Perry Cements His Reputation As a Powerful Governor

Texas Tribune ^ | July 3, 2011 | Jay Root

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Gov. Rick Perry may or may not try to become the leader of what was once called the free world. In the meantime, he has cemented his reputation as one of the most powerful governors ever to walk the corridors of the Texas Capitol.

As the longest serving governor in state history, Perry has named more people to boards and commissions than any predecessor — 5,495 at last count, Legislative Reference Library figures show — allowing him to put his conservative stamp on every corner of state government.

The reach of his power, and his willingness to use it, have been most striking in the recently concluded sessions of the Texas Legislature, which gave Perry a fairly long wish-list of conservative reforms. If Perry does end up on the presidential campaign trail, he will be ticking them off like a pre-trip checklist. Curbs on abortion — done. Lawsuit restrictions — check. Staggering cuts to programs once seen as off-limits — yes, yes and yes.

“Basically nobody has dominated the executive branch, that I’m aware of, like Rick Perry has,” said Jim Henson, a political scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. “It’s a very different kind of governorship now. He’s been there so long, and he’s effectively used the resources at his disposal.”

But some Republicans worry there will be political fallout for supporting the first decline in overall public education spending since at least 1949. And Perry did not get everything he wanted or successfully twist every arm of every legislator who bucked him.

Case in point: Rep. David Simpson, a freshman Republican of Longview, says he got “called into the principal’s office” to discuss his string of tirades against Perry’s pet job-luring funds, which Simpson calls unseemly corporate welfare. During the meeting with the governor, Simpson said, Perry “said, in a sense, ‘We gotta keep taking pork back to the district.’” Simpson never backed down, but the governor got millions for both the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Emerging Technology Fund. Mark Miner, a spokesman for the governor, said Perry would not discuss his private conversations but believed the funds had helped create tens of thousands of high-quality jobs in Texas.

Democrats also have a darker vision of Perry’s stroke: they say he is just doing what the Tea Party demands. “This session I think the Tea Party was driving the train,” said Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine. “I think Perry got in front of the train and managed to climb into the engine.”

Many legislative veterans, however, say Perry, a former House member and farmer, finds himself at the height of his influence and has used it to redefine the limits of the Texas governor’s office. “Texas has never been in the position we’re in with the governor,” said state Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa. “This governor has probably appointed every office that’s appointable.”

That, in turn, has blunted the traditional push back from agencies on the chopping block, he said. “There’s not very much resistance when we take away 100 employees from a large agency or send them less money,” Chisum said. “They know not just to cry to us, because the governor appointed and put those people in place, and so they know it’s coming directly from him.”

Even with a full schedule of profile-boosting out-of-state events, Perry kept the pressure on lawmakers to do his bidding. The governor, who has no official role in writing the budget, insisted they slash spending while mostly keeping their hands off the state’s fat reserve fund. The governor bent a little, giving his blessing to a $3.1 billion draw from the Rainy Day Fund to pay for a past deficit, but he resisted often considerable pressure to take billions more, putting him at odds at times with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a Republican, and powerful G.O.P. senators. Perry won.

Legislatures often slap around governors in Texas, where constitutional authority in the executive branch is spread out. The governor does not really have a cabinet; the lieutenant governor, attorney general and comptroller are all independently elected and have broad powers over legal, financial and legislative matters.

But this session, the governor threw his weight around more than usual. When a rewrite of hurricane insurance came up, for example, Perry torpedoed what some of the parties negotiating the bill thought was a deal.

“Until I agree to it, the governor’s office isn’t an agreed-to place,” Perry said when reporters asked. The issue later spilled into a special session, and the controversial legislation, opposed by trial lawyers, passed in a form more to Perry’s liking.

More recently, when Republican defections knocked a controversial school-financing bill off the rails in the House, it was not Speaker Joe Straus who talked wavering members off the ledge, several participants say. It was Perry’s chief of staff, Ray Sullivan, and his legislative liaison, Ken Armbrister (appropriately nicknamed Arm Twister).

