Posted on 09/07/2011 12:43:45 PM PDT by wolfcreek
It’s a legend of Texas politics and a hatchet for foes of Gov. Rick Perry, front-running candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. The story goes that as a Democratic legislator, Perry chaired Democrat Al Gore’s presidential campaign in Texas.
The legend has been aired routinely for more than 13 years, originally by a Democratic opponent of Perry’s, and in news reports—all but unchallenged by Perry. Even we at PolitiFact Texas repeated the story as fact.
Of late, there’s a July 16, 2011, reference to Perry chairing the Gore effort in Time magazine, and an Aug. 29, 2011, item in The New Yorker magazine saying Perry "became a Republican after shouldering the thankless task of running Al Gore's 1988 Presidential campaign in Texas."
This week, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, likewise bidding for president, premiered an advertisement calling Perry "Al Gore’s Texas cheerleader."
Cheerleader, maybe.
But interviews with political players in Texas and Tennessee and news articles from 1988 have convinced us that, although Perry endorsed Gore, he was not his Texas chairman.
(Excerpt) Read more at politifact.com ...
Some info from Wikipedia:
In 1984, Perry was elected to the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat from district 64, which included his home county of Haskell. He served on the House Appropriations and Calendars committees during his three two-year terms in office. He befriended fellow freshman state representative Lena Guerrero of Austin, a staunch liberal Democrat who endorsed Perry’s reelection bid in 2006 on personal, rather than philosophical, grounds.
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 state budgets during the 1980s.[16] At one point, The Dallas Morning News named him one of the ten most effective members of the legislature.[17]
In 1987, Perry voted for a $5.7 billion tax increase proposed by Republican governor Bill Clements.[18] Perry supported Al Gore in the 1988 Democratic presidential primaries and chaired the Gore campaign in Texas.[19][20] In 1989, Perry announced that he was switching parties, becoming a Republican.[21]
In 1990, as a newly minted Republican, Perry challenged Jim Hightower, the incumbent Democratic Agriculture Commissioner. Hightower had worked on behalf of Jesse Jackson for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, while Perry had supported U.S. Senator Al Gore of Tennessee.
...
As Agriculture Commissioner, Perry was responsible for promoting the sale of Texas farm produce to other states and foreign nations, and for supervising the calibration of weights and measures, such as gasoline pumps and grocery store scales.[24]
In 1993, Perry, while serving as Texas agriculture commissioner, expressed support for the Clinton health care reform proposal, describing it as “most commendable.” The health care plan was ultimately unsuccessful due to Republican congressional opposition.
Well, maybe he wasn’t Al Gore’s chair.
But...Ron Paul said that Rick Perry is not a real conservative!
Must be true!
Still, how could ANY thinking person believe Al Gore would EVER have been a better president than... well, than ANYONE... ...other than the individual who currently infests the White House, that is. I'm willing to give Mr. Gore that one.
Actually, in 1988 it would have been George H.W. Bush.
“The bottom line is that Perry endorsed Al Gore against Reagan.”
Perhaps. But like good Bourbon, I prefer truth straight up. And now it’s being hedged. Like I tell my kids, once you think someone is lying to you, verify everything. If it turns out they are, you can’t believe them for the big things any more than the small ones.
Maybe he was drunk in 1988.
*I* was busy scrubing. You are delusional.
Anyone can add info to Wikipedia. That’s why you shouldn’t use it as fact.
OR who ever wrote it was drunk???? And anybody claiming this piece as evidence and correction of the record is in a questionable state of mind. Perry knows what his role was and all these muddy waters sure remind me of how liberals operate.
LOL. You need to get your history straight. Reagan wasn't running for President in 1988.
Perry last voted for a Democrat for President in a general election in 1976, when Carter ran as a Southern Christian Democrat. (Perry later admitted he had been fooled by Carter - he figured as a farmer, Christian and Southern Democrat, Carter had to be conservative.) So Perry voted for Reagan in 1980, 1984 and for Bush41 in 1988. He supported Gore in the Democratic Primary in 1988 against Dukakis and Jesse Jackson.
Perry endorsed a Global Warming Alarmist (as of 1987), pro-abortion (Senate voting record, 1984 on), and gun grabbing Gore in 1988(1987 viewed as one of Brady Bill’s staunchest supporters by Sarah Brady). What matters it if he was chairman in Texas or not? Though I do remember being surprised in 1987/88 when I researched some of Gore’s supporters.
So he wasn’t state chair, just an avid supporter.
I have the most horrible feeling that this was supposed to make me feel better.
"Al Gore, from my perspective at that particular point in time, was the most conservative of the Democrats. I still thought that there was a place for conservative Democrats in the Democrat party. ... This was well before I had a deep understanding about his stands on global warming as well. He had them then, and that's my fault for not doing it."
Huh? Are YOU stoned? This was in 1988, in the Democratic primary. Gore was running against Dukakis and Jesse Jackson at the time. The Republican nominee hadn't even been selected at that point.
You do know that anyone can edit entries on Wikipedia, so you can't accept everything in them as accurate, right?
I think we have some flabbergast here.
There, fixed it for you. No charge.
Well, when you consider that Reagan voted 4 times for FDR and considered himself a "liberal New Deal Democrat" (Reagan's own words) until at least age 37, then later became the greatest conservative leader in the 20th Century, I think it should give you some comfort. At least Perry was supporting the person he THOUGHT was the most conservative in the Democratic primary. And since that was 23 years ago and Perry has had a very conservative record since then, it really isn't an issue, though people keep trying to make it one.
I went to an ‘88 fund raiser for Al in Nashville. He made a brief, very, statement. Came around, shook my hand, stood around awkwardly and then moved on.
The next week on superstation WGN, I watched an Illinois primary political ad for Gore where he was just another class warfare sleaze bag Bolshecrat. I never voted for him again.
That said, Run Al Run!
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