Big Republican donors skip Strayhorn, give to governor; Perry has big lead in bucks

The Dallas Morning News ^ | July 16, 2004 | By CHRISTY HOPPE / The Dallas Morning News

[MeekOneGOP]

Big Republican donors skip Strayhorn, give to governor

Perry has big lead in bucks, but comptroller pleased with support

02:34 AM CDT on Friday, July 16, 2004

By CHRISTY HOPPE / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN – Some big Republican givers are choosing sides in the battle between Gov. Rick Perry and state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, campaign finance reports filed Thursday indicate.

Four of the biggest GOP donors, who regularly sign $25,000 checks to politicians, declined in the last six months to give to Mrs. Strayhorn.

The comptroller, looking toward a possible primary challenge to the governor in 2006, has launched frequent attacks, saying he has failed on such issues as children's health care and protection of the elderly. Mr. Perry has fired back, supporting a bill that stripped the comptroller's office of prized programs.

Bahamas trip

In campaign finance reports covering the first six months of this year, Mr. Perry raised $3.2 million to Mrs. Strayhorn's $1.2 million.

Included are payments from large contributors who picked up the tab on Mr. Perry's trip to the Bahamas in February with staff, his political consultant, no-new-taxes advocates and campaign contributors, including James Leininger, a potent backer of school vouchers.

Mr. Perry said the trip was to discuss school finances. The governor's office had not disclosed who paid for the trip other than to say it would come out of his political campaign.

The disclosure reports showed that Charles Tate of Sugar Land, a founding partner of Capital Royalty, which specializes in health-care investments, donated the service of his plane at a cost of $35,000.

Part of the travel expenses, $2,435, also was borne by Houston beer distributor John Nau III, who went on the trip. And Mr. Leininger paid $2,968 to cover expenses for Mr. Perry and his staff.

Mr. Tate's office referred all questions to the Perry campaign.

Spokeswoman Deirdre Delisi said the trip was a working retreat and therefore was covered by campaign contributions. "Mr. Tate wasn't on the trip. He was asked and he graciously provided his plane as an in-kind contribution," she said.

Suzy Woodford, director of the state office of Common Cause, had said earlier that the trip smelled of a junket where large contributors pick up the tab.

"Common Cause has a huge problem with all of these discussions that are happening behind closed doors without any public input," she said.

The discussion of schools should happen in Austin, "instead of a nice, secluded island," she said.

In the campaign reports, noticeably absent from the contributors to Mrs. Strayhorn was Mr. Leininger, who had donated $100,000 to her from January 2000 through June 2003.

Also missing are Dallas oilman Louis Beecherl, who had given $65,000 over the same period; Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, who had provided $160,000 previously; and chemical company executive William McMinn, who had given $125,000.

All four men gave to Mr. Perry this time, for a total of $175,000.

Unhappy with criticism

Bill Miller, whose Austin public relations and lobbying firm represents Bob Perry, said the omission was purposeful.

"He's unhappy with her criticism of other Republican leaders," Mr. Miller said of his client.

Mark Sanders, a spokesman for Mrs. Strayhorn, said that she collected an unprecedented amount in the first six months and that she is pleased with her many supporters.

"The comptroller is enjoying the broadest level of support this far out from an election that she has ever seen in almost three decades of public service," he said.

Several big GOP donors continued to give to both candidates, including Lonnie Pilgrim, Harlan Crow, H. Zachary, Mike Rutherford, Kenneth Banks and Robert and Gordon Johnson. They gave a total of $110,000 to Mr. Perry and $163,000 to Mrs. Strayhorn.

Mr. Perry reported that he had $5.1 million in his campaign war chest; Mrs. Strayhorn reported having $3.6 million.

Staff writer Pete Slover contributed to this report.

E-mail choppe@dallasnews.com

---

Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/071604dntexcampaign.4f16.html

[MeekOneGOP]

Go Rick Perry !!

