TTC News Archives-Trans Texas Corridor

Happy Thanksgiving from the Rick Perry Presidential Campaign!

2011-11-24T11:13:00.005-06:00

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"The Trans-Texas Corridor turned out to be a political disaster for Rick Perry."

2011-11-21T22:20:00.002-06:00

Perry's leadership style is sometimes costly

The failure of the Texas governor's vast transit project, a 4,000-mile-long network for cars and trains, can be attributed in part to his inattention to detail and his insularity with a small number of advisors, observers say, problems that also have hindered his presidential campaign.

11/21/11

By Paul West, Washington Bureau
Los Angeles Times
Copyright 2011

(Austin, Texas) Rick Perry launched his Texas gubernatorial campaign in 2002 with an idea that he hoped would become his legacy: a 4,000-mile-long, 21st century transit network on which motorists would drive 90 mph on toll roads 10 lanes wide, high-speed trains would hum alongside, and there would be room for electric power lines, broadband fiber and pipes to pump oil, natural gas and water to a rapidly growing state.

Perry called it the Trans-Texas Corridor, and advertised his blueprint as "bold" and "visionary" — a "plan as big as Texas and as ambitious as our people."

And it would all be done without raising taxes, thanks to partnerships with the private sector. The entire venture, priced at more than $200 billion in today's dollars, would leave the old interstate highways in the dust and provide, in Perry's view, a model for the nation.

Then "they rolled the thing out and it just blew up," said Bill Allaway of the Texas Taxpayers and Research Assn., a pro-business think tank in Austin. "The Trans-Texas Corridor turned out to be a political disaster for him."

What happened to the most controversial initiative of his 11 years as governor provides a window into a style of management that doomed not only the transit corridor but has contributed to the severe turbulence that has wracked his presidential candidacy. It is the sometimes lethal combination of inattention to detail and an insularity that blunts opposing views until it's too late.

Unlike many governors, Perry has generally declined to involve himself in the day-to-day particulars of managing government, say those who have worked for or watched him over the years.

At the same time, he has surrounded himself with a small number of advisors who have remained by his side for many years, from before his election as lieutenant governor in the 1990s to his current foray as a Republican presidential candidate.

Few in his kitchen cabinet were closer to Perry than Ric Williamson, who roomed with him when they were both state representatives in the 1980s. Shortly after Perry became governor — rising from his lieutenant governor post after George W. Bush was elected president — he installed Williamson on the state Transportation Commission.

The transit corridor appealed to Perry and Williamson because it would address many of the state's biggest challenges: relieving urban traffic congestion, keeping hazardous cargo out of populated areas, speeding freight north from the Mexican border and improving air quality, while creating, by their estimate, more than 2 million jobs.

And yet, the futuristic plan was really a throwback: the old idea of state government as a driver of economic growth.

"You'd be very hard-pressed to get Rick Perry to say that Washington will have a good effect on people's lives," said Chris Lippincott, a former official with the Texas Department of Transportation. "But his career is full of examples that government can have a positive effect on people."

In sketching out their grand concept, Perry and Williamson bypassed former colleagues in the state Legislature who dealt with transportation on a daily basis, an omission that loomed large as details of the plan became known and it became obvious that the governor and his advisors had failed to think through the politics of their idea.

The vastness of the corridors — nearly a quarter-mile wide — meant that Perry's plan could eat up more than 500,000 acres of private property. The biggest land grab in state history, opponents said.

Conservative property rights advocates were outraged. Rural landowners, who had supported Perry, a fellow rancher, ever since his 1990 election as state agriculture commissioner, exploded. The state's largest farm organization, the Texas Farm Bureau, which had endorsed his previous campaigns, lobbied to block the plan. Even the state Republican Party, driven by conservative anger over the looming "confiscation of private land," went on record in favor of killing it.

Perry failed, as well, to anticipate the opposition of vested interests — like those tied to existing toll road authorities in Dallas and Houston — who feared they would be left out once the project took off.

Those worries appeared to be justified when the Perry administration, in late 2004, gave a Spanish construction firm, Cintra, the lead role in building the system. The governor called it "one of the most significant days in the history of transportation." But the decision merely intensified the opposition. It fed nativist fears, which had been stirred by descriptions of the plan as a "NAFTA superhighway," a reference to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The governor's project, to some, conjured up dark visions of Mexican trucks, loaded with foreign freight, barreling unchecked into Texas as part of a vague conspiracy to undermine U.S. sovereignty.

In late 2004, Perry began scaling back his grand vision. He quietly dropped the idea of building rail lines and highways side by side, shrinking the amount of private land that would be required. The governor "did a very effective job over time in backing away in steps from that idea, while keeping the concept alive," said Allaway, who calls it one of the hallmarks of Perry's style. "He makes a decision and he will back it until he can't any longer."

Mike Krusee, a former Republican state lawmaker, drew a comparison with Perry's ill-fated executive order in 2007 that required girls in Texas to be vaccinated against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus. The mandate, which has backfired on Perry in the presidential race, was blocked by the Legislature after blindsided opponents rebelled.

"Again, he talks to people who are close to him — whether it's his wife or others — he had a vision and put it out and then got push-back from the Legislature," said Krusee, now a lobbyist in Austin.

Ray Sullivan, a Perry campaign spokesman and onetime chief of staff to the governor, acknowledged that in presenting the transit project, "we could have used more coalition-building and communications with citizens, elected officials, legislators and stakeholders prior to that major policy announcement being launched."

He added that while it is "wonderful to live in a conservative state" like Texas, "it's important to remember as well that conservatives can be as resistant to change as anybody else." The governor, who according to the aide has never spoken at length about what went wrong, declined an interview request, as did several others who were top advisors at the time.

By 2007, it was clear that the Republican-dominated Legislature, which initially authorized the ambitious project, wanted nothing more to do with it. Lawmakers overwhelmingly voted to curb new public-private toll road deals.

Williamson, the man who conceived the plan and spearheaded the drive to build it, told Reason magazine in fall 2007 that the "retrenchment" would be temporary. Three months later, not long after being described by Texas Monthly as the "most hated person in Texas," Williamson was dead of a heart attack.

A year after that, following a series of noisy public hearings around the state, his brainchild was gone too.

"The name Trans-Texas Corridor is over with," said Perry in January 2009, as state transportation officials announced they were dropping the plan.

Sullivan points out that Texas is still building toll roads through public-private partnerships. "So even if one argued that the original plan was unsuccessful, the thrust and goals of the public policy have been achieved in a different way," he said.

Still, even the wariest opponents say the governor's dream is dead. Conservatives cheered last spring when the Legislature unanimously approved a measure expunging all references to the Trans-Texas Corridor from state statutes. On June 17, Perry signed it into law, effective immediately.

© 2011 Los Angeles Times: www.latimes.com

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“The fact that Rick Perry is being hypocritical on this issue is not surprising. It’s convenient.”

2011-11-18T20:13:00.004-06:00

Rick Perry Offered State Jobs to Personal Business Contacts

Rick Perry proposed this week locking up lawmakers who use their position for personal gain. But as Texas governor he mixed state and personal business 'on occasion,' Daniel Stone reports.

11/18/01

Daniel Stone
The Daily Beast
Copyright 2011

GOP presidential hopeful Rick Perry, who is running an ad this week in Iowa promising he would stop Washington politicians from cashing in on their jobs, has mixed personal and official business on occasion as Texas governor.

Shortly after he entered the governor’s office in 2001, for instance, Perry reportedly bought land from a state senator at a below-market price and then turned an $850,000 profit just six years later. Along the way, at least two people—a lawyer and real estate broker—involved in the deal landed state appointments from Perry. Likewise, the Texas governor named two partners in a natural gas venture he co-owned to plum state jobs, The Daily Beast has confirmed.

Such transactions during his tenure lead some ethics observers to question whether Perry’s current attack on Washington ethics smacks a bit of hypocrisy.

“Perry’s not known for his consistency,” says Melanie Sloan, the director of the nonpartisan ethics watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “The fact that he’s being hypocritical on this issue is not surprising. It’s convenient.”

Perry’s campaign takes umbrage at any suggestion that the Texas governor did anything wrong, noting his Texas appointments required independent state Senate confirmation, and that the governor placed all his financial investments in a blind trust in 1998, leaving control of investment decisions to a broker outside his control. The governor keeps his personal matters and official business distinctly separate, campaign spokesman Ray Sullivan told The Daily Beast on Wednesday.

Whatever the case, Perry’s struggling campaign has pivoted this week to the question of Washington ethics, taking advantage of stories earlier this week in Newsweek and on CBS’s 60 Minutes highlighting members of Congress whose personal stock transactions created the appearance they were cashing in on their jobs. Perry’s ad promises he would support a law as president that would lock up any lawmaker who tried to profit from insider trading.

In his state, though, Perry might have difficulty facing his own questions about insiders connected to his businesses.

A 2010 investigation by the Dallas Morning News detailed how Perry in 2001 bought a half-acre plot next to Lyndon B. Johnson Lake in a resort known as Horseshoe Bay in Texas Hill Country. Through a series of transactions, Perry bought the land from a state senator, Troy Fraser, for $300,000, about $150,000 less than an independent analysis had said it was worth. Six years later, Perry sold the land for $1.15 million, netting more than $800,000 in just six years, as the resort was built up around the property and the entire region grew in value, according to details published by the newspaper and verified by The Daily Beast.

At least two players involved along the way in the land transaction ended up with state appointments. Colleen McHugh was an attorney Perry hired to fight his property tax bill related to the deal. He didn’t pay her money, according to the investigation, but while she litigated the deal that ended up saving Perry about $14,000, she also was serving as chairwoman of the Texas Public Safety Commission, a position Perry had appointed her to. A year later, she was nominated for a seat on the University of Texas Board of Regents, also by Perry.

Ron Mitchell, the man who reportedly brokered Perry’s 2007 sale, was appointed by Perry two years later to a seat on the Texas State University System’s Board of Regents.

McHugh declined to speak about the matter. Mitchell did not respond to requests seeking comment.

Earlier this fall, The Daily Beast’s Steve McVicker reported on another Perry deal whose partners landed state jobs. Perry’s investments in MKS Energy, a Texas firm that controls nearly $3.4 million in gas rights in a prominent Texas shale field, earned him $25,000 last year.

The company was founded by one of Perry’s friends, Ric Williamson, who is now deceased, and was a former colleague and mentor of Perry’s in the Texas state legislature. In 2001, after taking over as governor, Perry appointed Williamson to a seat on the Texas Transportation Commission. Williamson advocated for Perry’s ultimately doomed plan to build a 4,000-mile toll-road system called the Trans-Texas Corridor that would have run through property owned by MKS.

Williamson died in 2007. One year later, Perry appointed Williamson’s widow, Mary Ann Williamson, to the Texas Lottery Commission. Two years later, he elevated her to become the commission’s chairperson. Williamson didn’t respond to The Daily Beast’s calls last month.

Sullivan, the campaign spokesman, said there was no connection between the governor’s business dealings and his appointments, and pointed out that many of the positions were without salaries. “Perry appointees are all subject to Senate review and confirmation,” Sullivan said.

A liberal-leaning watchdog group, Texans for Public Justice, has questioned Perry’s blind trust. The governor knew his partners in the company, the group has said, and appointed them to state offices while his stake in the company was generating him personal income.

Perry’s blind trust “does not appear to be totally blind—except to the extent that love is blind,” the group said last month.

© 2011 The Daily Beast: www.thedailybeast.com

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"This is what happens when a small group of people is in power for ten years. You begin to think you own the place..."

2011-11-18T08:17:00.004-06:00

Perry defector cites “difficult” staff

Dierdre Delisi with Rick Perry

11/18/11

Paul Burka
Texas Monthly
Copyright 2011

From the Houston Chronicle:

Former Georgia state Sen. John Douglas blamed his decision to abandon Perry to the candidate’s “difficult” staff and his plummeting public support. Douglas announced his switch on Facebook, both on his personal page and the Rockdale County Republican Party’s page:

After very careful consideration and lengthy discussions with many key supporters, I am leaving the Perry camp, effective immediately. I no longer see a path to victory for him and have had great difficulties dealing with his staff.

I have heard similar complaints around town from friends of Perry who are figuratively pulling their hair out in their efforts to help and getting nowhere. It’s hard to imagine. Problems with Ray Sullivan? Deirdre Delisi? I can’t believe it. Such wonderful folks.

On a more serious note, this is what happens when a small group of people is in power for ten years. You begin to think you own the place, that you’re bulletproof, that you can do anything and get away with it. The Trans-Texas corridor was the most brazen of their power plays, but the list is too long to recount, the most recent being the granting of a permit, on a 2-1 vote by the TCEQ, the two both being Perry appointees, for an injection well in a Montgomery County oilfield, over the objections of local officials and the Texas Railroad Commission, not to mention residents who fear groundwater pollution. The main beneficiaries? Former Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer, of all people, and Phil Adams, an A&M regent with longtime ties to Perry. Needless to say, both have been major donors to the governor.

© 2011 Texas Monthly: www.texasmonthly.com

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"Rick Perry's entire career as governor is marked by a history of taxpayer handouts to his top donors."

2011-11-10T23:11:00.000-06:00

Rick Perry: The Best Little Whore In Texas

The Texas governor has one driving passion: selling off government to the highest bidder

11/10/11

By Matt Taibbi
Rolling Stone
Copyright 2011

Early morning in a nearly filled corporate ballroom at the Cobb Energy Centre, a second-tier event stadium on the outskirts of Atlanta. It's late September, and a local conservative think tank is hosting a get-together with Rick Perry, whose front-runner comet at the time is still just slightly visible in the bottom of the sky. I've put away five cups of coffee trying to stay awake through a series of monotonous speeches about Georgia highway and port reform, waiting for my chance to lay eyes on the Next Big Thing in person.

By the time Perry shows up, I'm jazzed and ready for history. You always want to remember the first time you see the possible next president in person. But as every young person knows, the first time is not always a pleasant experience. Perry lumbers onstage looking exceedingly well-groomed, but also ashen and exhausted, like a funeral director with a hangover.

In a voice so subdued and halting that I think he must be sick, he launches into his speech, which consists of the following elements: a halfhearted football joke about Texas A&M that would have embarrassed a true fan like George W. Bush, worn bromides about liberals creating a nanny state, a few lines about jobs in Texas, and a promise to repeal "as much of Obamacare as I can" on his first day in the White House.

"I will try," he says, "to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can."

Then he waves and walks offstage. The whole thing has taken barely 10 minutes.

I can't believe it, and neither can the assembled crowd of Georgia conservatives, who hesitate before breaking into polite applause. I feel like a high school cheerleader who just had her leg jizzed on in the back of a convertible. That's it? It's over? That was Rick Perry's stump speech?