Rep. Jim Pitts, chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, said it was one of many times this session that he had called on the governor and his team to help him secure votes. Pitts said the governor was particularly influential with a group of about 25 hard-core budget cutters dominated by Tea Party-backed freshmen that “dance with the governor and sing his song.”

“The governor had a lot of influence in the Texas House, in my opinion, this session — more than any session that I’ve been involved in,” Pitts said. “On a scale of 1 to 10, he was a 91/2.”

[Cincinatus' Wife]

If Perry were really so “powerful” he wouldn’t have folded like a cheap camera when Bob Perry and the H-E-B Prez ordered the Sanctuary Cities bill to be killed - by far the most important bill of the special session.

Perry called the special session. The Senate left a take it or leave it bill and adjourned. The House was pissed at the Senate's action and left town too.

HEButts and Bill Perry? Check with the TX Legislature they gave Gov. Perry nothing to sign.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Maybe a better comparison than “more” Bush, would be a “conservative version of LBJ”.....

Rick Perry’s Tenth Commandment "......Speaking of presidents: Rick Perry has a complicated relationship with the Bushes, which is to say that he’s hesitant to criticize them and they hate his guts. W. stayed well away from Perry’s gubernatorial-primary melee against Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, whose oatmeal-mushy Republicanism has a distinctly Bushian savor to it. But the mark of W. was all over the campaign against Perry. Former president George H. W. Bush endorsed Senator Hutchison, an unusual step for the habitually reserved retiree, who usually stays well removed from the dirty business of vote-grubbing, surveying the groundlings from the heights of his eminence. Bush père was joined in his support by former vice president Dick Cheney, who offered an endorsement and called Hutchison “the real deal.” Hutchison was further fortified by the Bush clan’s in-house Machiavelli, former secretary of state James Baker, who led the Florida recount fight in 2000 and remains their go-to fixer. W. mouthpiece Karen Hughes came out of the political woodwork to support the insurgency, along with W.’s secretary of education Margaret Spellings. Karl Rove advised Team Hutchison. The gang was all there: All this in a primary challenge to unseat an incumbent Republican governor with one of the most conservative — and most successful — records to be found: Que paso, Bushes?

Part of that was payback. Perry, generally circumlocutious on the subject of W., gave himself a little time off the leash during the 2008 Republican presidential primaries. Often caricatured as yet another snake-handling southern social conservative, Governor Perry backed thrice-married dress-wearing pro-choice lapsed Catholic Rudy Giuliani, on the theory that Rudy would be a badass commander-in-chief abroad and a reliable constitutionalist at home. Politics being politics, the Texan and the New Yorker met up in Iowa, where more than a few Hawkeye conservatives were already getting restive about out-of-control federal spending on the Republicans’ watch. Governor Perry let loose the observation that “George” — and the Bushies hate it when Perry calls him “George” in public — “has never been a fiscal conservative.” Never? “Wasn’t when he was in Texas . . . ’95, ’97, ’99, George Bush was spending money.” He also criticized Bush as being limp on immigration.

The truth hurts, but there’s more to the Bush-Perry friction than that. One longtime observer of Lone Star politics described the Bushes’ disdain of Perry as “visceral,” and it is not too terribly hard to see why. The guy that NPR executives and the New York Times and your average Subaru-driving Whole Foods shopper were afraid George W. Bush was? Rick Perry is that guy. George W. Bush was Midland by way of Kennebunkport. Rick Perry’s people are cotton farmers from Paint Creek, a West Texas town so tiny and remote that my Texan traveling-salesman father looked at me skeptically and suggested I had the name wrong when I asked him whether he knew where it was. (Governor Perry confesses that one of the politiciany things he’s done in office is insisting that the Texas highway atlas include Paint Creek, making him the hometown boy who literally put the town on the map.) Bush is a Yalie, Perry is an Aggie. Bush served in the Texas Air National Guard, and Perry was a captain in the U.S. Air Force, flying C-130s in the Middle East. Bush has a gentleman’s ranch, Perry has the red meat. The irony is that Perry, a tea-party favorite, personifies the hawkish new fiscal conservatism that has allowed the GOP to find its way out from under George W. Bush’s shadow, but he himself remains in the shade of that politically poisonous penumbra......"

