Typically, in an election year, U.S. Senators not up for re-election defer to their colleagues and down-ballot candidates by staying out of the spotlight and not taking up media attention from other candidates.
Of course, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has never been one for following the rules.
Of course, as a sitting senator, she can pretend it is official business, although it looks a lot more like a campaign swing:
The trip will include a visit to a border patrol checkpoint in Sarita, a nuclear plant tour in Wadsworth, and a bunch of Chamber of Commerce events in different cities.
Hutchison even had the audacity to have a special logo created for the trip.


December 9, 2008 at 1:25 am
Kay Bailey Hutchison is expected to abandon as early as this June to pursue her run for governor, all eyes are turning to Texas and the prospects of Democrats picking up another U.S. Senate seat between election cycles. Since 2006, speculationhasmounted that Hutchison would abandon her safe senate seat to take on Governor Rick Perry in the 2010 GOP Primary for Governor. Hutchison toyed with the idea of making a similar run in 2002 and 2006 and ultimately made neither race. This time, however,