"Low energy, low substance," sighs Justin Ryan, one of the conference attendees. "That's sort of the candidate in general."

But this is America, remember, where one should never underestimate shallow. And Rick Perry brings shallow to a new level. He is very gifted in that regard. He could be the Adolf Hitler of shallow.

Perry's campaign is still struggling to recover from the kind of spectacular, submarine-at-crush-depth collapse seldom seen before in the history of presidential politics. The governor went from presumptive front-runner to stammering talk-show punch line seemingly in the speed of a single tweet, rightly blasted for being too incompetent even to hold his own in televised debates with a half-bright pizza salesman like Herman Cain and a goggle-eyed megachurch Joan of Arc like Michele Bachmann.

But such superficial criticisms of his weirdly erratic campaign demeanor don't even begin to get at the root of why we should all be terrified of Perry and what he represents. After all, you have to go pretty far to stand out as a whore and a sellout when you come from a state that has produced such luminaries in the history of political corruption as LBJ, Karl Rove and George W. Bush. But Rick Perry has managed to set a scary new low in the annals of opportunism, turning Texas into a swamp of political incest and backroom dealing on a scale not often seen this side of the Congo or Sierra Leone.

In an era when there's exponentially more money in politics than we've ever seen before, Perry is the candidate who is exponentially more willing than we've ever seen before to whore himself out for that money. On the human level he is a nonpersonality, an almost perfect cipher – a man whose only discernible passion is his extreme willingness to be whatever someone will pay him to be, or vote for him to be. Even scarier, the religious community around which he has chosen to pull his human chameleon act features some of the most extreme end-is-nigh nutcases in America, the last people you want influencing the man with the nuclear football. Perry is a human price tag – Being There meets Left Behind. And sometimes there's nothing more dangerous than nothing at all.

Perry shot into the race for the Republican presidential nomination like a rocket, which is to say, he jumped late into a historically underwhelming contest of bumblers, second-raters, extremists and religious loonies, and became the top dog by default simply by virtue of not looking obviously demented at first blush to the national media. At the time, the GOP's Tea Party base was splitting right down the middle, divided between the intellectual libertarians headed by fellow Texan and original Tea Partier Ron Paul, and the "values"-oriented sect steered by the Bible-thumping likes of Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum. Despite Barack Obama's plummeting approval ratings, Republicans seemed to have little chance of success in 2012 unless someone emerged from the pack with the goods to pull off a seemingly impossible demographic trifecta: capturing enough of these two increasingly insurrectionary camps within the Tea Party to win the primary, while still retaining enough moderate cred to steal the middle from Obama in the general election.

Into this morass stepped Perry, a tall, perma-tanned, Bible-clutching Southerner with front-runner hair and the build of a retired underwear model, boasting 10 years of executive experience and a furious anti-government bestseller (Fed Up!) still sizzling on the nation's bookshelves. This was the magic-bullet candidate, with the End Times connections and born-again beatitude to out-Jesus Michele Bachmann, the CV full of arch-libertarian, anti-Fed ramblings pretentious enough to have been written by Ron Paul, and the eelish good looks to outshine robotic front-runner Mitt Romney. Perry just looked like the inevitable nominee, and it wasn't long before he was sitting atop the polls.

But as a presidential candidate, Perry has mainly distinguished himself with a kind of bipolar wildness in the debates: sullen and reserved one moment, strident and inarticulate the next. He sweats profusely. He can't stand still. When he does manage to get off a zinger, he cracks a smug grin, looking like he's just sewn up the blue ribbon in a frat-house dong-measuring contest. Parts of his record drive the Tea Party nuts, like his decision to pay for the kids of illegal immigrants to attend state colleges just like other students, or his executive order requiring all sixth-grade girls in Texas to be vaccinated against HPV, the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer in women.

Liliana Ros, a party committeewoman in Florida, shook Perry's hand during a commercial break at the Orlando debate and promptly finked on him to reporters, offering a pervy description that was missing only the open raincoat and the raging boner. "He grabbed my hand and held on to it," Ros said. "His hand was so cold, like ice. And he was sweating. He didn't seem well, like he was in pain or he was sick or something. I don't know what it was, but something was definitely wrong."

As soon as Perry became that most fragile of early-campaign life-forms, the "presumptive front-runner," opponents and reporters began scrambling to find the skeletons in his closet. The journalism world is abuzz with salacious whispers about his private life, while liberals have focused on his ties to the New Apostolic Reformation, an apocalyptic sect of loopy Christian fundamentalists who think Jesus is coming back soon to blow up the planet. But voters who want to know who Rick Perry really is would do well to remember the advice of noted political analyst Hannibal Lecter, who instructed Jodie Foster about the serial killer she was tracking in The Silence of the Lambs. What does he do, Lecter asked, this man you seek? He kills women? No, that is incidental. Don't look at what the man does, look at what he is.

It's the same with Rick Perry.

Yes, Perry has deployed some of the campaign's most extreme anti-government rhetoric, denouncing Social Security as an "illegal Ponzi scheme," calling for the repeal of the federal income tax, even seeming to threaten Ben Bernanke with mob violence if he came to Texas. And yes, he hangs out with some of the weirdest religious nuts in America, keeping as allies a Texas evangelical who believes the Democrats are literally controlled by a Satanic demon called Jezebel, and another who believes that a recent Perry-led religious rally helped break an ancient curse laid down on Texas soil by Native American cannibals. And sure, yes, he promises to be a more-than-unusually obnoxious belligerent in the culture wars, having appointed three consecutive creationists to head the Texas State Board of Education, signed a law mandating that every woman who wants to get an abortion must first be forced Clockwork Orange-style to stare at a sonogram of the fetus, and executed more prisoners than any governor in modern times.

Yes, he has done all of those things, and more. But it's all incidental. When you ask what Perry's true nature is – the first and principal thing that defines him – there's just one answer: favors.

Favors are the one consistent thread running through Perry's political career. Throughout his time as governor, whenever his ideology or his religion comes into conflict with the need to give a handout to a major campaign donor, ideology and religion lose every single time.

Though 94 percent of schools in Texas teach a sex-ed curriculum based on abstinence-only – an approach that led one watchdog group to conclude that "shaming and fear-based instruction are the standard means of teaching students about sexuality" in Texas – Perry nonetheless signed an executive order mandating that those same girls subjected to those abstinence-only classes receive an STD vaccine. You can't talk about STDs to sixth-grade girls, but if it's worth $120 a shot to a pharmaceutical company like Merck, you can jam the birds-and-the-bees lesson right into their arms.

Those in Texas who have followed Perry most closely over the years have all come to the same conclusion about him. "He's a cash-and-carry governor," says Craig McDonald, director of Texans for Public Justice, a group that monitors campaign contributions in the state. "He has an extremely strong stomach for holding his nose and doing really dirty favors."

"He'll be whatever you want him to be," says one longtime political opponent. "He's all about greed."

"There's no line he won't cross," says another.

"This guy doesn't believe in one damn thing," says a third.

As for how this classic, big-government, machine politician – a man who made massive government stimulus routine at a time when Barack Obama was still shooting baskets in the Senate gymnasium – could run as a small-market conservative and Tea Party champion, many in Texas express bewilderment.

"If you tell a lie often enough, people believe it," says Debra Medina, a Tea Party Republican who ran against Perry in the gubernatorial primary last year. "That's Rick Perry."

It's just after midday, a Monday afternoon, and I'm barreling down a stretch of State Highway 176 in the deadest, hottest part of the Texas desert, a few miles shy of the New Mexico border and about an hour west of the rusted oil wells and Friday night lights of Odessa-Permian. Just before I get to New Mexico, I slow down, hang a right and roll down a dirt road, out of America and into a different country. Rick Perry Country. This is a land neither capitalist nor socialist, but somehow boasting the worst aspects of both systems.

The specific spot I'm looking for is a giant hole in the ground – one of the nation's largest repositories of nuclear waste. The facility is run by a company called Waste Control Specialists, the creature of a shadowy billionaire named Harold Simmons, who was one of the single largest financial backers of the Swift-boat campaign against John Kerry, donating more than $3 million.

Chew on that for a moment: The Kerry smear campaign was powered in large part by radioactive waste – or, more specifically, by the fat government contracts to store such waste that were swallowed up by Simmons, a supposedly "anti-government" extremist who, naturally, is one of Rick Perry's biggest supporters.

The Perry-Simmons nuclear landfill is surrounded by giant piles of red clay rising up out of the desert, flanked by huge manmade chasms designed to hold sand-covered drums of sizzling waste. A person entering its gates feels an irresistible urge to wear lead underpants. It's a terrifying sight, but it's even more disturbing as a symbol of Rick Perry's style of government. In Perry's Texas, state regulation doesn't work because regulatory seats can be bought, and the free market doesn't work because connections and influence matter more than competition and performance. The landfill run by Perry's pals at Waste Control Specialists represents an extreme example of both dysfunctional ends of the governor's approach to government, a taxpayer-financed hole in the ground that is as extremely unsafe as it is woefully uneconomic. "The WCS plant," says Lon Burnam, a Texas state representative, "is the ultimate example of Perry's crony capitalism."

Perry's great triumph as governor has been the construction of an elaborate political machine, one that operates according to its own separate dynamic, using donations, appointments and favors as currency. In fact, Texas is run much like a Soviet protectorate, with a party boss (Perry) and a Politburo of superconnected advisers to the governor who shuffle back and forth between the public and private spheres (Perry's chief of staff, Mike "The Knife" Toomey, for instance, jumped from the governor's office to a job lobbying for Merck prior to the HPV vaccination order), all backed by a somewhat larger Central Committee of big financial donors who are the real "representative" power in the state, much more than the actual state legislature.

Who's on that Central Committee? It's not that hard to figure out. Texas has no limit on individual donations to political candidates, which means the governor's best friends don't have to hide behind soft money and other back-door channels. In Texas, you can pay your tribute right out in the open.

"The total of hard-money donations to Perry's three gubernatorial campaigns is $102 million," says McDonald, who tracks the state's pay-for-play system on behalf of Texans for Public Justice. "Half of that, $51 million plus, came from just 204 donors."

Simmons, the billionaire owner of WCS, is near the top of that list of Perry's 204 super-insiders, having personally donated more than $1 million to Perry's three gubernatorial campaigns. If you add in his donations to the Republican Governors Association, which Perry was elected to lead last year, then Simmons and his company have donated $3 million to Perry-friendly causes in the past 10 years. That makes Simmons the second-biggest donor in Perry's camp, behind the homebuilding magnate Bob Perry (no relation), who has handed over an astonishing $13.7 million to Perry and the governors association.

The system of uncapped donations means that Perry's superinsiders effectively operate as mobsters who hold a chit on the state's government. "These are obscenely huge amounts," says McDonald. "You can give a politician $100 or $1,000 because you like his ideology. But when you start giving him $250,000 or $500,000, you gotta think you are getting something in return."

So what did Harold Simmons get for his money? A lot.

For starters, a group of Perry appointees on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality gave Simmons a license to build his hazardous nuke dump, even after the TCEQ's own team of scientists agreed that the project was too risky, given how dangerously close it lies to the Ogalalla aquifer, which provides drinking water for seven states.

When I visit the site in September, it has just rained in the area for the first time in a year – really – and there is water all over the place. Rod Baltzer, the president of WCS, insists that the wastewater is being contained and disposed of in a safe, orderly fashion. But it's hard not to look beyond the dump to nearby Eunice, New Mexico, visible just a few miles away, and wonder about the wisdom of taking a private company's word that there is no contaminated water running underground to the nearby town. Especially since another of Simmons' companies, NL Industries, has already been caught leaking radioactive waste into an aquifer in Ohio. In a supremely ironic demonstration of how the modern system of payola capitalism works, Simmons is now being paid millions by taxpayers, via the federal Energy Department, to clean up his own mess, moving radioactive waste from his dump in Ohio to the one in Texas.

All of this is key to understanding Perry, because the WCS landfill so perfectly fits the business model of his key donors. The company leases the land for the dump, meaning that WCS keeps the lion's share of the profits, while the liability mostly stays with the state. There's no real regulation to speak of, and many of the state's decisions appear to have been greased by massive campaign contributions or other favors: The executive director of the state's environmental commission, for instance, received a job as a lobbyist for WCS not long after helping the firm get its license.

What's more, the company even got the government to pay for the landfill, lobbying the town of Andrews to float a $75 million bond issue to finance the construction of two new dump sites on the property. And in a final insult, WCS managed to negotiate a loophole exempting it from having to pay school taxes in Andrews. Instead, it offers a few small scholarships a year.

"When I was a kid, our high school was the first one in Texas to have carpets," says Melodye Pryor, a local resident and longtime opponent of the dump. "Now, our schools are falling apart."

Andrews is little more than a few crisscrossed roads in the middle of the desert, wrapped around a couple of gas stations and Mexican restaurants and populated by tough blue-collar workers hunkered down in modest little sun-cooked houses. If you can grasp this little working-class neck of Texas lending a Dallas billionaire $75 million so that he can keep 90 percent of the revenue from a dangerous nuclear-waste dump that runs without any real regulatory oversight, all while paying no school taxes, then you've begun to understand what Rick Perry's America might look like.

"It's the worst possible hybridization," says Medina, the Tea Party candidate who ran against Perry. "A private entity keeps the receipts. The state and the taxpayer own all the liability."

The descriptions of Perry's early political career all sound like the early chapters of true-crime books about serial killers, where nobody notices anything special about the protagonist until the bodies start piling up along the local riverbank. In Perry's case, those bodies didn't start showing up until 2000, when Bush became president and Perry assumed his seat as governor, turning the state government into a factory of obscene backroom deals. At first, like many of today's would-be Tea Party leaders, Perry started off trying to milk big government rather than dismantle it. In the late Eighties, when Michele Bachmann was training for her future as an anti-tax crusader by working for the IRS, Perry – who like Bush had a military pilot's background, but unlike Bush flew in the real Air Force for five years – was serving in the Texas state legislature, representing Haskell County, a dry little pocket of nowhere just north of Abilene and west of Dallas.

While Bush made a great political career pretending to be a hick Texas rancher, Perry started out as the real thing, a cotton farmer and cattle rancher who spent his early adulthood looking for a way out of life on his dad's farm. "He was ranching with his family," says Fred McClure, a former aide to Sen. John Tower who met Perry in 1978. Perry had come to Washington to observe the American Agricultural Movement, a grassroots campaign launched by farmers to get the federal government to raise farm subsidies. Though the movement was the ideological opposite of the Tea Party, begging for government handouts, Perry knew a political opportunity when he saw it. "This was an early indicator of his ability to evaluate politically what was going on," says McClure, who remains friends with Perry today. "The grassroots nature of the American Agricultural Movement was not unlike the grassroots nature of the Tea Party. He developed the skill set to read the political tea leaves." It was after watching the angry farmers descend on Washington that Perry decided to run for the state legislature. "I think part of it was that he was bored farming in Haskell," McClure says.

