By Maria Recio
Star-Telegram Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is getting a big boost for a run for governor with an election law change that allows her to use $6.7 million in her federal war chest to run for state office.
The change in the campaign finance law of 2002 is in the $388 billion omnibus appropriations bill that Congress is close to approving. It comes after rulings by the Federal Election Commission that forbid federal elected officials from transferring money or using it for costs associated with a state election.
The cash would put Hutchison in the financial front-runner position in a possible three-way 2006 Republican primary, with Gov. Rick Perry with $5 million and Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn with $4 million.
"It puts her halfway there in terms of what she needs to run in the Republican primary," said Austin political observer Harvey Kronberg, editor of the Quorum Report. Hutchison considered such a run in 2002 but abandoned it when she could not raise money from big donors who were committed to Perry.
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