KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana |Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison: Conservative enough?
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Associated Press - October 3, 2009 4:05 AM ET
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison often talks up her "pro-life" voting record in Washington. But she faces a steep climb with many conservatives who think her views on abortion and embryonic stem cell research make her a bad fit for the Texas governor's office.
Hutchison has repeatedly expressed support for individual abortion rights, even as she's racked up a mostly anti-abortion voting record in Congress. That's contributed to her image as the more moderate choice in her bid to unseat Gov. Rick Perry, a conservative Republican who has doggedly courted the right wing in his bid for an unprecedented third 4-year term in office.
It's not hard to grasp the key role bedrock conservative voters will play in the upcoming March GOP primary, where the Hutchison-Perry showdown is shaping up as a clash of titans. A UT Texas poll conducted this summer found that 83% of likely Republican voters identify themselves as right-of-center, and 61% call themselves "very" or "extremely" conservative.
Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, said the question isn't whether Hutchison is a conservative: her voting record clearly makes her one. But she's in a pitched battle with someone who is viewed as even more conservative - and on social issues, conservatives tend to give no quarter.
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