He was in town having lunch with a friend and I had the opportunity to visit with him. He said that he expected to finish his book on the Bush Administration in the next week or so, and it would be on the spring list. He was very interested in
The Hutchison campaign sent out this broadside against the governor today for his office’s action in demanding the resignations of two Texas Tech regents for their support of Kay Bailey Hutchison: “The message is clear for every single dedicated public servant in Texas: Either pledge support for Rick Perry or
My earlier post, “Missing…,” which dealt with the Hutchison campaign’s daily e-mail, “The Hutchison Huddle,” apparently has caused quite a kerfuffle. To sum up, the gist of the e-mail was that the Perry campaign’s bill signing ceremonies were really campaign appearances and should be paid for by campaign funds. I
…My post about “The Hutchison Huddle,” which I inadvertently deleted. The Hutchison Huddle is a daily collection of e-mail messages from Joe Pounder of the Hutchison campaign. The one that I picked from today’s e-mail read: While Kay Bailey Hutchison is on the campaign trail talking with Texas voters, Rick
Readers may have heard today the “news” that an internal Hutchison poll shows her 17 points down. I received a phone call early Friday morning about it. As it happens, I was meeting several Hutchison operatives for lunch at The Tavern, and I asked them about it, right off the
Why has attendance lagged on the Hutchison announcement tour? For one thing, it’s summer, it’s hot, people aren’t paying attention to politics right now. For another, this campaign couldn’t draw a crowd if you gave them a box of crayons. But I think the biggest reason is that it’s an
Baseball aficionados may recognize the headline as the title of a book by Jimmy Breslin about the 1962 New York Mets, lovable losers of 120 of their 162 games. I was reminded of the book — the title was a quote from Mets’ manager Casey Stengel — by the astonishingly
I confess that I didn’t pay a lot of attention to Dan Patrick’s reelection announcement last week, but one thing struck me as very peculiar. Here are the first three paragraphs of the release: “During the past few weeks there has been speculation I might run for, or be appointed
Senate Republicans continue to have conversations about what to do in the event that (a) Dewhurst resigns his office to run for the Senate, or (b) opts to run for lieutenant governor again. The GOP caucus has three factions. The lines are not set in stone, and, depending on the
I missed this story from the Startlegram on Saturday. The first few paragraphs: No one seems to be mentioning U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, as a candidate to replace outgoing Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. Turns out that Barton — who came in third in the 1993 special
The answer is: No, no, and hell no. What is the upside of resigning? The only advantage is that it gives her more time to campaign in Texas. That is worth something. But the upside of staying is far greater. Perry set out to define the race as Texas (him)
Let's just start out by reviewing what has happened so far. As those who have followed the debate know, $555 million in federal stimulus funds was available for Texas, provided that the Legislature agree to make several changes that increased the number of people who would be eligible for UI
This represents a net six point gain for Perry over the May poll (Perry +4, Hutchison -2). The spread itself is bad enough for the Hutchison camp, but even worse is that Perry has passed her in favorability ratings. This would have been seen as inconceivable at the time Hutchison
Perry’s twelve-point lead is the same as his advantage in last month’s Texas Lyceum poll, which was conducted by the same pollsters — Perry 33, Hutchison 21. Both that poll and this one showed that a large number of voters were undecided or preferred someone else. The Democratic primary results,
[Dated June 22, 2009; italics, bold facing, and ellipses are original] Dear ---- A few weeks ago, I found myself at the center of a national firestorm, and the subject of withering attacks from the left, because I had the nerve to defend the U.S. Constitution. I don't know when
Here are the numbers. Commentary follows. Approval Ratings Obama as president Approve 68% Disapprove 29% Obama economic policy Approve 63% Disapprove 34% Rick Perry Approve 57% Disapprove 30% Kay Bailey Hutchison Approve 65% Disapprove 17% John Cornyn Approve 55% Disapprove 19% Texas Legislature Approve 58% Disapprove 28% Democratic Primary (Governor)
To link to the executive summary of the poll, click here. There’s a lot of meat here, but the issues that I found most interesting were: Perry’s decision to reject unemployment stimulus funds: 58% agree 34% disagree Bank bailouts 25% favor 64% oppose Automobile company bailouts 31% favor
This is the article about the poll on the Rasmussen Web site: Texas Governor Rick Perry and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison find themselves essentially tied in an early look at their 2010 Primary battle. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey shows Perry attracting 42% of the vote
Dear Paul, You have covered me throughout my career in public service to Texas so you remember I was a proud Republican even when we could hold our gatherings in a phone booth. Having helped make the GOP the dominant party in Texas in the late 90s, I am committed
Arlen Specter’s party switch gives new life to the old issue of if and when Hutchison should resign her seat. Now that the Democrats have a filibuster-proof majority, she is no longer under any compulsion to remain in the Senate to prevent the Democrats from passing their agenda. She can
Did you notice what your colleague Arlen Specter had to say today? “I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary. I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election. Since my election
The following e-mail went out to Republican activists, consultants, and Washington media types over the name of Perry campaign guru Dave Carney. Among the recipients were consultant Arthur Finkelstein, representatives of the Club for Growth, Washington Post columnist Chris Cizzilla, and prominent Patton Boggs attorney Benjamin Ginsberg, who represented the
