Kay's big announcement...

Kay made her big announcement yesterday with a handful of older, frowning Dallas County white people standing behind her.

The Dallas Observer has a better picture on its blog than the webcam had (link)...

She also derided his camp's assertion that she's a creature of Washington and not of Texas.

"I'm just as anti-Washington as he is and I'm doing something about it," she said, referring to her fight against the De

mocrats' public insurance option and cap-and-trade policies. "The governor can talk; I'm gonna deliver."

After naming a laundry list of goals, from lowering taxes and reforming the Texas Department of Transportation ("We have an arrogant transportation system in Texas"-) to protecting private property and improving education, Hutchison seemed to back away from promoting divisive right-wing social issues and hearkened back to fiscal conservativism as the way to renew the state GOP in the face of shifting demographics and political winds.

"The question is, are we going to be a party that broadens our base or narrows our base?" she said, emphasizing Texas' low tax rate, right-to-work policy and hospitable business climate as the way forward. "We must be a party that reaches out."

I don't really know where to begin but this was not the Kay campaign's communications team's proudest hour. Kay herself is not to be exonerated though. She made some claims that were very out there... she said that she had raised the most money in a 6 month span than anybody except George W. Bush... but Rick raised more in 6 months during 2006.

Kay accused Rick of raising money during the legislative session... a major violation of the law.

She said that she was leading in the polls... did her team never tell her about the polls showing her down to Rick by a dozen points?

The liberal Texas Observer observes (link)...

Hutchison disputed the results of recent polls showing Perry with a double-digit lead. She claimed her campaign's internal polling had her out front. "I know I'm ahead," she said.

So just to be clear: She's not in the race yet, but she's winning.

This announcement should have dominated the press for this whole week... it was not to be.

That 6,7 should have been 8,9 or 10,11 to make the impact she needed to get back on top.