Posts
Gov. Rick Perry cruised to a victory tonight in a three-way Republican primary fight, crushing Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and setting the stage for a run for a third full term this fall.
Hutchison conceded the race just before 9:30 pm local time with Perry holding a steady 20-plus point lead and just over the 50 percent barrier he needed to avoid a runoff. Debra Medina, an underfunded candidate backed by some within the Tea Party movement, finished a distant third.
"We have fought valiantly for our principals but we did not win," Huchison said in her concession.
On the Democratic side, former Houston Mayor Bill White crushed hair care magnate Farouk Shami to secure his party's nomination for governor.
Both parties wasted little time in starting the general election. The Democratic Governors Association released a memo -- before the polls had even closed -- entitled "Why Democrats can win Texas that touted White as an "outsider who can bring people together" while portraying Perry in the Republican primary as having "sprinted to the far right."
The Republican Governors Association quickly responded. "Once Texans get a clear picture of Bill White's liberal record, I think they will collectively say, 'Houston, we have a problem,'" said RGA executive director Nick Ayers.
Perry's victory completes a remarkable political comeback. Following his 2006 re-election with just 39 percent of the vote in a four-way field , he was widely regarded as a political lame duck. And, when Hutchison, who had passed on a challenge to Perry in 2006, made clear she would run in 2010 many Republican observers though the governor's time had come.
But, Perry, as he has done repeatedly in his political career, overperformed those low expectations in the primary campaign -- taking the fight to Hutchison from the start and successfully portraying her as part of the problem in Washington. Perry was an early adopter of the Tea Party movement, grasping that the passion contained within the group could be harnessed for political gain.
"There is a real movement afoot in our country," Perry said way back in May 2009. "There is a legitimate tempest that is brewing across this country."
Hutchison did herself no favors, struggling to adapt to a political environment that had turned sharply against Washington. (For more on what Hutchison did wrong -- and why -- read our pre-bituary of her campaign written last week.)
It remains to be seen whether Hutchison will make good on her oft-repeated pledge that she would resign her Senate seat regardless of the outcome in the governor's race. If she does resign, Perry would have the ability to appoint a temporary successor with a special election to fill the remaining two years on her term would likely be held in November.
No comments:
Post a Comment