2010: The Pre-Debate

This statement from campaign manager Terry Sullivan is a pretty good sign that the Kay Bailey Hutchison gang thinks Debra Medina will pull votes from Rick Perry in the Republican primary:

“We welcome Debra Medina's participation in January's scheduled debate and hope she will be a part of all future debates. Rick Perry should stop stonewalling and immediately drop his opposition to Debra Medina's involvement. Kay Bailey Hutchison looks forward to January’s debate and sharing her vision for keeping Texas strong by creating jobs, strengthening education, fixing transportation, securing the border and keeping taxes low.”

One theory here — some polling to the contrary — is that Medina pulls votes away from Perry rather than Hutchison. The polling? Ours: Perry outdid Hutchison by 12 percentage points even as Medina pulled 7 percent. Another theory is that Medina is running against the incumbent, and Perry's the incumbent she decided to try to knock off. And another: Kay's taking up for the tea-baggers to cut Perry, who has been fairly popular with some of the same people who might support Medina.