Perry, Hutchison race gets nasty?

Washington Times:

Republican infighting is getting nasty early in Texas' gubernatorial primary race - a bellwether indicating whether the party will enhance its electoral fortunes by tacking center or right, or devour itself and raise the prospects for Democrats in the reddest of red states.

Former U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, a conservative stalwart and a leader of anti-spending "tea party" protests, ironically has fired an opening salvo by casting his lot with moderate Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's bid to unseat Gov. Rick Perry.

"Rick Perry has had 10 years as governor to get done what he wanted to get done - and he has got nothing done, which is a perfect indication of what he wanted to get done," Mr. Armey told The Washington Times in a phone interview from a tea party rally in Miami.

"The governor has taken a lot of colorful and entertaining political positions, but I don't recall his ever being truly excited about any policy matters or positions."

Mr. Armey said he doesn't always agree with Mrs. Hutchison but that she is a doer and not just a talker.

Incensed by Mr. Armey's blasts, Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner snapped, "Done nothing? Under Gov. Perry's leadership, Texas has implemented the most sweeping tort reform in the nation, cut taxes, protected private property rights and cut general revenue spending twice."

The governor's chief campaign consultant, Dave Carney, said Mr. Armey's stance appears to be fallout from an earlier spat. Mr. Perry canceled a state contract with the lobbying firm Mr. Armey represented after it signed on to offer similar advice on military base closings for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. In a March 21, 2004, report in the Dallas Morning News, Mr. Perry cited a conflict-of-interest clause in the contract with Mr. Armey's firm.

"The two candidates seem not to care for each other, and the race seems quite likely to get bitter and personal," said Andrew Karch, a University of Texas professor on government.

Critics say Mr. Perry - the lieutenant governor who took over when George W. Bush moved to the White House in 2001 - failed to lead the charge for mandatory voter identification to prevent fraud, and has turned down only a small fraction of his state's share of President Obama's economic stimulus spending while making it sound as if he were championing conservatism's aversion to all liberal economic pump-priming.

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I think most of the animosity at this point is of the inside baseball variety. Voters are not engaged in the bickering at this point, and are probably more interested in specific policy differences.

Armey's opposition seems strange since Perry has been more tuned into the Tea Party protest than Hutchison. I don't recall her showing up at an event and Perry has attended several with mostly positive results. Since he has been one of the main backers of the protest it would be interesting to know how that effected his choice.

So far, the Hutchison camp has been struggling to find an issue to differentiate her campaign with modest results to date. Her campaigning has allowed her to pull even which is a turn around from where she stood a few months ago. She has also had some success in securing endorsements. This may reflect a constituency for change at least among certain groups.

I can support either of these candidates against whomever the Democrats put forward. I think either can garner between 55 and 65 percent of the vote in a general election.

Perry does have some positives to campaign on that get left out of these stories about bickering. The Texas economy has generally out performed almost every other state. Texas is the number one exporting state. It has created more jobs than any other state. It has more headquarters for Fortune 500 companies than any other state. It has led the nation in wind energy production. There are other such stats and he would be wise to focus voters on these positives rather than be pulled into a cat fight.

Obviously, when you have two people who are used to political success there will be some tough opposition. They need to keep it to the issues, because voters should not care whether the two candidates like each other.