I should have seen this coming.
Talk in Austin is that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is reassessing plans to resign from the Senate to challenge Republican incumbent Gov. Rick Perry in 2010.
She still intently plans to run but may choose to retain her Senate seat while campaigning.
The reasoning?
Her resignation would enable Perry to appoint a successor who could snipe at her from Washington, essentially putting Hutchison in the middle of a D.C-Austin crossfire.
Hutchison may announce an exploratory campaign for the governor’s race in December or early next year. Hutchison spokesman Matt Mackowiak declined to comment.
Point one: The talk I’ve heard is that unless KBH does resign her seat, nobody will truly believe she’s going to run against Rick Perry. Point two: If she doesn’t resign to run, you can bet Rick Perry will bludgeon her for it. Point three: As with everything else in the Waiting For KBH saga, treat such stories as rumor and innuendo until proven otherwise. That said, I say pick your poison and stick with it, KBH. There is no easy way out. Link via Greg.
Kay Bailey Hutchison may have put herself in a position where she is damned if she does and damned if she doesn’t and running for a third term in the Senate and then announcing she is considering running for governor again really does not lend a lot to her viablity at this point because many perceive her running for her third term as merely providing what she perceived as an advantage in another attempt at running for governor. Once again, the tag Two Hats Hutchison sums her up best. She has no real loyalty to anyone but herself. But then I guess that is true of most politicians these days.
Much of this “political musical chairs” game was based on the assumption that Rick Perry would be offered and would accept the Republican vice-presidential position which did not happen and which he may have turned down had it been.
Reality is Rick Perry likes being governor of Texas and at this point he is most likely the choice of Republicans simply because he represents at least 39% of the Texas Republicans and as we saw with John Cornyn even when Republicans don’t particularly like someone they nonetheless go with someone who is already there so to speak.
Rick Perry and his 39% are representative of what I call the Rabid Republicans and they are not going to give up the power they have had for the past eight years easily. Nor are they going to give it up to Kay Bailey Hutchison.
And in the end, the other 61% will fall in line and support what’s already there.
It is delusional to view Texas “turning blue” because of what has happened in Harris and Dallas and Travis counties – reality is Texas is still red and will probably remain red for some time to come.
At best we may see more moderate Republicans in Austin. But they will not include Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Her pom-poms have become too frayed from waving them around in all directions.
** She still intently plans to run but may choose to retain her Senate seat while campaigning.
The reasoning?
Her resignation would enable Perry to appoint a successor who could snipe at her from Washington, essentially putting Hutchison in the middle of a D.C-Austin crossfire. **
I don’t put tons of faith in gossip sourced as “talk in Austin,” but even so, it’s not hard to blast that sort of reasoning.
Pols need to concentrate on the offices they hold, and in most instances should resign them if they desire another office, whether the letter beside their name is D or R.