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Texas Governor: Perry v. White is a Toss Up
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Race
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| Contributor | TX DEM |
| Last Edited | TX DEM Mar 04, 2010 02:47pm |
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| Category | News |
| News Date | Thursday, March 4, 2010 08:45:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Tuesday’s gubernatorial primary, which many believed would be one of the great political battles of the century, proved to be somewhat anti-climatic. While voters did see a nasty and expensive contest on the Republican side between Gov. Rick Perry, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and activist Debra Medina, it hardly rated as a bruising slugfest. But, the general election between Perry and former Houston Mayor Bill White, who won the Democratic nod easily, may turn out to be one of the more interesting contests on a statewide ballot this November.
White is probably the strongest gubernatorial candidate Democrats have nominated since Ann Richards was the party's standard bearer in 1990. He is a proven fundraiser, starts the race with a solid base of support, and boasts a resume in business and a record as mayor that will make it hard for Republicans to label him as a screaming liberal Democrat. It helps that Democrats nominated a Hispanic woman for Lieutenant Governor, which is likely to spike Hispanic turn out in November, something that will benefit White. Finally, there are some signs of Perry fatigue, which could hurt the Governor at a time when the electorate is restless.
Interestingly enough, we might not have made such a move if Hutchison had won the primary since it would have become an open-seat contest where we would give greater weight to the state's traditional Republican voting patterns. But, in this case, Perry is a known quantity and traditional voting patterns may not matter as much. Stay tuned; this is likely to become one of the more hotly contested gubernatorial races in the country.
Perry is known for running well funded, aggressive, no-holds-barred campaigns and this will be no exception. However, this also might end up being the most difficult race of his career.
As a result, we are moving the contest from the Lean Republican to the Toss Up column. |
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