Texas Senator Says She Won’t Seek Re-Election in 2012
WASHINGTON _ Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, set off a firestorm Tuesday by confirming in a very direct, public way that she will not serve beyond her 2012 term and signaled what most political observers already suspected: She’s preparing a run for governor that may mean a Senate retirement in 2009.
“What I have said and what I said during the campaign is that I would not be interested in seeking re-election in 2012, so there’s nothing new there,” Hutchison said, trying to downplay the reaction to a Texas Monthly blog interview posted Friday. “I have talked before about the possibility of running for governor. I have made no decision.”
Hutchison’s conversations with reporters in the Capitol Tuesday essentially set off the beginning of a governor’s race, although she stopped short of an announcement.
“Well the question was `do I expect to leave in 2009′ and the answer is I have not made a decision, I have made no decisions, but looking at 2010 the governor’s race is an option, that has been speculated on before, and I hold it out as an option, but I haven’t made any decision about 2010 or any thing that would happen in that time frame.”
Asked again if she would resign to make the governor’s race in 2010, she said, “That is an option but I have made no decision at all. I could serve out the term in 2010, through 2012. I could serve through 2010, that has been done before, I just haven’t made a decision, and I think everything, there’s just too much talk about it right now because it’s so far away. And I think that anyone in politics that talks about anything three years out is probably not very experienced in politics.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, asked about Hutchison’s potential race, said, “She’ll make a great governor.”
Saying he was not surprised by her interest, he said, “she’s been talking about it, at least privately, for a long time.”
Several insiders in Texas said Hutchison is sending a clear sign that she intends to run for governor in 2010. She had sent similar signals heading into the 2006 cycle, only to beg off a challenge to incumbent Republican Rick Perry and instead seek another term in the Senate.
“I think she’s trying to clear the field in the governor’s race by saying, `I’m in it for real this time,’” said Democratic operative Kelly Fero. “I think it’s also clear that she’s not going to serve our her time.”
Hutchison has two young children she adopted five years ago with her husband Ray and is known to be looking for a more family-friendly environment.
Republican consultant Bryan Eppstein, a longtime adviser to Hutchison, said the senator is simply responding to Texans who’d like to see her return to political scene in Austin.
“The Texas Monthly interview only confirms that everywhere across the state, Texas voters are informally drafting KBH to run for governor in 2010,” he said.
Perry, meanwhile, has not ruled out seeking an unprecedented third four-year term _ which would come on top of the two years he served in the Governor’s Mansion to complete President Bush’s unexpired term. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a Republican, has also expressed interest in running for the top post in 2010.
Hutchison was re-elected in 2006. She first won her Senate seat in a special election in 1993 succeeding former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Texas.
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