Perry Snafus To Be Hutchison Theme

Mark Davis is a little off the mark in today’s DMN column about the Rick Perry-Kay Bailey Hutchison gubernatorial race. Davis says casino gambling, the Trans-Texas Corridor and the Gardasil initiative are the key ways Hutchison could make hay hitting the incumbent. According to top Hutchison insiders, however, the campaign has much bigger guns in its arsenal, and they can all be boiled down to one big theme: government mismanagement. We’re talking about Perry’s (alleged) appointment of bumbling cronies to key posts, leading to incompetence and worse in the state-run schools for the disabled and foster-care programs, as well as at the state highway department, Texas Youth Commission, DPS, and prison system. (Can you say, “cellphones on Death Row”?) Throw in relatively high electricity and insurance rates and, even a Perry supporter has got to admit, it could add up to a formidable case for change.