U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison chastised Gov. Rick Perry in an interview Wednesday for what she called his "egregious" micromanaging at Texas A&M University and pledged to strive to elevate the school to one of the elite public colleges in the United States, if elected.
"My vision for the university is that it be one of the top 10 public universities in the nation, and we have the resources to do it," she said. "And I have so much support among Aggies who are devastated by the heavy-handedness and micromanaging of Texas A&M that Gov. Perry has done."
Hutchison spoke for about a half-hour to The Eagle's editorial board, and most of the conversation centered around higher education -- an issue of particular importance to voters in Bryan-College Station.
She is the only Republican candidate for governor to meet with the board. Perry announced last month that he wouldn't be meeting with newspaper editorial boards during the campaign, and former Wharton County Republican Chairwoman Debra Medina, who has been moving closer to the two high-profile candidates in the polls, didn't respond to The Eagle's request for an interview.
Hutchison didn't mention Medina in her interview and focused her attacks on Perry. She didn't bring up specific issues or actions Perry had taken related to A&M, but alluded to rumors that Perry has had a hand in personnel decisions at the school -- particularly the resignation of former A&M President Elsa Murano last summer.
"It is known in the academic community nationally that the governor runs the universities in Texas, and that hurts our ability to recruit the best people to run the universities," she said. "If we are going to have national stature, we are going to have to have leadership that is of national stature."
Hutchison said she would appoint members of the A&M System Board of Regents who shared her vision of the school and then allow them to hire chancellors and presidents who could accomplish those goals.
She also said she would work hard to keep tuition down for students of public universities by placing a cap on how much tuition can increase each year or mandate that a college student pay the same tuition in the first year of school as for the next three.
A Perry spokesman said he has advocated some of the same tuition policies Hutchison described. The spokesman, Mark Miner, dismissed Hutchison's statements about A&M's governance, saying they were more "political rhetoric" than policy proposals.
"She has chosen to just criticize and not come up with any solutions," he said, adding that Perry supported a ballot initiative to increase the number of Tier 1 universities in Texas and has emphasized working with A&M to bring pharmaceutical industries to the state.
Hutchison has been senator since 1993, but said she plans to resign from the seat whether she wins the March primary or not. She had previously indicated that she would step down earlier than that, but decided to stay while Congress grappled with proposed health care reform.
"What really came to me like a bolt of lightning was when [Sen. Majority Leader] Harry Reid said in November that [the health care debate] was going into 2010," she said. "I had to ask, 'Am I doing Texas right by leaving and having a new senator that not only has new experience and a two-month term or do I stay in at my political disadvantage but doing what I think is right for Texas?'"
Perry's campaign has criticized her, saying she has been indecisive.
"Being governor is about taking a position and making tough decisions and standing by those decisions, and she has proven throughout this campaign that she has trouble making decisions," Miner said.
Hutchison's time in Brazos County was brief. She met with supporters at Shipley's Donuts, and then boarded a plane after her interview for a lunch in Midland.
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