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Rick Perry
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| Rick Perry | |
 | |
| 47th Governor of Texas | |
|---|---|
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office December 20, 2000 | |
| Lieutenant | Bill Ratliff (2000-2003) David Dewhurst (2003-present) |
| Preceded by | George W. Bush |
| | |
| In office January 19, 1999 – December 21, 2000 | |
| Governor | George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Bob Bullock |
| Succeeded by | Bill Ratliff |
| | |
| Born | March 4, 1950 Paint Creek, Texas |
| Political party | Republican (1989-present) Democratic (1968-1989) |
| Spouse(s) | Anita Thigpen Perry |
| Children | Griffin Perry Sydney Perry |
| Residence | Austin, Texas |
| Alma mater | Texas A&M University |
| Profession | Political aide, legislator |
| Religion | Methodist |
| Military service | |
| Service/branch | United States Air Force |
| Rank | Captain |
| Perry was succeeded by Bill Ratliff in the lieutenant governor's post by a vote of the Texas Senate in which Ratliff served until the election and inauguration of David Dewhurst. See related articles for details. | |
James Richard "Rick" Perry (born March 4, 1950) is the 47th and incumbent Governor of Texas, having held the office since 2000. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998, he assumed office as governor in December 2000 when Governor George W. Bush resigned before his inauguration as President of the United States. Perry was elected to two full terms in 2002 and 2006.
Perry served as chairman of the Republican Governors Association in 2008, succeeding Sonny Perdue of Georgia. He now serves as Finance Chair.
Perry holds all records for Texas gubernatorial tenure, having broken both Allan Shivers' consecutive service record of 7 1/2 years in June 2008 and Bill Clements' total service record of eight years (over two non-consecutive terms) in December 2008. As a result, the Dallas Morning News reported in December 2008 that Perry has the distinction of being the only governor in modern Texas history to have appointed at least one person to every possible state office, board, or commission position which requires gubernatorial appointment (as well as to several elected offices to which the governor can appoint someone to fill an unexpired term, such as five of the nine current members of the Texas Supreme Court). Should Perry complete his current term on January 18, 2011, he will become the first Governor of Texas to complete two consecutive four-year terms. He is also the second longest-serving current Governor in the United States (North Dakota Governor John Hoeven is the longest-serving, having taken office a mere six days before Perry).
Perry has announced his intention to run for an unprecedented third consecutive four-year term in 2010. He faces a challenge in the Republican primary election from U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison[1][2] and former Wharton County Republican Party Chairwoman and businesswoman Debra Medina.[3] Perry currently leads in primary and general election polling.[4][5]
[edit] Early life
A fifth-generation Texan, Perry was born in tiny Paint Creek, about 60 miles (97 km) north of Abilene in West Texas, to ranchers Joseph Ray Perry and the former Amelia June Holt. His father, a Democrat, was a long-time Haskell County commissioner and school board member. Perry graduated from Paint Creek High School in 1968. As a child, Perry was in the Boy Scouts (BSA) and earned the rank of Eagle Scout, as his son, Griffin, would also later become an Eagle Scout.[6][7] The BSA honored Perry with the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.[8]
Perry attended Texas A&M University where he was a member of the Corps of Cadets and one of A&M's 5 male cheerleaders[9] (called "yell leaders" at Texas A&M). He graduated in 1972 with a degree in animal science. While at Texas A&M University Perry successfully completed a static line parachute jump at Ags Over Texas (a United States Parachute Association dropzone), the dropzone that was then in operation at Coulter Field (KCFD) in Bryan, Texas, just north of Texas A&M (in College Station, Texas).
Upon graduation, he was commissioned in the United States Air Force, completed pilot training and flew C-130 tactical airlift in the United States, the Middle East, and Europe until 1977. He left the Air Force with the rank of captain, returned to Texas and went into business farming cotton with his father.
In 1982, Perry married Anita Thigpen, his childhood sweetheart whom he had known since elementary school. They have two children, Griffin and Sydney. Anita Perry attended West Texas State University and earned a degree in nursing. She has spearheaded a number of health-related initiatives such as the Anita Thigpen Perry Endowment at the San Antonio Health Science Center, which focuses on nutrition, cardiovascular disease, health education, and early childhood programming.
Perry has said that his interest in politics probably began in November 1961, when, at the age of eleven, his father took him to the funeral of the legendary Sam Rayburn, who during his long public career served as speaker of the Texas House and the U.S. House of Representatives. Dignitaries from all over the nation came to the small town of Bonham, the seat of Fannin County, for the official farewell to Rayburn.
