Sanchez to Run as Dem for Hutchison's Senate Seat

Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez announced today that he is running for Senate in the Texas Democratic primary next year. Sanchez, who is seeking the seat of retiring GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, is a former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq who retired in wake of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez says Democrats recruited him to run for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's seat. (Getty Images Photo)

Democrats are excited about having such a respectable candidate, according to some reports. But Texas is a solidly Republican state, and Democrats’ main hope also seems to be that the GOP will nominate an extremist. During a recent interview with the San Antonio Express-News, Sanchez said Democrats were recruiting him to run but conceded that their goal might be to force Republicans to pour money into the race.

An Army report exonerated Sanchez of wrongdoing in the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Five Republican candidates have entered the campaign so far. Although some of them are more conservative than others, none could be called eccentric — a label some pundits used to describe a few losing Republican candidates last year.