Perry's early political career was marked most particularly by a seeming lack of ambition to accomplish anything specific. After being elected to the Texas House in 1984, he told a newspaper in Abilene, "I had not one piece of legislation I planned to carry." When the state land commissioner asked him to sponsor a bill, Perry told the commissioner not to bother explaining it. "I wouldn't understand it anyway," Perry said.

Back then, the future global-warming denier was a Democrat, and even supported Al Gore for the presidency in 1988. But with Texas moving to the right, Perry switched parties the following year – not for ideological reasons, it appears, but because he could sense the wind shifting. "Perry is a really, really good politician," one Republican strategist later explained. "He understood where the state of Texas was going." The move also enabled Perry to defeat Jim Hightower, a popular Democrat, as agricultural commissioner, a powerful post in America's second-biggest farm state. During his two terms in the office, Perry demonstrated little ideological bent, even expressing support for Hillary Clinton's health care plan in the early Nineties. In 1998, Perry was elected lieutenant governor alongside George W. Bush, serving with the kind of distinction that made his boss look like Winston Churchill. Perry reportedly zoned out during a series of breakfast meetings that Bush held with top Texas politicians. "Sometimes, to pass the time, he would file his nails," The New Republic reported.

Bush and Perry reportedly had a chilly relationship, thanks in part to Bush's refusal to let Perry test the limits of political nepotism. In 1995, Perry wanted to nominate his brother-in-law, Joseph Thigpen, to the 11th Court of Appeals. Bush blocked the move, and legend has it that Perry blamed Karl Rove for the incident and never forgave either of them. This might help explain in part why Perry was so eager to start packing the state offices with cronies the moment Bush left for Washington.

Perry's prowess in building his political machine at the expense of taxpayers can be tied directly to his administration's almost mathematical precision in making government handouts match the campaign contribution. "There are a couple of things you need to do if you want to raise obscene amounts of money," says Andrew Wheat, research director at Texans for Public Justice. "One, you need to send the message that you're carefully counting who's giving how much, to create a competitive atmosphere. And two, you want to send not-so-subtle signals that there's going to be a return on the investment. And this governor has been a master of sending those signals."

How masterful has he been? According to Texans for Public Justice, Perry appointed 921 of his donors and their spouses to government posts over the past decade. All told, those appointees gave a staggering $17 million to his campaigns – 21 percent of the entire amount he raised during that time. To give an indication of just how completely for-sale public appointments became during his administration, Perry collected $6.1 million from the 155 people he appointed to be regents of state universities in Texas.

You can get a fairly decent summary of Perry's track record as governor just by going down the list of political favors that were granted to the 204 "Central Committee" members who collectively contributed half of his campaign money. Start at the top: Perry's biggest single donor, the homebuilder Bob Perry, was rewarded with his very own regulatory agency.

Back in the Nineties, Bob Perry made a fortune building cheap homes, and he had enormous success in circumventing regulation, taking advantage of arbitration clauses that prevented homeowners from suing in the event of leaks or faulty construction or other problems. But after he lost a high-profile arbitration case, he and other builders decided to go straight to the top. In 2003, his company's general counsel, John Krugh, served on a task force established to craft new legislation. The result was a bill creating the Texas Residential Construction Commission, which Gov. Perry signed into law that year. Not long after getting a $100,000 check from Bob Perry, the governor appointed Krugh to serve on the new nine-member commission.

The commission, which initially included four builders and not a single consumer advocate, was a masterpiece of deregulation – actually a kind of deregulation from within, in which builders created and ran a toothless regulatory agency to non-police themselves. The body forced homeowners to pay, at minimum, hundreds of dollars for an inspection fee before making any complaint against a builder. And though the commission frequently ruled in favor of ripped-off homeowners, it had no enforcement power at all – meaning homeowners rarely got their homes fixed.

Perry's entire career as governor is marked by a history of similar handouts to his top donors. In 2005, he signed an executive order to speed approval for 17 new coal-fired power plants that would drive the state's carbon footprint past that of Florida, California and New York combined. Eleven of the plants were slated to be built by TXU, a million-dollar donor. Then there was the chicken-farming king Lonnie Pilgrim, who once handed out $10,000 checks on the floor of the Texas legislature in advance of a bill; he gave more than $600,000 to the governor and his causes, and Perry repaid the favor by petitioning the EPA for a waiver of federal ethanol mandates, which had jacked up the price of corn feed for Pilgrim's business.

Perhaps the single most interesting favor that Perry doled out is one that directly violated his supposedly "conservative" Tea Party principles. One of his first big moves as governor was to back the Trans-Texas Corridor, a $175 billion project to privatize the state's highways. This was to be the mother of all public-works projects, a 4,000-mile highway network, at some points four football fields wide, that would also include commuter rails, freight rails and telecom pipelines. The TTC, in essence, was the ultimate Tea Party nightmare, a massive public boondoggle that would have created a huge network of new tolls and required a nearly unprecedented use of eminent domain to help the state seize nearly 500,000 acres of land from ranchers and farmers.

Though most of the project was shot down by the state legislature, Perry did manage to push through several parts of it, most notably a few stretches of new highway construction around Houston and Dallas. Some of the beneficiaries of those projects were American firms that had donated lots of money to Perry and the governors association, like Williams Brothers Construction ($621,000), Parsons Corporation ($410,000) and JP Morgan Chase ($191,000). But another beneficiary was a Spanish firm called Cintra, part of a consortium that won the development rights for the original TTC project.

Cintra's involvement was an obvious case of revolving-door politics. A Cintra consultant named Dan Shelley left private practice in 2004 and joined the Perry Politburo that same year, working as the governor's legislative liaison during the time Cintra was in line to win the multibillion-dollar project. A year later, Shelley went back to private practice, earning more than $50,000 in consulting fees from Cintra once he left "public" office.

Cintra ultimately received about $5 billion in contracts from the state to develop three major highway projects, one of which, a toll road in central Texas, is one of the few surviving remnants of the hated TTC. On another Cintra highway, the North Tarrant Express near Fort Worth, the state ponied up $570 million to subsidize the project and permitted Cintra to recoup its investment by building toll lanes for drivers who want to bypass the free lanes. That means future generations of Texans who are in a hurry to get somewhere will have the pleasure of being able to jump on a toll lane they already paid taxes to help build. It turns out you can mess with Texas after all.

That's if the road ever gets finished. Cintra received a similar contract to run a toll road in Indiana, but it soon ran into financial problems and had to jack up tolls to pay for the $3.8 billion project. In Texas, Cintra will have some latitude to raise rates on its roads, and if you don't like it, well, fuck you. "What are we going to do – go complain to a board in Spain?" says Terri Hall, founder of an advocacy group called Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom that fought the highway deal.

In addition to the highway contract with Cintra, Perry this year signed a bill written in part by a lobbyist for a British firm called Balfour Beatty, paving the way for the state to sell virtually everything that isn't nailed down to anyone – foreigners included. The bill, Hall says, allows "all public buildings, nursing homes, hospitals, schools, ports, mass transit projects, telecommunications, etc. to be sold off to corporations." Even more incredibly, the bill authorizes companies to borrow money from the state, which will also help secure their debt. In other words, Perry passed a bill under which a foreign company could theoretically borrow money from Texas taxpayers to buy the taxpayer's own state property back from him, at a discount!

But the most treasonous Perry deal of all came when he tried to do a macabre favor for his political hero, former senator Phil Gramm. Gramm gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Perry's campaign, essentially emptying the remnants of his own campaign war chest into Perry's when he left public office and went to work for the Swiss bank UBS. In 2002, Gramm came to Perry's administration with a proposal that would allow the bank to take out life insurance policies on retired Texas teachers. Under the deal, UBS would collect on the policies of the teachers when they died, and reward the state with a small cut for arranging the wagers. Teachers who balked at letting UBS profit from their death were reportedly to be paid $100 to sign on the dotted line. The state insurance commissioner, a Perry appointee, approved a special waiver to allow the deal to go through, but the project collapsed after a media backlash.

To recap, Rick Perry:

Sold the right to tax Texas highway drivers to Spanish billionaires;

Let a British firm write a law authorizing the sale of virtually all Texas state property to foreign corporations, and

Tried to literally sell the lives of retired Texas schoolteachers to a Swiss bank.

Yet he's somehow built a reputation in the national media as a fist-shaking America-first nativist, with a Tea Partier's passion for small government.

How Perry has managed to sell this fictional version of himself is a testament to the extraordinary power of marketing over reality in our modern political system. In fact, his entire career is a profound testament to our nagging collective inability, or perhaps unwillingness, to distinguish between what a politician says and what he actually does.

"People are like, 'He wears a red shirt, he must think like I do,'" says Medina, Perry's Tea Party opponent. "It's 'you're Christian, I'm Christian, we must believe the same.'"

For a long time, perry masterfully exploited this basic weakness of the American voter. As he prepared his run for the White House, he took loud and drastic steps to plant flags in both of the main camps of the Republican Party base, making sure there was an extensive record of Tea Party-friendly remarks attached to his name, as well as lots of file footage of him cozying up to prominent evangelicals. He accomplished the former task mainly through his book, Fed Up!, an impressively shameless volume of avalanching self-congratulatory horseshit that lays the indignant Tea Partyisms on so thick, one imagines Perry wearing a tricorner hat as he dictates to his ghost writer. "We are tired of being told how much salt we can put on our food, what windows we can buy for our house, what kind of cars we can drive," Perry writes. "We are fed up with bailout after bailout and stimulus after stimulus... the government picking winners and losers based on circumstance and luck."

Nowhere in the book, of course, does it mention that Perry, who famously refused Obama's stimulus money and blasted the administration for reckless borrowing and creating "zero jobs," greenlighted two gigantic stimulus programs of his own. Both the $200 million Emerging Technology Fund and the $363 million Texas Enterprise Fund were little more than crude vehicles for repaying campaign donors with state aid. The state has also given millions in handouts through the Texas Film Commission, paying for TV commercials for Fortune 500 firms like Walmart.

Perry, who consistently criticizes Obama for borrowing to pay for his stimulus, even paid for the Texas Enterprise Fund in part by borrowing $161 million from the state's unemployment insurance fund – meaning he took money from the paychecks of blue-collar workers and turned it into millions in welfare grants for companies like Lockheed Martin, Texas Instruments and Hewlett-Packard. Ironically, Texas is now running out of money to pay for unemployment claims – including those laid off by companies receiving grants from the Texas Enterprise Fund.

But despite the fact that Perry does a lot of exactly what he decries in his book, there are still plenty of Tea Partiers who profess fierce loyalty to him. The odd thing is that while being uncompromising and morally absolutist is normally one of the key features of the entire Tea Party movement, some of the same true believers who were willing to risk a national default rather than borrow one single dollar over the debt limit suddenly become long-view-taking pragmatists when it comes to Perry. "Ideology is wonderful in principle," says Toby Marie Walker, a Tea Party leader in Waco, sounding more like Barack Obama than John Birch. "But it's not practical in politics."

Walker says she gives Perry credit for changing course when there was a public outcry over some of his less-than-classically-conservative policies – including his use of eminent domain (he later signed a bill restricting it) and his HPV vaccine order (which he has since renounced as a "mistake"). Admitting your mistakes, says Walker, is "valuable to have in a leader."

When I point out that Perry essentially repeated the same "mistake" this year, signing a bill mandating shots of a meningitis vaccine (made by Novartis, a $700,000 donor) for every college freshman in the state, Walker suddenly changes tack and defends the move as good policy. "You can opt out of a shot – you cannot opt out of meningitis," says Walker, joking that I'm giving the governor a hard time for forcing people to avoid cancer. When I ask how that is any different from Obama forcing people to buy health insurance, she again points to the "optional" nature of Perry's executive orders. "I can't opt out of Barack Obama's health care plan," she says.

In point of fact, students can "opt out" of Perry's vaccines only if they obtain a conscientious-objection form from the Texas Department of State Health Services, and renew it every two years – which, if nothing else, is an entertainingly surrealist take on the Tea Party doctrine of limited government.

In any case, my discussion with Walker is predictably pointless. When I ask about Perry selling stretches of already-paid-for highway to foreigners, Walker replies, "We need another road." When I ask about Perry trying to force Texans to pay tolls to an unaccountable Spanish corporation, the answer is, "I don't have a problem paying for upkeep."

When you start hearing Tea Partiers say they don't mind paying taxes, you know the matter has exited the realm of the logical. Medina, who took an impressive 18 percent of the vote in her primary race against Perry, says some Republican voters are so focused on beating Barack Obama that they can't see the truth about a big-government machine politician like Perry.

"You have to want to know," she says. "And it's easier not to."

As befits any Texas politician, Perry has always been at least superficially religious, growing up in the same Methodist tradition as George W. Bush. But like his relatively late conversion to extreme anti-tax/Tea Party rhetoric, Perry's decision to throw in with the truly loony sect of evangelicals only came very recently, after a prayer meeting with two crazy-ass pastors, Tom Schlueter of Arlington and Bob Long of San Marcos, in his office in 2009. According to The Texas Observer, Schlueter had received a "prophetic message" the day before this visit from a local Christian soothsayer named Chuck Pierce, instructing him to "pray by lifting the hand of the one I show you that is in the place of civil rule." Meaning Perry, apparently.

The governor bought the act, paving the way for his impressive slate of primary-season pandering to evangelicals this year. The big ploy was an early-August stadium God-tacular called "The Response," in which Perry invited Christian leaders – featuring a heavy concentration of Rapture merchants and End Timers – to pack into Reliant Stadium in Houston to read the Good Book and "respond" to wayward America's departure from proper Christian values. Perry surely scored points with evangelicals everywhere by brazenly using state resources to promote the event, which his office unironically described as "a nondenominational, apolitical Christian prayer meeting." And his performance in front of the crowd of 30,000 evangelicals was strong stuff. He smiled through his perfect tan and repeatedly clasped his hands together for rhetorical emphasis as he read from the Book of Joel: "Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning!"

The choice of reading was no accident, as the Book of Joel is very popular with the two preachers who shared the stage with Perry that night, Alice Patterson and C.J. Jackson, both bigwigs in the extremist movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation. In fact, followers of NAR sometimes refer to themselves as "Joel's Army." They believe Joel describes how God is coming back to set up a "kingdom on Earth" with a church that will be "organized more as a military force with an army, navy and air force," to dispense justice and set shit straight with all of us nonbelievers before the second coming of Jesus.

