The Man Who Wasn't There (If Only)

Gov. Rick Perry (Photo by Jana Birchum)

Seems like Gov. Rick Perry is hell-bent on becoming the invisible governor in his quest for re-election against Democratic challenger and former mayor of Houston Bill White.

In a widely criticized move, Perry's campaign said its candidate would not attend the Oct. 19 gubernatorial debate scheduled by Austin-based PBS affiliate KLRU and five Texas newspapers (see "Debate? Check. Debaters? Er ...," Sept. 3) unless White allowed them to delve into his personal finances. Now Perry has imposed a Sept. 15 deadline for White to comply with his unprecedented demand. Both Perry and White have complied with election law by releasing all records for their time in elected office. However, Perry's campaign has arbitrarily and unilaterally decided that it wants White's tax returns for 1993-1995, when he was U.S. deputy secretary of energy, and 1995-98, when he chaired the Texas Democratic Party. White has released his federal annual personal financial disclosures for those years but refused to accede to Perry's additional demands. White's spokeswoman Katy Bacon said White "has held himself to a higher standard of disclosure than Perry, because Bill's released his tax returns for all of his years as a public office holder or candidate for public office."

Perry has also been evasive about the state's precarious budget, especially when it comes to taking federal cash. He had claimed that the Texas Constitution prevented him from fulfilling all the requirements of the new federal education-jobs money bill (see "Perry vs. Texas Teachers," Aug. 13). However, on Sept. 3, the Texas Education Agency confirmed that it had indeed submitted an application for $830 million anyway, with Commissioner of Education Robert Scott signing on Perry's behalf. The announcement was made in a terse, four-sentence press release, issued at 4:46pm that Friday – just as the Capitol press corps was heading out for the Labor Day Weekend. Similarly, on Sept. 1, Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, sent a letter asking Comptroller Susan Combs to release a new revenue estimate – the first since January 2009 – to allow legislators to prepare for the state's predicted $18 billion budget shortfall. Rather than back the plan, self-proclaimed fiscal conservative Perry called the request "bizarre." Watson dismissed that allegation and said, "A private business of any size should never fly into a fiscal storm blindly, and neither should Texans or their elected officials."

The debate-dodging and buried press releases are not the only lost opportunities for Texans to examine Perry's stance as the anti-Washington incumbent. Back in May, Boston-based Little, Brown and Co. announced that it would be publishing Perry's new book Fed Up! "in time for the midterm elections." The release date for the book – a jeremiad against federal interference in states' rights, complete with a foreword by Newt Gingrich – has now quietly been pushed back to Nov. 15, two weeks after the election.