AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ As the state’s senior U.S. senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison has secured hundreds of millions of federal dollars for public projects across Texas.
As one of the state’s top public finance attorneys, Ray Hutchison has helped issue and defend the government bonds that benefit many of the same cities and public agencies getting that federal money.
Critics on both sides of the political aisle say that’s a conflict of interest, even if neither Hutchison has ever been accused of wrongdoing. Both Hutchisons say their dealings are
entirely ethical and bristle at any suggestion otherwise.
But the senior senator from Texas is preparing to leave the Senate early after 16 years to challenge incumbent Gov. Rick Perry in next year’s Republican primary. Her work bringing home the federal bacon and her husband’s work representing Texas government agencies getting federal funds is moving into the bright lights of a potentially nasty campaign.
Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner says the questions are valid. In his words, “The facts speak for themselves.”