i think we would be talking more about deborah medina potentially if rick perry hadn't done that. it shows you how many people are in the group on the right that perry is leading. deborah medina, i talk to some people, say she could wind up finishing second. it's a big group of people in texas of the we don't want to necessarily extrapolate it to the entire united states. dismissing the anger on the right, maybe the anger generally, as just a fringe, it's clearly not just a fringe. >> no, it's not. i've heard of that up in massachusetts. they're concerned up there certainly after scott brown's victory. they know the democratic party has to reconnect. in very strong language with. let's take a look at kay bailey hutchison is paying the price of having been a u.s. senator, and a highly respected one. she's done her job for texas. she's really been a great senator. everybody looks up to her. she's apparently the most popular person in the state and yet here she says he, meaning rick perry, has definitely made it more difficult for me. i protected texas. i brought texas tax dollars bac

the republican governor of texas, rick perry, rode a wave of anti-washington sentiment to an easy reelection primary win last night. perry bested four-term u.s. senator kay bailey hutchison, who announced she would quit the senate to challenge perry by 21 points. >> texas voters said no. they said no to washington bureaucrats making decisions that state leaders and citizens should be making for themselves. they said no to legislation that will kill jobs and drive people out of our economy. they said no to a culture of reckless spending and policies that endanger our children's future. however, republican voters >> ifill: perry courted support from conservative tea party activists, and he aggressively went after hutchison, linking her to washington's most unpopular actions including bank rescues. >> you told the people of the state of texas that you were not going to vote for bailout. in sept of 2007, i believe it was you stood in front of texans and said, i'm not going to vote for the bailout, then you went to washington d.c. and voted for it. then you came back and months later said that wa

the big question tonight in texas, will governor rick perry win his party's nomination with over 50% of the vote to escape an april runoff? nbc deputy political director and texas native, mark murray is with us. lay out the stakes here. this was supposed to be the biggest primary in the country, and it's sort of going out with a fizzle. >> you begin with an incumbent governor who just won re-election in 2006 against a very popular united states senator, kay bailey hutchison. the polls show rick perry, the incumbent governor, might cruise to victory, might even be able to avoid this runoff in april. one of the stories that's gone on is that washington and congress are always unpopular, but in this election cycle, even more so, as we write in first read today with, that being an incumbent in washington, like kay bailey hutchison is, is worse than being an incumbent in austin, texas, down in the state capital. and whether or not we end up seeing this in other gubernatorial contests across the country, there are at least nine sitting united states senators or members of congress who are

rick perry -- guest: @ it's interesting. rick. runs against bill white, former member of clinton administration in the energy department, former businessman, who is not a flashy politician but as the reputation of being very smart and careful and will probably give with. a good race. -- will probably give rick perry a good race. host: what's next for kay bailey hutchison? guest: she did not give a clear answer about when or whether she would resign her senate seat. her term runs until 2012. so, presumably, if she wants to, she would just go back to washington and continue serving as the state's senior senator. host: thank you for being with us this morning. let us get back to our question for you. the president proposed incorporating four republican health-care ideas into the legislation before congress. what do you make of them, and to you think that is a sign of progress or just political posturing? margaret, independent line. college park, maryland. caller: thank you for the wonderful opportunity. as obama regurgitates verbatim

rick perry and kay bailey hutchinson are career politicians determined to sell texas to the highest bidder. >> meantime, house speaker nancy pelosi op the tea party itself, which she was once writing off as a creation of the gop. she now says democrats and tea partiers have more things in common than you might realize. take a listen. >> you know, we share some of the views of the tea partiers in terms of the rules of special interests in washington, d.c. it just has to stop. some of it is orchestrated from the republican headquarters. some of it is hijacking the good intentions of lots of people who share some of our concerns. >> it's almost as if we've lost democrats and republicans, and you have some politicians who are basically bought by one special interest or another. many of them. and others who really try to look at some sort of constitutional democracy. ala teddy roosevelt or anybody in the history of this country that has done such a thing. you can't tell them apart. some democrats are really corporatists in democrats' clothing. some republicans are the same thing. as a result, t

, a message there. >> it is certainly a message of anti-washington, rick perry now the longest serving governor in the history of texas, running as the challenger against cay bailey hutchison who had been essentially undefeatable for 20 years. >> lehrer: very popular senator. >> state treasurer, united states senator. and she was put squarely on the defensive about washington. it tells you where the texas republican party is. i mean the regular party establishment was very much with cay bailey hutchison. >> i'm not sure. a race like florida, the primary, republican primary is shaping up as an ideaological battle between a conservative and a moderate. >> lehrer: crist and rubio, also for governor-- i mean for senate. >> for senate. but in texas , the basically argument that hutchison made is it is my turn it was not an ideaological critique. inch of this was rooted in a personal conflict between two camps in texas that didn't like each other very much. there was a little ideaological overlay. i think perry eventually rallied some conservative support against hutchison. >> de. >> but the

