[Cboldt]

FWIW, in addition to the campaign contribution, the "crony capitalism" charge also has as components that Merck lobbied the states to have the vaccine mandated, by law; that Perry's chief of staff went on to work for Merck; and that the vaccine was made mandatory (to the same extent most "mandatory" vaccines are mandatory) by an executive order.

As a view of the operation of government, it's hard to argue that there isn't some crony capitalism going on there. How much, if any of it attaches to Perry, personally, is a slightly different issue.

[HerrBlucher]

In order to show crony capitalism by Perry one would have to show a clear case of an action that was done by Perry in favor of the “crony” that would not have been done for any other reason. I don’t agree with the mandate but there were many pressures on Perry to do it and the charge that the main reason Perry did the mandate was to help Merck is extrememly weak. If this is all they got regarding Perry and crony capitalism, then they might as well give up on that issue.