And, naturally, the Star-Telegram comes up with the same names we’ve been mentioning on Capitol Annex for a year or more: Congressman Jeb Hensarling (R-Dallas) and Congesswoman Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth) along with State Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano) and Lt. Governor David Dewhust. The only new name on the list is Congressman Joe Barton (R-Arlington).

The Star-Telegram notes:

In the U.S. House, Reps. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, and Jeb Hensarling, R-Dallas, are forgoing GOP leadership runs in November to position themselves for a possible Senate race. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, is also making plans.

[...]

Granger, the vice-chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, announced Wednesday that not only would she not try for the newly open conference chairmanship in mid-November leadership elections but that she would give up her current leadership position.

“I will continue to be active in our conference, but I will not seek a second term as vice chair,” said Granger. “I will continue my efforts to bring our party’s message to women across the country, and I will focus on my district and my committee work.”

While Granger is likely to move up to be the “ranking” Republican on a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee in the new Congress in January, she is clearly thinking about the prospect of a Senate move.

“It’s something that she is considering,” said Steve Dutton, Granger’s spokesman. “She hasn’t made a decision one way or another. She’s been approached.”

Barton, the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, ran for the Senate in 1993 in the special election called after Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, D-Texas, was named President Clinton’s treasury secretary. Hutchison won that election.

“If an open seat presents itself, it is definitely something he would seriously consider,” said Barton spokesman Sean Brown.

And congressional insiders say Hensarling’s surprise decision this week not to seek the GOP conference chair — which would give him a national bully pulpit — points to Senate aspirations. Hensarling previously worked for then-Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas.

There are other politicians in the mix, including former comptroller David Sharp, a Democrat; state Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano; and Lt. Gov. Dave Dewhurst, a Republican.

And, let’s not forget Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones, another Republican. As a former interior decorator, I’m sure she’s already “measuring the drapes,” so to speak. More on Hensarling here. More on Ames Jones here.

The Avalanche-Journal notes:

However, Tuesday’s state and national election results - as well as the record Democratic turnout in the March 4 primary - have energized West Texas Democrats. Unlike this year, in 2010 they intend to recruit strong candidates to run not just for local offices but for state and congressional races.

“We’re energized,” said Pam Brink, chairwoman of the Lubbock County Democratic Party. “We are already thinking about 2010, and our challenge is to find well-qualified people willing to run.

“It may take time, but we think we can make this a competitive two-party area,” added Brink, who was elected to her post in March. “It’s a wonderful burden to have.”

Abel Bosquez, chairman of the Potter County Democratic Party, said Democrats in the Panhandle feel the same way.

“We think that the election of Sen. Barack Obama and the gains we made in the Texas Legislature are going to spark people’s interest in running,” Bosquez said. “So, the chairman of the Randall County Democratic Party and I will be working to recruit strong candidates for all local, state and congressional races.

“We may not win the first time but it is a matter of time before we start winning races in this Republican region,” he said.

Panhandle Democrats were also encouraged by the fact that Amarillo attorney James Wood, the only Democrat running for a Texas House seat in the Panhandle, received 18 percent in the House District 86 race - even if he didn’t campaign for the seat - Bosquez added.

Citing health problems, Wood withdrew in late July from the race against Republican incumbent John Smithee, also of Amarillo. Wood was the only Democrat in the South Plains/Panhandle region to challenge a Republican incumbent this year.

And, the Texas Democratic Party is ready to help the West Texas Democrats, according to the paper (although I don’t think the TDP has ever really made a conscious effort to write off West Texas):

Moreover, the Texas Democratic Party plans to help West Texas Democrats in any way it can, Party Chairman Boyd Richie told the A-J in recent interviews.

However, just because West Texas Democrats are highly motivated doesn’t mean Republicans will just roll over and let them be competitive.

We really hate to toot to say, “we told you so,” at Capitol Annex, but we’ve been saying she would never resign for two years:

The problem? That’s more than an “if.” For one thing, Hutchison has to announce a run for governor and vacate the seat in the Senate in time for the 2010 election cycle. Otherwise, Hutchison can opt to run for Governor while remaining in the U.S. Senate, meaning the seat won’t likely be vacant until she’s sworn into office–and is able to appoint someone to the seat (a someone who is not likely to be Florence Shapiro).

