Gov. Rick Perry rolled to an easy victory in yesterday’s primary in Texas. Republican voters there apparently preferred sending him onto a possible third, four-year term, over handing the nomination for the state’s top office to U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or to Debra Medina, a favorite of Texas’ Tea Party activists. The governor captured 51 percent of the vote, just enough to avoid a runoff.
Now Gov. Perry, who ran an anti-Washington campaign against the two-term senator, will take on Democrat Bill White, Houston’s former mayor who coasted to victory in yesterday’s primary. The general election is in November.
So, should we expect Gov. Perry’s hostile stance toward Race to the Top to remain? (Remember that the governor pulled the plug on the state’s application not long before the deadline for Round One).
I think so, given his remarks at one of his last campaign appearances before yesterday’s election. He denounced, once again, the idea of “national standards” and the emphasis that the RTTT competition places on adopting the voluntary common core standards led by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.
Unless he does an about-face, count Texas out of Round Two as well.