NAR literature dwells endlessly on the need to conquer the so-called "seven mountains" of earthly culture, including the media, Hollywood and Congress, so all the Democrats and relativist comics and other satanic forces can be purged on time before the Great End. These people are completely nuts, and quite obviously expect Perry to start filling the cattle cars for them as soon as he gets elected.

Watching Perry addressing the crowd, several questions naturally came to mind. One was, "Does he really believe this stuff?" But another one was, "Would it matter if he did?" After all, there are times in life when insanity is indistinguishable from cynicism. A man who will take money to greenlight a dangerous nuclear-waste dump that might blow up 30 years from now is not much different from the guy who doesn't balance his checkbook because he thinks Armageddon is coming before the end of the quarter. In both cases, the long view doesn't matter.

That is why Rick Perry is so dangerous. He represents the ultimate merger of nihilistic short-term corporate calculation and rightist apocalyptic extremism. He is a politician willing to do absolutely anything for a buck today, playing to a demographic of millions willing to walk off a cliff en masse tomorrow. In a Rick Perry White House, there will not be much planning for a rainy-day future.

Perry's run for the White House as a small-government Tea Party conservative is one of the all-time great marketing scams, a breathtaking high-wire act by a man who if nothing else certainly has the gigantic balls required for the most powerful job in the world. But it's an act that should have ended after just a few steps down the rope, when he slipped up in the Orlando debate and told the truth.

Among other attacks that night, Perry was taking criticism for his decision back in 2007 to order all sixth-grade girls in Texas to be inoculated against HPV – specifically, with three shots of Gardasil vaccine, a Merck product that sells for a tidy $120 a shot. Michele Bachmann, who not only hates the move as an intrusive use of state power but probably also because it interferes with God's ability to administer punitive cancers to dabblers in extramarital sex, blasted Perry for delivering such a blatant favor to his corporate buddies at Merck. "We cannot forget that in the midst of this executive order, there is a big drug company that made millions of dollars because of this mandate," she said, pointing out that Perry's former chief of staff was the chief lobbyist for Merck.

Perry's response was telling. "It was a $5,000 contribution that I had received from them," he said. "I raised about $30 million. And if you're saying that I can be bought for $5,000, I'm offended."

The Orlando crowd applauded nervously, not quite grasping what Perry had just said. Had the debate taken place in Austin, however, the crowd would have erupted in knowing laughter. Rick Perry, as any Texan knows, does not roll over for 5,000 measly dollars. He charges a hell of a lot more than that. The price tag varies, of course, depending on the favor. Based on the donations Perry has collected, it costs an average of $39,354 to buy a seat on the board of a state university. Landing a state road project runs about half a million, while creating an entire government commission specifically designed to protect your business interests will run you more than $13 million.

We thought Bush was the worst thing Texas ever gave to America. But if Rick Perry wins the White House, it won't be long before we're all remembering crazy-ass W. and his loony Iraq crusade with something like fondness. Bush, for all his flaws, actually believed in something, and was filled with humanity – negative humanity, mostly, but it was there all the same. Good ol' George, the ex-drunk who loved football, couldn't speak English, choked on his pretzels and sincerely wanted to save Iraq from itself!

There were lines even George Bush wouldn't cross, but we don't know any that exist for Rick Perry. Imagine what he could charge for abolishing the EPA, or selling Mount Rushmore to the Sultan of Brunei. And while he may have slipped in the polls, he's far from done. In this country, you never count out the lowest common denominator, especially when it knows how to raise money.

© 2011 Rolling Stone: www.rollingstone.com

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"The reason I don’t feel sorry for Perry is that he and his pals have clamped an ideological stranglehold on state government for ten years."

2011-11-09T18:34:00.002-06:00

Meltdown

11/9/11

Paul Burka
Texas Monthly
Copyright 2011

I never thought I would feel sorry for Rick Perry, but I couldn’t help myself. His performance at the debate tonight was humiliating beyond belief. For those who weren’t watching, Perry launched into a discussion of the three agencies that he wanted to cut; he named two, and then a blank look came across his face, and he put his forefinger to his temple, searching desperately for the missing link.

No luck. He couldn’t remember. Long silence.

Someone on the stage–I think it was Ron Paul–offered “EPA” helpfully. It was painful to watch.

After the debate was over, communications director Ray Sullivan tried to ‘splain it away. He looked like he had one hell of a bellyache. To his credit, Perry manned up and said, “I stepped in it tonight.”

The reason I don’t feel sorry for Perry is that he and his pals have clamped an ideological stranglehold on state government for ten years.

They forced $15 billion in cuts upon the Legislature and then bragged about it all over Iowa.

They foisted toll roads upon us instead of raising the gasoline tax;

They foisted tuition deregulation on parents and just about put higher ed out of reach for the middle class;

They passed a business tax that didn’t work and created a structural deficit in the state budget, and they did nothing to fix it;

They refused to let the Legislature use the Rainy Day Fund to avoid crippling cuts;

They gave Texas politics a new concept called the “owner’s box,” which was reserved for Perry’s biggest donors;

They twisted arms and threatened lawmakers and vetoed bills by the dozens and got lobbyists fired whom they didn’t like;

They passed a terrible windstorm bill that made it difficult for coastal property owners to be compensated for hurricane damages;

They did projects that enriched billionaires like Red McCombs and Harold Simmons and who knows how many others.

Yes, he brought jobs to the state, but there was always a whiff of scandal about the Enterprise Fund and the Emerging Technology Fund. And there was always the question of whether some of those tax dollars found their way back to the Perry political coffers in the form of campaign contributions.

Perry has enough money to keep going through the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida primaries. But to what end? He hasn’t moved the needle in the polls for weeks. He has lost the tea party constituency over immigration. He hasn’t been able to raise money on Wall Street. He doesn’t really have any constituency right now. You don’t see legislators going off to Iowa or New Hampshire to assist the campaign. He doesn’t have a lot of friends in the Capitol, a situation that is of his own making. They can stretch this out to South Carolina and Florida, but is there any point in doing so?

© 2011 Texas Monthly: www.texasmonthly.com

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To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

"The defeat of Prop 4 is also a defeat of Rick Perry and the Texas Legislature's plan to slap tolls on virtually all new lanes to Texas roads."

2011-11-08T23:45:00.001-06:00

TURF celebrates victory over Prop 4

11/8/11

by Terri Hall
Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom
Copyright 2011

SAN ANTONIO, TX -Texas voters said a resounding 'NO' to expanding Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and Transportation Reinvestment Zone (or TRZ) authority to counties by defeating Prop 4 November 8.

The Constitutional Amendment HJR 63 authored by Rep. Joe Pickett (D - El Paso) would have allowed counties to use property taxes and sales taxes collected in a TRZ to build toll roads. So the defeat of Prop 4 is also a defeat of Rick Perry and the Texas Legislature's plan to slap tolls on virtually all new lanes to Texas roads.

"Using gas taxes to build toll roads is bad enough, but trying to nab property taxes to build toll roads is beyond the pale," says Terri Hall, TURF Founder. "It's refreshing to see the voters reject this anti-taxpayer and anti-property rights amendment. Let's see if lawmakers in Austin listen -- Texans don't want their tax money used to build roads and then have to pay again, through tolls, to drive on them."

The defeat of Prop 4 also signals a rejection of government abuse of property rights for Kelo-style economic development. Prop 4 would have given the government more power to decide whose private property it wishes to "redevelop." The ballot wording was vague and misleading. It failed to even mention tax increment financing, transportation reinvestment zone, or even the the word 'transportation.' TURF launched a statewide campaign to educate voters about the amendment. We Texans, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, and Independent Texans also opposed Prop 4 as well.

Cities already have TIF and TRZ authority. TRZs are as much about "economic development" as it is financing transportation projects, and means those who live in a zone will have their property taxes go up due to higher property values from the government-encouraged development. Property taxes aren't going to go down once a county sells bonds dependent on ever increasing property tax appraisals.

The amendment was also linked to HB 563, authored by Pickett, which would have granted counties broad new authority, even to grant tax breaks to special interests in the zone and to use surpluses as a slush fund for virtually anything.

STATE OUTSOURCING TAX INCREASES

TRZs are a way for STATE legislators to punt on their responsibility to build and maintain STATE highways and their responsibility to end diversions of the gas tax to non-road uses. It allows them to outsource tax increases for roads by passing it down to the LOCAL level. By using appraisal increases to pay for transportation projects, it takes that revenue away from what cities and counties usually use that money to fund. So it would likely necessitate further property tax increases in order to make up for the shortfall in city and county services that will be diverted to transportation.

© 2011 Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom: www.texasturf.org

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"Why would Perry, a property rights defender and a fiscal tightwad, champion such a colossal boondoggle? His critics point to that revolving door."

2011-11-06T20:43:00.004-06:00

Perry perfected influence peddling

11/6/11

By Jennifer Rubin
Washington Post
Copyright 2011

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has always cultivated a populist image. He began his campaign attacking Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke and calling Washington, D.C., a “seedy” place. These days he’s laying it on pretty thick. Last week he told the San Francisco Chronicle:

The American people are not confused about what is on their minds. And it’s not whether some political operative takes a video and puts it up on YouTube.

They care about who’s going to get this country back working, who is it that has a track record and a focus and the courage to walk into Washington, D.C., not tinker around the edges with a little tweezer but take a wrecking ball, a sledgehammer — whatever it takes to break up the good-old-boy corporate lobbyist mentality that is putting this country’s future in jeopardy.

The problem with that line is that there is no candidate in the Republican presidential primary race who more personifies the “good-old-boy corporate lobbyist mentality” than Rick Perry.

Take his private jet use, for example. The New York Times reported:

On a July morning in 2008, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and several aides boarded a plane for Washington to lobby on ethanol use, an issue important to corn growers and livestock owners in his state. . . .

While executives from the livestock industry did not attend Mr. Perry’s private meeting at the E.P.A., the governor would not have made it there without them — literally. The Hawker 800XP plane that Mr. Perry and his team flew from Austin to Washington and back was provided by Lonnie Pilgrim, one of the world’s largest chicken producers and a leading critic of the ethanol mandate. . . .

The poultry magnate also flew the governor to Washington in June to take part in a news conference on the issue.

The two trips, each valued at $9,179, were among more than 200 flights worth a total of $1.3 million that Mr. Perry has accepted — free — from corporate executives and wealthy donors during 11 years as governor, according to an analysis of Texas Ethics Commission records by The New York Times.

His flack’s excuse (“it was part of an effort to save tax dollars”) would be more credible had Perry not charged the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars for a mansion rental, run up his travel bill and then sealed the travel records.

But that’s all a drop in the bucket compared to his cozy relationship with donors who got plum appointments, grants and sweetheart deals after ponying up big money for Perry’s campaigns. Mike Toomey, his former chief of staff, then lobbyist (helping to push through the HPV mandatory vaccination program for his client Merck and now his superPAC chief) certainly fits the mold.

A GOP consultant taking no part in this year’s race told me Perry risks looking like a hypocrite. “Rick Perry’s governor’s office had a Texas-sized revolving door. His top staff all became lobbyists, and the lobbyists all became top staff. So I’m not sure cronyism is really an issue he should be bringing up.” He pointed me to a blatant example of Perry’s willingness to compromise conservative principles: The Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) project.

Although some reports have taken a look at this, it’s frankly surprising it hasn’t gotten more attention, given the scope of the boondoggle and the amount of money involved.

The TTC was Perry controversial road and rail plan that would have seized more than a half-million private acres and made a mint for a company from which a top aide was hired just months before. It also would have benefited a lot of wealthy Texans, the very sort that learned to play the insiders game in Austin. In 2002 the Houston Chronicle reported:

The Trans Texas Corridor, a proposed 4,000-mile network of high-speed railways, toll roads and pipelines, is slated to begin with four high-priority routes — three of them serving Houston.

As announced in January by Gov. Rick Perry, the multi-use corridor idea may have been long on vision, but it was short on specifics. On Thursday, the Texas Transportation Commission approved a more fleshed-out version, including the four priority routes.

The staggering cost, estimated at up to $183 billion over 50 years, would come largely from private contributors who hope to benefit from the project — a system used widely in Europe and in a few U.S. states.

Many Texans hated the idea, and six years later Perry’s administration was still trying to defend the Trans Texas Corridor in public meetings around the state. Conservatives were some of the loudest voices in opposition to the plan..

Along the way, Perry seemed indifferent to property owners. In 2008, for example, he vetoed an eminent domain reform that passed the state legislature overwhelmingly. That riled up conservatives who claimed that that new protections were needed to ensure fair compensation to landowners.

The TTC was eventually killed in 2009, although the plan remains on the books. So why would Perry, a property rights defender and a fiscal tightwad, champion such a colossal boondoggle? Perry’s critics pointed to that revolving door.

The Associated Press explained in 2006: “Republican Gov. Rick Perry’s former liaison to the Legislature is working once again for the Spanish company that won the rights to develop the state’s $7 billion Trans Texas Corridor toll road project. Lobbyist Dan Shelley worked for the firm as a consultant just before he went to the governor’s office, a connection first revealed in 2004.State officials denied any connection between that circumstance and the decision, three months later, to award Cintra-Zachry the huge highway contract. Now Shelley has left the governor’s office, and he and his daughter have large contracts to lobby for the road builder. ...” You get the picture.

Perry seems blissfully unaware that his pattern of patronage and cronyism undermines his claim to be a Tea Party champion. The Post’s Karen Tumulty quizzed Perry in the Oct. 11 debate as to whether his tech and development funds weren’t an awful lot like Solyndra. He answered, “Well, I don’t think the federal government should be involved in that type of investment, period. If states want to choose to do that, I think that’s fine for states to do that.” Yikes.

Perhaps, then, Perry would do well to cut out the holier-than-thou talk about the influence of big money in government. He’s never shown any inclination to get the influence peddlers out of state government, so there is little reason to think he’d do so at the federal level.

© 2011 The Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com

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"Prior to Rick Perry, TxDOT had ZERO debt. Now it’s racked up over $31 billion."

2011-11-03T21:12:00.001-06:00

Perry’s ‘Wall Street-ification’ of TxDOT

11/3/11

Terri Hall
Examiner.com
Copyright 2011

Rick Perry and the GOP-dominated Texas Legislature are presiding over the most fundamental transformation of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) in its history. Gone are the days of Dewitt Greer, who led the Department in its glory days when it was lean, super-efficient, and projects were well-managed and cost effective. Greer was known for eschewing debt and nixing anything that wasn’t a good deal for the taxpayer.

