Waiting for the Hutchison ad
I had a conversation with John Sharp this afternoon. Sharp said that White’s first preference has always been to run for governor. What had kept him out of the governor’s race was the prospect that Hutchison would win the primary, leaving White to face the most popular figure in Texas politics, which she was, by a large margin, a year ago. As the Hutchison campaign began to implode and suffer from intellectual paralysis in the late summer and throughout the fall, everyone, including the White team, began to wonder whether the campaign could possibly be this bad. If there was any life to the Hutchison candidacy, it would appear in her first media spot. The spot, of course, turned out to be an utter disaster: no sign of intelligent life here. That was Friday. I don’t think it was any coincidence that, before the sun had set, White had moved his chief of staff to his campaign staff. Without Hutchison as a threat, the decision to run for governor was an easy one.
Tagged: bill white, John Sharp, kay bailey hutchison.





formerly says:
Sounds like Sharp is breathing easier. He still wont win the special. The D’s need to field new candidates to win.
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Anonymous says:
I still want to know, Paul, are Hutchison’s political advisors and consultants as bad as they appear to be? While Hutchison has to take ultimate responsibility for her own campaign, is what we have seen the result of her controlling the campaign process? Or the result of her consultants doing a really lousy job?
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Anonymous says:
Answer to Anon at 7:59: Both!
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Anonymous Reply:
November 24th, 2009 at 7:20 am
I want more than just, “Both.” That’s the easy way out…are the consultants really that bad?
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Anonymous says:
Coming from Sharp, that sounds a little too convenient. Maybe it’s true or maybe it’s not, but I wouldn’t consider Sharp to be a reliable source. Not only does he have reason to say it, he also has reason to believe it, whether or not it is true.
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your nuts says:
Those ads were realy bad. No one could look at them and think yeah that’s the ticket let’s run that spot. That said KBH and Ray (either before 5pm or after since its 5pm somewhere in the world) are way too controlling. They want to keep every option open to them even at the expense of the overall objective. She will never put her heart into a race she knows she lost.
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Tim D. says:
Where is Paul Hobby these days?
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Jamie says:
Why is KBH even still running? She has become the biggest joke around right now. Just drop out and save face, already.
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Anonymous says:
Yes, she is going to martyr herself and “do the right thing for Texas” by staying in Washington to fight Obama and the Democrats. But as another commenter recently pointed out…exactly who does she think she’s fooling (aside from herself, maybe)? It’s pretty obvious that whomever Perry appointed to replace her was going to be a Republican parrot (”No, no, no, no, no.” They learned well from Nancy Reagan.). And Texas is not going to elect a Dem senator unless Perry makes a stupid appointment, so what exactly is it that you’re doing for us, Kay? And who are you really doing it for? Duh.
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Bill Justice says:
About time Texas Democrats had a Real candidate for Governor. Not since Ann Richards, have Texas Democrats had a reason to get excited. Bill White will run a very strong campaign that should beat Ranger Rick, who needs to collect his state pension already.
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Briscoe Democrat Reply:
November 24th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Bill Justice, you seem to forget that 2010 is likely a REPUBLICAN YEAR which means Perry will benefit in the general election against White and use Obama as a cancer around the Houston Mayor’s neck every chance he gets.
Kay will lose the primary by 10 points, resign her Senate seat (since she plans to quit anyway after March 2nd) and go away FOREVER.
Her chance was in 2006 and she chickened out.
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