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Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is expected to announce her political plans today in San Antonio. Aides to Hutchison said late Tuesday that she would appear there with her Texas Republican colleague, Sen. John Cornyn, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for a news conference. Though the statement made no mention of a topic, Hutchison has said frequently that she would leave the Senate before her term ends in 2012. Several state politicians have already declared their interest in running in a special election to replace her. But Cornyn, McConnell, Gov. Rick Perry and every member of the Texas...

The countdown to the Texas Republican gubernatorial primary is well underway, and with only two days remaining, attention is being paid to an unusual source: ABBA. On Friday, Gov. Rick Perry's campaign released a new Web video with an unusual twist. The spot is set to a modified version of the Sweedish pop group ABBA's 1976 hit "Dancing Queen." The video targets challenger Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and casts her as the "Earmark Queen." The original lyrics are gone – replaced with a new set performed by former American Idol contestant Stephanie Daulong. "You are the Earmark Queen, Spend and...

I had the opportunity to ask the Governor a few questions on Saturday. We discussed his support for the Tea Party movement and his 2010 primary challengers. Video here.

Kay Bailey Hutchison, much maligned for campaigning in Texas during the health care debate, boldly announced that she would go to Washington and stay there to fight health care and kill it dead. Instead, today she accelerated it getting to the Senate floor in a bit of Senate gamesmanship.

Kay Bailey Hutchison votes with Democrats to speed up process to healthcare vote.

Conservative Republican candidate for Governor of Texas - Debra Medina - writes an op/ed taking Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison to task for her longstanding opposition to pro-life issues. Medina says in part, "Conservative and pro-choice rarely fall in the same sentence, unless you’re referring to “conservative” gubernatorial candidate Kay Bailey Hutchison, of course. A long time Washington insider and clear adversary on pro-life issues, Senator Hutchison has had ample opportunity to rally against abortion, and she has failed."

The Texas Department of Transportation is pulling the last plug on the Trans-Texas Corridor, Gov. Rick Perry's embattled plan to build a toll-road network across the state. The agency said earlier this year it was scaling down the project and dropping the name "Trans-Texas Corridor." Now, transportation officials say it's fully dead. Transportation Commissioner Bill Meadows told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram of the decision in a report posted online Tuesday. The news comes a day after Perry's Republican primary opponent, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, secured the coveted endorsement of the powerful Texas Farm Bureau — a vocal opponent of the...

Here is video of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison talking about why she has decided to run for Governor of Texas. She appeared On the Record with Greta Van Susteren last night. She said she is running because there are real differences between herself and GOP Gov. Rick Perry. She says she wants lower taxes, and that Perry has raised taxes. She also said she is running because the Republican Party in Texas is shrinking under Perry's leadership, and she believes she can turn that around. Hutchison also said Perry has been in office too long, that 14 years is longer...

Kay Bailey Hutchison cautioned Sunday that Republicans "need to have a respectful tone" in tackling the nomination of Sonya Sotomayor. The senator was on CNN, where she was specifically asked about her upcoming race for governor in Texas, a state with a large and growing Hispanic population. Said KBH: "We need to look at the record. And we need to have the responsibilities that have put on us buy the Constitution taken very seriously. And I think having a solid respectful tone, arguing the facts, not trying to label someone, is important. And going forward, I think that's what you...

During an emotional moment at the Dallas Women's Museum, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison praised Hillary Rodham Clinton for "keeping a confident face" during the 2008 presidential campaign when "you were getting so many disappointments." "You were completely devastated and you never let it show on your face," Hutchison said during the forum. "That character is why you are secretary of state today."

Congress > Roll Call Votes > Senate Vote #56 (Feb 6, 2009) S.Amdt. 107: Prohibiting direct or indirect use of funds to... to H.R. 1: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act... (Vote On Amendment) Overview Vote Number: Senate Vote #56 in 2009 [primary source] Date: Feb 6, 2009 11:04PM Result: Amendment Rejected Related Amendment: S.Amdt. 107: Prohibiting direct or indirect use of funds to fund the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). amending H.R. 1: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Totals Democrats Republicans Independents All Votes Needed To Win Yea: 45 (45%) 6 39 0 Nay: 51...

