Governor

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.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry became the 11th state executive in recent days to be delivered a package containing white powder.

According to The Dallas Morning News, the package was received at around 11 a.m. Wednesday at a state office building in Austin about 100 yards away from the Capitol and was addressed to the governor's office. The mail room had already been put on alert Monday when similar packages began arriving in other states.

"A staffer realized that it was a white powdery substance and notified emergency personnel," Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger told the Morning News. "Hazmat was immediately on the scene."

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.

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.

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.

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.

Houston Mayor Bill White hasn't always been one to hold to timetables, but his latest self-imposed deadline for a statement about his future is sometime this week, according to Houston's KPRC.

The question is whether that future is in a run for Texas governor in 2010, or a run for the U.S. Senate, assuming Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Dallas) vacates her seat to pursue a governor's run of her own, as expected. White remained coy with reporters over the weekend, but did offer one clue:

"Issues about energy policy are what I feel most passionately about," White said.

Marc Short, chief of staff to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Dallas), will be leaving Hutchison's office for the same position with the House Republican Conference, according to Politico.

The Web site reports that House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) will announce Short and the rest of his leadership office later today. However, Hutchison's office told PolitickerTX.com Monday that they would not confirm the report.

(Update, 12:20 p.m.: The Dallas Morning News says the move is official.)

The move will undoubtedly fuel further speculation that Hutchison is almost a sure bet to resign her Senate seat in 2009 to focus on a run for Texas governor in 2010. If that happens, many of her staffers — including the chief of staff — would need to seek new employment, should they want to stay in Washington and not follow Hutchison to Texas.

Former Texas Comptroller John Sharp is already talking with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee about funding a 2009 special election campaign for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's (R-Dallas) likely vacated Senate seat, according to The Dallas Morning News.

The DSCC didn't contribute much to state Rep. Rick Noriega's (D-Houston) Senate bid this year, but several factors might change that in 2009. First, the special election would likely contain a host of candidates all running against each other, without a primary or the typical partisan back-and-forth. The voting electorate would be smaller, and in theory, easier to reach.

And, if Al Franken wins the Minnesota Senate recount, Hutchison's vacated seat would have the potential to give the Democrats a filibuster-proof majority of 60.

Entertainer Kinky Friedman hasn't ruled out another run for governor, but he made some interesting comments about who he'd support in a match-up between U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Dallas) and Gov. Rick Perry.

Friedman, who won 12 percent of the vote for governor in 2006, was in Lubbock this week promoting a line of cigars when he offered his comments about the 2010 governor's race. He wouldn't close the door on another race for the state's highest office, but he indicated he would have to switch parties. 

"I sure wouldn't do it again as an independent and I can't afford to do it as a Republican, so I'd have to run as a Democrat," he told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. "One thing's for sure. When I die, I want to be cremated and have my ashes thrown in Rick Perry's hair."