(1) She’s running for governor, for sure, probably, maybe, perhaps.
(2) She will resign from the Senate sometime in 2009 to come home and campaign, allowing Rick Perry to appoint her successor. (I have always thought that Tony Garza had the inside track, but there is talk that Garza doesn’t want to do it; he would have to run for the unexpired term in a special election.)
(3) David Dewhurst hasn’t made up his mind whether to take her on in the Republican primary. Dewhurst thinks her vote for the Democrat-backed SCHIP bill is something he can use against Hutchison in a Republican primary. But he also realizes that he would face a backlash from Republican women and independent voters in the general election.
(4) Dewhurst will NOT run for Hutchison’s Senate seat.
(5) Rairoad commissioner Michael Williams and former secretary of state Roger Williams are potential candidates.