Now, under Perry, he’s left professional certified engineers behind and chosen political hacks, bankers, and campaign donors to run TxDOT, recently installing Jeff Austin III, a banker, as a Transportation Commissioner and Phil Wilson, former Perry aide and lobbyist for an energy company who donated over $1 million to Perry through the Republican Governor’s Association, as the new Executive Director. Even before Wilson spent a single day on the job, Perry and the Legislature bumped-up his salary by $100,000 in a down economy when every other state agency has experienced cuts. Perry’s Transportation Commission just authorized Wilson to expand his executive officers up to five, bringing the total for annual salaries of the entire executive team to more than $1.5 million.

Why? Because Perry and the Legislature think they can run TxDOT like a private, Fortune 500 company, with their big six figure salaries, and more importantly, make it a major player in the Wall Street bankster club. They think charging motorists’ tolls are akin to a ‘user fee’ like the free market. Well, TxDOT’s ‘product’ isn’t like potato chips or an iPhone. It’s tasked with building and maintaining our PUBLIC highway system -- and public safety and efficiency, not private profits, should remain its primary mission.

We already know what happened to public safety under these new design-build ‘innovative financing’ contracts that are not competitively bid....ten pillars on the US 290 interchange had to be torn down and re-built. We already know what happened when Perry and the Legislature launched TxDOT headlong from a pay-as-you-go cash system into a complex matrix of debt instruments, it had a $1.1 billion ‘accounting error’ (counting bond proceeds twice). Prior to Perry, TxDOT had ZERO debt. Now it’s racked up over $31 billion.

Our public roads are monopolies where ‘free market’ principles don’t apply. Tolls aren’t true ‘user fees’ when boatloads of public money, like gas taxes, are used to build the road and then TxDOT or worse, a private corporation, charges taxpayers again to drive on it.

Efficiency has been replaced with a new layer of bureaucracy (Regional Mobility Authorities) and a massive network of inefficient toll projects, toll collection nightmares, and doing anything and everything to cover the debt propping-up unsustainable toll roads that aren’t financially viable. Public safety has been replaced with profit-driven initiatives like increasing speed limits to 80 MPH in order to drive more traffic to corporate-run toll roads (See Exhibit 7).

TxDOT has become putty in the hands of private interests at the expense of taxpayers and property rights. It’s not uncommon to see the likes of Goldman Sachs slithering around the Dewitt Greer building pimping its ‘innovative financing’ techniques while positioned to profit handsomely from them. After all, a trader finally said on BBC what we all know is true: “Goldman Sachs rules the world." Innovative financing simply put is building roads with a complex series of taxpayer-backed credit cards. These techniques include monetization of debt, multi-leveraged debt (using borrowed money to secure more borrowed money), ‘creative’ accounting and contracting, and public subsidies for private profits. The same sort of tricks that caused the financial collapse in Greece (and subsequently the Euro) and the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States.

Boy, does Texas need a new Dewitt Greer to recapture the highway department that once was the envy of the nation. But it’s clear by Perry’s recent appointments, that he has no intention of doing so. His cronyism is too ingrained for him to resist the temptation to steer billions in public road contracts to potential donors for his struggling presidential campaign. Not while he can have his cake and eat it, too -- to say he’s making TxDOT run more like a private company, while, in reality, he's hijacking the highway department and turning it into a tool to grease Wall Street bankers.

The downward spiral at TxDOT will continue as it clings to these ‘innovative financing’ tools that prime our public infrastructure for massive taxpayer bailouts. So much for Perry’s claim that he’s fiscally responsible and has balanced budgets. His Wall Street-ification of TxDOT will surely fail as it did with Fannie Mae, the housing crisis, and financial crisis in Europe. Rest assured, Perry and state lawmakers will tap Texas taxpayers to bail them out.

© 2011 Examiner.com: www.examiner.com

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"Congress appears to be getting richer faster than the rest of the nation."

2011-11-01T18:29:00.007-06:00

And Congress’ Rich Get Richer

Net Worth of Lawmakers Up 25 Percent in Two Years, Analysis Demonstrates

Members of Congress such as Texas Rep. Michael McCaul reported major increases in their net worth, and Congress’ collective net worth also increased.

11/1/11

By Paul Singer and Jennifer Yachnin
Roll Call
Copyright 2011

Members of Congress had a collective net worth of more than $2 billion in 2010, a nearly 25 percent increase over the 2008 total, according to a Roll Call analysis of Members' financial disclosure forms.

Nearly 90 percent of that increase is concentrated in the 50 richest Members of Congress.

Two years ago, Roll Call found that the minimum net worth of House Members was slightly more than $1 billion; Senators had a combined minimum worth of $651 million for a Congressional total of $1.65 billion. Roll Call calculates minimum net worth by adding the minimum values of all reported assets and subtracting the minimum values of all reported liabilities.

According to financial disclosure forms filed by Members of Congress this year, the minimum net worth in the House has jumped to $1.26 billion, and Senate net worth has climbed to at least $784 million, for a Congressional total of $2.04 billion.

These wealth totals vastly underestimate the actual net worth of Members of Congress because they are based on an accounting system that does not include homes and other non-income-generating property, which is likely to tally hundreds of millions of uncounted dollars. In addition, Roll Call's tally is based on the minimum values of assets reported by Members on their annual financial disclosure forms; the true values of those assets may be much higher.

While wealth overall is scattered fairly evenly between the two parties, there is an interesting divide in the two chambers. Democrats hold about 80 percent of the wealth in the Senate; Republicans control about 78 percent of the wealth in the House.

And as protesters around the country decry the supposed consolidation of wealth in America, the trend can be seen starkly in Congress, a comparison suggested by American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar Mark Perry. The 50 richest Members of Congress accounted for 78 percent of the net worth in the institution in 2008 ($1.29 billion of the $1.65 billion total); by 2010 the share of the 50 richest had risen to 80 percent ($1.63 billion of the $2.04 billion total). The pie of Congressional wealth got bigger, and the richest Members are getting a bigger slice.

But there is still plenty to go around. Overall, 219 Members of Congress reported having assets worth more than $1 million last year; subtracting the minimum value of their liabilities brings the total number of millionaires in Congress down to 196 — again not counting any value on their homes or other non-income-producing property. If one were to assume that every Member of Congress has $200,000 worth of equity in real estate, the total number of millionaires would rise to 220 Members, just more than 40 percent of the Congress.

As with the general U.S. population, a few exceedingly wealthy people skew the averages for the rest of the membership. But still, by almost any measure, the average Member of Congress is far wealthier than the average U.S. household.

For example, dividing the total wealth of Congress by the number of Members creates a mean (average) net worth for each Member of about $3.8 million (excluding non-income-producing property such as personal residences). By comparison, for the rest of the country, based on statistics released by the Federal Reserve, average household net worth is around $500,000 this year (including personal residences), according to David Rosnick, an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

But a handful of Members of Congress are worth tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars — the richest Member of Congress this year, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), is worth a minimum of $294 million, meaning that McCaul's own wealth has the effect of raising the average of every Member of Congress by about $500,000.

So a better number for comparison is the median, the number where half the group is above and half the group is below. For Congress, the median net worth in 2010 was about $513,000. For regular households, the Federal Reserve Board pegged that number at about $120,000 in 2008, and that number this year is probably around $100,000, Rosnick said.

While it is hard to make an exact comparison between Congress and the rest of the nation, what is clear is lawmakers "are all a lot richer than anything you would call a typical American," Rosnick said.

And Congress appears to be getting richer faster than the rest of the nation. Citing Federal Reserve data, Rosnick said, "From the end of 2008 to end of 2010, aggregate household worth increased12 percent." That is about half the increase Congress achieved during the same time period.

The cautionary note in any Congressional wealth analysis is that significant changes in apparent wealth of Members do not necessarily represent an actual change in net worth.

For example, Rep. Darrell Issa reported this year that his 2010 assets were worth at least $295 million, nearly double what they were the year before. The reason for the change appears to be in part because the California Republican moved some properties from a single account into separate accounts. An account that Issa had listed as having a minimum value of $50 million in 2009 dropped to a minimum value of $25 million in 2010, but he added 11 accounts with a minimum combined value of $38.2 million. Even if none of the actual account (or property) values increased, the minimum value of those assets on paper rises by $13.2 million, or more than 25 percent.

Alan Ziobrowski, a professor of real estate at Georgia State University, has produced studies of Congressional investment patterns indicating that lawmakers in both chambers tend to fare better in their investment portfolios than the average American, in part because "[t]here is no doubt in my mind that they are trading in some way on information that is there."

But he also points out that the Membership of Congress has turned over since 2008, making it difficult to compare wealth over time. "You've got different people," he said.

In the aftermath of the 2010 elections that swept Republicans to power, about 20 percent of the Members included in the 2010 survey were not included in the 2008 survey.

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© 2011 Roll Call: www.rollcall.com

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How do you "retool" a tool? Rick Perry "lives free"...and dies in New Hampshire

2011-10-31T19:22:00.010-06:00

Tongue-Tied Texan: The New Rick Perry Sounds a Lot Like the Old Rick Perry

10/31/11

By Jay Newton-Small
Time Magazine
Copyright 2011

There are only so many times a candidate can pull a “What was he thinking!?” moment before voters begin to write them off. Rick Perry is right on the cusp.

The Texas governor sunk from a high of 38% in the polls when he entered the Republican presidential field as the front runner 11 weeks ago to 6% in one national poll last week. Even worse, according to the latest Des Moines Register survey, he’s polling at just 7% in Iowa – a must-win state for Perry’s campaign. Perry is even losing Texas Republicans, according to a new University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll out today.

Last week, as I wrote, Perry rebooted his campaign. He brought in a bevy of veteran national strategists, released a tax plan and went on air with his first television ads. The tax plan was pretty well received. The ads were surprisingly positive for a guy whose modus operandi during his gubernatorial races was to go negative, and a smart move given that Perry’s problems lie not in how much Republicans love Mitt Romney–not much–but in finding a national political identity for himself. As the Washington Post’s Dan Balz wrote last week, voters perceive Perry as a bully – an image problem he needs to fix ASAP. And so, everyone watched to see if the new staff and approach would turn things around for Perry.

The early reviews aren’t good.

On Friday Perry traveled to New Hampshire to file his papers to be on the ballot in January. While there, he delivered a rambling and at times incoherent speech, which only fed the rumors that maybe Perry’s still on serious painkillers following major back surgery in July. The campaign says Perry’s off any pain medications and two weeks ago resumed his running workouts. But something was clearly off on Friday as Perry hemmed and hawed his way through the speech, at times gesticulating wilding, hooting and smirking at his own jokes and staring googly-eyed at a jar of maple syrup he was given, turning it upside down and watching the syrup ooze downwards, while exclaiming, “Awesome!”

Perry followed up his New Hampshire performance with an interview with Fox News Sunday. Host Chris Wallace grilled Perry on his new jobs plan and Perry didn’t seem to have any answers. For example, Wallace pressed Perry on his pledge to create 2.5 million jobs in his first term as President – an insignificant number, Wallace said, give that even Jimmy Carter created 10.5 million jobs in his four years.

WALLACE: But how do you answer this question. Two and half million doesn’t keep pace with the population growth. We would — our unemployment rate would increase under this goal?

PERRY: I don’t believe that for a minute. That is just absolutely false on its face. Americans will get back to work. Are we going to go out and make some, you know, claim and say, oh, it’s going to create 10.5 million jobs? We would be having the same conversation. Oh, that’s not realistic.

Perry’s staff said last week he may not participate in all of the remaining debates–perhaps a wise choice given his past performances. Perry’s strength is as a retail politician, and certainly that should be his focus moving forward. But the first voting begins in nine weeks. And without the platform of the debates – and, given Friday’s stemwinder, maybe Perry should lay off the high-profile speeches – it’s hard to imagine how and where Perry can go to turn things around. All that said, his top competitor for the anti-Romney slot, Herman Cain, is the only person in politics having a worse week than Perry. So, the Texas governor still has a shot, but only if he manages to avoid more “What was he thinking!?” moments.

© 2011 Time Magazine: www.time.com

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2011-10-31T13:29:00.010-06:00

Happy Halloween!

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"Forget liberals, many conservatives learning more about Perry get the feeling they’ve been had... And so they have."

2011-10-29T10:25:00.001-05:00

Perry's new strategy: keep quiet

10/29/11

Lee Wolverton. Executive Editor
Amarillo Globe-News
Copyright 2011

Having shifted his campaign by force of raw vacuity from ascendancy to earthward plunge, Rick Perry is contemplating a compelling new strategy plainly superior to current devices.

He might skip upcoming presidential debates. There is risk in this, of course, principally that his absence will go unnoticed, or that it might be welcomed. The same soon might apply to his higher ambitions.

Presidential timber is cut from softer wood these days than it was when men named Lincoln, Roosevelt or Truman roamed the halls of the house that Adams built. Over the past 20 years, the leaders of the free world have included two ex-governors, one with the libido of a teenage boy and another with the vocabulary of a boy far younger. The former was eminently preferable to the current titleholder, a political neophyte groping in darkness while the country teeters.

Yet Perry stands in the shadows of each of these men.

Even Barack Obama’s critics, who give him credit for little, concede his skill as a campaigner. Perry lacks this, but that’s not necessarily what makes him off-putting. George W. Bush was an awkward debater and clumsy speaker — Gomer Pyle would have done better on the stump — but won twice.

What perturbs about Perry is a feeling that’s long prevailed in some corners of Texas but is now creeping over the rest of the Republican electorate, especially the governor’s badly needed conservative base, that he’s more huckster than ideologue, a damning sentiment if one hopes to win on values. Perry increasingly looks like the traveling evangelist for whom the jig is up. The debates have opened the curtain on Perry, and the people peering behind it don’t like what they see.

Forget liberals, many conservatives learning more about Perry get the feeling they’ve been had.

And so they have.

A reasonable examination of the governor’s record does not just chink his ostensible conservative armor; it applies a blow torch. His controversial push for the mandatory administration of the HPV vaccine to girls and his ties to its manufacturer are only a couple of the blights. He espoused a network of privatized toll roads and the use of eminent domain to seize rural farmland to make it happen. He drove through a business tax increase that small businesses called a “job-killer.”

The list is longer than Santa’s. Conservative Texans can recite it by rote. This explains why many Republicans whose conservative credibility is far stronger than Perry’s offer him only tepid backing. Still, there’s more to the phenomenon of Perry’s slide than his sale of political bills of goods.

Mitt Romney, the re-emerging GOP frontrunner, must explain to voters that government-run health care was acceptable in Massachusetts when he signed legislation into law as governor but is abominable as it’s been signed into law by Obama as president. It sounds like something out of an Abbott and Costello routine: “I’ve got shoes on … don’t mean I’m walkin’.”

