GOP candidates hold last TV debate

AUSTIN (AP) - The three Republicans vying to become Texas governor will face off Friday in their final televised showdown before the primary elections.

Gov. Rick Perry, the longest serving Texas governor, will debate top challenger Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the states senior U.S. senator, and Libertarian-leaning Debra Medina during the event in Dallas.

Medina, a GOP activist and registered nurse, snagged a spot on stage after polls showed her with double-digit support and persuaded debate sponsors to include her.

Perry, who has been in state elective office since the 1980s, said Thursday he does not need any special preparation ahead of the 7 p.m. debate at WFAA-TV studios in Dallas.

"I've been preparing for this debate for about 25 years, so nothing's different," Perry told reporters in Austin. "I think the economy is the No. 1 issue that's out there and I'm going to argue that Texas is in a lot better shape than almost any other state."

Hutchison was in Washington on Thursday casting votes in the Senate, said spokeswoman Jennifer Baker. The longtime lawmaker would use the debate to tell Republican primary voters that "she has a plan to address the problems that have gone unaddressed under Rick Perry for the last nine years," Baker said.

The debate will be broadcast live on some television stations.

Texas Cable News will also air the debate. Belo-owned Web sites including the site operated by The Dallas Morning News will provide a live video stream.

The GOP trio appeared at a televised debate earlier this month in Denton. Original plans for the WFAA event excluded Medina, but debate organizers cited a public opinion poll showing the feisty conservative had enough support among voters to meet their criteria for inclusion.

The same poll showed Perry leading Hutchison by 10 points. Experts do not expect Medina to win, but she could force the race between Perry and Hutchison into a runoff, extending the primary election by about six weeks.

Early voting in both the Republican and Democratic primary elections begins Feb. 16. The primary is March 2.

Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, said the constant bickering between the two Republican heavyweights - a highlight of the last debate - could provide another opening for Medina's low-budget campaign.

Henson said Medina benefited last time by "seeming authentic in a way, but not extreme." Medina promotes the view that Texas does not have to put up with mandates from Washington and can assert its sovereignty more aggressively through legal "nullification" of federal mandates on environmental protection, health care, guns and other areas.

She also has not ruled out the idea of Texas seceding from the U.S. The Republican activist from Wharton flew to Dallas early Thursday for debate preparation after campaigning in Midland.

"I'm preparing to govern, studying the issues facing the state, continuing to research and dig and understand current practices, understand various policy proposals that have been made," Medina said.

Medina, who has relied heavily on the Internet, social media outlets and a core of enthusiastic volunteers to get her message out, used the last debate to raise her profile in a contest featuring two of the most recognizable figures in Texas politics.

Her appearance also helped her raise some dough. She pulled in $100,000 in the week following the last debate and expects to hit another fundrasing bonanza after the event Friday night.

But Medina, who had $58,000 in the bank at the end of last month, has a raised a fraction of the amount hauled in by the top two candidates.

Perry and Hutchison have already raised and spent millions for the primary. Hutchison had $12.3 million in the bank as of Dec. 31, compared to Perry's $11.6 million.

Houston businessman Farouk Shami and former Houston Mayor Bill White are the top Democratic candidates. The Democratic and Republican contenders who emerge from the primaries will face off in November.