And, it would appear that the “Austin wisdom” is similar to what we’ve been saying all along. Via PoliTex:

The reasoning?

Her resignation would enable Perry to appoint a successor who could snipe at her from Washington, essentially putting Hutchison in the middle of a D.C-Austin crossfire.

Hutchison may announce an exploratory campaign for the governor’s race in December or early next year. Hutchison spokesman Matt Mackowiak declined to comment.

In other words, Hutchison doesn’t want Perry to appoint either Lt. Governor David Dewhurst or State Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano) to her seat, because Dewhurst will gladly snipe at Hutchison and Shapiro would do anything–including promising Perry she will put on a unitard and challenge Hutchison to a WWE-style brawl in the capitol rotunda just to get her hands on the seat. Even Hutchison is probably smart enough to know that former interior decorator Elizabeth Ames Jones isn’t on Perry’s appointment radar for such prime real estate (meaning she can stop longingly looking through those swatch books to figure out which shade of mauve would best match the Washington sunlight).

Hutchison knows that, if she resigns, Perry has two legitimate options to fill her seat: Dewhurst or Shapiro. And, she knows Perry will most likely pick Dewhurst, who has coveted the seat relentlessly for the better part of a decade. Why? Because if Perry picks Dewhurst, then he is able to eleminate one more person from a gubernatorial primary. After all, Dewhurst could well decide that, though he covets the senate seat, his chances might be better in a GOP Primary against Perry and Hutchison where Hutchison wipes the floor with Perry and Dewhurst can depend on hard-core evangelicals turning out in droves in runoff to wipe the floor with Hutchison.

Naturally, if Perry picked Dewhurst to get him out of any gubernatorial frey, he’d gladly snipe at Hutchison from afar, provided his Max Factor Pancake No. 113 was in good supply so he could look stunningly tan for the cameras.

And, Hutchison wouldn’t want Shapiro to get the seat either, because it would mean she’d likely have to contend with Dewhurst and Perry in a primary. After all, one way or the other, Dewhurst isn’t staying where he is, because AG Gregg Abbott is already sizing up that office. Plus, Shapiro would probably gladly snipe at Hutchison from afar, too.

Of course, this brings up questions about what happens on the Democratic side.

I doubt we’ll see Mikal Watts attempt a reprisal of his 2007 exploration. Surely $8 million per decade on a senate race that ended before filing began is his limit. People talk a good game about Bill White, but he’s more likely to hit the gubernatorial race in 2010. Congressman Chet Edwards isn’t leaving the House; he’s got too much seniority and can do too much good to risk it on a senate race. Plus, as with any Congressman, he has the disadvantage of actually having a decade-plus long voting record that, no matter how conservative, will be picked apart by Republicans like a mince pie. If he goes upward, it will be to the Obama cabinet.

Former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller is out; when she went to work for coal companies after fighting them, that pretty much ended that chapter. Plus, firefighters hate her from her days as Dallas mayor and we’d see firefighters across the state mobilized against her. Congressman Lloyd Doggett is a possibility, but probably considered too liberal to win statewide. There has been a nasty rumor that Carole Keeton Strayhorn might try to make an Austin-mayor-to-U.S. Senate bump as a Democrat, but her lackluster 2006 campaign as a Texas independent probably sealed her fate as a non-starter for any future statewide office. Kinky Friedman is a joke. State Sen. Kirk Watson could legitimately make the jump from the state senate to the U.S. Senate, but, as a progressive, he could actually have a much more significant impact on the state as Lt. Governor (a post “conventional wisdom” says he has expressed interest in).

Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk is probably also a non-starter this time around.

Aside from a few other legislators who might have both the interest and/or the ability to pull the race off (State Rep. Mark Strama (D-Austin); State Rep. Pete Gallego (D-Austin); State Rep. Mike Villarreal (D-San Antonio); State Rep. Juan Garcia (D-Corpus Christi) we’re left with exactly one option:

John Sharp.

And, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Consider this: Sharp is one of a handful of former Democratic officeholders in Texas who still have statewide name recognition, after being out of office nearly a decade. Sharp has always managed to run a race and be the kind of elected leader that was palatable to both the liberal wing of the Democratic Party and the conservative wing of the Democratic Party. Plus, business likes Sharp; money likes Sharp.

