How Perry’s Pitch Plays at Home
Gov. Rick Perry will be stumping in Iowa today, while a new Texas poll shows questions about his part in the state's economic boom. Photo by Ben Philpott for KUT News.Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
In the second set of results, a University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll finds that Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign theme of creating jobs in Texas is falling flat…in Texas. The poll of likely voters in next March’s Republican primary found that almost two-thirds of respondents gave more credit to natural resources, a balanced budget, no state income tax and less-stringent regulations for fueling the state’s economy. Only 21 percent cited Perry’s leadership on taxes, regulation and small government as the driving factor.
Tribune Executive Editor Ross Ramsey said that many of the people surveyed view Perry’s run as being part of a far-off race with little current effect on Texas. And that’s spilling over into words used to describe the governor as a presidential candidate, like “career politician.” That’s a term Perry successfully turned aside during last year’s GOP gubernatorial race against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Perry was running against Washington, and he was running against career politicians and and against national politics. And now he’s in national politics. So, to some extent, the label he was sticking on Kay [Bailey Hutchison] is sticking to him.
You can hear more of Ramsey’s discussion with KUT’s Ian Crawford by clicking the audio player above.
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