Kay Bailey Hutchison

Kay Bailey Hutchison
United States Senator from Texas
Incumbent
Assumed office June 14, 1993 Serving with John Cornyn
Preceded by	Bob Krueger
Personal details
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Ray Hutchison
Alma mater	University of Texas at Austin

Kathyrn Ann Bailey Hutchison, usually known as Kay Bailey Hutchison (born July 22 1943), is the senior United States Senator from Texas. She is a member of the Republican Party. In 2001, she was named one of "The 30 most powerful women in America" by Ladies Home Journal. She is the first woman to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate.

Family life

Hutchison was born in Galveston to Kathryn Ella Sharp and Allan Abner Bailey, an insurance agent. She has two brothers, Allan and Frank. Hutchison grew up in La Marque, Texas. She divorced her first husband, a medical student.

In 2001, Hutchison adopted two children (daughter Kathryn Bailey and son Houston Taylor) with her second husband, [1] Ray Hutchison, whom she married in 1978. He has two grown daughters, Brenda and Julie, from a previous marriage. Ray Hutchison, also a former member of the Texas Legislature and unsuccessful candidate for Texas governor in 1978, is a senior partner with the law fim of Vinson & Elkins.

Senator Hutchison and her family have their primary residence in Dallas, Texas. She has a second house in Virginia, where she lives when the Senate is in session, and where her children attend school. [2]

Education and early career

She received her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1962, where she was a cheerleader in the 1960s, and a sister of Pi Beta Phi sorority. She received her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1967. Following her graduation from law school, she was the legal and political correspondent for KPRC-TV in Houston.

In 1972, Hutchison was elected to the Texas State House of Representatives from a district in Houston. She served until 1976. She was vice-chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board from 1976 to 1978. She was a candidate for election to the United States House of Representatives in 1982 for the Dallas-based 3rd District, but was defeated in the primary by Steve Bartlett. She temporarily left politics and became a bank executive and successful businesswoman.

1993 Senate special election

Hutchison was elected Texas State Treasurer in 1990 and served until June 1993 when she ran against Senator Bob Krueger for the right to complete the last two years of Lloyd Bentsen's term. Bentsen had resigned in January 1993 to become Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton administration. Krueger had been appointed by Texas Governor Ann Richards to fill the seat until a replacement was elected.

A field of 24 candidates sought to fill Bentsen's unexpired term, in the May 1993 special election. [3]. The top two vote-getters were Hutchison (593,338, or 29 percent) and Krueger (593,239, also 29 percent). Two conservative Republican congressmen, Joe Barton of Dallas (284,135 or 13.9 percent) and Jack Fields of Houston (277,560, or 13.6 percent) split pro-life voters (although Hutchison calls herself "pro-life", she does not advocate overturning Roe v. Wade). Their combined vote was 561,695, still a third-place finish. A fifth candidate, Democrat Richard W. Fisher, polled 165,564 votes (8.1 percent); the remaining candidates had about 6 percent combined.

During the campaign, in January, the Houston Chronicle reported that both Hutchison and Fields had promised to serve a maximum of two six-year terms in the Senate as part of her support for term limit legislation for members of Congress. In April, the Dallas Morning News reported that Hutchison had repeated her pledge to serve only two terms in the U.S. Senate, if elected, and had also said term limits ought to cover all senators, including Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX), who had been elected in 1984 and re-elected in 1990. (He would stay in the Senate until 2002.) The term-limits legislation never passed, and Hutchison has said that she would not leave the senate in the absence of such legislation because doing so would unilaterally hurt Texas at the expense of other states in the seniority-driven Senate.

After the initial voting, most of the Barton and Fields voters switched to Hutchison, who won the runoff, 1,188,716 (67.3 percent) to 576,538 (32.7 percent). Lower turnout in the runoff resulted in a decrease in Krueger's vote total, by 17,000. Hutchison became the first woman to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate.

Following Hutchison's election in 1993, Texas has had two sitting Republican U.S. senators.

1993–1994 prosecution

Shortly after the special election victory, Travis County authorities, led by Democratic district attorney Ronnie Earle, raided Hutchison's offices at the State Treasury looking for proof of allegations that Hutchison used state equipment and employees on state time to help with her campaign. She was indicted by a grand jury in September 1993 for official misconduct and records tampering.

The case against Hutchison was heard before State District Judge John Onion in February, 1994. During pre-trial proceedings, the judge announced that he would make no rulings on the admissibility of evidence prior to the trial. The evidence was to include data from tapes maintained by Treasury employees. Hutchison had allegedly given instructions that the data be deleted from the department's computers (during the course of the trial, these data — enclosed in a pizza box — were turned over to the Travis County DA's office).

This was a ruling DA Earle considered critical. Earle felt that it was a technique designed to torpedo his case, because Onion could rule mid-trial that certain important evidence was inadmissible under the Texas Rules of Evidence [4].

