Now comes some more heavy lifting. His next opponent will be Bill White, the Democratic nominee and the former three-term mayor of Houston.

White is flush with money. He smoked a large field of contenders in his own primary, winning 75 percent of the vote. Granted, they weren’t of the quality of Hutchison, or even of Debra Medina, the conservative activist who also ran in the Republican primary.

None other than the great columnist and blogger Paul Burka has declared that Perry will be a formidable opponent for White. I cannot disagree. White will need his “A Game.” So, too, will Perry.

This is just anecdotal, but it’s telling nonetheless. White came to Amarillo a few weeks before the primary. He spoke to a Rotary club luncheon crowd gathered at the Amarillo Country Club. His speech wasn’t exactly political. Rotary rules prohibit political speeches, per se. But immediately after White spoke, I heard several Rotary club members say — some to me directly — that they are going to give White a serious look when it comes time to vote this fall. A few of them actually said they are leaning toward voting for him. I’ve heard much of the same in the weeks since then.

Why is this significant? Because I can guarantee that 90-plus percent of these testimonies are coming from lifelong Republicans.

OK, I haven’t polled them. I didn’t ask them directly. Suffice to say that I just know it.

Yes, the governor will be a tough campaigner. He’ll try to demonize White as he did Hutchison, although it’s a stretch to understand how he’ll lump the successful former mayor of a city of 2-plus million people with Washington, D.C.

The phrase of the moment is that this governor’s race will be the most significant since the Ann Richards-George W. Bush contest of 1994. If Perry wins, he positions himself for a possible run for higher office in, say, 2012. If White wins, he breaks a Republican chokehold on Texas government.

Hang on. This one’s going to be fun.