Kay Bailey Hutchison to Resign in October

Mark Davis: "What are your thoughts on when and whether to step down from the Senate and devote 100% to the Texas Governor's race?"

Kay Bailey Hutchison: "Well I am trying to do everything that I can while I am in office to responsibly serve as a Senator. But it is hard because my heart is in Texas. There are so many things that I think we have not done in Texas that we need to do. I think we need new leadership in Texas. So I am trying to determine when is the time when I have done everything I can do to stop this healthcare takeover, cap and trade which is the next thing coming down that I think is going to be so bad for Texas. I am trying to finish those things in a responsible way and then I am coming home to try to give leadership to Texas."

Mark Davis: "Is there no possibility because you don't have to step down to run, but you surely will at some point. There no possibility that you will remain a Senator while running for Governor throughout?"

Kay Bailey Hutchison: "I just can't - as long as Governor Perry stays in the race...

Mark Davis: (laughter)

Kay Bailey Hutchison: "I had hoped that he wouldn't. You know, no one expected him to run again. And I thought, you know I stepped back last time, Mark. I tried to give him a, really a free ride with no primary because I thought it was right for Texas. But, for him to try to stay on for 15 years is too long."

Mark Davis: "So you'll be coming out at some point. When do you think its decision time for you? When would you like, when might we know?"

Kay Bailey Hutchison: "Well I'm going to announce in August. Formal announcement: I am in. Then the actual leaving of the Senate will be sometime - October, November - that, in that time frame."

Rumors have been swirling for months that Hutchison was planning to resign. Back in May, I reported rumors that Houston Mayor Bill White (the Democrat hoping to succeed her in the U.S. Senate) was telling everyone that Senator Hutchinson has been confiding in him since January that she'll resign in time for a May 2010 primary.

Hutchison's resignation, of course, comes as Democrats already control sixty senate seats. Many Republicans around the nation -- and in Texas -- have wondering why she would abandon a safe senate seat in order to challenge a sitting Republican governor.