Does he have disadvantages? Yes. The 2006 Perry-Sharp Tax Plan is an albatross. But, that’s easily spun. After all, it was the Legislature, not Sharp, that decided on the final numbers and rates in the plan, and Perry who gave them his ultimate seal of approval. That he didn’t do so hot against Dewhurst in 2002 is also not good. However, that was perhaps the worst year for Democrats in Texas since the Civil War. Had Ann Richards and Bob Bullock had a lovechild that spoke like Barbara Jordan and had the political force of will of Lyndon Johnson, Henry Cisneros, and and Charlie Wilson combined and he had run in that election, he (or she) would have lost by sixteen points even if he spent $90 million and God in heaven himself had dropped from the firmament to volunteer to give voters a ride to the polls.

In short, Sharp isn’t a bad option; in fact, he is a damned good option of Democrats actually want to win both United States Senate seats.

He’s got tremendous advantages, too. For one thing, unlike a mayor or Congressman or House member, Sharp hasn’t cast votes in a public forum since he was in the Texas Senate or on the Texas Railroad Commission. Thus, it’ll be pretty hard for the Republicans to dredge up recent votes he’s cast that make him look bad (the “tax plan” being an almost exception). Too, as a statewide officeholder in Texas, he did a lot of good; he was a reformer. He combated Food Stamp Fraud, made the most successful lottery debut in America happen (even though he himself opposed the Lottery when it went through the Lege and for voter approval), and more. As comptroller, his reviews of various schools and agencies saved taxpayers billions of dollars and set the gold standard for every comptroller since to follow.

The funny part about the paragraph above is that is all from memory. Ask me what Bob Bullock did while he was in office and I can tell you one thing–maybe two: legislation to “outlaw” the income tax and the constitutional amendment about the constitutional spending limit. Mark White? House Bill 72. I’m a serious political junkie, but I can recall more that Sharp did than Bullock. Part of that is that, while in office, Sharp did a hell of a job marketing himself; part of that is also that the 2002 campaign was pretty effective at reminding voters of all of this–so effective I still remember it. If I still remember specifics, you can bet that other voters still remember at least generalities. If that is the case, Sharp’s got a good chance.

I was amused to read that Paul Burka wrote the following line in that regard:

Speculation is rampant that the Dew has set his sights on the U.S. Senate rather than run for reelection. Since Kay Bailey Hutchison’s seat will not be vacant until she resigns, probably in June, Dewhurst must hope that Perry appoints him to fill the vacancy.

Paul, Paul, Paul. I’ve been saying that David Dewhurst was going to go for a Senate seat in after 2006 since 2004. Almost every time I mentioned lines of GOP succession in Texas over the last couple of years, I’ve noted this. From last November:

Of course, conventional wisdom and most Texas pundits say Dewhurst will run for Governor–most likely against Kay Bailey Hutchison. Of course, that’s where conventional wisdom is wrong. Back in 2002, everyone knew Dewhurst wanted to run for Gramm’s senate seat, but had to take a back-seat to Cornyn at the command of his party’s masters. So, his 2010 race will be for that post, not for governor.

How does everyone not remember this? For fun, I even checked the archives of the “mainstream media,” and found this from the September 27, 2001 Austin American-Statesman just to prove that I’m not crazy and remembered the last six years correctly (sorry, no link):

Texas Land Commissioner David Dewhurst wanted to run for the U.S. Senate so bad he could taste it. He is one of few Texans who can spend millions of his own money to run.

But the insecure indecision of the richest state officeholder left running room for Attorney General John Cornyn to announce for the Senate first. Even though he could easily outspend Cornyn, a dithering Dewhurst might have boxed himself in to sticking with his earlier plan to run for lieutenant governor.

So, will everyone please stop acting like they are surprised that Dewhurst wants to run for Senate? We’ve known all along that was his ultimate goal, even if some people forgot about it (and by “some people” we mean the ones doing that “rampant speculation” Burka blogged about.

The story is breaking, but Kay Bailey Hutchison has told a closed-door luncheon of Republican Senators that she will not seek re-election in 2012. More as it develops.