But somehow Romney has explained it sufficiently well enough that he’s retained his place atop the polls despite the rippling unease he and his positions create.

Here is where Perry’s campaign has been at its most abysmal. Many of the thorniest questions he’s encountered should have been anticipated. When they came in debates following his entry into the race, Perry should have been prepared. Instead, he appeared dumbstruck.

Recently, it occurred to him that he ought to hire veterans of presidential campaigns to help him with his. One wonders why that notion didn’t strike him the moment he determined to run. He proposed a flat tax last week, conveniently following the rise of Herman Cain on his 9/9/9 plan. Perry spoke out against Texas allowing specialty license plates featuring the Confederate flag, requested by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which he previously supported.

Each of those moves hinted at a man in desperation, and no man is more desperate than a politician who’s sinking. Perry possesses enough campaign money to remain in the race long after it becomes apparent that he does not belong.

Whatever his fate, the governor has proved that his time as president is not now. To alter that conclusion, Perry needs to scrub away the political unction and determine not only who he is and that for which he stands but also how best to convey that image to the American people. That, ultimately, is a strategy far better than simply hiding until the next debate ends.

© 2011 Amarillo Globe-News: www.amarillo.com

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"It's gotten so bad people in Louisiana are actually starting to make Texas jokes."

2011-10-28T20:21:00.002-05:00

Why Rick Perry's presidential bid is toast

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is utterly incapable of running for president.

10/28/11

By James Carville
CNN
Copyright 2011

Rick Perry is really starting to annoy me.

When Rick Perry announced he was running for president back on August 13, to tell you the truth I got a little excited.

Now I know what you're thinking -- James you are a big Democrat, why on earth would you be excited about Perry running for president? And as Ricky used to tell Lucy -- I got some 'splainin to do.

This was my thinking: Perry would get in and he would be a major force. After all he was governor of the state of Texas, great hair, been around politics for a while.

He was the bona fide conservative complete with a pedigree to take on Romney. A giant fight to the death would ensue and they would bludgeon each other half to death -- you get the picture.

Honestly, I enjoy nothing more than two Republicans going after each other. Secondly, when politics is interesting it is actually good for me. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a cable television commentator -- the more interesting the campaign, the more coverage, the more I'm on TV -- you get the drift.

Also, as some of you may be aware of, I've been known to give a speech or two in return for remuneration. The people that plan these sorts of things generally hire more political speakers when politics is interesting and in turn I'll make more money and then John Boehner and Eric Cantor will start referring to me as a job creator.

With the way things are shaping up now, the event planners might be more inclined to take a motivational speaker, a magician, or a square dance troop. Hey Rick -- you are costing me airtime and money.

Third, there is a dirty little secret about political people that I'm going to share with you. These political people include operatives, politicians, volunteers, bloviators, journalists, pundits, columnists, staffers -- we actually like politics and campaigns.

Maybe you, like me, are a baseball fan. If you are, you want seven games because you actually like baseball. The same goes for politics -- if you really love it, you hope for a good race that goes on and you enjoy watching people who are skilled at doing this.

It is literally painful to watch Rick Perry as a candidate. The case could be made that Rick Perry is the worst debater to ever run for president.

As far as I know he can't even give a good speech. His appearance before the uber-right-winged Values Voters Summit was universally trashed.

Not only can he not give an interview, he can't even roll out his stupid flat tax plan. He steps all over it by saying, "Oh by the way, it's optional anyway." He has managed to couple the flat tax with the IRS bureaucracy in one sentence. Way to go Rick.

I'll be blunt with all you Perry supporters, it's time to butter your guy because he's toast. Every day it's a new dumb thing. From birtherism, to convoluted tax policy, to inarticulate attacks, to woeful ignorance and even stupidity on foreign policy (Pakistani country? Please), to placing his wife under such stress that she is lashing out at everything around her.

Not only is Rick Perry utterly incapable of running for president, he can't run his state, and in fact can't meet the basic requirement for any politician -- he can't even run his mouth.

As if he hasn't made a big enough fool of himself, he decides to go out and have lunch with Donald Trump and falls for the birther strategy. Good God, can this guy do anything? I guess I should be fair to him, he has shown that he can get the same people he gave contracts to as governor of Texas to contribute to his campaign. Wow, what an achievement.

To tell you the truth, it's gotten so bad people in Louisiana are actually starting to make Texas jokes.

If this thing gets any worse the people in Mississippi will be making Texas jokes -- then you've really hit rock bottom.

Rick, you have managed to embarrass yourself and irritate the hell out of me. So I guess you are good at something after all.

PS: See where the media is reporting that Perry is "retooling" his campaign. I think their problem is with the Indian, not the arrow.

© 2011 CNN: www.cnn.com

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"Rick Perry's the governor of Texas. He's elected. That other stuff doesn't matter -- however disgusting it might have been."

2011-10-27T20:59:00.006-05:00

Rick Perry, Gunslinger? More Like Mudslinger!

"It's fun to poke at him a little bit."
--Rick Perry, explaining his recent comments about President Obama's birth certificate

"I like 'fun,' too."
--Rick Horowitz, sitting down to write his latest column

10/27/11

Rick Horowitz
The Huffington Post
Copyright 2011

Just so you know, I don't have a definitive answer about whether Rick Perry is a sexual predator.

I'm not saying he is a sexual predator -- I'm just saying I can't be sure one way or the other. That's for other folks to decide.

For one thing, I haven't seen Rick Perry's rap sheet, so even if he's got "sexual predator" written there in big red letters, I haven't seen it. Or his records may even be sealed by now, so nobody can see them -- I understand they do that sometimes, if it happened a while ago, for instance, or if it would be too embarrassing for all the facts to be made public. So there'd be no way of saying for sure.

I'm kidding! I don't have a clue about Rick Perry being a sexual predator. It's just a good issue to keep alive -- you know, to have out there. But it's a distractive issue, which is why I'd hardly have anything to say about it except for the media being so interested in Rick Perry's criminal record all the time.

I'd rather be talking about jobs -- and anyway, if Rick Perry says he's never been a sexual predator, or never been convicted of being a sexual predator, I have no reason to think otherwise. I'm perfectly willing to take him at his word -- at least until the evidence is out there to contradict him.

But that hasn't happened yet -- who knows if it'll ever happen? -- so we have to take his denials at face value. If he doesn't want to open up his records, that's his decision. If he doesn't want to put the whole sexual predator thing to rest once and for all -- look, that's just one of the things the voters will have to weigh.

Just kidding! Everyone needs to lighten up! What voters are focused on is jobs, and nothing but jobs, which is why I keep talking about jobs every chance I get. Whatever some guy may have done in his private life, I don't think the voters are particularly interested in that. Rick Perry's the governor of Texas. He's elected. That other stuff doesn't matter -- however disgusting it might have been.

Personally, I don't have a criminal rap sheet, so it's an easy one for me to be completely open about. Maybe Rick Perry feels differently about it -- you'd have to ask him. You're good reporters -- why don't you go ask him?

That's a joke! I know you're not reporters! Jeez, can't a fella inject a little levity into the conversation once in a while without everybody getting so hot and bothered and serious?

You want to know what's serious? Here's what's serious: jobs. Everybody's looking for jobs, from the factory worker to the guy on the rig to the detectives who used to work in the sex-crimes units in some of our biggest states, like Texas. Maybe Rick Perry will tell us how those people are supposed to feed their families -- or how they're supposed to deal with sexual predators running loose in our communities.

But if he says that's not his concern -- hey, who am I to say any different? Rick Perry will have to answer for himself.

And the rest of you need to get a sense of humor!

© 2011 The Huffington Post: www.huffingtonpost.com

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"The privatized law enforcement arrangement creates a dynamic where the companies end up lobbying for the creation of more violations"

2011-10-27T18:19:00.000-05:00

Study Questions Wisdom of Privatized Law Enforcement

Public interest think tank issues report critical of existing practices for red light camera use.

10/27/11

TheNewspaper.com
Copyright 2011

An estimated sixty million Americans live in a jurisdiction monitored by an automated ticketing machine. According to a report released today by the left-leaning US Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG), the trend of privatizing law enforcement raises a number of issues that put the public in those areas at risk.

"Pitfalls can arise when contracts encourage vendors to treat automated traffic enforcement systems as a profit center: by maximizing the number of tickets written, regardless of the impact on public safety; by limiting the ability of governments to set traffic safety policies according to community needs; or by constraining the ability of cities to terminate contracts early in the event that automated enforcement systems are rejected by the electorate or fail to meet safety goals," the study explained.

Under severe budgetary pressures, local jurisdictions often sign contracts with vendors that were presented with a slick marketing campaign. Such deals often contain extremely unfavorable terms. The public is hurt by per-ticket payment systems -- often disguised with "cost neutral" contract language -- that ensure that the system is designed to maximize revenue, not safety. Such provisions provide a monetary incentive to increase the number of tickets issued. That leads to other provisions prohibiting cities from lengthening yellow light duration to improve safety and requiring right on red ticketing and ticket approval quotas.

"Many automated traffic law enforcement contracts create risk by penalizing municipalities or leaving them exposed to costly and disruptive lawsuits in the case of early termination of the contract, leaving taxpayers on the hook even if the camera system fails to meet community objectives," the study noted. "Contract terms that keep municipalities locked in with heavy cancellation fees or threaten them with expensive litigation if they change their minds are not in the best interests of the public."

The report's authors suggested the privatized law enforcement arrangement creates a dynamic where the companies end up lobbying for the creation of more violations. In Florida, for example, red light camera companies employed forty lobbyists at a cost of over $2 million to kill legislation that would have mandated longer yellow signal times and that would have otherwise limited the use of photo ticketing. Both Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia and American Traffic Solutions (ATS) have created front groups to create the appearance that these corporate efforts have "grassroots" support.

The study concluded with recommendations about the way to structure a red light camera program "free from potential conflicts of interest." No such principles are adhered to by any existing photo ticketing program.

A copy of the study is available in a 1mb PDF file at the source link below.

Source: Caution: Red Light Cameras Ahead (US Public Interest Research Group, 10/27/2011)

© 2011 TheNewspaper.com: www.thenewspaper.com

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"TxDOT is making decisions, based solely on increasing revenues to its own coffers and those of a private corporation at taxpayer expense."

2011-10-26T21:43:00.007-05:00

New designation for I-10 will steer drivers onto tollway

10/26/11

Terri Hall
Examiner.com
Copyright 2011

At its last meeting, the Texas Transportation Commission quietly passed a Minute Order authorizing the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to implement a dual designation of I-10 in Seguin to I-410 in San Antonio and eventually to I-35 (53 miles total) as State Highway 130. The Minute Order is a pay-off to Spain-based Cintra whose tollway, which begins at I-10 in Seguin and connects up with the publicly-operated segments of SH 130 tollway that ends at I-35 in Georgetown, will greatly profit from the visibility as it seeks to entice drivers to its two segments of the tollway (segments 5 & 6).

Motorists who unwittingly think they’re going to continue on a freeway from the I-10/SH 130 leg will get a rude awakening when they’re stuck out in Seguin with no way north unless they proceed on Cintra’s privately operated toll road.

The public private partnership (P3) contract awarded to Cintra and San Antonio-based Zachry in March of 2007 also gives the private corporations the ability to penalize TxDOT for the expansion of free routes surrounding its tollway through a non-compete clause (see Exhibit 17).

Since TxDOT has a share in the toll revenues on SH 130, if it sends more traffic to Cintra’s toll road, which the dual designation with free portions of interstates 10 and 410 are clearly designed to do, it will benefit from the move.

So now our highway department is making decisions, not based on safety or congestion relief, but based solely on increasing revenues to its own coffers and those of a private corporation at taxpayer expense.

Highways are a monopoly by their very nature, privately-owned tollways even more so given the non-compete clauses. So TxDOT’s move, announced on a day when it knew all the attention would be on the announcement of its new Executive Director, Phil Wilson, slipped in this controversial, profit-driven, monopolistic designation under the radar.

Well, now it’s officially ‘on the radar.’

SH 130 so empty a plane used it for emergency landing!

SH 130 is the only portion of Trans Texas Corridor TTC-35 that will ever be built. So this tollway has been under a shroud of controversy from day one. TxDOT’s portion of SH 130 (roughly 49 miles called known as segments 1-4) is also presently a net loser for the state. It has required $100 million taxpayer bailout to date, nearly 70% more than originally planned. That’s right, TxDOT PLANNED for a net loss on this road for the entire life of the debt, and they’ve been dipping into gas taxes to subsidize it since its opening. It’s so empty, a distressed plane landed on it during RUSH HOUR. It’s become the poster child of Rick Perry’s failed toll road policy in Texas.

Cintra is manipulating the main north-south route through our state, I-35, for its own personal profiteering -- and our highway department that has a fiduciary duty to the public is complicit in it, especially since TxDOT is in a sea of red ink on its portion of SH 130.

Just when you think things couldn’t get more outrageous... TxDOT’s I-35 Advisory Committee that issued a report to be unveiled at tomorrow’s monthly Commission meeting, proposes converting existing I-35 into the SH 130 tollway and designating existing SH 130 as the new I-35.

Such a move would require a change to both federal and state law, but that’s never stopped TxDOT’s raw ambition for sucking as money out of Texas motorists as possible. This is why an UN-elected board of appointees ought NEVER to have the ability to impose taxes. It’s this taxation without representation that precipitated the American Revolution and now the subsequent toll tax revolt in Texas.

Most state lawmakers that have caught wind of this Minute Order and dual designation of I-10 as SH 130 are shocked but not surprised. One quipped, “Will this nonsense at TxDOT ever end? I’ll answer my own question. Not until Rick Perry is no longer the Governor.” Until then, expect an endless, unaccountable runaway toll tax gravy train to continue at Perry’s highway department.

Perry campaign flounders outside of its Texas-sized bubble

2011-10-26T20:46:00.013-05:00

Perry says debating was his biggest mistake

Actually, his biggest mistake was saying that debating was his biggest mistake...

10/26/11

Paul Burka
Texas Monthly
Copyright 2011

It says so much about who Rick Perry is–unsure of himself and afraid to face the public except in situations he controls, and yet arrogant at the same time. Doesn’t he realize that refusing to debate would have been even worse than debating? Ducking debates sends the public a message that you do not think that their opinion matters and shows a lack of respect for the great quadrennial exercise of choosing a leader for the nation.

