Evan Smith says not everyone whom Kay Bailey Hutchison says is supporting her for Governor is actually supporting her for Governor.
Ever since Kay Bailey Hutchison semi-kicked-off her race for governor in Austin a couple of Saturdays ago, I’ve been hearing from people not connected with the Perry campaign that several of the folks on her now-famous list of supporters were not, in fact, committed to her campaign. One such uncommitted soul, former Austin mayor Roy Butler, approached me at a gala for UT’s Blanton Museum on Saturday night and explained that he’s been a donor to both Kay and Rick — has had fundraisers for both, in fact — and never intended to take sides in the primary. He couldn’t believe his name was used, he said, without being asked first.
There were two other possibilities as well, though neither could be confirmed sufficiently to be named. In a sense, this is a small thing – nobody really cares, or is likely to vote for KBH or Rick Perry, based on whether or not Roy Butler was planning to vote for one or the other. But claiming to have someone’s support when you don’t, especially if it starts to look like a pattern rather than a one-off mistake, is the sort of thing that can make an otherwise undecided voter turn against you. And you can be sure if there’s anything to this (and likely even if there isn’t), Rick Perry will club her with it. So keep an eye on this, because it could easily turn into the kind of “candidate stumbles” narrative that the press loves about putative frontrunners.