Hutchison’s announcement will now clear the way for Kay Granger, Elizabeth Ames Jones, and others interested in running for her Senate seat to begin their campaigns in earnest. Hutchison, of course, will be likely running for governor in 2010.

Texas delegate Leo Berman salutes during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., last Wednesday.

Is State Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler) planning on running for Governor in 2010?

It appears so, as he today requested an opinion from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott concerning exactly when the state’s resign-to-run laws would be triggered by a state representative announcing a campaign for governor.

If he is asking because he plans to run himself, Berman will likely run on an anti-immigration platform. He’s gained significant media attention in the last two years as a result of a slew of anti-immigration bills he’s filed, and a hate-filled speech he delivered on the House floor calling for a repeal of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

More recently, Berman has led a one-man crusade against Texas teacher’s unions and their allowed payroll deductions.

Berman is also one of the Texas House’s loudest advocates for voter identification, and chaired the House Elections Committee during the 80th Session of the Texas Legislature.

Technorati Tags 14th Amendment, 2010 Texas Elections, Attorney General Opinion, Greg Abbott, Leo Berman, Texas Governor, Voter ID

As with every story involving former governors of Texas, rumors and theories abound. Here are the two favorites we collected from a few calls we made in Austin and Houston:

1.) White has no plans to run for mayor, but does have some unfinished business in the governor’s office. He is actually testing the waters to go up against Rick Perry or Kay Bailey Hutchison in 2010. He’ll still be younger than John McCain is now.

2.) White is actually a stalking horse for an as-yet unidentified Democratic candidate for Mayor of Houston. White will be a prominent name to gather support and placehold until the candidate is ready to announce, at which time White will step aside.

Now it seems as though The Aging Prom Queen (or at least her campaign) has thrown a bit of a hissy about which reporters are “favored” to cover the tour.

The word flying around the Capitol city this morning is that Hutchison invited the Austin American-Statesman and other Texas papers to send reporters to follow her on the tour.

As told to Capitol Annex, the Statesman advised Hutchison’s campaign that Washington correspondent Jason Embry would be joining the tour, since he was in Houston over the weekend. However, the Hutchison campaign told the Statesman that the invitation was only for Statesman reporter Gardner Selby, and nobody else. Since Selby was not available to cover the tour, the tour is without a representative from the Statesman.

We’ve heard this from several reliable sources, and have contacted a couple more to verify this. We’ll let you know what we hear.

The Statesman outlines a litany of Hutchison’s broken promises:

Contributions from lobbyists who represent foreign countries. Hutchison’s campaign said in a March 1993 news release that Congress should eliminate lobbying activities for foreign governments and prohibit lobbyists who represent foreign countries from contributing to federal candidates. Foreign nationals are barred from donating to federal campaigns in the United States, and the Hutchison campaign warned in 1993 that foreign governments could use their lobbyists to make indirect contributions. The campaign also said that all lobbying by foreign countries should be conducted through the U.S. State Department.

But Hutchison has taken at least $25,000 in campaign contributions over the years from U.S.-based lobbyists who represent foreign countries, either from individual lobbyists or from the political committees of firms that foreign countries hire, according to records at the U.S. Justice Department.

That money is a sliver of the more than $25 million she has raised over the years as a federal candidate, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and the lobbyists providing it usually have domestic clients as well. Still, they are the kinds of contributions that candidate Hutchison criticized.

Term limits.Hutchison’s campaign said in 1993 that Congress should limit House members to four two-year terms and senators to two six-year terms. Hutchison said in 1994, “I’ve always said that I would serve no more than two full terms,” according to the Houston Chronicle.

The concept of term limits was popular in the 1990s and helped Republicans win control of Congress, but it has lost momentum in the years since, and term limit legislation has never made it out of the House.

Hutchison, meanwhile, ran for and won her third full term in 2006. Her Senate office said she still supports a two-term limit for senators, “but unless all states sign on to such a limitation, Texans would be unfairly disadvantaged because of seniority privileges in the Senate.”

Campaign contribution limits. Hutchison said in 1993 that political action committees should be allowed to donate $1,000 per election. Since a primary and a general election count as separate contests, such a ceiling would actually limit PACs to giving each candidate $2,000 per cycle.

