Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison, dismissed by Rick Perry earlier in the year in the GOP gubernatorial primary, should expect a crowded primary field for her United States Senate seat should she decide to run again. Courtesy of the Star-Telegram:
"She personifies everything that the Tea Party is fighting," said Konni Burton, a member of the Northeast Tarrant Tea Party steering committee. "She is a Republican, but when you check her votes on many issues, they are not ones that conservatives are happy with."
Adrian Murray, president of the grassroots 912 Project Fort Worth, said: "For the sake of what's left of her own reputation and credibility, she should not run again. She got shellacked in the primary, and that should have been [a] signal enough that we're done with her. KBH epitomizes the slick career politician that so many in the movement despise."
You are quite likely to have better luck guessing Texas Lottery numbers than you are guessing if Kay Bailey Hutchison will run again for the U.S. Senate or simply retire. God only knows, honey. Her motivation for running for governor against Perry really settled on the fact she was angling for that Governor's mansion as a retirement home. However, given her tarnished record and personality at the hands of Republican Perry, Hutchison may be forced out of her seat whether she wishes to be or not. The likes of Weatherford car salesman Roger Williams and Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams all claim to be running regardless of Hutchison's plan. They've seen this horror flick before after all, having been bit by Kay's capitulation in the past.
I'm not certain that Hutchison is politically savvy enough to know what is going on here, which is that moderates in today's Republican Party are not welcome and becoming far more extinct with each passing day. The withering fire and utter chaos that has erupted in the recent race for Speaker of the Texas House between the moderate Joe Strauss and his extreme challengers Warren Chisum and Ken Paxton is indicative of what is occurring throughout the country with this marriage of convenience between the GOP and the Tea Party. As Kay Bay can attest to, and now Strauss as well, the Tea Party doesn't play fair, they play nasty with a mission to tarnish, burn, and ultimately destroy one's reputation. Hutchison has proven once before she really doesn't have the stomach for the type of race that Tea Party extremists like Rick Perry run. As Joe Strauss is realizing within the Texas House, politicians like he and Kay Bay could be all that stands between an ultra-conservative, extreme takeover of the modern Republican Party and the destruction of GOP moderates along the way.
A letter is circulating amongst the business community in North Texas which contains the names of prominent men and women that are traditionally supporters of Republican candidates and causes, who are now supporting Bill White for Governor. From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
John Adams, former chairman and CEO of Chase Bank of Texas, said the majority of the signers are moderate Republicans like himself. But he said some are independents who have supported both Democrats and Republicans.
He said the letter is aimed at appealing to "independents and Republicans that Bill may be able to pull across the aisle and show his bipartisan support."
About half the signers supported Hutchison in the primary, according to White's campaign.
"Obviously we think Perry ought to be replaced," Adams said.
The continued circulation of this letter through traditionally conservative circles will hopefully continue and yield bi-partisan support for Bill White. This is the type of support that candidates with strong bi-partisan records attract. It is very refreshing to see the consensus building around White as we move closer to November.
Since I returned from Washington DC I have spoke of the rumors in our nation's capital that Rick Perry is laying the groundwork for a run at the GOP nomination for President in 2012. Remarkable isn't it? This is a man who barely a year ago couldn't decide if he was running for President of Texas or Governor of Texas and now he wishes to seek the Republican nomination for President of the United States. At this point, all indications are that a foundation has been laid and Rick Perry, along with his consultants and pollsters, are moving forward with that nomination bid.
This past Friday Rick Perry spoke at the Texas Defending the American Dream Summit in DC where Club for Growth Founder and Wall Street Journal editorial board member, Stephen Moore, proclaimed that (via a tweet by @mattklewis with Politics Daily):
We're going to take the House in 2010, and then, "...were going to put Rick Perry in the White House in 2012."
If ever a nightmare were to envelope America Rick Perry in the White House is quite likely to be it. For most of this year Rick Perry has ignored his re-election campaign for Governor and set his eyes on a higher prize. That's what career politicians like Rick Perry do; they look beyond the job and responsibilities they were elected to fulfill in order to seek more power, more notoriety, and thus, particularly in Rick Perry's case, take their problem-causing skills to a whole other level of government.
