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Will Perry Carry the Day?
National Review Online ^ | July 21, 2011 | Brian Bolduc

Posted on 07/21/2011 1:56:21 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

In the Russell Senate Office Building Caucus Room, Fred McClure was watching the crowd. It was March 1978, and the American Agriculture Movement — a pressure group for government support of farm prices — was meeting with Texan congressmen.

A legislative aide to Sen. John Tower (R.), McClure was leaning on a door when a rancher from Paint Creek, Texas, named Rick Perry walked past. Newly retired from the Air Force, Perry held a degree in animal science from Texas A&M. His class ring gave him away.

Spotting the ring, McClure, a fellow Texas A&M grad, introduced himself, and the two hit it off. Thirteen years later McClure, a notary public, would swear Perry into office as Texas’s agriculture commissioner, his first statewide office.

[snip]

Ken Luce, who managed Perry’s campaign for agriculture commissioner in 1990, believes the advantage extends beyond Iowa. “The agriculture economy is very important from Florida all the way to California and in between,” he says. As agriculture commissioner, Perry felt comfortable getting into the weeds of agriculture policy, such as inspecting gas pumps and determining funding for fire-ant programs. And, perhaps most importantly, the skills Perry sharpened in winning his first statewide race could be useful if he runs for president.

In 1990, Perry was an obscure state legislator running against one of the most popular Texas politicians of the 1980s: Jim Hightower. Although Hightower had the advantage of incumbency, Perry rallied several important constituencies to his side. Farmers were livid with Hightower over his opposition to pesticides and his favoritism toward niche markets such as organic foods. Perry argued that Texas should support its mainstays, such as cotton and wheat. When the European Community temporarily banned imports of hormone-treated beef, Perry urged Hightower to stick up for Texas ranchers (instead, Hightower suggested they could sell hormone-free beef to Europe).

“Hightower ignored mainstream agriculture for years, so they were riled up and Rick got them to cross over,” Luce says. Perry beat the well-liked incumbent, 49 percent to 47 percent, even while the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Clayton Williams, lost to Democrat Ann Richards.

[snip]

Perry also won his election the old-fashioned way, outspending his opponent by about $400,000. And many of Perry’s attacks on Hightower hit less on his agricultural incompetence and more on his unabashed liberalism (especially his endorsement of Jesse Jackson for president in 1988). Perry took the personality contest to such an extreme that when Hightower cut his finger in a lawnmower accident a few days before the election, Perry told reporters the event showed Hightower’s “total lack of common sense.”

[snip]

And as for Perry’s retail skills, Luce says they’re Grade A. “Rick campaigned in all 256 counties in the state,” he says. “He went to rural and urban areas; he did small and big events. Rick is a campaigner.”

Perry may be a latecomer to the Iowa race, but he is an old hand at face-to-face politics. This former Texas agriculture commissioner knows a thing or two about grass roots.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: agriculture; farming; gardasilperry; gopprimary; perry; perry44rove; perry4merck; perryborders; perrybot; perrycare; perrytherino; rickperry; rinoperry
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To: Spartan79; All
Nor did I sense that he “cut short” the presser; they were at a conference, had another session to get to, and the presser was over.

That's not entirely...accurate:

GOP Governors Pull the Plug On Palin's Press Conference

61 posted on 07/21/2011 4:51:31 AM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner (Sarah Palin has crossed the Rubicon!)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

62 posted on 07/21/2011 4:51:59 AM PDT by Diogenesis (No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. - Mark Twain)
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To: 3722535r

Hallucinate much?

If you hate Perry just say so. Don’t come up with what-ifs, seems to, or out and out fantasical illusions.


63 posted on 07/21/2011 4:53:54 AM PDT by wolfcreek (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsd7DGqVSIc)
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To: wolfcreek
Jealous, misogynist RINO Governors Attempt to Silence Gov. Palin
"GOP Governors Pull the Plug On Palin's Press Conference
The Republican Governors Conference Press Guidelines promised
that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin would “take approximately
20 minutes of questions” at today’s morning press conference.
Instead, this press conference, attended by 150 local and national media
and taped by 26 video cameras, disintegrated into a fiasco
when Texas Governor Rick Perry shut it down after
only five minutes and four questions.
"

"Eight other governors assembled on the stage, all men, seemed
visibly uncomfortable with the “Palin at center stage” format.

When Perry stepped in front of Palin at the podium to announce
it was over just as it was getting started, Palin looked irritated,
and the media shouted, “You’ve got to be kidding,”
“This is ridiculous,” "Come on,” and
“We were promised more questions.”


64 posted on 07/21/2011 5:16:03 AM PDT by Diogenesis (No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. - Mark Twain)
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To: larryjohnson
Perry did not retire from the Air Force. He served 72-77 and was a C13 pilot

Thank you.

A lot of "newsguys" don't understand "retired."

C-130 Rick Perry: He flew the world before politics

65 posted on 07/21/2011 5:19:38 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

I really have no clue about Jim Hightower, all I’m trying to do is establish from multiple sources that Karl Rove ran Rick Perry’s campaign. The Jim Hightower interview had a lot of Karl Rove did this, Karl Rove did that, which is what I was looking for. I might dig a bit deeper, getting a wider variety of Rove + Perry materials, and recraft my Rove section.