Today, donations from PACs are limited to $5,000 per election, or a total of $10,000 per cycle. In the two years leading up to her 2006 re-election, 25 PACs gave Hutchison $10,000.

Hutchison also has formed her own PAC, which members of Congress often do to distribute money to their colleagues. In the current election cycle, her PAC has given other candidates more than 40 checks for $5,000 apiece.

Congressional staffers-turned-lobbyists. In her first campaign, Hutchison’s camp said she wanted to “close the revolving door of the Congress and the executive branch whose members and staff become lobbyists.”

But some of Hutchison’s staffers have used that door. In September 2005, Dick Ribbentrop became her chief of staff. Until the end of April 2004, Ribbentrop was a registered lobbyist for the New York Stock Exchange. It’s unclear what he did between those jobs. He did not respond to requests for comment.

Ribbentrop left Hutchison’s office in April 2007. By the second half of that year, he was lobbying for UBS Americas Inc., an investment bank.

Lindsey Dickinson left Hutchison’s payroll as legislative counsel on June 12, 2007, according to Senate records. By the end of June, she was lobbying for telecommunications giant Comcast Corp. Mary Schneider left her job as Hutchison’s deputy regional director in July 2003. That October, she registered as a lobbyist for the Harris County Hospital District.

It’s always a pleasure to see the media throw hot grease on the Teflon Senator, but one must wonder why they aren’t paying more attention to elections that will actually matter this year.

Of course, U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has never been one for following the rules.

This year, she’s giving fellow Republicans a swift slap in the face with a notebook by touring around the state and diverting media attention from the current election cycle.

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.

Ames Jones, an interior decorator and former member of the Texas House of Representatives appointed to the Texas Railroad Commission by Governor Perry in 2005 to fill the unexpired term of Charles Matthews, had previously hinted that she may have an interest in the race. The Dallas Blog post confirms she will run.

A native of posh San Antonio’s posh Alamo Heights, Ames Jones is the daughter of Gene Ames, Jr., a founding board member of the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council–a group her brother, Gene Ames, III, previously chaired.

Although Jones’ statewide name recognition is poor and she’s virtually unknown outside political circles, she has, in recent months, stepped up her profile and raised over a million dollars in campaign cash.

Aside from the fact that Jones presently holds a statewide office (albeit one that most Texans know nothing about) and the fact that she can tap into huge reserves of oil, gas, and petrochemical money from her perch on the Railroad Commission, she has few advantages other advantages over State Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano), who has already formed an exploratory commission for the seat which may or may not be vacated by Hutchison. (We like how McBlogger handicaps the potential GOP primary between these two).

Jones posted very poor re-elect numbers in 2006, beating Democrat Dale Henry by a mere 54 percent. Though only a regional officeholder, Sen. Shapiro holds much greater name recognition than Ames Jones, as she is frequently a headliner as a result of her work on various major Senate committees. Ames Jones, although she served in the House since 2001, has no record of legislative achievements upon which to run and, as a regulatory commissioner, by definition makes few “friends” among the common people (unless you count lobbyists and energy companies among the “common people). Too, she can easily be saddled with a major portion of the responsibility for the destruction of Texas’ Health and Human Services programs and more, since she served on the Appropriations Committee in the Texas House in 2003.

The latest was from Cox News Service, and appeared in the Lufkin Daily News yesterday:

Dressed in a solid blue suit, red tie and black cowboy boots, Sandlin, 55, his hair going thin and grey, looks like he could still shift gears from a Capitol Hill caucus to an East Texas chow wagon with little effort. He concedes the strain of that exhausting lifestyle took its toll on his first marriage, which broke up after 19 years and four children.

“Sure, because you’re separated, you live in two different places, you wind up having two separate friends, a different focus,” he said. “Your spouse doesn’t want to hear about the Medicare prescription drug plan or the continuing (budget) resolution or what’s happening with Medicaid.”

Word has been floating around East Texas lately that Sandlin will be running against everyone’s favorite ideological howler monkey, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tyler). Gohmert, of course, farther right-wing than his East Texas district actually is (the going joke in the district is that the only constituency he really represents is East Texas mega church Green Acers Baptist). However, he’s not had a credible opponent since Sandlin in 2004, meaning there are no really reliable numbers to show exactly how the district has shifted–though it is pretty clear it isn’t nearly as rightwing as Gohmert is.

