Me. Me me me me me.
Think Progress points out that Texas Gov. Rick Perry's claim that "no state tax dollars" are going to pay for his nationwide "all states that are not Texas suck" ad campaigns is, unsurprisingly, fudging things a little. The ads are paid for by TexasOne, and TexasOne is paid for
in large part with:
[…] annual funding of more than $465,000 from local governments and sales-tax-funded local economic development councils. These include direct payments from the Cities of Sugarland ($25,000), Cedar Park ($5,000) and Haslet ($5,000). They also include $50,000 from the Brownsville Economic Development Council and $25,000 contributions from the economic development councils for Allen, Amarillo, Greater Conroe, Greater San Marcos, DeSoto, Frisco, Lubbock, McKinney, Midland, Pflungerville, and Schertz — each of which is funded by a local sales tax or other public money.
So tax dollars are indeed paying for Rick Perry to flit about the country telling other states how to do their business (mostly, by moving their businesses to Texas cities), but since it's sales tax money and not "state" money Texas taxpayers can rest easy that no, their governor's many self-promoting ads and field trips are coming out of, well, a different tax pot.
While the Perry ads are unabashedly self-promotional (and of little apparent business value—are there truly businesses out there that could move to Texas to take advantage of the worker-screwing environment there, but did not realize this until Rick Perry's oddly weathered visage appeared in a television ad saying so?), I disagree that they represent an early foray into the 2016 presidential race. This is mostly because Rick Perry is impossible to take seriously; his 2012 run did so much damage to his reputation that I'd chalk these ads up mostly as an attempt at public face-saving. Look at me, the ads say, I can for the most part talk in complete sentences, provided they are prepared for me in advance. And like all good Republicans, I want you to know that I personally hate your state, and am willing to fly to your state to tell you that to your stupid regulation-having faces.
Yeah, doesn't sound like he'll be endearing himself to potential 2016 voters with that one, though it could help prepare for a lucrative post-office business career of flying places to tell people things. Or maybe this is a Joe Lieberman move, and Perry has decided to devote the rest of his brief career to screwing with people out of personal spite. Or maybe he's just an ass who enjoys this sort of thing. Probably the last one.