[edit] Texas Legislature
In 1984, Perry was elected to the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat from a district (64) that included his home county of Haskell. He served on the important House Appropriations and Calendars committees during his three two-year terms in office. One of the freshman legislators that he befriended was 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 lean 1980s.
In 1989, The Dallas Morning News named him one of the most effective legislators in the 71st Legislature.[citation needed] That same year, Perry announced that he was joining the Republican Party.[citation needed]
[edit] Agriculture Commissioner
In 1990, he challenged incumbent Democratic Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower. 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. Perry narrowly unseated Hightower, even as the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Clayton Williams, went down to defeat at the hands of Ann Richards.[10]
As Agriculture Commissioner, Perry was responsible for promoting the sale of Texas farm produce to other states and foreign nations and supervising the calibration of weights and measures, such as gasoline pumps and grocery store scales.
In 1994, Perry was reelected Agriculture Commissioner by a large margin, having polled 2,546,287 votes (61.92 percent) to Democrat Marvin Gregory's 1,479,692 (35.98 percent). Libertarian Clyde L. Garland received the remaining 85,836 votes (2.08 percent).[11]
[edit] Lieutenant Governor
In 1998, Perry chose not to seek a third term as Agriculture Commissioner, but instead ran for lieutenant governor to succeed the retiring Democrat Bob Bullock. Perry polled 1,858,837 votes (50.04 percent) to the 1,790,106 (48.19 percent) cast for Democrat John Sharp of Victoria, who had relinquished the comptroller's position after two terms to seek the lieutenant governorship. Libertarian Anthony Garcia polled another 65,150 votes (1.75 percent).[11] Perry thus became the first lieutenant governor of Texas elected from the Republican Party.
[edit] Governor
Perry assumed the office of Governor late in 2000 when George W. Bush resigned to prepare for his presidential inauguration, becoming the first Texas A&M graduate to serve as Governor.
Perry won the office in his own right in the 2002 gubernatorial election when he defeated Laredo businessman Tony Sanchez, polling 2,632,591 votes (57.80 percent) to Sanchez's 1,819,798 (39.96 percent). Four minor candidates shared 2.21 percent of the vote.[11]
The 2006 gubernatorial election proved to be a stiffer challenge. Though he easily defeated token opposition in the primary election, Perry faced a six-way race involving former Democratic Congressman Chris Bell, Libertarian candidate James Werner (a sales consultant); and three independent candidates – outgoing Republican state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn (who chose not to face Perry in the primary race when early polling data suggested she would lose badly), well-known Texas country music singer Kinky Friedman, and write-in candidate James "Patriot" Dillon. Perry won the race in a plurality, polling 1,714,618 votes (39 percent) to Bell's 1,309,774 (29.8 percent), Strayhorn's 789,432 (18 percent), Friedman's 553,327 (12.6 percent), and Werner's 26,726 (0.6 percent). Dillon garnered a mere 718 votes. Perry became only the third governor in state history to have been elected by a plurality of less than 40 percent of votes cast (the 1853 and 1861 races also featured plurality winners carrying under 40 percent).
As a result of his office and his political alignment, Perry is a member of the Republican Governors Association, the National Governors Association, the Western Governors Association, and the Southern Governors Association.
Early in his term as governor Perry worked to make health care more accessible. He pushed through the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) designed to insure 500,000 children[citation needed] and convinced the state Legislature to increase health funding by $6 billion.[citation needed] Some of these programs have since faced funding reductions and Governor Perry has refused to resume funding to previous levels even though Federal Matching Funds for Healthcare above and beyond the amount dedicated by the legislature would be available. He also increased school funding prior to the 2002 election and created new scholarship programs to help needy children, including $300 million for the Texas GRANT Scholarship Program.[citation needed] Some $9 billion was allocated to Texas public schools, colleges, and universities and combined with a new emphasis on accountability for both teachers and students.[citation needed] Public schools in Texas are funded primarily by local property taxes thus creating a heavy burden on the local community to pay for their own schools, thereby creating inequities between rich and poor school districts.
Perry's lieutenant governor and governor campaigns focused on a tough stance on crime. In June 2002, he vetoed a ban on the execution of mentally retarded inmates. He has also supported block grants for crime programs.
