Posted on 07/03/2011 12:39:44 PM PDT by 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.”
Go crawl back under your rock.
You have a point, but all those boards and commissions were not Perry’s making, we suffer from too many years of the likes of Ma Richards and dem controlled legislatures. Better to have them filled by a conservative.
Amazingly enough it shows you how few Perry bashers have served their country....otherwise they would have been all over that.... Keep up the good fight girl....I get tired of fooling with the brain deads...logic and facts have no place in their world. As I have posted before they are few in number but make lots of noise...much akin to the so called “gay” community....I usually refer to them with a different moniker. Have a Great 4th....up here next to the Red River I just looked and it was a 104....great for going out and throwing some dead meat on the grill....=s=
LBJ was never Governor. He was a part of the lock-step solid dem majority in the legisature who did not do right by Texas. Lyndon had a hundred years of dems running everything, i.e. Yeller Dog dems.
Perry nor any other Pubbie Gov. had the loaded deck like Lucky Lyndon.
This is an excellent article and provides a counter to the oft-quoted mantra here at FR that “the TExas governor’s position is weak at best”
No I don’t know that.
I’m posting links and quotes from articles.
What kind of poster I am? I’m one who does research and reports the results of my research.
I’m not saying these articles are right. I’ll leave that up to others to decide for themselves.
I do know that you have been posting pro Perry articles all the time. Some people would think that articles like
“Perry Ties His Own Shoes, Shows Presidential Leadership”
aren’t necessary, but not you. You are on here, filling up freerepublic with your Perry spam, seemingly 8 hours a day.
That’s the kind of poster you are.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/07/legislature/4535418.html
Perry’s vaccination order still stoking fires
AUSTIN — Blowback continued at the Capitol on Wednesday over Gov. Rick Perry’s order mandating
that schoolgirls be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease linked to cervical cancer.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/07/legislature/4528909.html
Critics rip Perry’s vaccine mandate
Governor rejects opponents’ calls to reverse order
AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry stood firm Monday against a political firestorm generated by his
order that sixth-grade girls be inoculated against a sexually transmitted virus linked to cervical cancer.
Social conservatives from Texas to Washington called on Perry to reverse his order making
Texas the first state to require the vaccine, saying the mandate makes sex seem permissible
and that parents should be the ones to decide whether to immunize their daughters.
And several Texas lawmakers expressed outrage at Perry for circumventing the legislative process.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/26/us/26texas.html
The vaccine, Gardasil, is manufactured by Merck, which was represented in Austin by the
lobbyist Mike Toomey, who was chief of staff for Mr. Perry from 2002 to 2004.
Perry’s push for super highway raises conspiracy buzz
Some say it’s part of a plan to create one nation in North America
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5064512.html
Perry enhanced the conspiracy buzz earlier this summer by traveling to Turkey to attend the secretive Bilderberg conference,
which conspiracy theorists believe is a cabal of international monied interests and power brokers pressing for globalization.
The first, and most controversial, leg of the Trans-Texas Corridor plan is a proposed 1,200-foot-wide private toll road
to run from Laredo to the Oklahoma border parallel to Interstate 35. This TTC-35 would be built
by a consortium headed by Spanish owned Cintra S.A. and Zachry Construction Corp. of San Antonio.
Perry fueled his role in the debate in June by attending the Bilderberg annual conference,
a secretive closed-door meeting of about 120 business, government and media leaders from Europe and North America.
Hey...tell us something about yourself....IMHO..people who don’t tell us anything about themselves are suspect....
Perry was a state rep (serving as a Dem) for a few terms. Then he switched to GOP and became Texas AGriculture Commissioner (knocking out the looney leftist Jim Hightower, a Jesse Jackson supporter in the general election).
After that, he was Lieutenant Governor for two years or so, before ascending to Governor when Bush became President.
He has been the Governor of Texas since that time.
Texas can keep Perry. He’s little more than our Jerry Brown with more hair.
Hated by Bush family over criticism of GWB's spending. Yes, yes, yes, and yes.
To say he was a cheerleader in college is extremely disingenuous and an attempt to get people to not take him seriously because he did something “un-manly.” He was a Yell Leader, which is a group of 5 people (3 Srs, 2 Jrs) voted by the student body to lead specific yells relating to the teams.
The Yell Leaders are generally members of the Corps of Cadets, which serves as the main ROTC program for the University. TAMU is recognized as a Senior Military College, on par with the Citadel and VMI. Rick Perry, as a Yell Leader, was also in the Corps. Members of the Yell Leaders are also eligible for athletic letters.
Aside from that, can you specify what lies he has told?
In the 80’s, Texas was a Democrat state, and they werent all crazy liberal Democrats. They were what is now termed as Reagan Democrats, or even to some extent conservatives who stayed as a local dem (like Zell Miller) while the national party was changing. As a democrat, he pushed for austerity in the state legislature.
When he supported Gore, Gore was known as a conservative democrat. He had not dabbled into the environmental issues. Gore ran as a centrist who was opposed to abortion and pro public prayer. While in Congress, Gore voted against banning interstate gun sales. In 1991, he supported the Gulf War.
So to claim he was a Gore supporter in the 80’s and that he was a cheerleader in college, doesnt really have the factual impact you were going for.
Think for a minute:
THE PRESS IS PUSHING PERRY. Ask yourself why.
You know the answer.
Some of us are into competence, a heavy resume of accomplishment, and superb governance. Others of us, not so much. Just throw in some flags to cover the lack of gravitas and for many, that’s enough. Perry takes experience straight to Romney. Then it’s a money war for the win.
I lean to Rick Perry, obviously, but look forward to 18 months or so of all our great candidates bringing their best game to the great battle for ‘12. Any one of them can fall flat, I know that, but we have got to win the general election at all costs. I’m in, and I know we all are!
You keep posting the part of the story with the salacious rumors, but conveniently leave out the part where they never find any evidence that there is any truth to the story!
The part you purposely omit...
For the record, Naked City looked into the Perry rumors when they first surfaced some weeks ago – inevitably accompanied by the warning, “The divorce papers are being filed today!” – and found no evidence of any truth to any of them, whatsoever. Amid much finger-pointing about who was the original source (and which political party he or she belongs to), nobody will go on the record. The governor's office (perhaps understandably) refuses any and all comment beyond a one-sentence statement from Perry spokesperson Kathy Walt: “These are false, malicious, and hurtful rumors, and the Chronicle's own investigation acknowledges that fact.”
We also know that numerous other reporters, from here to New York, have looked into the rumors, with, as far as we know, an identical lack of results. Nor do we expect anything we say here to have any effect on the rumors, which have become entirely self-replicating as they echo through the blogosphere.
Thanks for the rest of the story of why Rick is
“conservative like Obama” and governs Texas like Obama, along with all those other marxists he placed in power. /s/s/s
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