By Dave McNeely | Published Sunday, September 28, 2008
Florence Shapiro, a Republican state senator from Plano, may be in for a learning experience. She is among those eyeing the possibility of trying to succeed Texas' senior United States senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Hutchison, who is looking at a run for governor in 2010, has said this is her last term in the Senate. Re-elected most recently in 2006, Hutchison's seat would be up for grabs in 2012. But Hutchison, who is 65 and who friends say has grown weary of raising two young children in Washington, has said she may quit before her term expires.
Shapiro has already opened an exploratory committee to start checking out a possible race to replace Hutchison should the senator quit early.
At a minimum, she may learn, if she hasn't already, what some other members of the Texas Legislature and of Congress have learned when they decide to run statewide: Texas is a huge state.
Legislators may be a big deal in their own districts, or in Austin or Washington, where lobbyists repeatedly tell them that the Republic will be in dire straits without them. But most Texans have never heard of them.
If Hutchison does quit early, the governor is to appoint a replacement to serve until a successor for the remainder of her term is selected in a special election called by the governor.
Of course, Hutchison could run for governor without resigning her Senate seat. The upside of that would be that, as an incumbent senator who would still be in the Senate if she lost, she could have considerable fundraising leverage. The down side would be that she might have trouble focusing all her time and energy on the governor's race, as she would still be expected to show up for an occasional vote in Washington.
Now, here's a twist: if Hutchison should run for governor without resigning from the Senate, and is elected, it would be possible for her to continue as a senator until she vacates the office by being sworn in as governor. And if that happened, Hutchison as governor could appoint her own replacement.
There almost certainly will be some clamoring to be appointed to the Senate seat by the governor, whether it's Rick Perry or Hutchison. But a word of warning: no Texan who has ever been appointed to fill a vacant Senate seat has subsequently won the special election for the remainder of the term. (However, only twice before has a Senate appointee competed in the subsequent special election. See below.)
And back to Shapiro: even if she were appointed to the Senate seat, the ensuing special election could be a crowded affair - drawing the attention of, among others, former Democratic state Comptroller John Sharp.
Sharp had been offered appointment to the Senate in 1993 after Lloyd Bentsen quit to become treasury secretary, but Sharp turned down the offer from Gov. Ann Richards. It subsequently went to then-Railroad Commissioner Bob Krueger, who then lost it to then-Treasurer Hutchison.
Sharp lost races for lieutenant governor in 1998 to Rick Perry, and in 2002 to current Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. But he's since made a fair chunk of change working for and partly owning a tax advisory firm, Ryan & Co, from which he has now retired.
If he ran in a special election, where there are no party primaries and everyone runs on the same ballot, and a candidate can put in as much of his or her own money as they want, Sharp could be formidable.
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Previous Fillers of U.S. Senate Vacancies:
- Andrew Jackson Houston, Democrat, 1941 - appointed by Gov. W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel, after the death of Morris Sheppard on April 3, 1941. Houston, the only surviving child of Sam Houston, attended his first Senate session on June 2, and died on June 26, five days after his 87th birthday. O'Daniel, who had named the younger Houston as a place-holder, then ran for the Senate himself in the special election. He nosed out then-U.S. Rep. Lyndon B. Johnson.
- William Blakley, Democrat, 1957 - appointed by Gov. Allan Shivers to replace Price Daniel Sr., who had been elected governor while still a member of the Senate. Shivers made the appointment his last morning in office, just before Daniel was inaugurated. Blakley did not run in the subsequent special election, which was won by Ralph W. Yarborough before runoffs were required in special elections.
- William Blakley, again, 1961 - appointed by Gov. Daniel to fill the slot vacated by Lyndon Johnson when he was re-elected to the Senate in 1960 while also being elected vice-president. This time, Blakley did run in the special election, and was beaten by Republican John Tower in the close runoff.
- Bob Krueger, Democrat, 1993 - appointed by Gov. Ann Richards to replace Lloyd Bentsen, who resigned to be President Bill Clinton's first secretary of the treasury. But Krueger was beaten in a runoff by more than a two-to-one ratio by Republican state Treasurer Hutchison.
- John Cornyn, Republican, 2002 - appointed by Gov. Rick Perry on Dec. 2 to the final few weeks of Republican Phil Gramm's term, after Cornyn had already won the November general election. Perry did not call an election since Cornyn was about to assume the seat in early 2003 anyway.
Contact McNeely at dmcneely@austin.rr.com or (512) 458-2963.