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Rick Perry: Al Gore's gone to Hell

Perry does not believe there is valid scientific proof of anthropogenic global warming. He has said several times that there is no scientific consensus on the issue. On September 7, 2007 Perry gave a speech to California Republicans. He said, "Virtually every day another scientist leaves the global warming bandwagon. ... But you won't read about that in the press because they have already invested in one side of the story."

[magna carta]

I respect your well laid out explanation but even so it is an affront that most Americans are competing for these slots or if from out of state are expected to pay out of state rates.Most Americans if given a popular vote on this will want it overturned please investigate the petition drive to overturn in MD...astounding response with 30% DEM. Support.
These are ruling class policies and most Americans are ready to overthrow this stuff.

[scbison]

The way the government system is setup in Texas, Ma Richards and George W Bushed looked like a conservatives most of the time. It has a part-time legislature with power in Lt Gov and speaker of House who set the legislative agenda, state has no income tax and any type of change(like income tax) in Texas has to be amended to the constitutuion and only people by vote can do it(there are over 300 amendments to the Texas Constitution)

The Gov of Texas doesn’t have much power and whatever Perry allegedly did in Texas probably doesn’t translate to Washington DC.

Now if is platform would be to amend constitution resemble Texas’ form of Government, then I would maybe consider him.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

You’re spreading lies that have been repeatedly discredited. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s campaign for the TX Governor’s office had to pull that from their site and the Senator disavowed knowledge of how they got on her site and apologized to the Perrys.

But you know that. You’ve been told that. But still you persist to spread it. This should tell all FReepers on FR what kind of poster you are.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

We find ourselves in a situation that has to be dealt with.

It's easy to say do this or do that. WHAM!

It just isn't reality.

The Gov is playing the hand he was dealt and he is doing a good job. He is the Executive of Texas and has asked for drones, 3000 troops on the ground, has established an elite TX Ranger force on the INTERNATIONAL border, he walked up to Obama on the tarmac in Austin and handed him a letter to the effect that we need help (Obama was in town for a fundraiser) -- zip, zero, nada.

In Texas we're spending $160 Million/2 years (legislature meets every 2 years for 140 days) of state funds on an INTERNATIONAL border that should be secured by OUR federal government. THAT is their job! It would be nice to get some help from the Feds with this 1300 miles of INTERNATIONAL border that Texas shares with Mexico.

Give some suggestions.

[Entrepreneur]

after he was a cheerleader in college.

Uh, he was a Yell Leader at Texas A&M. It's fundamentally different from a cheerleader.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

To tell you the truth there are only two true conservatives worth considering.... DeMint and Palin

Thank you for that information.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Remember when we were young and fit! (Maybe I'm just talking about myself!).

A nice looking West Texas boy a couple of years from graduation.

Rick Perry 1969 TX A&M Yearbook, Aggieland

Perry attended Texas A&M University, where he was a member of the Corps of Cadets, a member of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity and one of A&M's five yell leaders (a popular Texas A&M tradition analogous to male cheerleaders). He interned with the Southwestern Company during the summer time as a door-to-door book salesman where he honed his communication skills. Perry graduated in 1972 with a degree in animal science. While at Texas A&M University Perry successfully completed a static line parachute jump at Ags Over Texas (a United States Parachute Association dropzone), the dropzone that was then in operation at Coulter Field (KCFD) in Bryan, Texas, just north of Texas A&M (in College Station, Texas).

Upon graduation, he was commissioned in the United States Air Force, completed pilot training and flew C-130 tactical airlift in the United States, the Middle East, and Europe until 1977. He left the Air Force with the rank of captain, returned to Texas and went into business farming cotton with his father.

