Kay calls Rick a "hard right harsh person," signals sea change in strategy...

Kay's strategy is changing, and in a big way... she is no longer trying to be more conservative than Rick... she is trying a last ditch effort to broaden the primary vote and get moderates (link). Excerpt follows...

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison blasted Gov. Rick Perry Monday as a “hard-right, harsh person” and called his refusal to seek endorsements from Texas newspapers a symptom of a leader who's been in office too long.

Early today I also noticed and so did Rick's peeps that Kay was telling people to go bring non traditional voters to the Republican primary (link). Excerpt follows...

Traditionally you are looking at the most conservative peeps who vote in the primary.... and yes this year will expand the traditional pool of voters but still there will be almost exclusively pro life conservatives voting in this election.

Kay and her team have acknowledged this time after time when asked why she is not leveraging her moderate image better and instead trying to out-conservative Rick. Now it looks as if they are seeing where things stand and are shifting course. Kay is now actively seeking moderates and non traditional voters to join the Republican primary.

This was not a one off comment from Kay. This is a major strategy change. For months Kay has been pushing hard to prove she is just as conservative if not more so than Rick... now it appears that she is abandoning this strategy and seeking new voters instead...

The major problem with that strategy is that Republican primaries may be open to anyone but they are by and large a closed loop. Even if there is a huge surge in turn out most of the people voting on March 2 are going to be very conservative, very "hard right" voters... pro life... anti Washington voters...

Kay just handed Rick a new phrase for his stump speech... "the Senator has criticized me for being hard right... well... I am glad she finally admitted I am the real conservative in this race...."

Then again Rick and his peeps may begin looking toward the general election soon if Kay continues with this strategy for much longer. I think there is a market out there for moderates, but I think she already capped out in terms of her support from moderates... she isn't going to find a whole lot of new moderates especially in such a short window of time... just two weeks before early voting begins...