Following Onion's ruling, Earle declined to proceed with his case. Though he had intended to continue the case later, Onion declined to give Earle that opportunity. The judge instead swore in a jury and immediately ordered the panel to acquit Hutchison when no evidence had been presented to them by Earle. The acquittal barred any future prosecution of Hutchison. [5] Later that year, Earle granted reporters access to the files he had amassed to make his case against Hutchison. [6]

1994 and 2000 Senate elections

In 1994, the election for her first full term, Hutchison received 2,604,281 votes (60.8 percent) to 1,639,615 votes (38.3 percent) cast for Democrat Richard W. Fisher, the son-in-law of the late Republican Congressman James M. Collins, who had also run in the special election the year before.

In 2000 she defeated Democrat Gene Kelly, with 4,082,091 (65 percent) to 2,030,315 (32.2 percent). She carried 237 of the 254 counties, including one of the most Democratic counties, Webb County (Laredo). This was the only time since the early 1900s that Webb County had supported a Republican candidate for any office on a partisan ballot. More than four million Texans voted for Hutchison that year — still the record highest number of actual votes ever cast in Texas for a non-presidential candidate (George W. Bush received 4,526,917 votes in Texas in the 2004 election).

2006 Senate election

Main article: Texas United States Senate election, 2006

Speculation began in 2004 that Hutchison would run for Governor of Texas in 2006, challenging current Governor Rick Perry in the Republican primary. However, on June 17, 2005, Hutchison announced that she would seek reelection to the Senate instead, reneging on an earlier promise to a two-term limit. Many political analysts speculated that she did not believe she could defeat Perry in the GOP primary because of his popularity among Christian conservatives, while her Senate seat was unlikely to face a serious threat.

Hutchison's Democratic opponent in the November 2006 general election was former Houston attorney and mediator Barbara Ann Radnofsky (born July 8, 1956), who had not previously run for public office. Radnofsky received 44 percent of the vote in the primary and won a runoff election against Gene Kelly with 60 percent of the vote. Kelly had been the unsuccessful Democratic nominee against Hutchison in 2000. Libertarian Scott Lanier Jameson (born July 1, 1966), a real estate consultant from Plano, also ran for the seat.

Radnofsky faced an uphill battle in a state that has not elected a Democrat statewide since 1994, as George W. Bush's landslide reelection as governor in 1998 had helped carry Republicans into all the other statewide offices. In the August 2006 Rasmussen poll, Hutchison led her opponent by 30 percentage points — 61 to 31. [7]. The Survey USA Poll, which is not a head-to-head matchup, but only lists approval ratings of incumbents, found Hutchison with a 61 percent approval rating. [8] The Zogby poll, in contrast, showed a closer result, but still showed Hutchison with a 17.3 percent lead — the highest of any incumbent Republican Zogby tracks. [9]. The authors stated "...Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who got 65 percent of the vote in 2000, is a safe bet to win a third term."

On election night 2006, Hutchison won re-election to another term, winning 2,661,789 votes (61.7%). Radnofsky won 1,555,202 votes (36.04%). [10] Radnofsky only won in base Democratic areas, carrying only border counties with strong Hispanic majorities (such as El Paso and Hidalgo) and Travis County (Austin). Hutchison won everything else, taking more votes in 236 of the state's 254 counties.

Political views

Hutchison serves on the following Senate committees: Appropriations; Commerce, Science and Transportation; Rules and Administration; Veterans' Affairs. During her time in the Senate, Hutchison has been a strong supporter of NASA.

Hutchison speaking.

In June of 2000, Hutchison and her Senate colleagues coauthored Nine and Counting: The Women of the Senate. In 2004, her book, American Heroines: The Spirited Women Who Shaped Our Country, was published.

From 2001 to 2007, Hutchison served as Chairwoman of the Senate Republican Conference (caucus), making her the fifth-ranking Republican in the Senate behind Majority Leader Bill Frist, Majority Whip Mitch McConnell and conference chairman Rick Santorum, and Policy Chairman Jon Kyl. In 2007, Hutchison succeeded Jon Kyl as the Policy Chair for Senate Republicans, the fourth ranking leadership position in the Republican caucus behind Minority Leader McConnell, Minority Whip Trent Lott, and conference chairman Kyl.

The National Journal ranked Hutchison as follows in its 2004 rankings, which are based on various key votes relating to economic policy, social policy, and foreign policy: "Economic: 26% Liberal, 73% Conservative; Social: 38% Liberal, 60% Conservative; Foreign: 0% Liberal, 67% Conservative. Although a loyal Conservative Republican she has been known to cross over to the other side on a few issues. She is more likely to do this than either Phil Gramm or his successor John Cornyn." A poll that was released on June 19, 2007, shows that Hutchinson has an approval rating of 58%, with 34% disapproving.[11]

Abortion positions

Hutchison is currently considered to be moderate on abortion issues, at least compared to most elected Republicans from Texas. Although she has served on the Advisory Board of The Wish List (Women in the Senate and House) Political Action Committee, which contributes to pro-choice female Republican candidates for Congress, she is no longer on the board [12] and the PAC did not endorse her in 2006. [13]. In the past years NARAL has given her ratings of 0%, 7%, 20%, and 0%, indicating that her voting record mostly favored enacting proposed abortion restrictions. [14]

While in the Texas House of Representatives (1973 to 1977), Hutchison worked to protect rape victims from having their names published with Sarah Weddington, the attorney who won the Roe v. Wade case. She supports some abortion rights, but, keeping with her libertarianism, does not believe in taxpayer-funded abortions. Hutchison has also endorsed parental notification laws [15] and in 2006 sponsored legislation to prevent minors from being transported across state lines with taxpayer money to subvert such laws.

