Concerned Citizens

There has been a lot of speculation about who will run in 2010 for governor of Texas. Governor Perry is definitely running for re-election, aiming to continue his streak of longest serving governor of the state. Kay Bailey Hutchison has launched an exploratory committee and has loaned the committee $1 million to fund the exploration. She was in Austin on Saturday and announced a list of supporters for her candidacy that included some old and new GOP names. Paul Burka goes into an in depth analysis in this month’s Texas Monthly about the red side of the ticket. So that sets up the GOP side, sort of. But what about the Democrats?

Much of the discussion about a Democratic candidate has been centered around the lack of a good one and the challenge of beating KBH if she wins the GOP primary. Several candidates have been mentioned such as State Rep. Raphael Anchia and State Sen. Leticia Van De Putte.  However none really have the statewide recognition to carry the race or the ticket. Two candidates that do have the name recognition, Bill White and John Sharp, have announced their intentions for the US Senate seat should KBH run for governor. The question is whether KBH is vulnerable and able to be beaten by a Democrat should she win the primary.

Today Karl-Thomas Musselman posted an excellent analysis at the Burnt Orange Report of several scenarios providing a good possible path to defeating the Big Hairdo if she does beat Perry in the primary. In it he lays out options where a good Democratic candidate in the primary could eat away cross-over votes that typically happen during the primary and deprive Hutchison of the moderate support she would need to beat Perry.

This is significant in that Texas is slowly turning more moderate in voter demographics and a race against Perry seems more likely to be won than a race against Hutchison. Perry is pretty conservative and courts the religious vote heavily in his stances. After the showing of Obama in Texas and the victories by Democrats in the House and Senate it is apparent that Texas is not the same as when Perry started his reign as governor over a decade ago. In other words, the time may be ripe for Democrats to take back the office if the right candidate is offered in 2010.

With regards to Van De Putte one option offered by one of the commenters in KT’s piece suggested a possible run for Lieutenant Governor, a move I think would be great in setting her up for the statewide list. It would provide her with the name recognition she would desperately need for a candidacy as governor. Another mention was Ron Kirk, newly appointed US Trade Representative. Likewise his term of office as the Trade Rep could help set him up for a future run as governor, just not in 2010.