66 posted on 07/21/2011 5:31:20 AM PDT by truthfreedom
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To: truthfreedom
I really have no clue about Jim Hightower, all I’m trying to do is establish from multiple sources that Karl Rove ran Rick Perry’s campaign. The Jim Hightower interview had a lot of Karl Rove did this, Karl Rove did that, which is what I was looking for. I might dig a bit deeper, getting a wider variety of Rove + Perry materials, and recraft my Rove section.

I'll give you a clue --- FREE!

Jim Hightower: Perry Is Peddling Texas Snake Oil

67 posted on 07/21/2011 5:34:28 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: truthfreedom
.....all I’m trying to do is establish from multiple sources that Karl Rove ran Rick Perry’s campaign....

HERE I did the work for you:

["Perry was part of the "Pit Bulls", a group of Appropriations members who sat on the lower dais in the committee room (or "pit") who pushed for austere [Texas] state budgets during the 1980s."] Source

Karl Rove claims Rick Perry as his candidate in Perry's FIRST campaign for the Texas Agriculture Commission. [From what I’ve found this was their only collaboration]

Perry was a Texas Democrat (not a liberal Democrat). He switched to the Republican Party in 1989. In 1990 Perry won the election (against Jim Hightower) to head the Agricultural Committee (a post Perry was well suited for as having come from a cotton farming family -- raised and worked the land -- and had a degree in Animal Science from Texas A&M). He was reelected in 1994 to that office in a landslide (62%). He did not seek reelection for a 3rd term and ran for Lt. Gov of Texas (1998), winning in a 3 way race, in a hard fought campaign against John Sharp (D).

["Perry thus became the state's first Republican lieutenant governor since Reconstruction, taking office on January 19, 1999 until his ascension to the governorship on December 21, 2000 upon the resignation of then-Governor George W. Bush."] Source

In that 1998 campaign year, the G.W. Bush camp (which included Karl Rove) was campaigning for W's reelection for Texas Gov (1st elected in 1994) and was at odds with Rick Perry's hard nosed campaign against John Sharp for Lt. Gov. Karl Rove told Perry to soft peddle to lift Bush's numbers in minority groups, Perry refused. Bush won reelection as Texas Governor. Perry won office as Lt. Gov. (arguably a stronger office than TX governor).

["Bush won by 1.4 million votes, Perry by fewer than 70,000. There were harsh words afterward; Rove and Dave Carney, a top Perry strategist, now are bitter foes."] Source

Then there was this in the TX Monthly about the 2010 governor's race:

October 2009: “....It would not be surprising to find that Karl Rove had a hand in this somewhere. The Bushies are definitely in the Hutchison camp, and there is no love lost between them and the Perry camp. The tension (according to Perry team members whom I interviewed on this subject last year) dates all the way back to Perry’s race for lieutenant governor in 1998, when Rove insisted that Perry stick with a positive message even while he was being pounded by John Sharp. Meanwhile, in the view of the Perry camp, Rove was trying to turn out Hispanic Democrats who would vote for Bush, even though that meant they were likely to switch back to the D column to vote for Sharp. The Perry team decided that they had to fight back, Rove or no Rove, and they went rogue, going after Sharp hard. It worked.

...If that animosity weren’t enough, after Bush was named the winner in December 2000, Perry was insistent that the president-elect vacate the governor’s mansion so that Perry could move in, notwithstanding that Bush wanted to stay a day or two longer before leaving for Washington. I heard that firsthand from the Bushies at the time....” -- Texas Monthly

********

Basically, in the 2010 GOP primary in TX for the governor's office, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutichison was hoping to come home to Texas as Governor. Her election was being backed by the Bush family and all their power players were lined up against Gov. Rick Perry, with Karl Rove serving as Sen Hutchison's adviser against Perry. Source

Rick Perry won a 3rd term as Governor of Texas in 2010. …..“Gore won a seat in Congress in 1976 "with 32 percent of the vote, three percentage points more than his nearest rival." He won the next three elections in 1978, 1980, and 1982 where "he was unopposed twice and won 79 percent of the vote the other time." In 1984, Gore successfully ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate, which had been vacated by Republican Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker. He was "unopposed in the Democratic Senatorial primary and won the general election going away," despite the fact that Republican President Ronald Reagan swept Tennessee in his reelection campaign the same year.

During his time in Congress, Gore was considered a "moderate" (he referred to himself as a "raging moderate") opposing federal funding of abortion, voting in favor of a bill which supported a moment in silence in schools, and voting against a ban on interstate sales of guns. His position as a moderate (and on policies related to that label) shifted later in life after he became Vice President and ran for president in 2000…”…… Source

*************************

At the beginning of his six years in the State House, Mr. Perry shot down the notion that he might switch parties, despite the conservative leanings that put him at odds with his party leaders.

