03-02-2010, 11:32 PM
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Don't Question Me!
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Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Odd Bins
Posts: 4,281
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Perry defeats Hutchison in Texas GOP gov. primary
Quote:
AUSTIN, Texas – Gov. Rick Perry easily dispatched Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to win the Republican nomination for Texas governor on Tuesday in a heated primary that highlighted the growing anti-Washington mood among voters in this year's midterm elections.
Hutchison was once seen as the candidate who could deliver Perry's first election loss in a lifetime of public office. But the governor, a darling of the social conservatives, forcefully and successfully painted the senator as too entrenched in Washington politics.
Speaking at his election night party in Driftwood after Hutchison conceded, Perry said he would unite a fractured Texas Republican Party in the November general election and stressed that Washington politics had no place in the Lone Star state.
"From Driftwood, Texas, to Washington, D.C. we are sending you a message tonight: Stop messing with Texas!" Perry said.
Nearly one in five voters cast ballots for a third candidate, Debra Medina, a GOP party activist who was backed by some in the state's tea party movement.
Medina raised relatively little money and suffered a setback when she told talk show host Glenn Beck there were "some very good arguments" that the U.S. was involved in the 2001 terrorist attacks, yet she still managed to win over scores of voters who might have otherwise sided with the deeply conservative Perry.
"I'm a pretty conservative guy," said Kevin Merritt, a 31-year-old software developer from the Dallas suburb of Frisco, who cast his ballot for Medina because he liked her goal of lowering property taxes and disliked Perry's support of a now-dead project to build a huge system of toll roads.
Perry, Texas' longest-serving governor, had 51 percent of the vote compared to Hutchinson's 31 percent, with more than three-fourths of precincts reporting Tuesday night. He will face former Houston Mayor Bill White, who defeated Houston hair care magnate Farouk Shami and five others on Tuesday to win the Democratic nomination for governor.
Hutchison, who was first elected to the Senate in 1993, acknowledged a week before the primary that Perry's anti-Washington campaign theme had worked against her. She told supporters in Dallas on Tuesday that she called Perry once she believed the election results were clear.
"We have fought valiantly for our principles, but we did not win," she said.
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Perry defeats Hutchison in Texas GOP gov. primary - Yahoo! News
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