Straus, Perry, Hutchison and 2010

Over at THE Dallas Morning News, William McKenzie has an excellent multi-part column on this year’s Texas Legislature, including thoughts on the apparent new House Speaker, Joe Straus.

And, I got to thinking, after reading the last section, will Straus’ leadership of the House affect the 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary between incumbent Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison? Here’s the grafs from McKenzie that got me thinking:

Perry will consider about every bill this year with an eye toward his 2010 primary race against Hutchison. …

Perry will portray himself as something other than a D.C. Republican like Hutchison. Look for him to side with social conservatives and anti-taxers, which could lead to end-of-session problems. For example, would he veto a new way to pay for water projects and harm Texas?

But, we know the gov doesn’t have a lot of power, or always even a lot of legislative throw weight, in Texas. What if Straus is just a little less cooperative with this idea than Tom Craddick would have been?

Or, what if Straus is so successful as Speaker, he gets his own political throw weight and supports Hutchison in some way?

Update: Weighing in on the "demise" of the Trans Texas Corridor, Gov. Helmethair claims he'll have no problems working with Straus. (And, could we just pay some Iraqis to "graciously detain" him for a while?

And, was this all a matter of coincidence, anyway, on "dismantling" and renaming the TTC?

Hutchison thinks not.