After former United States Representative Kent Hance of Lubbock defected to the Republican Party in 1985, Mr. Perry told the Abilene paper he was “disappointed,” saying he planned to change his party rather than defect to the other side.

The gap was obvious by 1989, his last year in the Legislature, when Mr. Perry carried a workers’ compensation insurance bill that angered Texas trial lawyers, then a powerful force in state politics. That same year, The Dallas Morning News named Mr. Perry one of the state’s 10 best legislators, but he was criticized by another publication.

The liberal Texas Observer called Mr. Perry the “Benedict Arnold of the Democratic Party” for siding too often with Mr. Clements.

“If The Texas Observer ever says anything good about me, then I’ve been hit on the head and they can send me back home,” Mr. Perry said.

Rumors that Mr. Perry would defect to the Republican Party — and run against Jim Hightower, the populist Democratic agriculture commissioner — picked up steam by late 1989. On Sept. 29, Mr. Perry made it official at a Capitol news conference. At his side were Fred Meyer, chairman of the Texas Republican Party, and Senator Phil Gramm, a former Democrat, who was aggressively courting would-be converts.

Mr. Perry’s timing, now legendary, could not have been better. He was one of only two Republicans elected to nonjudicial statewide office in 1990. Eight years later, Republicans swept every one of them.

“Perry has been a risk taker,” said Mr. Hance, the party switcher who became the chancellor of Texas Tech University. “And if you look at Perry’s timing in every race, he’s been the golden guy.” Taking a Look at the Governor, Back When He Was a Democrat

68 posted on 07/21/2011 5:37:50 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Diogenesis

Ever heard of time restraints? This meeting wasn’t about her though the journalist felt differently.

Stooping to MSM level are we?


69 posted on 07/21/2011 5:46:50 AM PDT by wolfcreek (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lsd7DGqVSIc)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Ok, I don’t CARE about Hightower. Nobody seems to be disputing what he’s saying.


70 posted on 07/21/2011 5:50:16 AM PDT by truthfreedom
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To: truthfreedom

You use the rants of a LEFT-WING nut-case, populist radio personality (that hangs out at every union rally-protest that he can make) that LOST an election to Rick Perry 20+ years ago to SLAM Perry on every thread and YOU DON’T CARE?


71 posted on 07/21/2011 5:55:58 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

I really just want as much detail on 1990 Agriculture. Hammering home the Rove connection. The other stuff that doesn’t deal with those years I’m not interested in. Maybe later.

What you have doesn’t give me adequate detail on what I want.


72 posted on 07/21/2011 6:01:22 AM PDT by truthfreedom
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To: truthfreedom

WHAT are you wanting to find?


73 posted on 07/21/2011 6:05:39 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
This is good news. Did you see the poll results from the Clay Co. Republicans in Iowa? I am not at all surprised by those results and frankly, it's very close to what I see on the ground here in Iowa.

The Perry support is coming out of the woodwork but there is a problem regarding the Straw Poll. The Republican State Central Committee has some problems to deal with regarding whose names should be on the ballot. It is very disappointing.

74 posted on 07/21/2011 6:23:10 AM PDT by Conservativegreatgrandma
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To: Conservativegreatgrandma

I’ve been watching that CGG.

Thank you for confirming some ground truth.

It’s hard to get past the “fog” of the news.

From what you understand, is this just timing or something else?


75 posted on 07/21/2011 6:26:04 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Do you mean the ballot thing? I think the Central Committee is a group of conscientious people who are doing their best to be fair to everyone. They have tough decisions to make but will do the best thing in the end. It is not clear cut what is the right thing to do.

I'll get the inside scoop.

76 posted on 07/21/2011 6:31:52 AM PDT by Conservativegreatgrandma
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To: Conservativegreatgrandma

One news report had it that “other” candidates were trying to “squeeze” Perry out. That just didn’t smell right.


77 posted on 07/21/2011 6:43:52 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Well, that may be right in practicality but they have also paid big bucks to the state party for their spots. I don't really blame them for objecting to have names on the ballot of those who paid nothing.

Maybe if it were possible to rewind the whole thing and start over with other rules things could be different but the CC has a problem and I expect the end ruling to be fair.

I am disappointed but right is right and wrong is wrong. Perry could announce and buy a spot and be on the ballot, with the same for Palin.

The debate is another story.

78 posted on 07/21/2011 6:48:58 AM PDT by Conservativegreatgrandma
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To: Conservativegreatgrandma

Yes.

Thank you for the info and practical observations.


79 posted on 07/21/2011 7:00:43 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: FreedomForce
"Texans elected him Lieutenant Governor and elected him Governor three times. Sounds to me like you’re saying Texans never look closely enough."

They don't. That's why even with a massive GOP majority that leans conservative, they keep putting stinkers like Perry and Hutchison back in office. That's why after 10+ years of Perry their state finances are so far in the dumper. They're in worse shape than California.

California state/local debt $13,383 per citizen
Texas state/local debt $13,633 per citizen

IMO Perry is desperate to get out of Austin before the inevitable blowback hits.
80 posted on 07/21/2011 8:00:05 AM PDT by CowboyJay
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