The latest UT poll is good news for Perry, bad news for Hutchison. So much for her 25-point lead in earlier polls. A very large 34% is undecided. In the interviews that I did for the February Texas Monthly cover story about the governor’s race, Perry’s strategists
The main effect of Hans Klingler’s hire is that it is yet another signal from the Hutchison camp that she is in the race for the long haul and no matter how mean it gets. Otherwise, it doesn’t move the needle. Staffers switch jobs all the time. The RPT is
The Capitol gossip machine has worked overtime since Thursday’s explosive Senate Finance hearing, but Chairman Steve Ogden vehemently denies any coordination with the Governor’s office to ambush former UT Regent Robert Rowling. Everyone who hasn’t had a paper sack over their heads knows by now that Dallas billionaire Rowling quit
Here’s what a Hutchison hand told me. (I was driving and talking on my cell phone, so this is the gist of the conversation, not a verbatim rendition.) This is a legislative session in which Perry needs to show that he is a leader who can bring people together and
David Dewhurst’s committee assignments late Friday spotlighted the challenge this session presents for Florence Shapiro, whose interest in running for the U.S. Senate places her in perilous territory vis-a-vis the Texas Senate’s presiding officer, who likewise is considering a relocation to Washington. While Dewhurst’s committee assignments shifted authority from Shapiro
Sure, there are circumstances under which he could regain the speakership. He has $3 million and a loyal core of conservative members who support him. He has time on his hands–nothing to do but make oil deals, raise money, and recruit candidates for 2010. The speaker’s statute is no longer
To: Bill White, John Sharp CC: David Dewhurst, Florence Shapiro, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Roger Williams, Michael Williams, Kay Granger, Greg Abbott, members of the Texas congressional delegation Re: Texas Senate race You folks might want to reconsider your decision to run for the vacancy that will be created when Kay
The Quorum Report today reports that the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call has a story saying that John Cornyn is encouraging Greg Abbott to join the Senate race to serve out the remainder of Kay Bailey Hutchison’s term. I was surprised to see this. Abbott supposedly has ruled out a
It’s probably too late to ask the question, because it appears to have already been answered. With Bill White and John Sharp in the race to serve out the remainder of Kay Bailey Hutchison’s term, no obvious candidate remains to challenge the winner of the primary between Hutchison and Rick
No one should be surprised that Hutchison has a substantial lead over Perry. She has always polled better than he has. What is surprising—according to the Hutchison camp—is that his support among Republican primary voters is down 10% since his 2006 race. (I will ask the Perry forces for their
The poll was conducted by Voter Consumer Research between December 7 and December 9. The telephone survey included 601 general election voters and 466 Republican primary voters. The margin of error for the general election survey was +/- 4.1%, and +/- 4.6% for Republican primary voters. Favorability: * 67% of
In case you think the governor is running for reelection just to keep from being a lame duck, you might want to read this letter that went out to supporters: Message from Texas Gov. Rick Perry: We have only begun to fight Dear Friend, While I was certainly disappointed by
UPDATE: I should have given Roger Williams credit in this writeup for his outstanding performance in the chair on the first day of the 2007 session, when he presided over the speaker’s race. He showed no favoritism and made a crucial ruling, overruling a point of order, that a secret
This is the text of a letter Armey sent dated December 4. During Hutchison’s political career, her commitment to conservative principles has been attacked at various times. The Perry forces have already raised the issue of her support for the bailout, which Perry opposes. Armey’s letter is a preemptive strike.
The former state comptroller announced his candidacy today. He does not plan to form an exploratory committee but will begin raising money immediately. This will be Sharp’s second bite at the Senate apple. In 1992, when Lloyd Bentsen resigned his seat to become Secretary of the Treasury in the first
OK, so maybe he hasn’t “posted” any “updates” on Kay Bailey Hutchison’s exploratory committee, but I did catch Burka in the hall to do a video with me to at least talk about the interview he had with her yesterday. And I’m all, yesterday? She never returns my calls. In
Current speculation is sooner rather than later. The reason: The longer she stays, the greater the chances that she will have to cast votes on controversial issues. It took Rick Perry about a nanosecond after she voted for the bailout bill to come out against it. The Perry camp has
It makes sense. Having presided over the decline of the Republican party in Texas, she has the experience to take her expertise to the national level. The source is Marc Ambinder’s generally excellent blog for the Atlantic Monthly. Here is the complete text: More dispatches from
Speculation is rampant that the Dew has set his sights on the U.S. Senate rather than run for reelection. Since Kay Bailey Hutchison’s seat will not be vacant until she resigns, probably in June, Dewhurst must hope that Perry appoints him to fill the vacancy. As everybody knows, they haven’t
Last week I met a lobbyist, a close friend of Governor Rick Perry’s, for lunch. As it happened, I pulled into a parking place right behind his truck. In a nanosecond, I lost my appetite. There on his bumper sticker was an “R,” styled to represent a brand, with wavy
“The government didn’t understand the importance of saying to us, ‘This is a war for freedom every bit as much as World Wars I and II.’”
“Texas is a huge, growing state on a border. We have some very basic issues that need addressing, and I don’t think they’re being addressed right now.”
Is Kay Bailey Hutchison plotting a run for Governor? And other questions about Texas politics in the new millennium.
After years of maintaining perfect public composure, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison now wears her ambition on her sleeve.
Did Kay Bailey Hutchison do what she’s accused of—or did Democratic Party officials hatch a conspiracy to get her?
