TX-Sen: John Sharp to run for Hutchison seat

This is fairly good news: former Texas State Comptroller John Sharp, one of the last Democrats to win statewide office in Texas and the Democrat who came closest to doing so in the last decade, intends to run for the United States Senate.

He will run for the seat currently held by Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is not expected to seek another term, and is expected to run for Governor of Texas in 2010.

That means the election could be held in 2012 (if Hutchison finishes out her term), in 2010 (if she wins the Governorship), or even as early as next year (if she resigns from the Senate to run for governor).

"I will be a candidate whether the election is in 2012 or any time before then," said Sharp, who received the highest percentage of votes statewide of any Democrat during the past decade. "Texans face tough challenges that call for innovative solutions, and that's what our campaign is all about."

Sharp, 58, said he is forgoing the step of forming an exploratory committee and will file the required papers on January 1 so that he can begin raising money and campaigning across the state with the dawn of the new year.

After winning his last election as Comptroller, Sharp ran for lieutenant governor in 1998 and nearly won. He ran again in 2002 and received more votes than any other Democrat did statewide.

He's a moderate to conservative Democrat, but one who could actually win statewide in Texas - he's one of two high-profile potential candidates for this seat, along with Houston Mayor Bill White.

White clearly wants to run for something in 2010; the question is whether he'll run for Senate (taking on Sharp in the primary), or for Governor (most likely taking on Hutchison in the general). Sharp's entry may well have been timed to scare off White, but White would probably still be better off running for Senate as opposed to Governor. Hutchison is the most popular politician in Texas, and she will very likely win the governorship no matter who her opponent is.

But regardless of what White does, the entry of Sharp means that we'll have a very, very serious Democratic candidate in what is likely to be an open-seat election sometime between now and 2012. That's great news in and of itself, and it means that the party is as aggressive as ever coming out of the 2008 elections.