This is bad?
Sen. John Cornyn is worried that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is going to retire early this fall to run for Governor, but I’m missing the problem here (via Political Wire):
“My guess,” he told Texas reporters at his Senate office today, is that Hutchison will resign “this fall sometime.”
That would allow Perry to appoint an interim senator and allow a special election to take place in May 2010 instead of this November (which would happen if she resigned this spring or summer).
It seems pretty simple:
- Hutchison resigns.
- Governor Perry appoints Texas Railroad Commissioner* Michael Williams to be interim Senator.
- Williams wins the special election.
Come on, Senator Cornyn. This isn’t exactly rocket science.
Moe Lane
*An elected position in Texas that actually oversees energy issues (gotta love agenda drift, huh?); Michael Williams has been elected to the position three times, and there are Republicans all over Texas who are jumping up and down at the prospect of getting to vote for him for Senator. Here’s some footage of him from the last convention:
…and from the Texas Convention:
Crossposted to RedState.
I think the issue is that KBH may be opening a whole can of worms, and a few months of incumbency is not a guarantee against a well-funded and well-regarded Bill White, with the huge city of Houston mostly behind him. A special election with potentially several Republican candidates, including well-funded ones like David Dewhurst and/or Greg Abbott, could throw a wrench into the mix, assuming Perry appointed Michael Williams. They would split up the vote and give a Democrat a chance to sneak in.
Why doesn’t KBH just finish her term, retire, and not split the party? Then Republicans could go through a normal primary process and maintain an advantage heading into the general election.
TC,
Moe is right. Michael Williams will get the appointment. Abbott is running for Lt. Governor, whether it’s open or not. Dewhurst will have a tough decision to make: face reelection to his current job, which would be far from assured. Or attempt to knock off the conservative, Republican U.S. Senator who also happens to be black. Tough call for DD. Methinks he’s left without a chair.
Cornyn’s worried, because then he doesn’t get to support a liberal for the seat, and the Senate might move to the right, ever so slightly. Can’t have that on his watch at the NRSC.