News 8
Hutchison plans to stay put in Senate during primary run 
07:25 PM CST on Friday, November 13, 2009
DALLAS — Kay Bailey Hutchison announced Friday she will not resign from the U.S. Senate while she runs for governor in the Republican primary against Gov. Rick Perry.
Her surprising decision came on the same day a new Rasmussen poll shows her 11 points behind Perry among GOP primary voters. Perry has 46 percent in that survey.
With just three months until early voting starts for the primary, the poll indicates a campaign that's in trouble.
Hutchison's moving target on resignation — "perhaps this fall" and then "after the health care bill was finished" — made her look indecisive.
With a health care vote in the Senate perhaps now delayed to January, Hutchison hinted to the Texas Tribune in Austin late Friday morning another shift in plans.
"I have had to reassess and look at what is the most important thing for me to do, and I'm in that process right now," she said.
"The big mistake was in vacillating," said Paul Burka, who covers politics for Texas Monthly. "And that just looked like again that they didn't know what they were doing."
With the resignation question resolved, Hutchison still needs a message to compare with Perry's, which is: Washington is the problem and the economy is relatively better in Texas under his leadership.
"There's never been a coherent strategy that you could pick up from the Hutchison operation, whereas the Perry operation has a very coherent strategy," Burka said.
The Perry campaign says it appreciates Hutchison taking the governor's advice for finally making a decision to stay in Washington.
Hutchison will elaborate on her decision in an appearance in Galveston on Saturday.
But amid signs of a campaign searching for direction, Hutchison said late Friday afternoon she will stay in the Senate through the primary and resign sometime next year — regardless of whether she wins the GOP nomination for governor.
Hutchison said there is too much going on in Washington to quit now.
Burka agrees, saying that resigning as the state's senior senator made no sense.
E-mail bwatson@wfaa.com
