|
|
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KELLEY SHANNON AND JAY ROOT
Riding a wave of growing anti-Washington anger, Texas Gov. Rick Perry easily dispatched Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and a challenger backed by some in the tea party movement Tuesday to once again become the Republican nominee for the state's top office.
Speaking shortly after Hutchison called him to concede, Perry continued the attack on the nation's capital that powered him past the state's senior senator, slamming Washington on spending, job losses, the heath care debate and for "trying to impose education standards" on Texas.
(Read "How Perry Turned Around the Battle for Texas.")
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1968871,00.html
"From Driftwood, Texas, to Washington, D.C., we are sending you a message tonight: Stop messin' with Texas!" Perry said to a throng of cheering supporters at the famous Salt Lick barbecue restaurant in Driftwood, just outside of Austin.
With more than 90 percent of precincts reporting, Perry led with 51 percent to Hutchison's 30 percent. Perry managed to avoid a runoff even though nearly one in five voters cast ballots for the third candidate -- Debra Medina, a GOP party activist who has strong libertarian leanings and supporters in the tea party movement.
(Read "How Governors Could Be Key to GOP Resurgence.")
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1968638,00.html
Medina raised relatively little money and 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.
She might have done better had Perry not identified with the same anti-Washington sentiment just as the tea party movement was taking off a year ago -- and jumped aboard. He spoke to tea party activists on April 15, 2009 -- federal income tax filing day -- and in response to a question by The Associated Press even flirted with the idea of Texas seceding from the Union.
"I think he sensed at that early date that there was a very strong feeling that Washington was going too far in taxation and regulation," said longtime Republican consultant Reggie Bashur.
"A lot of people did not understand, including myself, the growing resentment, the growing opposition in the state toward Washington, D.C.," Bashur said. "I think the governor and his team recognized and became a leader in the anti-Washington movement. And movement I think is the appropriate word. It was in its infancy then."
Click here to continue reading.
