Rick Perry Trumps Kay Bailey Hutchinson In Texas Primary, GOP Nod

Rick Perry Trounces Hutchison In Texas Primary


Gov. Rick Perry won a decisive victory over Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Texas GOP primary for governor Tuesday night, bringing a bruising fight between two of the state's most popular Republicans to an anti-climactic conclusion.

Perry said his win should send a message to Washington.

"Quit spending all the money, stop trying to take over our lives and our businesses," he said in a speech that seemed aimed as much as the Obama White House as his Democratic opponent Bill White.

Hutchison acknowledged that it was natural to have some lingering hard feelings after a tough fought primary in the trenches, but asked all of her supporters to unite behind Perry.

"That is what will be best for all of us and for Texas. Our party must come together," she said at her election night watch party in Dallas.

"We have fought valiantly for our principles, but we did not win," she said.

With 73 percent of all precincts reporting, Perry had a 51 percent to 31 percent lead over the three-term senior senator. Debra Medina, a favorite of Tea Party activists, was holding steady at 18 percent.

A Hutchison aide conceded that in the unlikely event Perry's vote share dropped below the 50 percent threshold necessary to avoid a runoff, there was "no realistic path to victory."

At Perry's election night party held at a BBQ restaurant outside of Austin, the mood was confident and relaxed from the start, as upbeat supporters listened to a country band, sipped canned beer and gathered around flat screen televisions that featured returns from the secretary of state's website.

Moments after most of the polls closed, the Associated Press declared former Houston Mayor Bill White as the winner of the Democratic nomination. With 65 percent of precincts reporting, White was trouncing businessman Farouk Shami 75 percent to 13 percent.

The Democratic Governors Association immediately began making the case that White could make the general election competitive.

"Rick Perry is our nation's longest serving Republican governor and yet he barely won 50 percent of the vote in his own primary. We need no more evidence to know that this is not a pro-Republican electorate," DGA Executive Director Nathan Daschle said in a statement. "It's an electorate that wants results over rhetoric, optimism over pessimism, and success over secession."

In his victory speech in Houston, White offered an olive branch to those Republicans who supported Hutchison or Medina.

"We invite those who supported other candidates to join our team, which consists of citizens from all backgrounds and both parties. We are committed to honest, competent, decentralized and accountable government. We believe that more unites than divides Texans," White said.

Texas GOP chair Cathie Adams cast Perry's win as "a vote against what Barack Obama is doing to this country."

"Everything he's doing is wrong. It's the private sector and only the private sector that can right the economy and create jobs," Adams said, adding, "Governor Perry knows that, Washington does not."

In the 17th Congressional District GOP primary, Bill Flores led the five-man pack but fell well short of the 50 percent threshold necessary to avoid a runoff and will face 2008 nominee Rob Curnock on April 13.

Flores lead Curnock 35 to 28 percent with 83 percent of all precincts reporting. The winner gets a shot at Rep. Chet Edwards, who captured just 53 percent in 2008 in his Waco-based district two years ago.

Rep. Ciro Rodriguez another leading Democratic target, will also have to wait until next month to discover his Republican opponent. Businessman Quico Canseco holds a narrow 36 to 30 percent lead over former CIA officer Will Hurd; both look headed to a runoff.

In most cases, Republican congressmen easily disposed of Tea Party-oriented challenges.

Rep. Ron Paul dismissed any concerns about his vulnerability in the 14th Congressional District, topping three Tea Party-powered opponents with 81 percent.

In the northeast Texas-based 4th Congressional District, with 65 percent of precincts reporting, 86-year-old Rep. Ralph Hall was also declared the winner, but with just 58 percent—the poorest performance of any Texas incumbent. Technology executive Steve Clark pulled in almost 30 percent, not nearly enough to force Hall into a runoff.


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Sources: Politico, KXAN, Youtube, Google Maps

Rick Perry vs Kay Bailey Hutchison: Time For Kay To Sit Down

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Rick Perry Taps Into Fear Of Washington



Bob McDonnell, Chris Christie and Scott Brown scored recent Republican victories by singing from the same political hymnal: focusing on kitchen-table issues, criticizing Washington without demeaning the president and keeping their distance from the GOP’s most polarizing figures. Their strategies resounded in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts and won plaudits from GOP establishment voices as the way to win in the Obama era.

Meanwhile, Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry has embraced the cause of state sovereignty, suggested his famously independent state could secede from the union, deemed the president a socialist and, last month in Houston, happily stood by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s side to receive her endorsement.

