Fox News | No Author Listed

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said Wednesday she will step down this fall to challenge fellow Republican Rick Perry for governor in 2010, setting the stage for what will be a crowded race to replace her.

Hutchison told WBAP radio of Fort Worth-Dallas in an interview that she’ll quit the Senate in October or November, signaling that she will return to Texas full time to campaign for the governorship as soon as this fall. She reiterated that she would formally declare her candidacy in August.

“Then the actual leaving of the Senate will be some time — October, November — that, in that time frame,” Hutchison said.

Politics1 | Vin Gopal

TEXAS. The latest Rasmussen poll shows Governor Rick Perry leading US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison by a 46-36 vote in next year’s GOP gubernatorial primary.

Houston Chronicle | No Author Listed

Texas Gov. Rick Perry suggested today that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison may not run against him in the 2010 Republican primary, even though Hutchison said this week that she has $12.5 million in the bank and plans to challenge him.

“My goal is to not have a primary,” Perry told reporters after he chaired a state cash flow committee meeting. Asked whether he thinks Hutchison may decide not to enter the GOP primary, he said, “It’s always a possibility.”

Perry has questioned before whether Hutchison will end up running for governor, and she has shied away from the contest against Perry in previous election years after considering it. This time she has put together a large state campaign organization and has raised millions of dollars for a state election.

Her spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment.

CQ Politics | No Author Listed

Texas Gov. Rick Perry holds a 38 percent to 26 percent lead over Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison with 27 percent undecided should she decide to challenge him in a Republican primary, according to a University of Texas-Austin Poll conducted June 11-12. The margin of error is 5.14 points.

On the Democratic side, the poll is not much help since 64 percent are undecided at this early stage. The only one of four candidates tested that broke double-digits was Kinky Friedman at 12 percent. The writer, singer, humorist and sometime politicians ran for governor as an independent in 2006 and placed fourth in the six-person race.

Political Wire — Though Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has pleaded with Sen. Kay Baily Hutchison (R-TX) not to resign her seat to run for governor, he expects her to step down “this fall sometime,” the Houston Chronicle reports.

That would allow Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) “to appoint an interim senator and allow a special election to take place in May 2010 instead of this November (which would happen if she resigned this spring or summer).”

In a special election, Democrats “would have a golden opportunity to pick up the seat, with a strong field including Houston Mayor Bill White and ex-Comptroller John Sharp.”