Last week was a huge week for Rick and Kay. Voters actually began to learn a little bit about some differences between the two.
VOTER ID & BORDER SECURITY
Early in the week, we learned that Rick was actively advocating in favor of VOTER I.D. laws, but Kay would not take a stand on the issue (link) on or near the same day that she spoke to a national meeting of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
In Texas races I have been involved with, I've seen the polling. In most State Senate districts, for example, 90+% of Republicans favor voter ID. 60 or 70% of Democrats favor it. 80% overall favor it. Close to 60% of Hispanic voters favor it. It's not even a controversial issue when you look at the polling on it. Why did Kay choose to avoid the issue? Does she have a "Hillary" strategy in mind for Texas? Win the Hispanic areas and eek out a victory over Rick, the way Hillary won Hispanic areas and eeked out a win over Barack Obama?
Also in the early part of the week, Kay very subtly criticized Rick for his hawkish position on securing the border, which led Kay's team to scramble and put out clarifications about her position (link). Border security is more controversial, but not among Republicans. It is another one of those 80 or 90% issues among Republicans.
UI & STIMULUS PACKAGE
Later in the week, Rick declined the unemployment insurance portion of Obama's stimulus package. Here's where it gets tricky. Kay voted against this particular stimulus, but in a sort of mealymouthed channeling-John Forbes Kerry kind of way, criticized Rick for his decision (link).
But wait, as the infomercials always say, THERE'S MORE.
Speaking on John Forbes Kerry, it turns out that Kay appeared on a prominent Sunday Morning talk show with our generation's JFK and declared her support for changing current law and expanding unemployment insurance benefits (link).
GRADING THE WEEK
All in all, this was a really lousy week for Kay and a solid week for Rick. Kay may be up in the polls, but she will not be able to coast all the way to victory. She is going to have to avoid having lots of weeks like this one in the future, otherwise an upset is in the making.
WINNER OF THE WEEK: Rick.
RICK: A-
KAY: D
Agreed it was a bad week for Kay Bailey Hutchison. I was inclined to say that this bad week led to her drop in the polls, but I think there's something more to that. Looking at the dates of the new UT poll, the survey happened before last week.
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