US Senate

Houston Mayor Bill White will announce on Monday that he intends to run for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's (R-Dallas) anticipated vacant U.S. Senate seat, "reasonably reliable sources" told the Quorum Report late Thursday.

White, a favorite among Houston voters and likely the most high-profile Democratic candidate statewide, was debating between running for the U.S. Senate or for Texas governor. But he admitted that issues of "energy policy" were his passion, and Democratic consultants this week agreed that hint seemed to point toward the U.S. Senate.

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National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn has announced two new staff hires.

Cornyn announced today that Dorinda Moss will serve as Finance Director at the committee. Moss is a former finance staffer for American Solutions for Winning the Future. Moss also worked on Fred Thompson’s 2004 presidential campaign.

"I'm honored to have Dorinda join the top-notch team we are assembling at the NRSC as we work to recapture a Republican majority. From the private sector to the political sector, she brings a wealth of senior-level finance experience to this position. Bridging the gap in the financial advantage our Democratic counterparts have enjoyed the last two cycles is absolutely critical to our efforts to win back Republican Senate seats, and it will be among my highest priorities," Cornyn said in a statement.

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In his latest fundraising appeal, Texas Gov. Rick Perry didn't call out his likely 2010 Republican primary opponent, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Dallas), by name. But he managed to attack her by nearly every other method.

While parts of the letter targeted Democrats, Perry referenced battling some "within our midst." A Perry spokesman had previously called Hutchison as "Democrat Lite," and Perry himself used the phrase in his letter.

"We're not just battling the Democrats' liberal vision for America, but some within our midst who want to chart a course that is Democrat Lite Republican in name, Democrat in priorities," Perry wrote.

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The near consensus in the Texas political world is that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Dallas) will resign her U.S. Senate seat in 2009 and focus on a 2010 gubernatorial bid against Texas Gov. Rick Perry. But the more intriguing question may be if she officially resigns her seat by Sept. 28, 2009.

If or when Hutchison resigns, Perry would immediately appoint a successor. However, as PolitickerTX.com has previously reported, a special election would be held soon after in which a number of candidates from both parties would compete against each other. Just how soon is the key question, especially for Houston Mayor Bill White.

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Two Texas state senators sent a letter Thursday to Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, blasting the DSCC for its lack of financial support for state Rep. Rick Noriega's (D-Houston) U.S. Senate bid against John Cornyn (R-Houston).

"The DSCC's decision is shameful and disgraceful, and we will do everything we can to prevent this disrespect from happening again," Sens. Mario Gallegos (D-Houston) and Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio) wrote in the letter. "For the face of the US Senate to represent the true face of America, we must all work together to invest in quality candidates such as Rick Noriega, not take a walk when our candidate is not a member of the millionaires club." Read More >

WASHINGTON – With Illinois now possibly headed to a special election to determine the holder of President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate seat, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn isn’t yet willing to say publicly that he’s begun to reach out to potential Republican candidates, but he’s perfectly happy to play coy.

“Well, I probably wouldn’t be talking to you about that if I was,” a smiling Cornyn told PolitickerTX.com Wednesday afternoon when asked if he had begun to reach out to would-be candidates.

Obama’s seat had been all but guaranteed to stay in the Democratic column until Tuesday, when Ill. Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested for trying to sell Obama’s seat to the highest bidder. U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Illinois legislative leaders have called for a special election to fill the seat, fearing that anyone appointed by Blagojevich would be seen as tainted. The state legislature is slated to meet next week to vote on a special election bill.

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Houston Mayor Bill White said last weekend this would be the week he'd issue a statement on his future political plans, more specifically involving whether he'd run in 2010 for governor or for the anticipated vacant U.S. Senate seat of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Dallas).

However, when former Texas Comptroller John Sharp officially declared his U.S. Senate candidacy on Monday, that might have thrown a new wrinkle into the plan. White and Sharp are the two biggest-name Democrats for a potential statewide race, and some Texas Democrats likely wouldn't want them running for the same position and competing against each other, potentially leaving one race without a known candidate.

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Recent speculation from pundits has centered on whether Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Dallas) was taking steps, namely, in her informal advising relationship with Karl Rove and her early announcement of a gubernatorial exploratory committee, to scare Texas Gov. Rick Perry out of running in the 2010 governor race.

If she was, it didn't work.

Perry announced Tuesday that political advisor David Carney, pollster Mike Baselice and media consultant David Weeks would officially lead his consulting team in his bid for re-election. All three have worked with Perry in his prior governor races and he said he didn't see reason for a change.

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Sen. John Cornyn (R-Houston), recently selected to head the National Republican Senatorial Committee, called on Democrats Tuesday to come forward and lift the "stain of corruption" he claims was caused by the arrest of Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich for allegedly attempting to sell President-elect Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat.

"The serious allegations laid out by federal prosecutors today raise more questions than answers surrounding those who have been seeking this Senate seat, as well as those working to keep it under Democratic control," Cornyn said in a statement.

With an appointment from Blagojevich, as was expected, Republicans would have had no hope of picking up the seat. But if the Illinois legislature opts to pass a law setting a special election to fill the seat — as Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) suggested Tuesday — Republican candidates could then enter the race.

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Former Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams is set to become the second Republican to declare their candidacy for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's (R-Dallas) anticipated vacant U.S. Senate seat, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Williams, 58, oversaw the Republicans' get-out-the-vote operation in Texas in this year's election, and told the newspaper that an announcement on the formation of an exploratory committee for the seat would come "within the next day or two."

"We're getting ready to go," Williams said. "So it's imminent."

Williams would likely have at least some support from the Republican establishment — namely Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who personally appointed him to the secretary of state post in 2004.

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