Kay Bailey Hutchison

Kay Bailey Hutchison
Senior Senator, Texas
In office June 1993 – Present
Preceded by	Bob Krueger
Succeeded by	Incumbent (2007)
Personal details
Nationality	american
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Ray Hutchison

Kathryn Ann Bailey Hutchison, usually known as Kay Bailey Hutchison (born July 22 1943, in Galveston, Texas), is the senior United States Senator from Texas. She is a member of the Republican Party.

Hutchison grew up in La Marque, Texas. She received her B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1962, where she was a cheerleader in the 1960s. She received her J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin Law School 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, of which she was a member 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.

Election to the Senate

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 to fill the seat, by Texas Governor Ann Richards, until an all-party primary was held in May 1993.

A field of 24 candidates sought to fill Bentsen's unexpired term[1].

Hutchison (593,338, or 29 percent) and Krueger (593,239, or 29 percent) were the top two voter-getters in the special election. 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 is pro-life she does not advocate over-turning Roe v. Wade). Their candidacies worked inadvertently to secure Hutchison the runoff slot, although had only one of the two run in the special election and the same voting pattern followed, Congressmen Barton and Fields combined would have still had insufficient votes to secure a runoff berth. Their combined vote was 561,695, still a third place finish. A fifth candidate, Democrat Richard Fisher polled 165,564 votes (8.1 percent).

Thereafter, most of the Barton and Fields voters flocked to Hutchison, who won the runoff, 1,188,716 (67.3 percent) to 576,538 (32.7 percent). Lower turnout in the runoff actually worked to shrink Krueger's raw vote by 17,000. Hutchison hence became the first woman to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate. For the first time in modern history, Texas would also have two sitting Republican U.S. senators, a phenomenon that has continued to the present day.

One of the major issues in the special election race among the Republican candidates was the issue of term limits. Hutchison claimed she was a supporter of term limits and said she would limit herself to two terms in the Senate if elected, and said she would sign a term limits pledge[2].

Facing Criminal Charges: Allegations, Indictment, Prosecution & Acquittal

Shortly after the special election victory, Travis County authorities, led by 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, Onion announced that he would make any rulings on the admissibility of evidence (including material from data tapes maintained by Treasury employees Hutchison allegedly instructed to delete files off the departments computers which were ultimately turned over to the Travis County DA's office enclosed in a pizza box[3]) during the course of the trial[4].

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[5].

Following Onion's ruling, Earle declined to proceed with his case, though he had intended to continue the case later (possibly before a more favorable judge), 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. The acquittal barred any future prosecution of Hutchison[6].

Later that year, Earle granted reporters access to the files he had amassed to make his case against Hutchison[7].

Subsequent 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 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 candidate.

Senate career

Hutchison speaking.

Hutchison serves on the following Senate committees: Appropriations; Commerce, Science and Transportation; Rules and Administration; Veterans' Affairs.

In June of 2000, Hutchinson 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.

Since 2001, Hutchison has been Vice-Chairwoman of the Senate Republican Conference (caucus), making her the fifth-ranking Republican in the Senate behind (as of 2005) Majority Leader Bill Frist, Majority Whip Mitch McConnell and conference chairman Rick Santorum, and Policy Chairman Jon Kyl. McConnell has suggested that Hutchison might become conference chairwoman in 2007.

Hutchison serves on the Commerce Committee, Appropriations Committee, Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs and as a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. During her time in the Senate, Hutchison has been a strong supporter of NASA.

Hutchison is considered to be moderate on abortion issues, 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 [8] and the PAC has not endorsed her in 2006. [9]. In the past years NARAL has given her ratings of 0%, 7%, 20%, and 0%. [10]

While in the Texas House of Representatives (1973 to 1977), Hutchison worked with Sarah Weddington, the attorney who won the Roe v. Wade case, to protect rape victims from having their names published. She has since supported some abortion rights, but not federal funding for them. She has, however, endorsed such abortion restrictions as parental notification laws [11] and in 2006 sponsored legislation to prevent minors from being transported across state lines to subvert such laws.

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.

2006 re-election campaign

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.

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Barbara Ann Radnofsky

Hutchison's Democratic opponent in the November 2006 general election is former Houston attorney and mediator Barbara Ann Radnofsky, who has not previously run for public office. Radnofsky received 44% of the vote in the primary and won a runoff election against Gene Kelly with 60 percent of the vote. Kelly was the unsuccessful Democratic nominee against Hutchison in 2000. Libertarian Scott Lanier Jameson is also running for the seat.

Radnofsky faces an uphill battle in a state that has not elected a Democrat statewide since 1994. In the August Rasmussen poll, Hutchison led her opponent by 30 percentage points - 61 to 31. [12]. The Survey USA Poll, which is not a head-to-head matchup, but only lists approval ratings of incumbents, finds Hutchison with a 61 percent approval rating. [13] The Zogby poll, in contrast, shows a closer result, but still shows Hutchison with a 17.3 percent lead - the highest of any incumbent Republican Zogby tracks. [14]. The authors state "...Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who got 65 percent of the vote in 2000, is a safe bet to win a third term."

Other

In February 2006, TheWhiteHouseProject.org[15] named Hutchison as one of its "8 in '08", a group of eight female politicians who could possibly be elected President in 2008.

With the emerging consensus that Hilary Clinton has a firm grip on the Democratic nomination for the Presidency in 2008, Hutchison's name has been ciruclated as a possible Vice-Presidential candidate on the Republican ticket. Her strong record as a conservative, female politician from the South could induce the GOP to add her name to the ticket in an effort to balance any perceived 'gender-gap' between the parties.

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

Hutchison has two adopted children with her second husband,[16] Ray Hutchison. He has two grown daughters 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 reside in Dallas, Texas, although she has a second House in Virginia, where she lives when the Senate is in session.

She is an honorary board member of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.

External links

• Kay Bailey Hutchison's U.S. Senate site
• Official campaign site
• Voting record maintained by the Washington Post

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.