Posts tagged as:
by Ross Ramsey, The Texas Tribune
August 30, 2010
The governor depicted by Democrats as a coward in statewide newspaper ads last week doesn’t seem nervous.
In fact, Rick Perry looks pretty comfortable, though he says he’s taking his Democratic challenger, Bill White, seriously and expects the last two months of the general election campaign to be at least as much work as his primary battle earlier this year against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Republican renegade Debra Medina.
by Matt Stiles, The Texas Tribune
August 23, 2010
Republican Gov. Rick Perry maintains an 8-point lead over Democratic challenger Bill White, according to the latest statewide poll by Rasmussen Reports.
The poll, conducted Aug. 22, shows Perry leading White, 49 percent to 41 percent. Three percent of the respondents said they prefer another candidate, and 7 percent were undecided.
The results are similar to Rasmussen polls in June and July, which showed the governor leading the former Houston mayor by 8 and 9 points, respectively.
Also of note in the poll:
White faces a tough race in a state that trends conservative Republican, especially given the national electoral mood.
Seventy-six percent (76%) of Texas voters consider Perry a conservative. Forty-two percent (42%) view White as a liberal, while another 29% describe him as a moderate.
Despite the perceived differences in ideology, 51% of voters in the state describe Perry’s political views as mainstream, and 52% say the same of White’s views. Thirty-three percent (33%) brand Perry’s views as extreme, and 29% think White’s are extreme.
Rasmussen polled 500 likely voters. The poll’s margin of error is +/- 4.5 percent.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at http://trib.it/bLRSKt.
Three years after Gov. Rick Perry’s biggest real estate score, questions persist about whether the governor benefited from favoritism, backroom dealing and influence-buying.
The Dallas Morning News found evidence that Perry’s investment was enhanced by a series of professional courtesies and personal favors from friends, campaign donors and the head of a Texas family with a rich history of political power-brokering (DMN).
“Rick Perry needs to grow a pair!” — PMT’s Michael Olson, on Gov. Rick Perry’s unwillingness to debate his opponent.
It’s time once again for the Public Media Texas political podcast. Give a listen to Texas Public Radio’s Terry Gildea and PMT’s Michael Olson as they discuss the state of politics in the Lone Star state.
Democratic candidate for Texas Governor Bill White called for more input on border policy from local officials and people living along the border on a recent trip to El Paso.
“I think that the threat is worse, and I think the threat has become worse under Gov. (Rick) Perry. I don’t blame all of that on him. There are circumstances across the border he cannot control,” White told El Paso’s KFOX.
White also drew a line in the sand on the Arizona’s anti-immigration law. He opposes it. Perry said it’s not the “right direction” for Texas to “turn law enforcement officers into immigration officials by requiring them to determine immigration status during any lawful contact with a suspected alien.”
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is publicly patching things up with her former rival, calling Gov. Rick Perry the “personification of Texas” and urging voters to re-elect him for another four years (KERA).
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is calling on his challenger Bill White (D) to drop out of the race to be the next Texas Governor.
In a statement issued by his campaign, Perry said, “By his own admission, Bill White intervened regarding a contract given to BTEC, a company he had personal financial ties with, to provide generators for the Houston Coastal Water Authority following Hurricane Rita’s landfall in 2005. If this is true, and Bill White did unethically steer taxpayer dollars to a company he had a personal financial stake in, I am calling on him to immediately resign from the race for governor.
White countered Perry’s assertion with his own statement, “Rick Perry is manufacturing phony issues in an attempt to hide from debates. I had no financial interest in BTEC during the time of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The water supply for more than half a million people and our refineries was at risk. I was a part of a crisis team that took action, and I think the proof is in the results.” White said.
“Perry took no issue with my leadership in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita until this election year. Career politician Rick Perry is doing anything to avoid a debate because he doesn’t want to talk about how he’s nearly doubled state spending, doubled state debt and how Texas is facing an $18 billion dollar shortfall, the largest in Texas history.”
Public Media Texas is based in Austin. We embrace our local presence in Austin with our hyper-local East Austin site 78702.org. We contribute to the discussion of the environment in the Southwest and the state of politics in Texas. We also seek to understand the dynamic between the U.S. and Mexico along our shared border. Along the way we search for artistic expressions that reflect and provide more perspective on the Lone Star state.
Dive on in.
