October 2009

HK: Wannabes frozen in place pending Hutchison resignation

HK: Wannabes frozen in place pending Hutchison resignation

October 9, 2009

Harvey Kronberg

Low talk is the Senator will delay resignation until later in the year

Its been an eventful week in the U.S. Senate race that technically has not yet begun.

Low talk from outside the campaign is that Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison will delay her resignation from the United States Senate until year end for two reasons. First, she does not want to give Governor Perry an opportunity to appoint a surrogate to snipe at her from inside the Senate. Second, although Republican primary voters may not appreciate it, hundreds of millions of dollars in federal appropriations destined for Texas could be put in jeopardy by a vacancy before the end of the term.

If all of this bears out, the inevitable musical chairs is put on hold.Lt. Governor David Dewhurst remains in place which prevents Greg Abbott

from formally announcing for Lite Guv which landlocks Ted Cruz and Dan Branch who lust for a promotion to Susan Combs who has been rumored to be interested in Abbott's job is stuck reporting a drumbeat of bad economic news and Jerry Patterson who is in the rumor mill for an open Comptroller seat is stuck.Todd Staples might want to trade Ag for Land Commission but must keep his powder dry.

Fundraising, endorsements, staffing and all of the details of filing for a primary in 75 days and winning it 90 days later are frozen in place.

Much of this stasis is because the Perry Campaign established the rules of engagement well over a month ago and raised the stakes on the Hutchison resignation by several orders of magnitude. Based on the performance to date, it would be naïve to believe that a Perry appointee to the United States Senate would remain neutral in the Texas governor's race.

So Dewhurst, Abbott, Cruz, Branch, Combs, Patterson and myriad other House and Senate wannabes will simply have to wait.

Meanwhile the candidates to replace the Senator who has not yet resigned have been busy in the campaigns for which they are not yet candidates.

On the Republican side, Lt. Governor Dewhurst announced his campaign team which includes premier Republican pollster Mike Baselice and long time consultants Dresner, Wickers & Associates.

Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams has released a list of more than 6,200 individuals who have signed on to his Leadership team including marquee names like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist and Laura Ingraham to less well known names like the third of SREC members that have joined the cause.

State Senator Florence Shapiro told supporters that she had raised over a million dollars for her U.S. Senate race.

Democrat John Sharp has been all over the state. In recent days, he has announced the endorsements of State Senator Leticia Van de Putte as well as House Local and Consent Chair Senfronia Thompson. Today, he added the significant endorsement of the Houston Black Democrats to his list.

Meanwhile, Houston Mayor Bill White announced the endorsement of members of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus.

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