Hutchison’s Senate Departure Stays Fluid

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Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison insists she will quit her Senate seat this year, whether she wins or loses her challenge to incumbent Gov. Rick Perry in Tuesday’s Texas primary. She has remained adamant about her departure even though the primary, once billed as a battle of political titans, has shifted strongly in Perry’s favor.

But the only resignation so far is the feeling among would-be successor candidates who have had to wait while Hutchison repeatedly – and as recently as Feb. 26 – moved her departure date farther into the future.

“It doesn’t affect what we’re doing,” said Roger Williams, a businessman and former Texas secretary of state. Williams has been positioning himself against other Republican hopefuls in what is described as a shadow campaign for the special election that would follow a resignation by Hutchison, whose Senate seat is next up for election in 2012.

“If we focus on the date when she resigns, it gets us off the mark,” Williams said.

Senate prospect Michael Williams, unrelated to Roger Williams and a state railroad commissioner expressed a similarly sanguine view. Williams, a conservative who has the endorsement of Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), said he “is fully prepared to serve if called upon, and committed to run when the time comes.”

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