Here is what we know right now that suggests Rick Perry is neglecting his responsibilities in Austin and instead is laying a path toward Washington DC:
In early February, Paula Burka with the Texas Monthly laid the framework for an argument that Rick Perry is ready for a national GOP nomination run.
In March, Rick Perry defeated Texas' Senior Senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison, after tearing her apart and framing her as a reflection of everything that is wrong with DC politics today. Perry conveniently neglected the fact that his 51% Republican Primary victory was accompanied by 49% worth of votes against him.
Rick Perry has written a book about states rights called "Fed Up," which is due to be released this coming fall. I wonder if Iowa will be on the book stop tour.
Rick Perry's consultants and pollsters registered rickperry2012.com as early as April of 2007. Only recently was the registration of this domain switched from Baselice & Associates, which are Perry's pollsters, to one very generic "John Schmidt."
One thing should be clear by all this evidence and that is the fact that Rick Perry isn't running for Governor he is running to seek the GOP nomination for President of the United States. Career politicians never settle for the office they hold, they seek to use and abuse the office they have as a means to and end for the purposes of self-political gain and consolidation of power.
Having said all of that do Texans, or even Texas Republicans want Rick Perry to run for President? The answer is a resounding "no."
A new survey of Texas by Public Policy Polling finds that even though Gov. Rick Perry has mobilized his Republican base on a Tea Party platform, there is nevertheless no appetite for their favorite son to seek the presidency. In a Republican presidential primary, Perry is way at the back of the pack. Perry really was dead last.
Even during the Republican convention in Dallas, as Texas GOP faithful were asked whether they would support a Perry run for President? An enthusiastic, "he wouldn't be my first choice." Ours either, trust me!
"I love Rick Perry," said Kim Ikovick, a Dallas homemaker. But asked whether she wants to see him run for president, Ikovick said, "Oh, I don't know if I would go quite that far."
Texans have a clear choice in November. Texans can elect a career politician who isn't running for a third-term as Governor of Texas, but who is instead looking to move to Washington DC despite the lack of support even amongst his own Texas GOP faithful. Or, Texans can elect a well qualified leader in Bill White who will work to move Texas forward beyond the decade of destructive policies at the hands of Rick Perry. One man doesn't want the job of Governor and the other man does. Texans should elect the latter.
During the Republican primary Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison rightfully questioned whether or not Rick Perry's precious Texas Enterprise Fund was truly bringing or creating jobs in Texas that otherwise would have already been brought or created here without tax subsidies.
Perry avoided answering those questions then and he continues to avoid answering those questions now, even though the pressure for an independent audit of the TEF grows by the day.
Bill White's campaign has taken issue with the Governor's approval of $20 million dollar subsidy to sub-prime mortgage broker Countrywide; therefore, White is calling for a full audit of the Texas Enterprise Fund.
In 2004, Perry heralded his tax subsidy to Countrywide as the "crowning jewel" of the TEF. Really? Nice double standard, Rick. You spent more than a year bellowing about Washington's bailouts, but your $20 million "crown jewel" handout to a company being sued for fraud isn't worth your answering for?
White's campaign had this to say:
"If Rick Perry is so proud of handing $20 million to a failed mortgage lender that's being sued for fraud, why won't he welcome an independent audit?" said Katy Bacon, campaign spokesperson. "Rick Perry is attempting to avoid public accountability."
It's time for Rick Perry to prove he can back up his primary rhetoric. Texas handouts to sub-prime mortgage lenders are no different than Washington bailouts. Perry is equally accountable at the state level as politicians in Washington are.
Let's see the books, Rick. Let's see if the Texas Enterprise Fund is worth raising small business owner's taxes in order to pay for it. For someone who sure loves to tout some fictional record of being a "tax-cutter," there continues to be mounting evidence to show Perry's tax increases have been devastating to small businesses and mainstream Texans.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas thought Miers was a "wonderful choice" in 2005, but today she "has some concerns over Elena Kagan's lack of judicial experience."
