Hutchison to campaign as Republican?

Austin American-Statesman:

Recent statements and strategy decisions have made clear that U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison believes it is Republicans — and not independents or Democrats, as some others have suggested — who can lift her to victory over Gov. Rick Perry in the March GOP primary.

Hutchison's campaign expects a surge of voters who support Republicans but do not regularly vote in Republican primaries. And to appeal to those voters, she has in recent weeks stressed her support from former Vice President Dick Cheney and highlighted what she hopes voters will see as Perry's departures from conservative orthodoxy on issues such as government intervention and private property rights.

Perry's campaign also expects a higher-than-usual turnout to come from general election voters who support Republicans but don't regularly vote in primaries. That may explain why Perry has cast Hutchison as a spend-happy creature of Washington, where Republicans have lost full control to Democrats.

In the past two gubernatorial elections, fewer than 700,000 people voted in the Republican primary. But those races did not have the kind of high-dollar, high-profile matchup that Republicans face this year as Hutchison, a senator since 1993, tries to end Perry's gubernatorial tenure at 10 years.

Hutchison campaign manager Terry Sullivan said he expects primary turnout to more than double to 1.5 million voters in March. "There hasn't been a big Republican (gubernatorial) primary for them to vote in," Sullivan said.

The Perry campaign anticipates 1.2 million people will vote in the Republican primary, said Perry consultant Dave Carney.

...

Daron Shaw, a government professor at the University of Texas, said 72 percent of Texas Republican primary voters in 2008 identified themselves as conservatives, compared with 20 percent who said they were moderates and 8 percent who said they were liberals.

Hutchison, however, believes she can draw voters to the primary by sounding familiar Republican themes.

...

In what appears to be an effort to win conservative voters, Hutchison has repeatedly pointed to Perry's 2007 order mandating that schoolgirls get an immunization to protect them from the human papillomavirus. She is also trying to stoke the anger of landowners who thought the state was unfairly trying to take their land to build the Trans-Texas Corridor, Perry's vision of toll roads crisscrossing the state, which has been abandoned.

...

But Hutchison has hurdles to clear with conservative Republicans.

A November Rasmussen Reports poll gave Perry a lead of 11 percentage points over Hutchison among voters who say they plan to vote in the Republican primary. But Perry's lead among those who described themselves as conservatives was 22 percentage points.

...

There is more.

I still do not have a problem with the attempt to vaccinate girls to prevent a disease that can be eliminated. I think the opposition to the vaccine will mean tht more women will suffer from a preventable disease. While many copnservatives opposed the treatment it seemed based on a belief that the shots would make girls promiscuous. I think there are plenty of other reasons to persuade girls that promiscuity is a mistake.

Hutichison is right to focus her campaign on conservatives, She has a tall obstacle in persuading voters that Perry is not a conservative. She also has not courted the Tea Party voters as much as Perry has. These voters are where the passion lies in this election and she needs to find a way to appeal to them.