There are dominoes that are all set to fall in North Texas if only Kay Bailey Hutchison would flick her finger and knock the first one over.
The thinking goes like this: U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison resigns to run for governor. State Sen. Florence Shapiro runs for Hutchison’s seat. State Rep. Ken Paxton runs for Shapiro’s seat. Various Collin County figures vie for Paxton’s seat. And so on.
If politics is sometimes a game of musical chairs, then this is the quiet moment before the song starts.
A series of public offices statewide is expected to come open should Hutchison give up her Senate seat to run for governor. That includes North Texas, where potential vacancies left by longtime incumbents such as Shapiro could spark a free-for-all.
That scenario also requires Shapiro to win the special election, which is far from a guarantee. She is up for re-election next November, but unless KBH times her long-awaited resignation to allow for the special to be at the same time, Shapiro can stay in place until and unless she wins.
But you know, waiting for KBH is a long, hard process. Never mind the question of when she may resign to run for Governor, she still hasn’t answered the question “What do you want to do as Governor?”
Kay Bailey Hutchison’s campaign for governor has taken shape around two general themes: Rick Perry is bad for Texas, and Barack Obama is bad for the nation.
Oh, and she would defend property rights as ferociously as the Texians defended the Alamo.
Aside from elaboration on these positions, the public has few specifics from Texas’ senior senator on how she would govern if she turns Perry out of the governor’s office. This comes despite Hutchison’s declaration of specific policy areas she would concentrate on.
In kicking off her campaign in August, she stated, “As governor, I will focus on five areas: fiscal policy, education, transportation, health care and government reform.”
It’s now November, and we await details. How would she change the way schoolchildren are educated, for example? Conscientious voters surely want to hear.
The Hutchison campaign has said for weeks that the senator plans a “rollout” of policy positions, but she doesn’t appear ready to begin. The primary election is in four months. What’s the holdup?
I daresay she figures that those things are enough to get her through the primary, where the nuances of policy details aren’t exactly a high priority. After that, if it still matters, she’ll eventually get around to that stuff. What’s the rush?
KBH is also seeing her polling numbers with the recent UT poll showing Perry leading by 12 points in what will likely be a costly and nasty primary, with Perry winning due to the evangelicals and hardcore conservatives coming out for him.
The Democrats will NOT vote for KBH because of two words: DICK CHENEY and the more some in the TX Democratic Party keep ramming it down their throats, the better the Dems and Indys leave the GOP to settle the Perry-KBH bloodbath on their own.