California Republicans invite unsuccessful job stealer Rick Perry to convention to brag about trying to steal California jobs.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has spent much of this year trotting around the country trying to convince companies to move their jobs to Texas, promising rock-bottom employee wages, lax regulations and low taxes. He ran ads in California
in February trying to convince Golden State companies to do so, followed by an
in-person visit to make the case personally. As Hunter wrote at the time:
Perry is trying hard to make Texas into a business-friendly state mainly by slashing taxes and dumping as many worker protections as possible, thus turning the state into a slightly more convenient Mexico. (Sorry, Mexico. I mean no insult.) Low-wage industries love that approach; more specialized industries and, frankly, more decent ones don't care so much.
There are no signs that Perry's efforts yielded any successes, other than to give Democrats a reason to point and laugh in derision. For example, California Gov. Jerry Brown dismissed Perry's efforts as "barely a fart." But apparently, California's endangered Republicans were inspired by those job-poaching efforts because they've
invited him to keynote their annual conference, presumably to give him a bigger platform for his job-stealing efforts.
California's vibrant business community (it has more Fortune 500 companies than any other state) won't be striking off for Texas anytime soon. But maybe Perry needs a Plan B—stealing some California Republicans to shore up their Texas majorities. Because the way things are going in the Lone Star State, those monolithic Republican advantages will soon be a thing of the past. And they know it.
Meanwhile, to all those California Republicans who think their party needs to modernize to become relevant once again? Oops. Better luck next year.