Perry was one of the "pit bulls" members who, starting in 1984, sat in the lower pit of the House Appropriations Committee and bitterly fought spending increase. He joined Phil Gramm and a lot of conservative Texas Democrats on the Right side of the aisle.
That may be, but in the climate of “I’m sick of ‘insiders - we want ‘candidates “for” the people’”, Perry seems like an ‘insider’ to me. Someone who will very easily cozy up to Republican establishment just to “make Perry look good”.