Hutchison is strongly considering a run for Texas Governor against Rick Perry in 2010. The Rove fundraiser is reportedly a tactic to scare Perry out of the 2010 race.

It’s no secret that there has been no love lost between the Bush and Perry camps over the years, and that Hutchison regards the current governor with disdain. Adding Rove to the mix spices things up a bit heading toward 2010.

Of course, Harris says, he’ll only seek the seat if Shapiro runs for the U.S. Senate Seat held by Kay Bailey Hutchison.

The problem? That’s more than an “if.” For one thing, Hutchison has to announce a run for governor and vacate the seat in the Senate in time for the 2010 election cycle. Otherwise, Hutchison can opt to run for Governor while remaining in the U.S. Senate, meaning the seat won’t likely be vacant until she’s sworn into office–and is able to appoint someone to the seat (a someone who is not likely to be Florence Shapiro).

Of course, via the McKinney Courier-Gazette, this guy seems to think he knows exactly what Shapiro will do:

Harris said that he will not run against Shapiro if she chooses not to run for Hutchison’s U.S. senate seat and to instead seek re-election for her state senate seat.

“I think Florence wants to run for the US Senate. I don’t have any criticisms of Florence Shapiro. She is one of the strongest local government advocates in the state senate,” Harris said.

His goals for office would be to find more water sources and to conserve electricity for North Texas, and use renewable sources of energy and improve the growing transportation needs throughout the areas of Collin County and Dallas County that are in Texas Senate District 8.

A tremendous potential liability for Harris is his connection to T. Boone Pickens and his scam to sell water from West Texas to cities in Dallas:

Harris is currently working as a consultant for the Mesa Power Pampa, LLC, that is owned by Boone Pickens, who wants to sell and transport water from a West Texas reservoir to North Texas cities, and is building wind turbines in Northwest Texas and using them as wind power. He served as the county judge over the Collin County Commissioner’s Court from 1991 to 2006 and was on the Plano City Council from 1985 to 1990. He has also served on many North Central Texas Council of Governments’ committees, including the NCTCOG’s Regional Transportation Council.

“I think there is a lot of work to be done. Now, that I’ve been working with Boone Pickens I’m aware that we’ve got big water supply and electricity needs in North Texas. His water and electricity is going to be little more expensive, but what would it look like if the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal had headlines that said, ‘North Texas is out of water’,” Harris said.

He believes that the water districts, politicians and consultants have been planning for obtaining more water supplies to support the demand in North Texas for too long, and that it is time for action, Harris said.

“The water districts need to put meat on the bones and I think we’ve been planning too long. I want the water districts to take some action rather than just planning. My goal is to ensure that we no longer have to worry about our water needs. We need the water it will take to support the future,” Harris said.

Given it will be late 2009 or 2010 before we know what Hutchison will do (which will determine what everyone else will do), we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

AP notes:

Hutchison called the tax, which goes into effect in mid-June, an “abject failure” while speaking to the Texas Association of Business on Wednesday, The Dallas Morning News reported on its Web site.

The business tax was adopted during a 2006 special session to revamp the state’s method of paying for public schools. Property tax relief that also was adopted was supposed to offset the higher taxes.

“We don’t see property taxes going down at all, and the business tax, it’s a corporate income tax,” said Hutchison, also a Republican.

Of course, one way to gain support from the well-moneyed, big-business interests in the party is to call anything an “income tax.” Calling it a “corporate income tax” makes it that much more taboo. Whomever is doing Hutchison’s messaging on this particular issue certainly came up with a catch phrase that will echo in the halls of big business when moneyed interests decided whether to support Perry or Hutchison in two years.

Of course, Team Goodhair fires back:

“Sen. Hutchison was quiet as a church mouse during the school finance debate. She’s never offered any constructive solution to ending Robin Hood and if she has any proposal to stop runaway appraisals–which are the reason for the high property taxes –that can pass the Legislature, we’d love to hear them,” Castle said.

That’s actually a pretty weak response when you look at it–no actual defense of the program, just saying that Hutchison offered no solution.