[mkj6080]

"The comptroller, (Carole Keeton Strayhorn) looking toward a possible primary challenge to the governor in 2006, has launched frequent attacks, saying he has failed on such issues as children's health care and protection of the elderly. Mr. Perry has fired back, supporting a bill that stripped the comptroller's office of prized programs."


Is this Strayhorn a RINO? Its pretty odd for an incumbent and I assume popular gov to face a primary challenge.

[Bommer]

Is this Strayhorn a RINO?

Strayhorn is more of a fiscal conservative then Perry is.

[Paleo Conservative]

Strayhorn? For a minute there I didn't recognize her name. She must have been married, divorced, and remarried at least as many times as Pamela Harriman.

[mkj6080]

From the issues she raised to criticize Gov. Perry she seems to want more government spending.

[Bommer]

What issues are those? I seem to remember that she demand that Perry needed to seriously cut the budget or raise taxes to balance the budget.

[mkj6080]

You seem in better informed about the political scene in TX than I am so I will take your word for it. See post 2 for the issues she raised.

[PAR35]

I have never been a Perry fan, but he did stick his neck out on congressional redistricting. Hutchinson is the typical country club republican, and she did vote against a conservative Bush judicial nominee. Carole Keeton Rylander Strayhorn (I am missing at least one more surname) has changed her name too many times for me to fully trust. (She should have stuck with her maiden name).

I wish there was a clearly conservative option

[Bommer]

Perry is a RINO if you ask me. @sshole still hasn't gotten property rates down like he promised, and damn near ran out Farmer Insurance all for political pandering to try to show he was tough with them. Strayhorn keeps him in his place, but he's a weasel

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/8487512.htm?1c

Perry-Strayhorn feud over budget escalates

By Jay Root
Star-Telegram Austin Bureau

AUSTIN -- The simmering feud between Gov. Rick Perry and Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn erupted into open warfare Wednesday, raising the specter of another fight over who gets to make official budgetary calculations.

Last year, the two increasingly entrenched rivals deadlocked for several tense days over Strayhorn's authority to certify how much the Legislature can spend -- a power that gives her great sway over tax and spending decisions.

Now, with Strayhorn issuing three days of attacks on his school finance plan in a just-started special legislative session, the governor is blasting back and suggesting that the comptroller may not have so much power after all.

The first blowup came Monday over Perry's three-year, $7.1 billion tax shift and education spending plan. He says it balances perfectly. She says it puts the state $10 billion in the hole.

Another fight, this one over policy and not math, erupted when Strayhorn said Wednesday that Perry's plan to tax adult entertainment was "not a sin tax but a sleaze tax" and proposed banning alcohol at adult venues.

After letting his staffers fire back earlier in the week, Perry himself unloaded during a lunch with reporters at the Governor's Mansion. He accused Strayhorn of "eye-popping miscalculations" and "shoddy fly-by-night analysis."

"It is an astonishing fact that the top number cruncher in this state could be so wrong on the numbers," Perry said. "I have yet to see the comptroller engage in anything other than political attacks and snide asides."

Strayhorn, like Perry a Republican, has not ruled out a run for his job in 2006.

Reprising the fight from last year over her certification authority, Perry added that "there are a number of ways in which the revenues are certified."

Strayhorn answered that the Texas Constitution gives her the authority to make revenue projections and certify whether budgets balance and indicated that she would relish a challenge to those powers.

Perry's plan does not actually call for spending money on reforms until the 2006-2007 budget cycle, but Strayhorn said that at some point, "They're going to have to be in my shop."

"If they plan on changing the constitution, well, I would just be delighted to take that up with the people of Texas," Strayhorn said.

A constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote in the Legislature and approval by Texas voters.

Asked to elaborate on how lawmakers could maneuver around the comptroller, Perry referred reporters to the top appropriators in the Legislature and said the attorney general might weigh in if "someone's not doing their job."

Angela Hale, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Greg Abbott, said she knew of no legal challenges to Strayhorn's authority, adding, "I have no idea what the governor is referring to."