His comment on Fox News was, “All they’re interested in is stirring it up between the candidates instead of really talking about the issues that are important to the American people.” Damn right “they” are–”they” being the media. The value of stirring things up, of course, is that the public can see candidates in unscripted moments, as when Perry made his gaffe that people who don’t support the Dream Act “don’t have a heart.”

In his races in Texas, Perry could put the campaign engine in cruise control and leave it there.

He could arrange things so that all his speeches were to friendly audiences.

He could address the Realtors (as I heard him do) with full confidence that he would get a loud, enthusiastic ovation, and bask in the prearranged applause.

He could surround himself with his security entourage, to ensure that he would not have to answer questions from impertinent reporters.

He could refuse to visit with editorial boards and he could concoct phony excuses for refusing to debate, such as the failure of his 2010 Democratic opponent, former Houston mayor Bill White, to release his taxes.

Presidential campaigns are different. You can run from debates, but you can’t hide.

No serious presidential candidate can get away with ducking debates these days. He would reveal himself or herself as someone with deep insecurities about how he matches up with his rivals.

Perry would much prefer the kind of campaign he can run in Texas, where he can speak to friendly audiences and then head out the back door without answering questions from the pesky media.

Just imagine if Perry had said at the start of the presidential campaign what he said in Texas in 2010: He wasn’t going to debate unless Bill White released his taxes, and he made such stipulations for Romney and Bachmann and Gingrich and Paul. In Texas, he could play out the farce in which Mark Miner’s daily press release was about how many days White had gone without releasing his taxes.

People who read or heard Perry’s remarks, made on Fox News, are going to draw the obvious conclusion that Perry didn’t want to debate because he wasn’t informed on the issues and was afraid that he would expose his lack of knowledge.

In Texas, Perry was invincible. He controlled the entire government, right down to a compliant Supreme Court that would shield his travel expenditures from public view. He could refuse to debate his rivals–or, as in 2006, when he did participate in a debate, he left immediately afterward, without staying for what was supposed to be a Q and A with the media. State Senator Tommy Williams and a smirking aide stood in for Perry.

So here’s the question: Will Perry participate in the remaining debates? Do his remarks on Fox signal that he intends to run as he did in Texas, finding an excuse to avoid debates? It’s a Hobson’s choice, damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

[UPDATE]

POLITICO is reporting that the Perry campaign has said that he is going to the Nov. 9 debate in Michigan, but after that he is a question mark for some of the glut of face-offs after that.

From the POLITICO article:

Perry spokesman Mark Miner said the issue is using time wisely, and noted their campaign is not alone in that.

“I think all the campaigns are expressing frustration right now,” Miner told POLITICO. “We said we would do Michigan but the primaries are around the corner and you have to use your time accordingly.”

* * * *

The schedule does give Perry an excuse to skip some debates. But, having made his comment that his biggest mistake was debating, he will be under even more scrutiny when he next steps on a stage. And I stand by what I wrote above: “It’s a Hobson’s choice: damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t.”

What to look for: Perry will probably do something he should have been doing all along, which is to run positive media, particularly about the border. The downside is that, unlike a state campaign, paid media doesn’t accomplish much in a national campaign. The public has seen the candidates on live TV, and those images will be last longer in the voters’ minds than paid spots on television. Then he will do a lot of meet-and-greet events as the primaries approach. Perry is very good at these, but the best he can hope for from the networks is a few soundbites.

© 2011 Texas Monthly: www.texasmonthly.com

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"A corporation is not a person until Texas executes one!"

2011-10-26T20:36:00.000-05:00

'We The People,' Not 'We The Corporations'

10/26/11

Jim Hightower
National Memo
Copyright 2011

A year from now, Americans will be caught in an unprecedented blizzard of presidential campaign ads. We'll be blinded by the whiteout and buried in the storm's negativity.

For the first time ever, most of this ad blizzard will not come from the candidates, but from ads secretly funded by huge corporations. This is because a five-man cabal on the Supreme Court issued an edict last year that perverts nature itself. In a case titled Citizens United, the five decreed that -- shazam! -- lifeless corporate entities are henceforth "persons" with more electioneering rights than ... well, us real-life persons.

In a black-robed coup against our democracy, the Supremes ruled that a corporation's money is "speech" and that CEOs may dump unlimited sums of it into their own ad campaigns to elect or defeat any candidates they choose.

Of course, Wal-Mart, Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil and the rest are nothing but legalistic constructs -- really just pieces of paper issued by state governments. It's a grotesque, Kafkaesque lie to say they are equal to -- much less superior to -- human beings. As a friend of mine puts it, "A corporation is not a person until Texas executes one!"

The good news is that real citizens of our country are united against Citizens United. In a January Hart Research poll, 87 percent of Democrats, 82 percent of independents and even 68 percent of Republicans favor passing a constitutional amendment to overrule the Court's bizarre decision and make clear that only people are people.

Sadly (though not surprisingly), our national elected officials -- including Republicans, Democrats and tea partiers -- are too hooked on corporate money to stand up for us ... for America's democracy. So, do we just have to surrender to the corporados? Of course not -- we're Americans!

Rebel! A new "We the People Campaign" is rallying grass-roots folks to sign a "Declaration of Independence From Corporate Power." To sign the declaration and join the action, go to www.WeThePeopleCampaign.org.

In response to the Supreme Court's freakish decision to bestow political "personhood" on corporations, I got an email from a guy named Larry, screaming that "big money has plucked our eagle!"

Yes, it has -- and the Powers that Be want us to believe there's nothing we can really do about it. Rather than actually trying to undo this theft of our people's democratic authority, they tell us to be satisfied with a few tangential regulations, like maybe requiring corporations to disclose how much they're spending on campaigns. Now there's a weak stand for democracy: "Give us campaign finance reporting regulations, or give us death!"

Come on, we're bigger than that. Here are just a few actions for real change that ordinary Americans can take, teaming up with others right where you live:

AMEND. Two major coalitions are organizing coast to coast to overturn the courts corporate money edict. One is FreeSpeechForPeople.org, and the other is MoveToAmend.org -- and both have action kits for raising the issue locally, petitions to be circulated, video and other good graphics to educate people in your community, and a wealth of other organizing ideas.

LOCALIZE. Pass your own local and state laws to stop the wholesale corporate purchase of our government. These include outlawing any corporate claim of personhood in your area, providing the alternative of public financing for your local and state elections, and banning campaign donations by corporations that try to get government contracts and subsidies. For information and help, check out PublicCampaign.org and ReclaimDemocracy.org.

CONFRONT. Yes, get in the face of power. Go see candidates to ask where they stand on corporate personhood, and demand that top executives of big corporations located in your area publicly agree not to send corporate cash on your elections. You can get more info at www.democracyisforpeople.org.

Remember, the Constitution plainly says "We the People," not "We the Corporations."

PETITION SITE: [CLICK HERE]

© 2011 National Memo: www.nationalmemo.com

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"To see Rick Perry's real weaknesses as a candidate, talk to Texas conservatives...the 49% who didn't vote for him in the 2010 gubernatorial primary."

2011-10-25T20:28:00.010-05:00

The truth about Perry, straight from Texas

Texas conservatives knew of Perry's flaws

10/25/11

By Jonathan Gurwitz
San Antonio Express-News
Copyright 2011

For a good number of Republicans outside of Texas, the idea of Rick Perry as their presidential standard-bearer was alluring.

Here was the kind of rock-ribbed, fiscal conservative who could tame Washington and send Barack Obama and his debt-busting, job-destroying, anti-business policies packing.

Before he had ever spoken a word on the national stage, Perry entered the GOP presidential race at the top. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll of Republican primary voters conducted in August showed the Texas governor leading the GOP field with 38 percent support, 15 points ahead of his closest opponent, Mitt Romney.

In the intervening two months, Perry has spoken plenty, and his popularity among Republican voters has plummeted. In the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, Perry's support has fallen to 16 percent. He now trails both Romney and businessman Herman Cain.

The idea of Rick Perry, it seems, was a lot more enticing than the reality of Rick Perry. Republicans who are now leaping off the Perry bandwagon as quickly as they jumped on in August could have avoided electoral whiplash if they had simply listened to people in Texas.

Not to Democrats, many of whom -- after two decades -- still haven't gotten over the fact that their century-long stranglehold on Texas politics is over. Rick Perry could support in-state tuition rates at Texas universities for the children of illegal immigrants and they would still call him an anti-Hispanic extremist. He did, and they do.

To get a sense of Rick Perry's real weaknesses as a candidate, talk to Texas conservatives. Talk to the ones who didn't vote for him in the 2010 gubernatorial primary.

In that election, Texas Republicans gave Perry a bare majority -- 51 percent. Yet the Texas economic engine was humming then.

So for what can Perry take credit?

For championing the now defunct Trans Texas Corridor, a 4,000-mile transportation network that would have required state seizure of as much as 600,000 acres of private property?

For the mock signing in 2009 of a joint resolution on eminent domain reform that did not require the governor's signature, necessitated by Perry's veto of similar property rights protections two years earlier?

For an executive order, subsequently rescinded by the Legislature, that would have required all sixth-grade girls in Texas to receive the Gardasil vaccine, whose maker was represented in Texas by a lobbyist who happened to be Perry's former chief of staff?

For running the state's Emerging Technology Fund in a way that the state auditor said required greater transparency and accountability and which awarded millions to companies owned or run by large Perry donors?

Rick Perry isn't the bumbling bigot his liberal detractors make him out to be. He shares credit with other Republican leaders for creating a business-friendly, low-tax, pro-growth environment.

But after 11 years, Texas Republicans know their governor pretty well. The half of them who didn't vote for Perry in the 2010 primary could have told their GOP brethren in other states about his flaws, in addition to his allure.

© 2011 San Antonio Express-News: www.mysanantonio.com

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"No assurance that the investigation will be limited to the matters described above or that the NTTA will not become a target at a later date."

2011-10-22T08:43:00.001-05:00

Tollway authority says its officials questioned by FBI

10/22/11

By Barry Shlachter
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Copyright 2011

The North Texas Tollway Authority, on the eve of a $674 million bond offering to help fund the Chisholm Trail Parkway, disclosed Friday to potential investors that the FBI has questioned several of its officials over possible conflicts of interest by past and present board members.

The disclosure, made in the lengthy preliminary bond offering statement, stressed that the authority had "no reason to believe" that it was under investigation.

The brief statement did not indicate which current and former board members might be under scrutiny. The authority said it was cooperating fully with the FBI and stressed that the inquiry should not materially affect the authority or its bond offerings.

But it cautioned bond buyers, "There can be no assurance that the investigation will be limited to the matters described above or that the authority will not become a target at a later date." The authority did not detail what sort of possible conflicts of interest were being looked into.

Asked whether the inquiry might affect the Chisholm bond sale, scheduled for Nov. 2, authority Chief Financial Officer Janice Davis replied, "I don't believe it will and if it does, it will be very little."

JPMorgan Chase, the bond's lead underwriter, discussed the FBI inquiry with the authority and did not seem particularly concerned because, Davis said, "the authority itself is not under investigation."

A fraction of a point of added interest could mean millions in extra costs for the tollway project.

A person close to the board, who spoke only in exchange for anonymity, dismissed the inquiry as a "fishing trip" by the FBI.

Davis said she was surprised by the FBI move but rejected the notion that the inquiry might have been prompted by a whistle-blower in the authority.

Board Chairman Kenneth Barr, a former Fort Worth mayor, said the authority's council advised him not to comment beyond the disclosure statement. Asked whether the FBI had questioned him, he replied, "No."

The federal move follows the Oct. 14 resignation of Allen Clemson as the authority's executive director. Clemson publicly complained that he was thwarted in efforts to change the way the authority awarded contracts to engineering and legal firms.

The authority has faced some criticism for overreliance on firms that have been under contract for years. Some board members cautioned against severing such ties while work is about to begin on the long-planned Chisholm Trail Parkway.

© 2011 Fort Worth Star-Telegram: www.star-telegram.com

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FBI investigates conduct of North Texas Tollway Authority board members

2011-10-21T08:22:00.002-05:00

NTTA: FBI investigating board members' conduct, possible conflicts of interest

10/21/11

By Michael Lindenberger
The Dallas Morning News
Copyright 2011

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the conduct of some North Texas Tollway Authority board members, including possible conflicts of interest, the authority disclosed Friday.

NTTA disclosed the existence of the investigation in two paragraphs on page 59 and 60 of a 596-page statement issued Friday to investors concerning its nearly $700 million bond offering expected to close next month. It said the FBI is concerned about "conduct" of board members, including possible conflicts of interest pertaining to NTTA business.

A spokeswoman for the authority confirmed to a reporter late Friday that the NTTA was cooperating with the FBI and federal prosecutors.

"The NTTA has been made aware of an investigation involving one or more individuals and is cooperating with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in connection with that investigation," communications director Kimberly Jackson said in an emailed statement to the News. "We do not have any additional information."

It's not clear what the FBI is asking about, and the disclosure in the bond documents offers a broad range of potential sources of its concern.

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation has recently interviewed several officials of the Authority regarding any knowledge the officials may have concerning the conduct of certain current and former Board members, including possible conflicts of interests pertaining to Authority business," the statement reads.

NTTA does not believe that its staff or the entity itself is involved in any of the conduct under investigation, or that the investigation's outcome will significantly impact its finances. Nevertheless, the investigation could subsequently broaden, the disclosure notes.

"The Authority is cooperating fully with the FBI," it says. "There can be no assurance that the investigation will be limited to the matters described above or that the Authority will not become a target at a later date."

NTTA board member Kent Cagle said he had officially been told of the investigation only this past week, but had heard about it informally prior to that. He said he has not been interviewed by the FBI, but said he understands the focus is on two current and at least one former board member.

A spokesman for the FBI would not comment on the investigation or say whether it was related to the ongoing investigation of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price.

"You've probably heard this before, but I can neither conform nor deny the existence of an investigation," said Mark White, the FBI's Dallas spokesman.

Earlier this week, NTTA was urged to strengthen its conflict of interest policies in the wake of a months-long audit of its governance model, a recommendation chairman Ken Barr said would be considered carefully.

Dallas Judge Clay Jenkins, a frequent critic of NTTA's board, said the investigation only reinforces the audit's conclusions.

"Any time there is an investigation there is concern," he said. "But I am confident NTTA will cooperate fully."

© 2011 The Dallas Morning News: www.dallasnews.com

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"Perry slams Obama for selling America to foreign creditors--He’s doing the exact same thing...selling off our infrastructure to foreign creditors."

2011-10-20T19:14:00.005-05:00

Opponents Celebrate Trans-Texas Corridor Downfall

Opponents of the Trans-Texas Corridor have claimed victory over Governor Rick Perry

10/18/11

By JOHN JULITZ
KTRH.com
Copyright 2011

Groups who've battled Governor Rick Perry on the corridor for years gathered over the weekend in Austin for what was called a victory party celebrating the complete repeal of the project from state statute.