Five years ago, Cornyn and Hutchison portrayed Bush nominee Harriet Miers as a welcomed change to a Supreme Court filled with career judges. Miers, by almost any measurement, was historically underqualified to be a justice.
But that did not matter to Cornyn or Hutchison. The Republican party line in 2005 was that Miers -- whose resume outside of the Bush White House included stints as chair of the Texas Lottery Commission and two years on the Dallas City Council -- was qualified to be nominated to the Supreme Court. In turn, that was their opinion.
Had John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison decided five years ago to declare Miers to be unqualified (which ultimately became the national consensus) they might have some credibility left to criticize Kagan for her lack of judicial experience.
The facts are really just embarrassing for Cornyn and Hutchison, as they often are. Five years ago they enthusiastically backed a mid-level White House staffer with zero judicial experience. Now, with President Obama in the White House, they have decided that a former dean of Harvard Law School and U.S. solicitor general lacks the necessary experience.
Apparently, in the eyes of John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Texas Lottery Commission and Dallas City Hall are better training grounds for a future Supreme Court Justice than Harvard Law School or the U.S. Department of Justice.
Rick Perry's dirty little secret is, he's a career politician who some how made millions as a public servant. Maybe that's why Bill White is winning over the Kay Bailey Hutchison moderates.
Yet Perry's hard push to the right also gives White an opportunity to woo moderate voters who aren't as concerned about social or states' rights issues but fear Texas is headed in the wrong direction.
Perry's radicalization, embrace of the tea party wing of his party, and epic failures as the state's Governor for a full decade, has created an opening for White.
Gromer Jeffers is noticing something eerie and exciting. Big time Hutchison supporters are embracing Bill White.
A smattering of Republicans across the state is with White, including some well-known friends of vanquished Perry rival Kay Bailey Hutchison.
As a staff member on the white campaign pointed out. "We've seen over and over that Rick Perry will say and do anything to perpetuate his quarter century political career, so we expect him to continue to attack Bill White as he has been."
"People in Houston know Bill White is a no-nonsense public servant who gets results. During Bill White's time as mayor, the Houston area added more new jobs than 37 states combined. He cut tax rates 5 straight years, cut crime rates to 25 year lows, and mobilized effective disaster responses to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Ike," said the same staff member. "Bill White fights for the people he represents, and brings people together to get things done. That's why as Houston's mayor, he was re-elected twice with margins of 91% and 86%."
On the eve of this news, White is continuing his full court press and continuing to shape a positive narrative for the campaign. White's campaign is releasing a new ad that focuses on his success in Houston and directly refutes the Perry lies and the under current of rumor starting to fill the political vacuum.
White hopes that he can get the attention of Republicans and independents by talking about education and economic development.
Mark Smith, the former chairman of Hutchison's youth coalition in Dallas, said he plans to vote for every Republican on the November ballot, except for Perry.
Smith says he likes White's emphasis on improving education. He has criticized the governor about the state's dropout rate and recent curriculum changes approved by the State Board of Education.
"White has Texas in his heart," Smith said. "He puts people before politics."
If White is winning Democrats, independents, and now moderate Republicans, it's easy to see why Rick Perry and his campaign are going so negative. They have to slow down the "Man on the Move".
One of the powers of being Governor is the ability to appoint individuals to key agencies, commissions, and institutions with little say from the legislature. Rick Perry has appointed a lot of people since taking control of the Governor's mansion in 2000. According to Texans for Public Justice (TPJ), he has made it a lucrative practice for his campaign.
According to TPJ's new report, "No Donor Left Behind: Gov. Perry Reaps $6 Million from Regent Appointees", Rick Perry has collected almost $6.1 million from the 155 people whom he has appointed to be non-student regents since becoming governor in late 2000. Over the past decade, 97 regent appointees gave to Perry's campaign-or 63 percent of Perry's regent appointees.