As Texas Republicans go to the polls for the state’s gubernatorial primary, Perry’s approach seems to be paying dividends. He enjoys a wide lead in polls over his chief primary opponent, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, and the only real question that remains is whether he can crest the 50 percent needed to avoid a run-off in his quest for a third full term.

Unlike the trio of recently successful statewide Republicans, Perry’s positioning has, notably, taken place within a GOP primary in a deep-red state where conservatives make up much of the electorate.

But if McDonnell, Christie and Brown harnessed tea party energy while mostly sticking to safe scripts, Perry has become the first prominent Republican to make the movement’s fears about a Washington leviathan central to his candidacy.

His success against the once seemingly formidable Hutchison illustrates both the political opportunity and danger at the moment for Republicans. The Perry message, in which the federal government wants to redistribute wealth and foist a radical agenda on states, plainly resonates among right-leaning voters who don’t just oppose Obama but are downright afraid of him.

Already, White is training his fire at Perry and making the case that the Republican has hurt himself with swing voters by moving to the right to dispatch Hutchison.

It’s a view held by some Hutchison supporters, as well.

“I think he’s pandering to a certain wing of the party,” said Kelly Moreno of Plano, a Republican who after hearing Hutchison speak Sunday afternoon complained that the governor wasn’t addressing issues of education and transportation.

Appearing in the back of a burger joint in Plano, part of the sprawling Dallas metroplex, the senator herself raised the issue of general election viability.

“I will be the better nominee for our party,” she said to about 50 supporters, arguing that she could help the GOP regain ground they’ve lost in recent years among suburban voters in places like Dallas and Houston.

But, having been conditioned to avoid being portrayed as a moderate, Hutchison declined to make the case explicitly in talking with reporters and instead resorted to more vague language.

“The difference is in our record and how we treat people,” she said in a press availability that clocked just over three minutes. “I’m a conservative, and I help people and I work with people, and I don’t posture against Washington at the same time I’m taking their money.”

Pressed, she again cited her “good record of working with people.”

If Perry has shrewdly zeroed in on the mood of the conservative grass roots, Hutchison has blundered terribly in judging the primary electorate.

She never resigned from the Senate to focus on the governor’s race, as she said she was going to do, making her an easier target to paint as a creature of the dreaded Beltway. And as Perry played to the right-wing with his secession talk, Hutchison managed to underscore her establishment credentials by rolling out endorsements from the likes of former Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former President George H.W. Bush.

Speaking to the crowd of GOP activists two days before the primary, she sounded as if she were already in the general election. She decried the state’s high school dropout rate, said she wanted to lift up teachers and touted her many newspaper endorsements — not exactly the stuff that excites the conservative base of the party.

Meanwhile, Perry keeps tossing rhetorical red meat to Republicans convinced their very way of life is threatened by Obama and congressional Democrats.

“We don’t want Washington bureaucrats telling us how to educate our children; we don’t want Washington bureaucrats telling us how to deliver health care,” Perry told supporters in Beaumont on Monday via telephone (Bad weather prevented him from making the trip.).

Asked about border control after a rally in Houston later in the day, he began the same way: “Washington’s been an abject failure.”

White is sure to try to take advantage of Perry’s penchant for such sweeping broadsides should the two meet in a general election. But he may be four years too late. In 2006, Perry captured just 39 percent of the vote in a four-way race against weak opposition.

But in a state where Obama’s approval rating among independents is, according to one recent survey, 19 percent, the governor’s bombast may not represent as much of a political risk.

“You can go to any place in Texas and ask, ‘Is the federal government overreaching?’” said Dave Carney, Perry’s chief consultant. “It’s a conservative state.”

Just how conservative, and how wide the fear of Washington runs, is likely to be determined in November.

“This administration and this Congress have scared people; they’ve overreached,” Perry said in an interview at a charter terminal here before beginning a final fly-around the state Monday. He depicted the Democrats as saying, “’We will make all decisions centralized in Washington, D.C. — on health care, on energy policy, on education. Those are the ones we just know about now.”

Of Obama, Perry says flatly: “I think he has socialist beliefs.”

To hear the governor tell it, the policies being pursued at the federal level pose nothing less than a fundamental threat to ability of states to determine their own fates. And, he said, the alarm was being sounded by the people.

“I suggested this last week: More people read the U.S. Constitution in the last 6 months than in the last 50 years,” he offered. “That may be a little bit of hyperbole, but it may not.”

