Kay Bailey Hutchison

Sen.-elect Kay Bailey Hutchison branded as politically motivated a grand jury investigation into whether she had used her state Treasury office for political purposes. Fourteen Treasury employees and Hutchison's spokesman have been subpoenaed, the district attorney's office said. Investigators in Austin, Tex., also subpoenaed telephone, computer and personnel records and other material.

Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison was heavily favored to win a special runoff election Saturday and become the first Texas woman sent to the U.S. Senate. If she wins, Hutchison, the state treasurer, would make a three-time loser out of interim Democratic Sen. Robert Krueger and put both Texas Senate seats in GOP hands for the first time in more than a century. The election winner will serve out the remaining 1 1/2 years of Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen's term. Krueger was appointed by Gov.

Republican state Treasurer Kay Bailey Hutchison defeated Democratic Sen. Robert Krueger by a 2-to-1 election margin Saturday to become the first woman to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate. Hutchison's victory after a bitter runoff election campaign also means that the state will have two Republican senators--something that has not happened since 1875. With 97% of the precincts reporting, Hutchison was leading Krueger by a margin of 68% to 32%.

The Democrats in the House of Representatives had scarcely finished celebrating their nail-biting passage of President Clinton's economic plan last week when Kay Bailey Hutchison began fashioning a spear from their success. In Washington, the House victory is being hailed as a sign of political recovery for Clinton. But in Texas the vote has just provided another weapon for Hutchison, the Republican candidate in Saturday's special election to fill the U.S.

In what boiled down to a preliminary bout to eliminate the rest of a crowded field, the two front-runners in a special U.S. Senate election made a strong showing Saturday and advanced to a runoff. Democrat Robert Krueger, appointed in January by Gov. Ann Richards to fill the seat left vacant when Lloyd Bentsen was named U.S. Treasury secretary, and Kay Bailey Hutchison, the Republican state treasurer, finished atop the field of 24 candidates.