Texas GOP Governor Candidates Clash Over Taxes, Jobs

Throughout the debate, Hutchison and Perry accused each other of misleading voters. Hutchinson tried to stick to fiscal issues and challenged Perry's claim that he cut business taxes.

Perry repeatedly tried to tie Hutchison to increased federal government spending and accused her of changing her position by voting for a fall 2008 financial industry bailout bill. Hutchison said then-president Bush urged her and other Republicans in Congress to support the bailout bill to combat a "global meltdown" in the economy.

"He hated to do that. We hated to make that vote," she said.

But Hutchison noted that Perry, as chairman of the Republican Governors Association, wrote a letter urging Congress to pass the economic recovery bill. Perry later said he didn't support the federal legislation.

Perry tried to point to jobs he said he created while in office and cited statistics stretching from November 2007 to November 2008. Hutchinson responded by saying Texas lost 300,000 jobs last year and "that is not a record to be proud of."


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