for our Party, we're going to have to knock on doors and make phone calls and raise small dollars and do everything we can to win. Texas Democrats have the strength and infrastructure to show we can win in 2010. Now, let's show them how we do it. |