Nor did House Appropriations Committee Chairman Talmadge Heflin, R-Houston, say he knew of any attempts to bypass Strayhorn.

"When it comes to how taxes perform, the way revenue comes in as it relates to the tax structure, that is the comptroller's call," said Heflin, who also serves on the select committee studying school finance. "When it comes to projecting revenue, that is her call."

Last year, a courtroom showdown over Strayhorn's authority to certify the budget was narrowly averted when Perry publicly agreed that the budget didn't balance and then vetoed some spending legislation; she then agreed to certify the budget.

After the disagreement over each other's math, the two Republicans also sparred Wednesday over the governor's plan to slap a $5 surcharge on adult entertainment customers, intended to raise millions that could help fund his school finance package, including property tax cuts.

Strayhorn countered with a proposal to ban alcohol sales at adult entertainment venues.

"The state of Texas does not need to be partnering with these clubs that are degrading, particularly to women," she said. "We need to be shutting them down."

Perry said there are many activities Texans find "distasteful" but said his proposal would help fund schools at the same time it raises "the cost of those unhealthy activities." Perry also proposes to raise the cigarette tax by $1 a pack.

Adult club owners said a tax on their business doesn't make much sense and questioned whether it was legally possible to ban alcohol sales.

"It always seems like they are gunning for us, but the topless bar industry is a legal industry" said John Faltynski, operations manager and co-owner of several clubs in Tarrant County. "If they are talking a $5 door tax that will generate more money for education, do they want more people to go to topless bars?"

State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, said as long as lawmakers are pondering taxes on vices they should consider taxing the "sin" of pollution, that emitted by coal-burning plants and gas-guzzling cars and trucks.

"I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect someone who wants to drive a vehicle that gets lousy gas mileage and has lousy air emissions to pay a little more for that privilege," Burnam said.

[JohnnyZ]

Is this Strayhorn a RINO?

Pretty much, yeah. She's made attacking Gov. Perry her full-time job. Doesn't really matter what the issue is, she'll attack him. Even the people on FR who started off liking her are beginning to think she's a real _itch in the shoulderblades.

[MeekOneGOP]

I'm not sure about being a RINO, but I know I side with Perry. NO WAY would I vote for Strayhorn in the primary. And with the big contributors siding with Perry .....

Perry was able to get Redistricting pushed through. That was great, imho !

[COEXERJ145]

I might not like a lot of the things Perry has done, but if I had to choose between Carole Whatever-Is-My-Name Strayhorn I'll take Perry. At least he hasn't lowered himself to the level that we expect out of the Democrats.

A lot of people think that Strayhorn and her cronies were the ones who pushed rumor that Perry and the (male) Sec. of State were having an affair, his wife left him, and he was about to be outed as a queer.

[Maria S]

"Is this Strayhorn a RINO?"


All I know about her is that her SON [Scott McClellan] is Bush's press secretary...and why on earth!!! he keeps that slow-witted, dumb-sounding twit as his spokesman is beyond me!

p.s. Apparently Carole KeetonRylanderStrayhorn was, at one time, a "McClellan"...at least long enough to give birth to Scott.

[MeekOneGOP]

Strayhorn? For a minute there I didn't recognize her name ......

hehehehe ! :^)

[Paleo Conservative]

I have never been a Perry fan, but he did stick his neck out on congressional redistricting.

He may have his flaws and shortcomings, but he did end Jim Hightower's political carreer. If it had not been for Perry, we very possibly might have had a governor or senator Hightower.

[MeekOneGOP]

I might not like a lot of the things Perry has done, but if I had to choose between Carole Whatever-Is-My-Name Strayhorn I'll take Perry. At least he hasn't lowered himself to the level that we expect out of the Democrats.

A lot of people think that Strayhorn and her cronies were the ones who pushed rumor that Perry and the (male) Sec. of State were having an affair, his wife left him, and he was about to be outed as a queer.

Amen! And it wouldn't surprise me if she started or threw fire on that BS !