Lawmakers used the meeting of President-elect Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon today to file legislation in the Senate and House to reduce drug-related violence on the U.S.-Mexico border. The bill, introduced by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, would provide $30 million over two years to expand the Justice Department’s "Project Gunrunner Initiative" that targets gun-smuggling networks. "The increasing violence in Mexico is now a U.S. national security issue," Hutchison said. In addition to Bingaman and Hutchison, Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl, both Republicans, also signed on to the legislation . A...

AUSTIN, Texas — If anyone wondered whether Texas toll road rage had subsided or lawmakers' irritation at the Texas Department of Transportation had eased, those questions got answered a few days before Christmas: Not so much. Denouncing the massive transportation agency as dysfunctional and out of control, a group of lawmakers reviewing the department said it will be intensely debated in the legislative session that begins Jan. 13. "This is a big agency that is a mess," said Rep. Carl Isett, a Lubbock Republican and one of the leaders of the Sunset Advisory Commission that periodically examines state agencies. He...

Kay Bailey Hutchison cautious in praising Sarah Palin ST. PAUL, Minn. – Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison contrasted the full-throated defense of Sarah Palin by some in her party and lowered the bar Wednesday by offering her own statesman-like, cautious praise for the vice presidential nominee. Asked if Ms. Palin is ready to be vice president, Ms. Hutchison said that "she offers a lot to the ticket. We'll see in the coming weeks how she does, where she goes. And I think she's going to do fine."

The Pineywoods Sub-Regional Planning Commission met Thursday to hear a presentation by the commission's president, Hank Gilbert, who said the plans to move the Trans-Texas Corridor to the current U.S. Hwy. 59 location may not come to fruition. The Texas Department of Transportation initially planned to build a new highway system, which would have been as large as 1,200-feet wide, that would run through rural areas of East Texas, including Nacogdoches County. However, TxDOT scrapped those plans in June and announced a new proposal to build the TTC along the existing route of U.S. Hwy 59. But Gilbert, of the...

The vice president is a heartbeat away from becoming president, so to choose someone with not one hour’s worth of experience on national issues is a dangerous choice. If John McCain thought that choosing Sarah Palin would attract Hillary Clinton voters, he is badly mistaken. The only similarity between her and Hillary Clinton is that they are both women. On the issues, they could not be further apart. Sen. McCain had so many other options if he wanted to put a woman on his ticket, such as Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Sen. Olympia Snowe -– they would have been...

State highway officials said Wednesday that the first step in carrying out their decision to build a controversial toll road along the present U.S. 59, and not through farm and ranch land, is to get federal approval. Although no federal funding has been sought for the Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor, the Texas Department of Transportation is bound by federal environmental law. The project has generated thick volumes about its likely impact on the natural environment and the communities in its path. The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) is expected to undergo public review late this year and then get sent to...

WASHINGTON — The Texas Department of Transportation, long viewed as hyperpartisan and arrogant by some members of the state's congressional delegation, has been trying to soften its image by reaching out to lawmakers of both parties in the nation's capital. But while state transportation officials are having some success in easing the personal animus, they still face a stiff challenge in selling their policy agenda to the state's elected officials in Washington. Many Texans on the Potomac cringe at the agency's embrace of toll roads, the controversies surrounding the Trans-Texas Corridor and TxDOT's resistance to many of the highway earmarks...

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry promised to keep fighting for private toll roads and his other transportation priorities Tuesday during his first major speech on the subject since the death in December of transportation commission chairman Ric Williamson. "This is a place for big challenges, not big excuses," he told state Transportation Department employees and highway experts from around the country at the annual Transportation Forum. Next year's legislative session, he said, can't be anything like last year's. "The Legislature must understand that 'no' is not a solution," Mr. Perry said. "It is an abdication of responsibility." Before last year's...

Some Republicans groaned at Gov. Rick Perry's announcement that he plans to seek another term in 2010, but Mayor Bill White's camp reacted with glee. White has made no effort to hide the fact that he is looking to run for governor after being term-limited out of the mayor's office next year. And Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the biggest vote-getter in Texas history, has been more than hinting that she plans to "come home" to run for the same office. She outlined to Texas Monthly last November a plan to resign the Senate in 2009 to make the race, while...