The average Perry-appointed regent overseeing a public university contributed $39,251 to the campaign of the Regent-In-Chief. Regents at the elite University of Texas and A&M University contributed average amounts approaching $100,000. Just the regents whom Perry appointed to UT, A&M and Texas Tech dumped $4.1 million into Perry's campaign coffers. At the other end of the spectrum, Texas Woman's University regents contributed an average of $234 to Perry's campaign.
Complaints about politicized regent appointments surfaced last fall after two Texas Tech appointees told the Austin American-Statesman that Perry campaign intermediaries pressured them to resign their posts after they endorsed Kay Bailey Hutchison's campaign to unseat the governor. Ex-Texas Tech Regents Mark Griffin and Windy Sitton previously had contributed to Perry's campaign, though their donations fell well below the average Texas Tech regent contribution of $88,092.2
Michele "Mica" Mosbacher was the top overall regent donor. This appointee to the University of Houston Board of Regents has contributed $440,400 to Governor Perry's campaigns. Paul Foster, vice chair of the University of Texas System Board of Regents, contributed $370,157. There are 21 regent appointees who contributed more than $100,000 apiece to Perry's campaign.
Looking at the TPJ report, it is terrifying to see Regent Appointees from the University of Texas, A&M University, Texas Tech University, University of Houston, and Texas State University all had more than 80% of the regents donate to the Perry campaign between 2001 and February 2010.
The totals from these schools range from ~$250,000 to over $1.5 million.
Perry is using institutions of higher education and the power of appointment to pressure individuals to donate to his campaign.
To see the full report and a complete list of who donated visit the TPJ website.
For those of you who did not have the pleasure of reading Sen. Hutchison's "Hey, About That Resigning From the Senate Thing I Once Mentioned...." email yesterday, I thought I'd post the text of her open letter to the people of Texas below. With a few tweaks of course to make it slightly more accurate. Enjoy.
An Open Letter to the Gullible People of Texas:
Thank you for the great privilege and responsibility of representing you in the United States Senate on Tuesdays, Fridays, & long weekends. Immediately after the conclusion of the primary election for Texas Governor, I threw in the towel, returned to Washington and resumed my obligations to Texas as its Senior Senator which I had skipped out on for months- kinda like a High School Senior in Spanish class. Recent weeks have been dramatic (omg the drama!) as I have worked tirelessly with the majority of our Texas congressional delegation (the Anglo ones) to try to stop costly and cumbersome health care legislation that I am convinced is the wrong prescription for our state and nation. (Did you see what I did there with prescription? Clever, right?) While President Obama, Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi used strong arm tactics to push their legislation through, this fight is far from over. They denied Minority Leader Boehner's request for an arm wrestling contest with Pelosi even though it was clear the Democrats were committed to using only strong arm tactics- what hypocrites!
Americans will begin experiencing the true costs of this legislation in the months and years ahead. Once they experience those lower prices and improved access, it's going to be scary. Along with higher taxes (natch), I am convinced we will see higher premiums for health insurance coverage, significant cuts in Medicare (something I have to worry about pretty soon), and greater pressure on state budgets like ours in Texas especially when Rick Perry finds out I forget to send him a bunch of federal money to balance his budget, tehe. Republicans are committed to reforms that will improve health care without massive government intrusion in the private market like making sure the homosexuals cannot get sham-married to get free socialized health care. We will continue to work through the November elections and beyond to repeal and replace this legislation with true reform that will expand access while reducing costs and minimizing government intervention in health care, aka a whole lotta Tort Reform.
For family reasons, I had planned to begin making a transition home to Texas this spring or whenever. Yet, it is clear to me that the stakes in our nation’s capitol have never been higher since I lost the primary and have nothing better to do. President Obama’s victory on health care legislation has emboldened those who want an even bigger and more intrusive federal government like Dennis Kucinich who will build SUPER-PEACETRAINS crisscrossing America. The very future of our country is at risk as we face unsustainable levels of national debt to fund Rep. Kucinich's SUPER-PEACETRAINS. The ongoing debate over health care, along with proposed cap and trade legislation that would devastate our Texas economy, promises to get even more intense in the months ahead according to my colleagues who have been working while I've been skipping out on the Senate.
