Gardner Selby, writing in today’s Austin American-Statesman poses that question…
If the methodologically weak Texas Lyceum Poll is to believed, maybe yes, maybe no.
Three discussion points regarding White and the Governor’s race in 2010:
- Does Bill White actually have the strong name identification outside of Houston that we, living in Houston, assume that he has?
- Assuming an Obama victory in 2008, will 2010 — a mid-term election with the Democrats playing defense — really be a good playing field for a Democrat running statewide in Texas?
- Assuming that Kay Bailey Hutchison is the nominee for Governor, could White defeat her?
While the Texas Lyceum Poll is not the best measure to make an assessment of White’s chances, their numbers nonetheless suggest that he has some name ID work to do before mounting a statewide effort.
Fortunately for White, he can afford to take a wait-and-see approach to his post-Mayor future. 2010 is a long way off. An Obama win may mean a return trip to D.C. An Obama loss may strengthen his case for a Gubernatorial run in 2010. A run by KBH for Governor may mean a run by White for the Senate instead, potentially against a Perry-appointed incumbent (a la Krueger vs. KBH), perhaps Greg Abbott or maybe even The Dew. This is assuming, of course, that KBH doesn’t do her usual flirting with a run for Governor and then backs away — again. Oh, and did we mention Rick “I’m Running Again” Perry? If KBH actually pulls the trigger and runs, she would be the prohibitive favorite to win — even against ol’ Slick Rick.
However, as college football has so painfully taught us, correlation does not imply causation — in this case, that the prohibitive favorite does not always equal the actual winner in the 2010 Governor’s race…
Stay tuned!
The only question you should ask is will Gov. Hutchison continue to lease the $10,000 a month Westlake Hills house while the Gov.’s Manse is being rebuilt.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/06/29/evangelical.campaign/index.html?iref=werecommend
I came across this article on CNN today and found it interesting - a small movement among young evangelicals
Yeah, White has done such an absolutely fantastic job as mayor of Houston. Channeling over 1000 police officers short of sufficient, paying 4 times the appraised value to a former councilmen for downtown real estate to build an unvoted soccer stadium, trying to boot out the mentally impaired in exchange for developer buddies getting prime river oaks land in exchange for future statewide campaign support, the list goes on and on. He is so ready for statewide corruption.