Has anyone wondered why so many Republican politicians who say they hate the government actually do work in government? Some, like Rick Perry, have rarely if ever held a job outside of government. So why would one work so hard and passionately to hold a job in a place one professes to despise?
The majority of voters in Texas may have elected Rick Perry but, as it turns out, the Governor does not work for the average, everyday voter. Instead Governor Rick Perry represents the best interests of those who contribute most generously to his election campaigns coffers.
In a nutshell this is how it works in Rick Perry's Texas.
Sleaze on Steroids.
Numerous fat cats will donate $100,000 each to the Perry campaign. The Perry campaign coffers grow to the point at which the Governor can clobber his opponent by running one political hit piece after another. Because the powerful fat cats have placed their bets on their go to tool of choice, Rick Perry's opponent cannot raise enough money to effectively respond to Perry's attacks. The opponent, whom the fat cats have effectively marginalized, is left with a base of average joes and janes, that would be you and yours truly, who can at most cough up $25, $50 or maybe $100 bucks per person to contribute to our candidate of choice.
Texas. The best government that money can buy.
Since the amount of money a candidate raises has a devastating influence over the electoral process it comes as no surpise when Perry wins any election. This is also a win for the fat cats because the Governor will reward them. One could receive a plum post such as an appointment to the UT Board of Regents or a crony's business will receive a contract, tax break or grant.
This scenario, naturally, is a lose lose for voters because in Rick Perry's Texas the state's financial resources are used to reward cronies instead of making investments in really important initiatives such as education and infrastructure.
Perry will fool voters into believing that we are much better off with his version of crony capitalism b/c his corps of fat cats will share their wealth with the rest of Texas. All will shower Texas with new high salaried jobs that include generous benefits such as health care insurance and contributions to retirement plans.
Not. Rick Perry's Texas "miracle" is a myth. The state has an 8.4% unemployment rate.
In fact what Rick Perry has really done is engender a new era of robber barons. And Perry's wife does quite well for herself too.
Cross posted on Texas Kaos.
So, in addition to Mike Toomey who are Rick Perry's robber barons?
John McHale.
Mr. McHale, a Perry spokesman said after the initial donation, “understands Governor Perry’s leadership has made Texas a good place to do business.”
Including, it turned out, for Mr. McHale’s business interests and partners. In May 2010 an economic development fund administered by the governor’s office handed $3 million to G-Con, a pharmaceutical start-up that Mr. McHale helped get off the ground. At least two other executives with connections to the firm had also given Mr. Perry tens of thousands of dollars.
Loyalty tests. Texas A&M University and the State Parks and Wildlife Commission.
Among the state boards that have generated the most campaign contributions for Mr. Perry, the study found, were the State Parks and Wildlife Commission and the board of regents of Texas A&M, Mr. Perry’s alma mater. Those appointees have donated more than $4 million to his campaigns for governor.
“I know that at least some of the people who were initially approached to be regents have been later turned down because they didn’t pass what I would call a loyalty test,” said Jon L. Hagler, a prominent A&M alumnus and a major donor to the university.
Perry's handling of the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund has drawn public scrutiny.
Mr. Perry has also drawn scrutiny for two of his signature economic development efforts, the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. The enterprise fund, which is intended to be a deal-closing tool for the state as it competes for jobs, has dispensed $435 million in grants to businesses since 2003. The technology fund, which has doled out nearly $200 million to companies since 2005, has a similar job creation mandate.
More than a quarter of the companies that have received grants from the enterprise fund in the most recent fiscal year, or their chief executives, made contributions to either Mr. Perry’s campaign dating back to 2001 or to the Republican Governors Association since 2008, when Mr. Perry became its chairman, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
The award to G-Con is just one example of state money paying dividends for Perry benefactors. The company is working with the Texas A&M university system on a pharmaceutical manufacturing effort toward influenza vaccines.
The cash cow that keeps on giving.
