2010: Newspaper Endorsements: Statesman for White

After announcing its support for Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican gubernatorial primary yesterday, the editorial board of the Austin American-Statesman today threw in behind Bill White in the Democratic primary:

White brings an impressive resume that includes business leadership, a stint as a top official in the Clinton administration's Energy Department and a successful tenure as mayor of Houston — a city as politically and ethnically diverse as our state.

White also brings a low-key, thoughtful approach that seems like just what Texas needs now. There's nothing like high-decibel rhetoric to get folks excited around election time. But today's problems — education, transportation, health care, jobs, a massive projected state budget shortfall, etc. — are best solved by thoughtful deliberation, not overheated rhetoric.

Just as the Statesman popped Rick Perry in its KBH endorsement ("little to show for that long tenure"), it karate-chopped White's main opponent, Farouk Shami, citing the hair-care magnate's "total lack of anything that would prepare him to be governor."