Saturday, January 15, 2011

Kay Bailey Bails



So apparently if Kay Bailey Hutchison can’t be governor of Texas she doesn’t want to do any more public service. Kay, you see, announced yesterday that she wasn’t going to run for re-election to her US Senate seat in 2012.

Coming as this has on the heels of a most acrimonious primary challenge this past year, that is the only thing you can conclude. Hutchison was flip-flopping in the press on a weekly basis. First she was going to leave office early to run for governor, then she was going to leave office even if she wasn’t nominated in the primary, then she was going to stay in office. Now she is leaving the office when her term expires.

This had some bad effects on the Democratic side early last year because her early announcement affected Bill White’s campaign to run to replace her and he had to shift gears when that prospect dried up and run for governor, seriously affecting the Hank Gilbert campaign for governor, and Hank shifted to run for Ag Commish again.

This time her announcement has statewide Republican office holders all roiled up. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, widely known to covet a federal office, has announced that he fully intends “to explore running for US Senate,” which is politicalese for yes, he’s running.

But Dewhurst is but one who is interested. Railroad Commissioners Michael Williams and Elizabeth Ames Jones are both interested. Williams will be the Tea Party’s fave. Also former Texas SecState Roger Williams, who sells cars for a living, has a spot on the primary ballot all picked out.

Democrats are going to have a problem running for this office because unlike Republicans, Democrats have no statewide officeholders so getting someone with some name-recognition is going to be a problem in this huge state with 5 major media markets.. And from what I read at the Dallas Morning News, it looks like neither Bill White, nor Ron Kirk, two of the most likely Democratic candidates are even considering running for Senate.

But so far, no one is asking Kinky Friedman what he will do.

Geez, I wonder why.

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