Rick Perry vs. the Tea Party

Very interesting article about Rick Perry's real record in Texas.


Why Texas activists think their governor is all hat and no cattle when it comes to shrinking government.

—By Tim Murphy

The narrative was all ready to go: Texas Governor Rick Perry's 2010 re-re-election campaign was supposed to be an old-fashioned brawl between the incumbent governor of nine years and the state's most popular politician, Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Texas Monthly put the duo on its cover with the tag line, "It's On and It's Gonna Get Ugly." Political junkies stocked up on popcorn.

But it didn't turn out that way. After starting off 30 points down, Perry went on to crush Hutchison in the primary. The senator's attacks on Perry mostly fell flat; instead, the sharpest critiques of the governor came from a third candidate: Debra Medina, a nurse and former Wharton County Republican Party chair, who, with zero name recognition or institutional support, a bare-bones budget, and a whole lot of tea party support, soared to 20-percent in the polls.

"I think Paul Burka at Texas Monthly said I'm the only person that's ever been able to get to the right of Rick Perry—which is bizarre in my view because I don't see him as a candidate of the right," Medina says now. "He sells himself on the right, he packages himself on the right, but if you look at the record he's not conservative by any stretch."

Medina's bid ultimately fell short—owing in part to a disastrous interview on Glenn Beck's radio program. But her tea party insurgency channeled a dissatisfaction felt by many Texas conservatives. It was hardly a blip, either; 61-percent of Texans voted against Perry in 2006 (he won in a four-way race), and when the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune polled the state this spring, just 4 percent said they'd like to see their Governor run for president.



MotherJones