the good news for rick perry, though, with some of the polling we have seen recently, when matched upt either medina or caylee hutcheson in a runoff, he is ahead with 52 per -- kay bailey hutchison and a runoff, eat is the head with 52%. but democrats, maybe they found a formula to finally picked up a victory in texas. obviously texas is a fast- growing state and they don't want to be sitting on the sidelines for much longer. bill white, democratic mayor of houston has a relatively easy primary of his own. he is expected to move out without a runoff. he has been a pretty prodigious fund-raiser and hoping that he can portray rick perry, if that is indeed who he faces, as someone who is basically been there too long and is taking credit for a texas economy and a texas state of existence that he does not necessarily deserve credit for. it is a pretty tough climate, though, to be a democrat, not just because the democratic brand and washington has been beat up in recent weeks, but the point in texas, of course, is the state is not as bad off as many other states like florida or nevada who

rick perry is facing off against kay bailey hutchison, the senator returning to her race to run.he get 50% of the vote. if he does, he avoids a runoff on april 13th. there's a third candidate, debra medina, benefiting between the back and forth between perry and hutchison is nasty. she's in mid double digits. the higher she gets, the more chance of a runoff. >> she has tea party support, perry hoping to avoid the runoff, perry hoping to put it into play. read more from chris on his blog. that does it for this addition of "andrea mitchell reports." tomorrow on the show, "time" magazine contributor yo klein, tamron hall takes over. a live report out of chile where rescuers are finding signs of life days after the devastating earthquake. you're watching msnbc. and with 7,000 boomers a day reaching retirement age, the need for help has never been greater. a merrill lynch financial advisor can help you plan, invest, and manage your assets, which could make your second act better than your first. merrill lynch wealth management. that keep you cool and dry have now inspired stayfree® to

rick perry is projected to win the republican nomination. his main rival was senator kay bailey hutcheson. she conceded the race a short while ago in front of supporters in dallas. >> thank you. we have fought to get their, a wonderful team. we have brought together a great team. we have fought valiantly for our principles but we did not win. i have called gov. terry and congratulated him on his victory. i want you to know from the bottom of my heart that all of you who came from some many parts of our great state to support me, to vote for me, to volunteer for me, i would not have done it without the incredible grass-roots effort that we have been able to do in this campaign. you posted defense, you drove me around, you flew me around and came to see me on the campaign trail. i would like to especially thank president george and barbara bush. [applause] it took so much courage and principle for them to come in behind me because they knew me and i love them. vice-president cheynne. [applause] i appreciate their willingness to stand up for so

over a year ago, governor rick perry asked for homeland security secretary, janet napolitano, for 1,000ops at the border to help with the increasing violence and prevent the drug cartels from entering the united states. the governor has asked for predator drones and trying to head off the violence of the the help he requested has never come and the governor's request for drones at the border has been ignored for over a year. in response to the murders of these americans, governor perry again recently asked for help and asked for surveillance planes and 1,000 fresh troops at the border to help stem the violence. . secretary napolitano thinks there's already enough troops on the border. so governor perry has decided he can't wait around on the federal government. even though it's the federal government's responsibility to secure our borders. he's ordered the texas national guard, the texas national guard helicopters to the border to support law enforcement that is on the border already. they're trying to fight the border violence spillover into the united states. texas military forces hav

i do not care about the tate party -- the tea party or rick perry, do you know why they will lose a lotnot want it. that is not the point. they need to get on these insurance companies, working with republicans, they spent eight months working on this. host: thank you for that, we will let you go there. patricia murphy, there were all kinds of states last year. if you had to pick one, when would you see a passing? guest: [laughter] if i knew that -- [laughter] the white house has said that they would like to see something passed in six weeks or so. they cannot afford to have this going to the summer. the tea party crowd will be out there, picking when the members go home over the summer. very effective picketing from them, and the moderates are responding. they feel very afraid do vote for this after the appearances at their august recess. i think that the specifics of what they need to do to pass the bill through the house, the president signs it and they draft a reconciliation bill for its budget impact evaluation, they have declared that they will not vote for a certain bill over a c

rick perry, governor of texas. this guy is the longest serving governor in the history of texas.e won his primary by running as an outsider. and he won itsyly, 52% because he was running against somebody who is from washington. for those of you watching the florida senate race or from florida, marco rubio running against the governor charlie crist. he's been getting tons of national press, rubio as the tea party candidate. you've seen him, you know, being mentioned by national pundits and prognosticators. -- as the outsiders going to take on the establishment republican governor. -- who and charlie crist at one time came in and supported president obama and the stimulus. ok. so mark arubio who i don't think he's 40 yet but for most of his adult life, he's been -- ok, wait for it -- in politics. he was the speaker of the house. it's not exactly an outsider. but he's a candidate and you're seeing this in case after case after case. it is the positioning of it that is much more interesting than it is the actual caliber to the candidate. that's why i go back to this. that voters say

hutchison lost the republican primary race for governor earlier this month to governor rick perry andperry, now faces democrat bill white in the november general election. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> we are waiting for michelle obama's appearance here at the white house conference on work place flexibility. until she ariffs though, we go now to questions and questions and answers during the ton journal. >> host: you're on the independent line. we're hearing about this just this morning. what do you make of it? >> caller: i think it is a great thing. about time we started using our own resources and stop spending or sending $800 billion a year to the arab countries and they send the money back to us in missiles weapons. so i think it's a great. we can help our ownselves, our economy a lot more. and i think we should go to a fair tax and drill, drill, drill. and i think it would be a great thing for our country. >> host: from the state of maryland, jamie is on the line from & der son, indiana. another independent caller. president roh posing drilling more oil