REBRANDING

The GOP's Texas Showdown

Governor's race tied to debate over party's future.

Texas Governor Rick Perry is looking for a third term, but he faces some stiff opposition from within his own party in Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is also running. The race is shaping up to be a microcosm of the national debate over the GOP's future, with the ultraconservative Perry taking on the more moderate Hutchison. “This is a civil war,” Perry said in an interview with The New York Times, “brother against brother.” Perry drew jeers from critics for flirting with secessionists this year and Hutchison has argued that the governor has shrunk the state's Republican Party with his antics. “I do not want a governor who is going to narrow our base, make it dwindle,” Hutchison said in a speech this week. “That is what has happened at the national level, and that is not going to happen in Texas.”