More than a quarter of the companies that have received grants from the enterprise fund in the most recent fiscal year, or their chief executives, made contributions to either Mr. Perry’s campaign dating back to 2001 or to the Republican Governors Association since 2008, when Mr. Perry became its chairman, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
And then some.
Mr. Perry has also drawn criticism for his appointees to the board of the Teacher Retirement System, a $110 billion pension fund that is among the nation’s largest. In recent years he has appointed at least four top donors or fund-raisers to the board. Mr. Perry’s trustees leaned on the fund to invest more money with hedge funds and private equityfirms, as many public pension funds have in recent years. But in some cases, the appointees appear to have pushed for firms whose investors, officers, or partners were Perry donors.
In 2009 an investment manager at the fund, Michael Green, wrote to a board trustee saying that the fund’s chief investment officer had pressed him and other employees to set aside their objections to such investments, including allocations to two firms whose partners and former partners have donated more than $1 million to Mr. Perry’s campaigns.
When Mr. Green complained about the pressure, a superior dismissed his concerns. Mr. Green’s boss, he wrote to the trustee, told him: “This is the way business is done.” An internal investigation concluded that no rules had been broken.
Rules may have not been broken but that leaves a lot to say about the rules and those responsible for passing such unsavory practices into law. For these very "rules" rip apart the fabric of democracy and it silences voters' voices in government.
Rick Perry over reaches.
Another instance of political donations to Mr. Perry seeming to dovetail with his policy decisions came in 2005, when the TXU Corporation, a utility based in Dallas, sought permits to build coal-fired power plants. That October, Mr. Perry issued an executive order for a review panel to fast-track the application.
In the months that followed, current and retired TXU executives, as well as the company’s political action committee, sent Mr. Perry more than $100,000 in donations, including one check dated the same day as Mr. Perry’s order. Mr. Perry’s office said at the time that the order was unrelated to the contributions. A state judge later blocked the order, ruling that Mr. Perry had overstepped his authority.
Home builder Bob Perry (no relation to the Governor), is one of Rick Perry's biggest donors. And he has been rewarded as such.
In 2003, after a rash of mold-related lawsuits against home construction companies, Mr. Perry championed the creation of a state board, the Texas Residential Construction Commission. The new commission was a priority of Mr. Perry’s most generous contributor: Bob Perry, a homebuilder who has contributed more than $2 million to the governor over his career. (The two men are not related.)
The legislation creating the board also sharply limited the rights of homeowners to sue contractors for faulty construction, shunting most disputes to the commission. After its passage, Bob Perry and his wife sent two $50,000 checks to the governor’s campaign. Three weeks later, the governor appointed an executive of Perry Homes, Bob Perry’s company, to the commission, which was abolished in 2009.
Small government, a gift that keeps giving. To donors.
In 2009, as Mr. Perry was running for re-election, José Cuevas Jr., a restaurateur and the governor’s appointee as chairman of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, used a personal e-mail account to solicit donations for Mr. Perry from the owners of dozens of restaurants and bars overseen by the board.
In an interview last week, Mr. Cuevas said he saw nothing wrong with asking the owners, many of them business contacts, for donations. It was important, he said, for Mr. Perry’s appointees to support his broader mission of smaller government.
American politics have become a gambling casino of winners and losers. Ladies and gentlemen place your bets please to contribute to your politician of choice. Who will work for you?
Place your bets por favor and hope for the best.
The average American voter may have oh, perhaps $25.00 at his/her disposal to donate to a political candidate.
Bob Perry and the Koch brothers, on the other hand, can contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars if not millions to particular political candidates.
Do we really have a democracy given the role money plays in the electoral process?
In Texas we have more of a Kleptocracy (government by thieves), and this is pretty much self-evident.
In addition, we also have a Corporatocracy, since Big Business and its robber barons call most of the shots.
Welcome to Rick Perry's Texas. This should give folks a preview of what he has in mind for Washington D.C. if the American voters are crazy enough to elect him.