Since the primary in March, I’ve heard from constituents and colleagues urging me to stay in the Senate for my full term, which ends in 2012. They argue that RNC Chairman Michael Steele's spending spree at Lesbian erotica clubs means we don't have enough money to defend my seat in the Senate if I resigned like I promised I would. I’ve worked closely with members of Congress from Texas (not that closely, no lesbian stuff), and seen firsthand how hard they are fighting to represent our state and our conservative principles. I recently received a letter from every Republican member of Congress from Texas, saying: “WTF just make a decision and stick to it for once..”
On a personal level, this has been a most difficult decision, but after much deliberation, I have decided to complete the term to which you elected me as crazy as that might seem at first glance. I will work alongside our great Texas congressional delegation to repeal and replace President Obama’s health reform, to stop cap and trade legislation and to cut the deficit the President is building that puts our economy in peril. I will continue to use my experience running for Governor to try to stop this unprecedented expansion of our federal government and its intrusion in our private lives and in the private sector.
Throughout my years of public service as well as the year I took off serving the public in the Senate in order to run for Governor, I’ve tried to do what is best for Texas. And what is happening in Washington today is not good for Texas. That's why it's time for new leadership in Washington and why today I'm announcing my resignation from the Senate.
Kay Bailey Hutchison announced today that she will stay in the U.S. Senate and serve the remainder of her term through 2012. What is clear from her announcement is that she didn't want to let Rick Perry -- who she just spent months and months slamming for his croynism -- to appoint her successor.
If Hutchison did resign, Perry would have the ability to choose an interim successor who would then almost certainly have a leg up in the special election to serve out her remaining two years. The idea that the person who had just all-but-ended her political career would also be able to pick her replacement was an unsavory one that Hutchison almost certainly wanted to avoid.
Hutchison wanted to avoid it, to be sure, but I don't think it has as much to do with petty personal differences as conventional wisdom would immediately suggest.
Hutchison, throughout her campaign, slammed Rick Perry for his cronyism, and the fact that he can't be trusted. While politics makes strange bedfellows, Hutchison is not going to play nice with Perry now. In today's announcement, she didn't say a single thing about Rick Perry. She may make a campaign appearance or two with him in the fall, but that's it. She won't be traveling the state with him.
Why? Because Kay Bailey Hutchison knows, as well as anyone, that Rick Perry is a failure who can't be trusted.
The ad above is a perfect example. Hutchison was constantly reminding her supporters that Rick Perry makes selfish appointments that have more to do with politics than anything else. She knew that if she resigns, his appointed replacement won't necessarily be who is qualified -- it will be who best helps Perry, politically. And the thing is, the newspapers knew it, too. That's why Hutchison received all her endorsements.
Hutchison's announcement today shouldn't surprise anyone, but not because we always thought she'd stay in office. Today's announcement shouldn't surprise anyone because it was Hutchison doing what she did for months before: whatever she could to prevent another act of Perry cronyism.
Multiple sources this morning are reporting that Kay Bailey Hutchison will serve the remaining term in the Senate. As David reported below, she will be having a press conference in less than an hour to officially announce her decision. It has also been reported that State Senator Florence Shapiro, who had lined herself up to run as a replacement to Hutchison, will be returning $1 million to donors today.
Kay's announcement is no real surprise. Those of us here at BOR, and many Democrats across Texas, never expected she would leave the Senate -- her continued dodging (and changing) of the answer to that question was unfair to Texas voters, but Hutchison is going to do what's in her best interest. After the months of divisiveness and petty politics between Rick and Kay, I'm not shocked that she doesn't want to let Perry appoint a successor for her seat.
Harold Cook, over at Letters from Texas, weighs in well with his post: "Delusions of relevance":
What remains is to see whether she will go forward from this point and shoot straight with Texas voters. During her failed primary election, she leveled charge after charge at Rick Perry. Will she now take all that back too, cynically supporting the man she accurately described as a failed governor...or will she pretend for partisan purposes that the last 14 months never happened, and support the man she said all along wasn't good for Texas?
