Congressional Quarterly rates the 2010 governor’s race as “leans Republican.” The hierarchy of rankings is: Safe Republican Republican Favored Leans Republican No Clear Favorite This is the writeup on the race: A Republican battle of the titans in the 2010 primary for governor — between Republican incumbent Rick Perry and veteran U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison –- has taken on an air of inevitability. The clash would seem a luxury that the nationally beleaguered Republicans could afford only in a state such as Texas, where the GOP has had a strong partisan grip since the rise of George W. Bush in the early 1990s. Perry, a conservative, moved up from lieutenant governor in late 2000 to succeed Bush after the latter’s election as president. Perry won his first full term rather routinely in 2002, but in 2006 had to battle through a four-candidate general election to win his current term. He recently racheted up his rhetoric in an appeal to the conservative Republican base, telling a “tea party” rally in April that he could understand the sentiments of some conservatives — disaffected by what they viewed as abuses of power by the federal government — who suggested that Texas should secede from the union. Hutchison, though her record during her 16 years in the Senate is mainly conservative, has been more moderate than Perry on some matters, especially social issues such as abortion rights. Though she is still in a exploratory campaign phase, she transferred $8 million in late December to her governor’s race campaign account. She has not refuted the possibility that she might resign from the Senate later this year to focus on the governor’s race. Democrats hope that a brutal primary battle between Perry and Hutchison might create an opportunity for them. One Democrat eyeing the race is Tom Schieffer, a former state representative and business partner of George W. Bush whose older brother is television journalist Bob Schieffer. The possibility that there could be a special election to fill Hutchison’s Senate seat may be more intriguing to the state’s relatively short bench of potential top-tier statewide Democratic candidates. (Primary: March 2, 2010) Just how much does CQ know about Texas politics? In its summary of recent elections, CQ posts the results of the 2004 Senate race: Rick Perry 39% Chris Bell 29% Of course, there was no Senate race in Texas in 2004. This is the result of the 2006 governor’s race.