It’s a big day in gubernatorial politics.
Voters in Texas are going to the polls to decide who they want in the hotly-contested Republican primary for governor: sitting Gov. Rick Perry, who is after a third, four-year term, or U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. It’s been a rough-and-tumble race, even by Texas standards, with tens of millions spent over the last year. But keep your eye on the returns for Libertarian candidate Debra Medina, a favorite of Tea Party activists in Texas who could end up forcing a run-off early next month.
And in California, Attorney General Jerry Brown is set to formally announce his entry into the race as the Democratic candidate to replace Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s a bit anticlimactic, really, since everyone has known for months that the one-time mayor of Oakland, who already served eight years as the state’s chief executive officer, was going to run. Go to Brown’s website at 11 a.m. Pacific to watch the announcement live.
With no serious Democratic challenger to run against him in the June primary, Brown can already start to focus on November, when he will face either former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman, or Steve Poizner, the state’s insurance commissioner.
No doubt that the state’s recession-battered economy and jaw-dropping budget shortfalls will dominate campaigns but, of course, I want to see whether Brown will make public schools a central plank of his campaign, and if he does, what he might focus on. As mayor of Oakland, Brown championed charter schools. Will he do the same as a gubernatorial candidate?
