Hutchison proposes term limit for governor, other changes

Contending that Gov. Rick Perry has used the state as his personal playground, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison unveiled a government reform plan Monday that includes term limits for Texas governors and restrictions for lobbyists.

In announcing her proposal, Hutchison said Perry, the longest-serving governor in Texas history, had been in office too long.

“If there’s anything Texans don’t like, it’s one person having too much power,” Hutchison said during a news conference at Dallas Love Field. She also made campaign stops in San Antonio, Amarillo and Lubbock. “These are steps in the right direction. I want to put standards in place to assure no future governor will abuse the standards of the office.”

The Perry campaign struck back, saying Hutchison had had ethical lapses and had broken her pledge to serve only two terms in the Senate. She is in the middle of her third term.

Hutchison and Perry are locked in a contentious Republican primary battle for governor. The Texas primaries are March 2.

“Senator Hutchison has no credibility on term limits considering she promised to serve just two full terms in the Senate and then ran for a third,” Perry spokesman Mark Miner said in a prepared statement. “For Senator Hutchison, term limits apply to everyone but herself.”

Miner said Hutchison also failed to introduce in the Senate a 28-point ethics reform plan she developed in 1993, used taxpayer dollars to travel to political fundraisers and requested earmarks that benefit her husband, Dallas bond attorney Ray Hutchison.

Hutchison spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said the Perry campaign was trying to cloud its own record of cronyism and political intimidation of state appointees.

Baker said that there was nothing improper about the senator’s earmarks and that Ray Hutchison was a respected bond lawyer long before his wife was elected to the Senate.

Baker added that Hutchison introduced legislation to bring term limits to Congress. “Attacking Kay Bailey Hutchison’s family reeks of desperation and quite frankly is beneath the dignity of the governor,” she said.

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