Such talk has lifted Perry, who once trailed badly to Hutchison in early polling, and made him an influential voice for grass-roots conservatives uneasy about what they see as the looming encroachment of the federal government.

Yet While Perry’s dire warnings about the 10th Amendment may appeal to the segment of the electorate that watches Fox News and listens to Rush Limbaugh, it remains an open question how it will sell with general election voters worried about the more typical fare that decides governor’s races — the economy, roads and schools.

Officially, Perry won’t discuss his game plan for the general election —“You’ll have to wait until this fall” — but it seems likely that he’ll be talking up how the state has become a haven for relocating businesses rather than crusading for states’ rights.

“I think my path to victory is my record,” he said.

Should he, as expected, win the GOP nomination, Perry will almost certainly face White, a business-friendly Democrat who has raised more than $9 million to date and offers his party perhaps its best chance to capture the governor’s office in 15 years.


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Fort Hood Shootings Now Leaves 12 Dead, 31 Wounded...Conspiracy, Terrorism, Anger Over Afghan War

Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R) is horrified over the Fort Hood shootings.

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Violent activity continues at Fort Hood.

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Gunmen reportedly opened fire at Fort Hood, Texas, killing at least 7 people and injuring 20 others. NBC's Brian Williams reports

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U.S. Army says 12 dead, 31 injured at Fort Hood


At least one U.S. soldier opened fire Thursday at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 12 people and wounding 31 others, military officials said.

One gunman was shot to death, and two other soldiers were in custody, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone told reporters. It was not immediately known whether the victims were all soldiers or civilians, but Cone said at least one of those killed was a civilian police officer and NBC affiliate KCEN-TV of Waco reported that at least four SWAT officers were among those wounded.

Fort Hood, one of the largest military complexes in the world, was on lockdown, as were schools in the area.

Cone gave no further details on the dead gunman. A senior administration official told NBC News analyst Roger Cressey that one of the suspects who was in custody was an Army major.

The official said the shootings could have been a criminal matter rather than a terrorism-related attack and that there was no intelligence to suggest a plot against Fort Hood.

Shootings at two sites

A spokesman for Fort Hood said the shootings took place at two locations around 1:30 p.m.: the Soldiers Readiness Processing Center and Howze Theater.

The spokesman, Sgt. Major Jamie Posten, said processing center was where soldiers “cycle through as they prepare to deploy.” That complex is on the West side of post, off Battalion Avenue.

Greg Schannep, an aide to Rep. John Carter, R-Texas, who was on the post to attend a graduation service, told the Austin American-Statesman that a soldier with blood on his uniform ran past him and said a man was shooting.

Agents of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were on their way to the post, federal officials said.

Fort Hood is adjacent to Killeen, about 60 miles northeast of Austin. The sprawling complex is home to at least 4,929 active-duty officers and 45,414 enlisted. Civilian employees total nearly 9,000.

The Temple Independent School District was on a “soft” lockdown. Parents were asked to pick their children up at the normal times, although they could experience delays.

A spokesman for the Army, Lt. Col. Lee M. Packnett, said he was unaware whether security measures were put in place at other military bases. A spokesman at Fort Lewis, Wash., said the incident was being treated as isolated.

President Barack Obama was briefed on the shootings, press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Sara Kuban said officials from several federal agencies are still collecting information on the shootings. "Because this is early in this event, we cannot at this time confirm motives behind these shootings," she said.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, said in a statement: “I am shocked and saddened by today’s outburst of violence at Fort Hood that has cost seven of our brave service members their lives and has gravely injured others. My heart goes out to their loved ones.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign spokesperson said the governor was in Denton, scheduled to attend a campaign event, when word of the shooting occurred. There was no word on whether he had left Denton or whether he was headed to Fort Hood.

Milly Land, who works at the base fitness center, said she was headed for the graduation ceremony at 2 p.m. at the Howze Theater when the campus was locked down. She went back to the fitness center. She said she spoke by phone with friends at the soldier processing center, who said a gunman walked in about 1:30, walked to the medical area of the processing center, and started shooting. A second gunman was shooting at the theater next door, she said.

Fort Hood has seen other violence in recent years. In September 2008, a 21-year-old 1st Cavalry Division soldier shot his lieutenant to death and then killed himself. Spc. Jody Michael Wirawan of Eagle River, Alaska, shot himself to death after shooting 1st Lt. Robert Bartlett Fletcher, 24, of Jensen Beach, Fla. to death.



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Sources: KCEN, MSNBC, Google Maps