In 1982, Perry married Anita Thigpen, his childhood sweetheart whom he had known since elementary school. They have two children, Griffin and Sydney. Source

Perry Awarding Iraqi Service Medals

Texas Marines

Gov. Rick Perry participates in ceremonies at Camp Mabry to redesignate the 49th Armored Division as the 36th Infantry Division. The former 49th Armored Division, which consists of approximately 12,000 soldiers, makes up almost two-thirds of the Texas National Guard. The division's redesignation as the 36th Infantry Division is part of the Texas Army National Guard's transition from a heavy armored force to a more versatile infantry force.

Texas Gov. Perry receives a warm greeting from Ghazni Provincial Governor Dr. Usman Usmani at the flight line minutes after landing at Forward Operating Base Ghazni by UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. Perry led a delegation of four other governors to visit

Lt. Col. Thomas J. Kleis (R) briefs Texas Gov. Rick Perry (C) as Command Sgt. Maj. Peter P.A. Collins (L) listens on the intelligence gathering successes the 636th Military Intelligence Battalion has achieved during their last six months of duty in

Texas Gov. Rick Perry stands with Texas service members from the 636th Military Intelligence Battalion, 71st Battlefield Surveillance Brigade and the 136th Military Police Battalion on July 20th under the Texas flag he presented to the 636th.

Rick Perry served in the U.S. Air Force after graduating from Texas A&M

C-130 Rick Perry: He flew the world before politics

Rank: Retired as a captain

Hometown: Haskell

Crew job: C-130 aircraft commander

Served in the Air Force: 1972 to 1977

Dyess AFB tour: March 4, 1974, to Feb. 28, 1977

His story: Way back before he was governor of Texas, Rick Perry had two choices as a young member of the Air Force.

He could either follow his dream and work toward becoming an instructor pilot in the sleek T-38, or he could fly the hulking C-130, planes that affectionately were referred to as "trash haulers" by Perry and his cohorts.

"It was one of the great adventures of my life," Perry said. "I had a fairly pedestrian life until I was 23 years old."

Perry could count on one hand the number of trips he had taken out of his home state by the time he graduated from Texas A&M University, but everything changed when he joined the Air Force.

Flying C-130s, Perry lived in Germany and Saudi Arabia. He flew in Central and South America, North Africa and all over Europe.

"I saw all of these different types of governments and I made the connections to how the people acted and looked, and it became abundantly clear to me that, at that particular point in time, that America was this very unique place and that our form of democracy was very rare," Perry said. " ... That was the greatest gift I received from my years of being in the military, and they really shaped my outlook on the rest of my life."

Perry retired from the Air Force in 1977 — but not without one last adventure......

[snip]

[Cincinatus' Wife]

"He grew up in West Texas, in a farm town so small it literally was not on the state map until Perry, as governor, put it there. Life was austere; Perry was 6 before the family had indoor plumbing. His mother sewed his clothes, including the underwear Perry wore to college......" Source

[normy]

Democrats also have a darker vision of Perry’s stroke: they say he is just doing what the Tea Party demands. “This session I think the Tea Party was driving the train,” said Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine. “I think Perry got in front of the train and managed to climb into the engine.”

[magna carta]

CITIZEN-LED PETITION DRIVES ARE THE ONLY WAY OUT.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Then give it a go.

[magna carta]

Catfish you are so exactly correct.....

[normy]

Bingo, Perry is a liberal because he passed a state income tax, raised taxes, strengthened gun laws, signed the gay marriage amendment to the Texas Constitution, thanked Obama for visiting the state, and Texas has become more liberal, not less, since he became governor. /s

[normy]

Bwahhhhaaaaahhaaaa ZOT!

[RVN Airplane Driver]

You joined a week ago to post that......you’re the phony...two words for you TROLL...one’s a verb the other a pronoun...

[RVN Airplane Driver]

You need to clean up that tribute....he didn’t retire in 1977....he left Active Duty as a Captain... Big Difference...

[Cincinatus' Wife]

You need to clean up that tribute....he didn’t retire in 1977....he left Active Duty as a Captain... Big Difference...

I know. Someone helped with that explanation on another thread. But I'd be changing someone else's text. Maybe I'll just drop it off the text.

Thank you.