In our voter interviews around town on Election Day, the spirited three-way race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination dominated all contests in terms of interest. Gov. Rick Perry won the nomination, garnering 51 percent of the Republican vote statewide to U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s dismal 30 percent, and 46 percent of McLennan County GOP votes to Hutchison’s more respectable 39 percent.

We’re hardly surprised that Hutchison showed so much better locally than statewide. Many area Republicans still remember her valiant efforts to not only save the Waco Veterans Affairs Medical Center from closure several years ago but her drive to greatly rededicate its mission in research and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. With Fort Hood just down the road and many veterans living throughout Central Texas, her leadership in this area has been remembered.

Many voters Tuesday felt strongly about the senator’s work in Washington. “Kay Bailey Hutchison has done wonderful for Waco and for Texas, and she’s being bad-mouthed for it,” John Dosher told us just outside polling at Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit. “She’s been a good representative for Texas.”

One of the unfortunate spectacles in Hutchison’s campaign involved her appearing to waffle on when or even whether she would step down from her post to run against Perry, even as other Republicans lined up for a shot at her job, including Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams. Then she said she’d retire from her Senate seat, win or lose.

For the moment, though, our state and nation need consistency on Capitol Hill, especially as the fight rages on over health insurance reform and other controversial items in the increasingly polarizing presidency of Barack Obama. With votes so close and the stakes so high, we believe Hutchison should serve out her Senate term, ending in 2012.

One thing we like about Hutchison is her ability to reach across the aisle and work with opponents. Sadly, that became something of an attack point by Perry forces in the gubernatorial campaign. But polls regularly show most Americans comfortably occupy the center-right part of the political spectrum — and that they expect lawmakers to craft and shape legislation with an air of conciliation and collaboration when in Washington.

In political terms, the 2012 election is an eternity away. Frankly, we don’t need the complication of a needless special election in 2010 when we have a savvy, eminently qualified lawmaker on duty. There’s much work to do on Capitol Hill, and it’s a bad time for any newcomers to play catch-up. We urge our senator to stay on, get focused and get down to business.