Texas: Kay Bailey Hutchison

Funny thing about the winning bumper sticker for Kay Bailey Hutchison's governor's race. The Hutchison campaign held a contest and a pair of political bloggers won with a snappy design featuring a flag that looks a little like the Bush-Cheney campaign logos. The winners were Matt Margolis and Ali Akbar. Margolis was a blogger for Bush, so that makes sense. But always vigilant Rick vs. Kay notes something else: Neither are from Texas. Margolis is from Buffalo, New York and Akbar lives in Georgia. So the winner of Kay's bumper sticker contest can't even vote for her.

Well, maybe: Akbar does have Texas roots, as our Emily Ramshaw

Kay Bailey Hutchison sent out an email Monday afternoon which included an Op-Ed she wrote for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. In the email she criticized the stimulus bill's price tag, but did not seem to object to the principle of the bill. Hutchison is frustrated with the process in which the recent $410 billion spending bill was passed and voted to strip all 8,500 earmarks from the bill (though the measure did not pass). For example, she wanted spending that appeared in both the stimulus bill and the spending bill to be taken out of the spending bill. She is also nervous about the federal debt and the amount of time it will take to repay the the debt.

The Texas Democratic Party denounced Rick Perry's rejection of $555 million in stimulus funds for unemployment -- then moved to bring Kay Bailey Hutchison into the mix by calling on her to denounce "Gov. Perry's stunts."

In an on-line appeal to Democrats, Party Chairman Boyd Ritchie declared: "It was clear the governor cares about only one job - his own. First, he compared out-of-work Texans to junkies, and now he's using them as political pawns to appeal to the talk show bosses that drive the agenda of his Republican base. "

And this: "In these tough times, Texans should be able to count on our elected officials to look out for our best interests.

Gov. Rick Perry has turned down some $500 million in federal unemployment aid that's part of the Obama administration's financial stimulus package. He says it would require Texas to expand its jobless program to allow more people to qualify for assistance and leave Texas on the hook for additional costs when the federal aid ends.

At a news conference in Houston, Perry announced:

Strings attached to the unemployment insurance stimulus dollars would require an unprecedented change in Texas' definition of unemployment, increasing the tax burden borne by Texas employers. This increased burden would counteract the stimulus package's objective of job creation by leading companies to limit hiring and raise prices on products, hindering their ability to overcome the economic crisis and ultimately limiting growth.

The stimulus plan has given Perry a chance to rail against Washington -- and by extension, Republican political rival Kay Bailey Hutchison.