December 20, 2004

Lincoln Day Dinner Could Be Sneak
Preview of 2006 Battle for Governor

Hutchison Added to Program with Perry, Combs
and Coulter for Collin County Fundraising Event

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

In a potential preview of the GOP battle for governor in 2006, Governor Rick Perry and U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison will share the stage at a fundraising dinner extravaganza in the most Republican county in Texas two months from now.

Perry had been the leading marquee name on the list of special guests planning to attend the Collin County Lincoln Day Dinner in the Oil Barons Ballroom at the Southfork Ranch in Plano on February 26. Best selling conservative author Ann Coulter has been billed as the keynote speaker at the event - and Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs has also been listed as a special guest for the event, which is being organized by the Collin County Republican Party.

Collin GOP Chairman Rick Neudorff broke the news to local Republicans in a Monday email that Hutchison had called him to confirm that she too would be there to help the local party organization celebrate the holiday named after one of the most famous presidents to ever represent the GOP.

"I will let you draw your own conclusions with Governor Perry and Senator Hutchison BOTH attending our dinner," Neudorff wrote in an apparent attempt to display an official neutrality in anticipation of a potential governor's primary race that could have GOP members fighting internally the way Democrats used to do when they ruled the political landscape in Texas. Perry and Hutchison, who is keeping party loyalists guessing as to whether she'll enter the race, are now listed as the two celebrities who are scheduled to make "special remarks" at the Collin GOP event. The "special guests" at this point in time are now Combs and GOP National Committeeman Bill Crocker. That leaves Coulter as the only known keynote speaker on the program for the Lincoln dinner that night.

The Collin County party chairman said that the Oil Barons ballroom had been re-configured so dinner organizers could squeeze in 130 tables with 20 additional tables in the main ballroom at Southfork, which has been a tourist attraction in the area since the prime-time soap opera Dallas was filmed there. Monday was the last day to declare as a table sponsor in time to be included on the invitations that are mailed out. But table sponsorships are still available online at the county party's web site at www.collincountygop.com. General admission tickets are $50 and $60 while VIP tickets go for $125 and admission as an Oil Baron is double that at $250.

The premium seat in the house that night will be at the President's Table, which Steve Clark and his wife have reserved at a cost of $10,000. The Clarks and their table guests - in addition to dinner - will each get 5"x7" photos of Coulter along with autographed copies of her latest book, How to Talk to a Liberal. The President's Table also comes with admission to a celebrity reception with an open bar and "heavy h'ors d'ouvers" before the dinner and two bottles of wine for the guests to share over their meals. Tables were still available Monday for $5,000, $2,500 and $1,300 but all of the $800 tables had been sold out.

The audience at the Lincoln Day dinner event will include state, national and local political and business leaders from the area including U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson, State Senator Florence Shapiro and State Rep. Jerry Madden. Collin County, which gave President George W. Bush more than 71 percent of its votes in the November general election, has no Democrats in Congress or the Legislature.

But the eyes of most Republicans at the event will be on the the governor and the United States senator who might try to block his path to a second full term in 2006. The prevailing sentiment in Texas political circles is that it looks increasingly like Hutchison will give up the U.S. Senate seat she's held for 12 years in order to challenge Perry in the spring primary less than 18 months from now. Predictions of a Hutchison candidacy for governor have increased sharply since Congress last month passed a spending bill that included a provision to let candidates use federal campaign funds in races for state offices. Hutchison, who has the third largest war chest in the Senate with $6.7 million in the campaign bank, would not have been able to convert that money to a race for governor under the McCain-Feingold law that passed in 2002.

There's speculation that Hutchison will also headline a Lincoln Day event for the Harris County GOP on the same weekend she will be in Plano.

Perry supporters had been predicting that he would face Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn in the 2006 primary until the change in campaign finance law that will benefit Hutchison if she decides to run for governor. Strayhorn could end up running for lieutenant governor or even an open U.S. Senate seat if Hutchison challenges Perry. Combs has already announced that she's running for the job Strayhorn holds now. The final Republican primary lineup in 2006 will be depend to a significant degree on whether Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst decides to seek re-election or an open U.S. Senate seat instead. Attorney General Greg Abbott is also expected to figure in the mix of statewide figures trying to advance in the elections two years from now.