07.14.09
Gubernatorial cash
So far Democrat Tom Schieffer raised $800,000 and has $450,000+ cash on hand (COH).
Democrat Kirk Watson who has not announced for any statewide office yet, and is rumored to be thinking about running for governor has $1.4 million COH.
The two potential GOP candidates have tons of cash to beat each other up with. Gov. Rick Perry raised $4.2 million and has $9.3 million COH.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has who announced yesterday that she will announce in August raised $6.7 million in the last quarter and has $12.5 million COH.
BOR has much of the recent noise on the governor’s race here. Kuff adds his thoughts, Hutchison announces her intent to announce.
It’s amazing how the conventional wisdom on the KBH Express has changed, isn’t it? Six months ago she was a juggernaut, headed towards a coronation. One successful legislative session for Rick Perry – “successful” in the sense that the economic stimulus package, which he has crapped on regularly while eagerly sticking his hand out for every non-unemployment penny at the same time, saved us all from having to fight over nasty budget cuts – and six months of incompetent, tin-eared campaigning later, and all of a sudden she has a glass chin. We all remember that KBH hasn’t had to win an election against a well-funded opponent since 1994, right? For this reason, I believe that the Democrats will have a strong contender for Governor, whether it’s Kirk Watson, Ronnie Earle, John Sharp, Bill White, Tom Schieffer, or someone we haven’t thought of yet. Someone is going to look at this and say “Heads I get to run against Rick Perry, tails I get to run against whatever’s left of KBH after Perry tears her a new one”. The playing field isn’t what it used to be.
The best thing if we actually do get a KBH v. Perry primary in the governor’s race that means once the primary is over one of those two is out of Texas politics, and that’s a good thing.