JacobG18
01-13-2011, 01:30 PM
Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison announced today she won't seek re-election next year.
Hutchison, first elected in June 1993, lost the Republican nomination for governor last year to Rick Perry. Hutchison had indicated she would leave office to run full time for governor, but then decided to stay in the Senate.
In a letter to supporters, Hutchison said the timing of her retirement announcement was aimed at giving "the people of Texas ample time to consider who my successor will be."
"I intended to leave this office long before now, but I was persuaded to continue in order to avoid disadvantage to our state," she said.
Hutchison also acknowledged the toll the past two years, devoted to both the Senate and her gubernatorial campaign, have taken on her family. She and her husband, Ray, adopted two children in 2001.
Perry rode a wave of anti-incumbent anger to easily defeat Hutchison in the GOP gubernatorial primary, which also featured a candidate with Tea Party support.
Perry made an issue of Hutchison's time in Washington and said Texas Republicans "said no to Washington bureaucrats" by renominating him. He defeated Democrat Bill White in November.
Hutchison, a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, has been a player on defense issues and served stints in the GOP leadership. Her Texas and Senate colleague John Cornyn called Hutchison a woman of vision and energy, "someone who represents the very best of the state of Texas."
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2011/01/kay-bailey-hutchison-texas-re-election-/1
Hutchison, first elected in June 1993, lost the Republican nomination for governor last year to Rick Perry. Hutchison had indicated she would leave office to run full time for governor, but then decided to stay in the Senate.
In a letter to supporters, Hutchison said the timing of her retirement announcement was aimed at giving "the people of Texas ample time to consider who my successor will be."
"I intended to leave this office long before now, but I was persuaded to continue in order to avoid disadvantage to our state," she said.
Hutchison also acknowledged the toll the past two years, devoted to both the Senate and her gubernatorial campaign, have taken on her family. She and her husband, Ray, adopted two children in 2001.
Perry rode a wave of anti-incumbent anger to easily defeat Hutchison in the GOP gubernatorial primary, which also featured a candidate with Tea Party support.
Perry made an issue of Hutchison's time in Washington and said Texas Republicans "said no to Washington bureaucrats" by renominating him. He defeated Democrat Bill White in November.
Hutchison, a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, has been a player on defense issues and served stints in the GOP leadership. Her Texas and Senate colleague John Cornyn called Hutchison a woman of vision and energy, "someone who represents the very best of the state of Texas."
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2011/01/kay-bailey-hutchison-texas-re-election-/1