FREDERICKSBURG -- Republican Gov. Rick Perry said Friday that he's definitely running for re-election in 2010 and compared himself to the chief executive of a prosperous corporation that is in no need of a change at the top.

"I look at it like this, is that if Texas were a corporation -- and we would be one of the most efficient, most successful corporations in the world -- and if you're a stockholder in that corporation, why in the world would you want to change your CEO when things are going well?" he said.

Perry spoke to reporters after an event at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg. Asked whether the decision he announced last month to run for re-election was firm, he replied, "Oh yeah, yes."

Two other prominent Republicans, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, have been eyeing his job.

Hutchison, who has considered a run for governor for years, came closest in the last year to stepping into the race, opting out of moving up the Senate leadership ladder and saying, "There's not anyone who could really make a case to me that this would be divisive for the Republican Party in a way that would make me step back."

After Perry first mentioned running again, Hutchison said, "Whatever. I'm just going to do what I'm going to do."

A Hutchison spokesman did not immediately return a call Friday from The Associated Press seeking comment.

In previous years, she has said she wanted to avoid a divisive GOP primary.

Some had speculated that Perry, who is set to become the state's longest-serving governor this year, may have simply been posturing so as not to look like a lame duck during the 2009 Legislature.

But Perry said Friday that he's going to be a candidate.

"I'm going to make the pitch to the people of the state of Texas. I'm going to go to them and ask them to continue to allow me to be the chief executive officer of this state," Perry said.

A spokesman for Dewhurst said Friday that Dewhurst hasn't decided yet what office he might seek in 2010.