02.09.09

Latest on the Texas race for governor

Posted in 2010 Primary, Around The State, Commentary, Election 2010 at 11:13 am by wcnews

It’s likely we will continue to see Kay Bailey Hutchison beat up on Gov. Rick Perry for being insensitive and unchanging when it comes to social issues and join him when it comes to the fiscal mess caused by Bush and the national GOP. As Kuff points out, her vote for the DeMint amendment, while the Senate was debating the stimulus package, is just the thing a Democratic candidate could use against her in a general election.  The reason we need a credible Democratic candidate for Governor, in a nutshell.

In case you missed it, the far right wing Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina offered an amendment to the economic stimulus bill during all the sausage-making last week. Here’s what he proposed:

o Permanently repeal the alternative minimum tax once and for all;
o Permanently keep the capital gains and dividends taxes at 15 percent;
o Permanently kill the Death Tax for estates under $5 million, and cut the tax rate to 15 percent for those above;
o Permanently extend the $1,000-per-child tax credit;
o Permanently repeal the marriage tax penalty;
o Permanently simplify itemized deductions to include only home mortgage interest and charitable contributions.
o Lower top marginal income rates from 35 percent to 25 percent.
o Simplify the tax code to include only two other brackets, 15 and 10 percent.
o Lower corporate tax rate as well, from 35 percent to 25 percent.

[...]

That the Republicans have gone completely crazy, and have turned into a group of utter economic illiterates, is hardly surprising. But note that DeMint’s amendment got Yea votes from 36 of the 41 Republicans in the Senate. Among them is that supposed sensible moderate centrist Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is apparently unwilling to cede the wingnut vote in the GOP primary to Rick Perry. In a just world, a vote like this would be firmly wrapped around her neck, in a nonstop barrage of TV and radio ads, by her eventual Democratic opponent, assuming that she does in fact win her primary. If only such a person existed.

Expect her to make more votes like this between now and next March, by the way. Winning that primary is more important than representing Texas’ best interests. If, as she no doubt hopes, the election will essentially be decided by 600,000 or so voters who don’t really care that much about Texas’ best interests, what has she to lose by acting this way?

Hutchison’s game is to try and brandish her “wingnut” cred as much as she can during the primary and hope GOP primary voters will forgive her for voting for SCHIP and her views on abortion. Then, during the general eleciotn, moving to the middle and highlighting her views that clash with the radicals in her party. Basically the GOP primary will be a wingnut off, whoever get’s the majority of those 600,000 or so votes in March of 2010 wins.  We could have two completely different general election strategies, depending on who wins the GOP primary.

Clay Robison mentions the latest possibility of a Democrat to run for governor in 2010. Tom Schieffer, Form GWB ambassador to Australia and Japan, and little brother of CBS’s Bob Schieffer.

Tom Schieffer of Fort Worth recently returned to Texas after serving as U.S. ambassador to Australia and, more recently, Japan under former President George W. Bush.

Before that, he was president of the Texas Rangers baseball team when Bush was a part owner of the franchise.

Now, figuring out what to do next, Schieffer has been calling friends and associates, weighing a possible race for the Democratic nomination for governor next year.

Yes, Democratic nomination. Before hooking up with Bush, Schieffer, brother of CBS newsman Bob Schieffer, was a Democratic state representative from Fort Worth in the 1970s.

He has been away from Texas politics (and the country) for years and, thanks to his Bush connections, likely would encounter a cool, even hostile, reception from many Democratic voters.

He joins Henry Cisneros and Ronnie Earle as a possibile candidate to run for the Democratic nomination next year. Schieffer, from his Wikipedia page is from the Connally/Bentsen wing of the party.

He grew up in Fort Worth attending public schools, and graduated from Arlington Heights High School in 1966. Schieffer attended the University of Texas at Austin where he majored in government and minored in history, receiving a B.A. degree in 1970 and a masters degree in international relations in 1972. While still in college he worked in the offices of State Senator Don Kennard and Governor John Connally.

[...]

In 1972, at age 25, he was elected as a Democrat to the Texas House of Representatives, where he served three terms before being defeated in 1978.

Schieffer was admitted to the bar in 1979 and became a corporate lawyer in Fort Worth, specializing in the oil and gas industry. At this time he belonged to the conservative wing of the Texas Democratic Party associated with Connally and Senator Lloyd Bentsen. He was the Fort Worth area co-ordinator for Democratic Governor Mark White’s election campaigns.

It’ll be interesting to see what his primary voting record is. And being a former Bush business partner is not going to help him much in a Democratic primary. Being in that “centrist”, pro-business mold, it’s hard to believe he’d  be willing to hammer on Hutchison or Perry in a general election.

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