Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry was profiled in a New York Times editorial today which slams the Texas Governor for his hypocrisy and extensive acceptance of campaign contributions in exchange for government contracts, favors and positions. Worse, it details the experience of two appointees, members of the Board of Regents of Texas Tech University, who chose to exercise their right to vote — for Perry’s gubernatorial challenger, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. One of the two stood firm, and lost her job because of it, the Times reports.
“Mr. Perry insists on unquestioned political loyalty in exchange for his patronage, no matter how inappropriate or out of place. In 2009, two members of the Board of Regents of Texas Tech University said the Perry administration pressured them to resign because they supported Mr. Perry’s challenger in the gubernatorial race, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. One regent, Windy Sitton, told The Austin American-Statesman that she was given a choice to disavow Senator Hutchison or resign; when she refused, she was replaced. Mark Griffin, the other regent, said he was told by Mr. Perry’s chief of staff that the governor ‘expects loyalty out of his appointees and if you can’t be loyal, it’s probably not best to be on the team’.â€
Appalling.
The Times notes,
“Mr. Perry has long maintained there is no connection between his appointments and their contributions, but the evidence is clear on board after board. He set up the Texas Residential Construction Commission, a priority of his most generous contributor, a major homebuilder, which limited the right of homeowners to sue contractors. He regularly appoints his donors or fund-raisers to the state teacher pension fund board, which has invested state money in companies owned by his donors. He averaged $118,000 in donations from each of his appointments to the Parks and Wildlife Commission.
“On a national level, Mr. Perry says he wants to make government ‘inconsequential.’ In Texas, he has made government very consequential — for his political career. The people of Texas have not fared nearly as well.”
Nor will America if Perry becomes our president.