Another element of Perry's platform has been tort reform; as lieutenant governor he had tried and failed to place a limit on class action awards and allowing plaintiffs to distribute awards among several liable sources. In 2003, Perry sponsored a controversial state constitutional amendment to cap medical malpractice rewards;[citation needed] this proposal was narrowly approved by voters.
This legislation not only caused a decrease in malpractice insurance rates, but caused a significant uptick in the number of doctors seeking to practice in the state.[12]
Recently, Rick Perry has drawn attention for his criticism of the Obama administration's handling of the recession, and for turning down approximately $555 million in stimulus money for unemployment insurance. Perry was lauded by the Texas Association of Business[13] for this decision and his justification—that the funds and the mandatory changes to state law would have placed an enduring tax burden on employers. In September 2009, Perry declared that Texas was recession-proof: "As a matter of fact...someone had put a report out that the first state that's coming out of the recession is going to be the state of Texas...I said, 'We're in one?'"[14]
Paul Burka, senior executive editor of Texas Monthly, criticized his remarks, saying "You cannot be callous and cavalier when people are losing their jobs and their homes."[15]
[edit] Fiscal issues
Perry, a proclaimed proponent of fiscal conservatism, has often campaigned on tax reform and job growth. Perry resisted creating a Texas state income tax and sales tax increases, protected the state's "Rainy Day fund", balanced the state budget as required by state law, and was reelected on a platform to reduce property taxes that exploded with the inflation of property values in the late 1990s and the 21st century. However, shortly after taking office, he backed down from the reduction of residential property taxes.
In early 2006 Perry angered some fiscal conservatives in his own party by supporting an increase in the state franchise tax alongside a property tax reform bill. Many organizations within the Republican Party itself condemned Perry's tax bill, HB-3, and likened it to a "back door" state income tax.[16] Perry claimed in a statewide advertising campaign that the bill would save the average taxpayer $2,000 in property taxes. Critics contended that Perry inflated these numbers. The actual tax savings, they said, would average only $150 per family.[17]
In 2003, Perry signed legislation that created the Texas Enterprise Fund to enhance the development of the economy of Texas a top priority. In 2004, Perry authorized the Enterprise Fund to make a $20 million grant to Countrywide Financial in return for a promise "to create 7,500 new jobs in the state by 2010." The grant is one of the largest made from the fund in terms of the size of the grant and the number of jobs promised. In the fall of 2007, while slashing jobs and with its stock price plummeting, Countrywide assured Perry's office that the company "believed" it would meet its 2010 commitment[18] only to be acquired in a fire sale two months later by Bank of America.
His sales tax cuts have attracted new retail businesses to Texas,[citation needed] but in recent years his tax cuts have come under scrutiny for having sapped strength from some government programs. In 2004, Texas ranked 49 in percentage of residents having completed high school[19] and number 42 in physical exercise.[20]
Perry has faced considerable resistance in balancing fiscal conservatism, education equity, and the politics of school finance. As lieutenant governor, he initially sponsored a controversial school vouchers bill as an alternative to the "Robin Hood" school finance proposal. In 2004, Perry attacked the same "Robin Hood" plan as detrimental to the educational system. He attempted to get the legislature to abolish the system and replace it with one that he believed would encourage greater equity, cost less, hold down property and sales taxes, and foster job growth. Perry objected to the legalization of video lottery terminals at racetracks and on Indian reservations as well as increases in cigarette taxes.
In 2003, Perry called three consecutive special legislative sessions to procure a congressional redistricting plan more favorable to Republicans. The plan finally adopted, supported by then U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Sugar Land, brought about a five-seat Republican gain in the delegation. In 2006, however, the five-seat edge was reduced to three seats.
A special session of the legislature was convened on June 21, 2005, to address education issues, but resistance developed from House Speaker Tom Craddick, a Republican from Midland. Perry's proposal was attacked by members from property-poor districts and was rejected. During the session, Perry became involved in a heated debate with Comptroller Carole Strayhorn about the merits of his school finance proposal. Strayhorn initially planned to oppose Perry in the 2006 Republican primary but instead ran as an independent in the general election.[21] Another special session was convened on July 21, 2005 after Perry vetoed all funding for public schools for the 2007-2008 biennium. He vowed not to "approve an education budget that shortchanges teacher salary increases, textbooks, education technology, and education reforms. And I cannot let $2 billion sit in some bank account when it can go directly to the classroom."
Perry's campaign office in 2006 declared that without the special session, some "$2 billion that had been intended for teacher pay raises, e
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