Academic

Just Say "No"

By Tim Zinnecker

As reported earlier this week, the senior senator from Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchison (pictured), will vote "no" on Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation  to the Supreme Court (the story also notes the same "no" vote on Sotomayor's nomination to the appellate bench).

Now comes news that Hutchison will resign her seat later this year to focus on challenging incumbent Rick Perry for the Republican nomination for Texas governor.  (Perry will appoint Hutchison's successor.  My guess is that Greg Abbott, our Attorney General, will receive serious consideration.)

The fact that Hutchison intends to seek her party's nomination for governor is not surprising.  But I've been wondering how her "no" vote on Sotomayor's nomination might affect the governor's race in a state where (according to this "fact sheet") over a third of the population is Hispanic and approximately a quarter of eligible voters are Latinos.  Perhaps seeking to "allay criticism" that opposing the Sotomayor nomination "might alienate Hispanic and women voters" in her race against Perry, Hutchison noted that "[t]hirty percent of the federal judges I have selected for nomination for Texas are Hispanic" and "I will continue to support the most qualified judges irrespective [of] race or gender."

How will all this play out?  (One recent poll shows Perry with a 10-point advantage (46% to 36%).)  Stay tuned.  We could have ourselves an old-fashioned shootout down at the corral!

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on July 30, 2009 (boomark / email).