VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT8sEJbb03g&feature=player_embeddedhttp://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/01/perry-hutchison-rolls-with-the.htmlRick Perry's campaign has responded to rival Kay Bailey Hutchison's "Hook 'em Horns" TV spot with an on-line political commercial playing off tonight's BCS championship game between Texas and Alabama. As Christy Hoppe noted earlier on TrailBlazers, the Hutchison ad takes aim at Perry on toll roads while touting her support for the Longhorns. The Perry camp fires back with a spot that suggests Hutchison has backed legislation to help -- say it ain't so! -- Alabama.
Did Hutchison really vote for the Alabama project, as Perry says? Not exactly. Yes and no. Hutchison did vote for the Senate version of the $67 billion appropriations bill (including the Alabama earmark requested by Republican Sen. Richard Shelby) in September. But she was among 35 senators who last month voted against the final conference committee version, which had swelled to over $1 trillion. In the end, after Hutchison and fellow GOP senators went on record against too much spending, the bill only needed a majority and had plenty of votes to pass.
The Perry campaign has repeatedly reminded voters that Hutchison voted for the initial $700 billion bailout pushed by the Bush administration. It has also tried to take issue with Hutchison's support of earmarks, a traditional function of senators to benefit projects in their own state. Hutchison has trumpeted her support of earmarks to help Texas. And voters seem fine with that. The Perry campaign wants to make earmarks a debate about something else: the well-worn Washington practice of trading favors. Senators get earmarks at home by agreeing to support another senator's project elsewhere. In this case, money for a project in Alabama.
