Hutchison announces run for governor

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison kicks off her statewide tour to officially announce her run for governor of Texas.

She made her first speech Monday morning in La Marque, followed by stops in Houston and San Antonio before her Austin speech Monday afternoon.

In the video she released on the eve of her announcement, she previews some of the talking points she will undoubtedly use when addressing the crowds in person.

She attacks Gov. Rick Perry for his support of the Trans-Texas Corridor, the HPV vaccine mandate, the Texas unemployment rate, high property taxes and the public school system.

The video calls Hutchison "a leader who can end the grandstanding in Austin, who isn't chasing headlines while Texans are losing jobs."

Perry's team immediately fought back with a video bashing Hutchison for her for vote on bank bailouts and released a statement attacking her talking points, as members of his team travel to all of her speeches across the state.

“Her years in Congress are defined by record-setting debt, earmarks, bailouts and an unwillingness or inability to lead on a single important social or fiscal issue," wrote Perry spokesperson Mark Miner.

The Hutchison-Perry race will be one of the most closely watched gubernatorial primary races in the country.

Filling her U.S. Senate seat will also be an interesting game to watch, as politicians like Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Sen. Florence Shapiro and Democrat John Sharp have all expressed some level of interest in taking the position.

On Session '09 Austin News In-Depth, Lt. Gov. Dewhurst talked briefly about the impending Senate race.

Fact Check

Hutchison makes several claims in her opening speech that necessitated some checking into.

Claim: Texas has the highest property taxes in the country

Fact check: Texas has the 14th highest property tax rate in the country. It's also one of only nine states wihout a state income tax. According to the non-partisan group the "Tax Foundation," Texas has less of an overall tax burden than 47 other states.

Claim: Texas has lost more jobs than any other state

Fact check: In June, Texas was second in the country in the number of jobs lost at 40,500. But, it also has the second highest population in the country. Overall, Texas' unemployment rate is 7.5 percent, well below the national unemployment rate of 9.4 percent.

The following are rebuttals to our fact checks from Joe Pounder with Hutchison's campaign :

Rebuttal to Fact Check #1: According to the non-partisan Tax Foundation, Texas has the highest property taxes as a percentage of home value in the country. Since property taxes are calculated based on the value of your property, you should take Texas’ generally affordable property into account when comparing our property taxes to other states. Otherwise, you’re comparing Texas to states where property is much more expensive. When property value has been taken into account, Texas has the highest property taxes in the country. Tax Foundation data also shows that the state tax burden in Texas under Rick Perry has increased by a larger dollar amount and at the second fastest rate than any other Governor other than Mark White in the early 1980s.

Rebuttal to Fact Check #2: It makes more sense to compare Texas’ unemployment rate to the rates of other states instead of the nation rate, which gets skewed because of states with extremely high unemployment like Michigan (15.2%) and Rhode Island (12.4%). Every state that touches Texas has a lower unemployment rate than us: Louisiana (6.8%), Arkansas (7.2%), Oklahoma (6.3%) and New Mexico (6.8%). Since November 2008, Texas has lost more than 296,000 jobs.