[Norman Bates]

He was called one of the Pit-bulls in the Texas legislature because he was a Democrat member who sat in the lower pit of the House Appropriations Committee and bitterly fought spending increases. He is naturally a conservative. In 1989 he joined the Republican Party...

You left out the part about running Al Gore's presidential campaign in 1987-88.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Even as Democrat, Perry voted twice for Reagan, aide says Gov. Rick Perry was a Democrat until the late 1980s, but he voted for Ronald Reagan in the 1980 and 1984 presidential elections, a top aide said today.

Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd that Perry voted for Reagan in each of those elections, even when Perry himself was on the ballot as a Democratic candidate for state representative in 1984.

Perry has come under fire from U.S. Rep. Ron Paul — his fellow GOP presidential candidate — for supporting Democrat Al Gore for president in 1988. Texas was a much more Democratic state back then, and Perry has said he viewed Gore at the time as a conservative Democrat.

Last month in South Carolina, an unidentified voter in South Carolina who confronted Perry over his Democratic past told CNN that Perry acknowledged supporting Democratic President Jimmy Carter in 1980. The network does not appear to have witnessed that conversation.

Perry has acknowledged supporting Carter in 1976, with the hope that he would be good for farmers. [end]