Pistol ban controversy

Hutchison proposed the "District of Columbia Personal Protection Act," which drew 31 cosponsors in the United States Senate, while drawing 157 cosponsors from the House. This bill would have dismantled the handgun bans the city has had for thirty years. DC's law states that one may possess a rifle or shotgun, but not pistols. Hutchison formerly had resided in D.C., but has since moved her family to Virginia, in addition to her primary residence in Texas.

Environmental record

In 2006, Hutchison received more campaign contributions from large oil and gas corporations than any other member of Congress. In 2005, Hutchison voted against prohibiting oil leasing in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and has supported legislation promoting drilling in the refuge in 2002 and 2003. In 2005 she also voted against including oil and gas smokestacks in the Environmental Protection Agency's mercury regulations. In 1999, she voted to remove funding for renewable and solar energy, although she has more recently stated she supports the development of alternative energy sources. According to the League of Conservation Voters environmental scorecard, Hutchison received a rating of zero — the lowest possible score — in the 104th Congress.

Border issues

Senator Hutchison has been criticized for her recent positions regarding plans for a U.S.-Mexico border fence. She supports local consultation between communities along the border and the Department of Homeland Security to determine what type of fencing and security measures make sense in particular areas based on what those officials see on the ground. She has stated that bureaucrats in Washington are hardly positioned to determine the most effective measures, which areas of the border are experiencing the most significant problems, and how construction of the fence will impact local communities. Some, including the conservative advocacy group grassfire.org, criticize this position arguing that a consultation process will slow down construction of the fence and provide an opening for so called "open border" advocates to kill the fence project all together.

Political future

Hutchison is the most senior female Republican senator, being elected in 1993. Next in line is Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), who was elected in 1994.

In February 2006, TheWhiteHouseProject.org [16] named Hutchison as one of its "8 in '08", a group of eight female politicians who could possibly be elected President in 2008.

Hutchison's name has been circulated as a possible Vice-Presidential candidate for Republican John McCain. Her strong record as a conservative, female politician from the Southwest could induce the GOP to add her name to the ticket in an effort to balance any perceived gender gap between the parties, particularly if Hillary Clinton were to get the Democratic nomination for the Presidency in 2008.

Hutchison is also considered a possible candidate for the governorship of Texas in 2010.

In an interview with Texas Monthly, Hutchison said she would not seek re-election after this term and may leave as early as 2009, to allow a new senator to build seniority before the 2012 election. If she is elected governor in 2010, a temporary appointment will be made by the governor, perhaps by Hutchison herself.

Electoral history

Texas Senator (Class I): Results 1988–2006

Year		Democrat	Votes	Pct		Republican	Votes	Pct		3rd Party	Party	Votes	Pct		3rd Party	Party	Votes	Pct
1988		Lloyd Bentsen*	3,149,806	59%		Beau Boulter	2,129,228	40%		Jeff Daiell	Libertarian	43,989	1%
1993		Bob Krueger	576,538	33%		Kay Bailey Hutchison	1,188,716	67%
1994		Richard W. Fisher	1,639,615	38%		Kay Bailey Hutchison	2,604,218	61%		Pierre Blondeau	Libertarian	36,107	1%
2000		Gene Kelly	2,025,024	32%		Kay Bailey Hutchison	4,078,954	65%		Douglas Sandage	Green	91,329	1%		Mary J. Ruwart	Libertarian	72,657	1%
2006		Barbara Ann Radnofsky	1,555,202	36%		Kay Bailey Hutchison	2,661,789	62%		Scott Jameson	Libertarian	97,672	2%

*Lloyd Bentsen resigned his term to become Secretary of the Treasury; Hutchison won the runoff special election in 1993 to fill out the remainder of his term.

References

• Selby, W. Gardner. "Earle lost Kay; can he beat DeLay?". Austin American-Statesman, Oct. 2, 2005. pp. A1, A8–A9.
• Barone, Michael. The Almanac of American Politics, 2006. "Kay Bailey Hutchison," pp. 1580–1581.

External links

• U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison official Senate site

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Profile at Vote Smart
• New York Times — Topics: Kay Bailey Hutchison collected news stories and commentary
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — Kay Bailey Hutchison profile
• Secretary of State of Texas candidate list
• Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison official campaign site
• Leading Ladies: American Trailblazers a talk by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison at the University of Texas at Austin, LBJ School of Public Affairs, Nov 9, 2007.
• NoKay.org anti-candidate site