Terri Hall with Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF) says this step is hugely important for Texas.

“It was a 4,000 mile network of toll roads that were going to crisscross our state and take over 580,000 acres of private property and it was going to displace over 1 million Texans for just the first corridor alone,” says Hall.” So this was not like any other highway we’ve ever seen in our country really in the history of the United States.”

Hall adds that Perry’s hypocrisy is what ultimately helped kill the Corridor.

“Here you’ve got Rick Perry off gallivanting around the country as he’s running for president slamming Obama for selling America to foreign creditors. Well what’s Rick Perry doing here in Texas? He’s doing the exact same thing by selling off our infrastructure to foreign creditors,” Hall says. “It’s the same thing.”

The repeal was signed into law in June of this year.

"Some board members have family or business ties that involve NTTA consultants or right-of-way transactions."

2011-10-20T08:24:00.001-05:00

Problems with transparency, perception of conflicts of interest at North Texas Tollway Authority: Report

10/20/11

By Steve Miller
Texas Watchdog
Copyright 2011

An assessment of the North Texas Tollway Authority has found the taxpayer-funded operation needs to be more transparent and has issues with “governance and operational practices that cause frustration, poor morale, and distrust."

The appearance of conflicts of interest at the agency have created "public and internal distrust," and the agency should develop a conflict-of-interest policy, the report commissioned by area county judges says. "Some board members have family or business ties that involve NTTA consultants or right-of-way transactions."

The review found the agency has failed in a number of instances to take action, even as the frequency of board meetings has more than doubled in the past two years. For example, it took seven months for the board to approve a change in administrative fees that are tacked onto fines for failure to pay a toll.

The authority also relied heavily on consultants rather than its employee base for most endeavors, although two areas were exclusively handled by tollway employees: business diversity and audits.

The review notes that a policy for use of consultants, which would broaden the use of in-house employees, was proposed in April by then-Executive Director Allen Clemson but never adopted by the board. Clemson was the fifth executive director in five years.

The revolving door that is the NTTA’s executive director's office may be the result of a number of policy flaws, including the fact that there were no formal goals for the director nor was there any evaluation period other than an annual review, the report says.

The evaluation of the agency was commissioned by the county judges in Tarrant, Denton, Dallas and Collin counties. Those judges also select board members for the tollway authority.

The review was conducted by New York-based Alvarez & Marsal, the same firm that oversaw the dismantling of Lehman Brothers in 2009 and was called on to assist the scandal-ridden HealthSouth in 2004.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which has been covering the tollway authority doggedly, has a story on the firm's findings here.

***

© 2011 Texas Watchdog: www.texaswatchdog.org

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Rick Perry's tactics: Attack opponents for his own sins (rampant cronyism, getting rich in office, fiscal management & big-government programs).

2011-10-19T18:51:00.003-05:00

Rick Perry revives by rattling Mitt Romney in Las Vegas debate

10/19/11

By REID J. EPSTEIN & MAGGIE HABERMAN
Politico
Copyright 2011

Rick Perry went into Tuesday night’s debate looking to rattle Mitt Romney — and it worked.

Perry’s been under fire for his own immigration record, and resurrecting the 2007 report that Romney had hired illegal workers helped him blunt the advantage Romney had been able to get on the issue as Perry looks to recover from his collapse in the polls.

Plus, according to a Perry source, there was an added bonus: by going after Romney personally — the accusation has to do with Romney’s own house — they saw the potential to make Romney react the hardest.

And despite the headlines at the time, the issue didn’t get the attention Perry’s campaign believes it could have when it surfaced in Romney’s first run for president four years ago, and gives Perry a new opening into coming at Romney as a flip-flopper.

“This is the start of Romney vs. Romney. We’ll have him debating himself before this is over,” said one senior Perry adviser, explaining the strategy.

Perry’s campaign was prepared for the attack, emailing reporters a 2007 Boston Globe that first revealed the presence of undocumented workers at Romney’s Belmont, Mass., home. The campaign also sent a release headlined “Romney is a fraud on immigration.”

“Despite tough talk directed at employers hiring illegal aliens, it was discovered in the last campaign that Romney went a decade without checking the citizenship status of those who tended to his 2½ acre lawn,” the campaign wrote.

Perry’s senior political adviser Dave Carney said in the post-debate spin room that Romney’s vulnerability on the issue is clear.

“When you make a holier-than-thou argument about it and you know about hiring illegals … it seems kind of hypocritical,” Carney said.

For the last few weeks, Perry was under attack for his own position on immigration — opposing a border fence and providing in-state tuition for illegal immigrants at Texas colleges — but an offensive defense personal attack is a Perry campaign staple. He did it in his 2010 re-election race, for example, when he turned to calling his primary opponent Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison a tool of Washington to rebut his own $300,000 in travel expenses for his own D.C. campaign events.

“Rick Perry frequently attacks opponents for something he himself is guilty of,” wrote the researchers at Des Moines-based Link Strategies in the introduction to their book of opposition research for Perry’s 2010 Democratic opponent, Bill White.

“Throughout the remainder of this campaign, we should expect Perry to continue his hypocritical attacks — this is big part of his communications strategy. Their goal is to take Perry’s biggest weaknesses (rampant cronyism, getting rich while in office, poor fiscal management, and support for big-government programs like the Trans-Texas Corridor and mandatory HPV shots) and find ways to make it appear that White has a worse record on similar issues.”

Giuliani brought it up during the November 2007 CNN/YouTube debate.

“There were six sanctuary cities, he did nothing about them,” Giuliani said. “There was even a sanctuary mansion. At his own home, illegal immigrants were being employed, not being turned in to anybody or by anyone, and then when he deputized the police, he did it two weeks before he was going to leave office, and they never seemed to even catch the illegal immigrants who were working at his mansion. So I would say he had sanctuary mansion, not just sanctuary city.”

But Giuliani, as the former mayor of a sanctuary city himself, couldn’t make the line of attack stick.

Wilson said he saw Perry’s attack on the issue as damaging not just because it brought back the policy, but personalized the charge in a way that seems set to shake Romney’s inevitability argument.

“He laid a mitt on Mitt after Mitt has owned this issue for two debates and really damaged him,” Wilson said. “He brought it back into the discussion that a lot of base voters are going to think, oh shoot, what the hell was that about?”

In the four weeks until the next debate, Perry will now have to bring that argument to appearances in the early states. In Iowa, where Perry two weekends ago failed to convince voters who attended his town hall meetings that the Texas in-state tuition bill was anything less than a subsidy to undocumented immigrants, Tuesday’s gambit isn’t likely to so quickly erase Perry’s problems, said Steve Scheffler, one of Iowa’s two Republican National Committee delegates.

“I don’t know if it will work,” Scheffler said. “It’s hard to tell what’s going to trip the trigger to get candidates. Whether those kind of things take traction or not, I don’t know.”

And in New Hampshire, former GOP Chairman Fergus Cullen said Republican voters are immune to attacks on Romney that are recycled from the 2008 campaign.

“One of the reasons why Romney’s numbers are so solid is that voters know good and bad about him,” Cullen said. “The reasons why attacks on RomneyCare are not hurting him is it’s already been factored in. Issues that came up four years ago about Mitt Romney don’t seem to be having the same effect that they did then.”

Ed Rollins, who managed Mike Huckabee’s campaign, said the issue was “not a killer issue” in 2008 and, because it will be old news to many GOP voters, may have less impact now.

“The key thing here is not lying about it,” Rollins said. “I don’t know what the facts are anymore on this, but he better be able to produce the documents.”

Ben Smith contributed to this report.

© 2011 Politico: www.politico.com

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NTTA appoints another HNTB employee after scathing external audit criticizes NTTA for its cozy relationship with HNTB

2011-10-19T08:44:00.002-05:00

North Texas Tollway Authority appoints interim director

10/19/11

By Gordon Dickson
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Copyright 2011

The North Texas Tollway Authority formally accepted last week's resignation of Executive Director Allen Clemson on Wednesday and appointed former HNTB employee Gerry Carrigan to take over on an interim basis.

Carrigan arrived at the Plano-based tollway authority about three years ago and served as assistant executive director of project delivery. In that role, he oversaw several big-dollar projects -- including the President George Bush Turnpike's eastern and western extensions and the Sam Rayburn Tollway/Central Expressway interchange -- and dealt with contractors and vendors.

Carrigan has a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Southern Illinois University and a master's degree in public administration from the University of South Florida.

The board's choice of an interim executive director with a background at HNTB comes a day after the release of a scathing external audit that criticized the tollway authority for its close relationship with the engineering and consulting firm.

But, board Chairman Kenneth Barr of Fort Worth said, "Gerry is the right person to be steady at the helm and keep the NTTA doing what it does best during this time of transition. Getting him into position will help us begin to implement changes recommended by the just-completed county review."

Carrigan's interim promotion was approved unanimously, although board member Victor Vandergriff of Arlington was absent because of a business commitment. After the meeting, Vandergriff said he supports Carrigan's hiring.

"Gerry has worked for us for several years and done a good job," Vandergriff said, adding that he expects external candidates to be considered for the permanent role.

"Hopefully, we'll do a strong national search and look for a good person," he said.

© 2011 Fort Worth Star-Telegram: www.star-telegram.com

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Pew Research Poll: The third most common word used to describe Rick Perry Is "IDIOT." The second most common word is: “NO!"

2011-10-18T18:22:00.005-05:00

Top GOP candidates, in a word

10/18/11

By Peyton M. Craighill and Jon Cohen
The Washington Post
Copyright 2011

For Herman Cain, it’s simply “9-9-9.” Rick Perry gets “Texas.” Mitt Romney, “Mormon.” Those are the words most commonly mentioned for the three leading candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, according to a new poll by The Washington Post and the Pew Research Center.

But for all of the colorful terms that follow, more than four in 10 adults do not offer any single-word descriptions of Cain or Perry. And despite Romney being well into his second run for president, more than a third do not have a word for him.

Herman Cain: “9-9-9,” referring to his tax plan, tops the list of descriptors for the businessman who has catapulted in the GOP campaign. Next up is a combination of “business,” “businessman,” “pizza” and “entrepreneur.” The top positive description for Cain is “interesting,” followed by “good,” “intelligent,” “likable” and “honest.” The top negative descriptions are “inexperience,” “no” and “liar.”

Rick Perry: The Texas governor is most commonly associated exactly that way, as “Texas,” with others adding “governor“ and some “Bush” or “cowboy.” Negative words come up high for Perry compared to the others, with “no” the most often mentioned on its own. Others highlight “idiot,” “stupid,” “dumb,” or “not smart.” All told, a total of 28 people questioned Perry’s intelligence.

Mitt Romney: “Mormon” is by far the most commonly associated word with Romney, with others saying “religion.” A distant second are references to health care with variants such as “health program,” “Massachusetts health care” or “RomneyCare.” Top positives are “good,” “intelligent,” “competent” and “presidential.” Top negative references for Romney are “flip-flop” and “no,” followed by “old” and “boring.”

Read the full poll results

© 2011 The Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com

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Audit: NTTA "must quickly change its cozy relationship with engineering firm HNTB"

2011-10-18T08:30:00.001-05:00

Audit recommends more transparency at North Texas Tollway Authority

10/18/11

By Gordon Dickson
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Copyright 2011
The North Texas Tollway Authority should adopt a "clear and transparent" policy within six months to prevent conflicts of interest and must quickly change its cozy relationship with engineering firm HNTB, an outside audit unveiled Tuesday recommended.

"The perception of conflicts of interest is widely held, and while our review did not find proven malfeasance or impropriety, the appearance of conflicts creates public and internal distrust," John Cox, a senior director with Alvarez & Marsal, told tollway board members during a two-hour briefing on the report Tuesday.

The report by New York-based Alvarez & Marsal was commissioned by the county judges of Tarrant, Denton, Dallas and Collin counties, who appoint most of the authority board members. It was based on a review of documents, an employee survey, and interviews with 50 current and former tollway officials -- and it comes as state lawmakers are calling for the tollway authority to be subject to sunset review, like most state agencies. The judges oppose having the tollway authority placed under sunset review and have vowed to police it better. They will watch as board members try to implement many of the recommendations in phases during the next year.

"Where the rubber meets the road is in the implementation," Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said. "Without implementation, it's just another book on the shelf."
Potential conflicts
The recommendations come after several potential conflicts involving individual board members surfaced, as well as the tollway authority's institutional relationship with a few firms that are paid tens of millions of dollars per year for engineering, legal and other services.
Board Chairman Kenneth Barr of Fort Worth disclosed that his brother is a lawyer with Locke Lord, a firm that does about $6.9 million of work a year for the authority. Barr said he consulted with the tollway authority's legal counsel, also a Locke Lord attorney, before accepting a board position in 2008 to ensure that there was no ethical conflict.
Barr also had prior business relationships with lawyers who were hired this year to provide legal counsel for buying rights of way for Chisholm Trail Parkway, a 28-mile toll road that will run from Fort Worth to Cleburne.
Another board member, David Denison of Lewisville, disclosed that he is a former consultant and investor with a real estate firm that bought 625 acres for development near the Chisholm Trail Parkway project, although he had no direct connection to that specific investment. He was also cleared by the tollway authority's legal counsel. But the perception that the tollway authority is tainted by conflicts of interest is "held widely," Cox said, calling a policy on conflicts of interest and ethics "simply good government."
The report said the authority has "perceived and potentially real conflicts of interest" with HNTB, an engineering firm under contract for about $15 million a year in tollway work. When asked later what that meant, Alvarez & Marsal Managing Director Ron Orsini said the audit has uncovered a situation in which one HNTB consultant was approved to pay an invoice for another HNTB consultant -- all with the tollway authority's blessing.
The report didn't try to catalog how often the arrangement existed or how long the practice had been in place, Orsini said.

Although the tollway authority should keep its "lean" business model and continue to rely on outside firms for most professional services, steps must be taken to ensure that invoices are properly overseen, the report concluded.
Diversification

The tollway authority also should seek to diversify its nine-member board, the report concludes. The county judges appoint eight members and the governor appoints the ninth. Jane Willard of Celina, who was appointed by Collin County this year, is the lone woman on the board, and there are no African-Americans.

Ethnicity has become an issue in recent months, when tollway staff disclosed that most of its contracts are awarded to firms governed by white men -- although the report points out that the agency is making progress in diversifying its contractors.
But the report also found that tollway staff publicly discussed winners of procurement contracts before the board had voted to approve them.
"Some board members did not trust the staff's procurement process. It's not clear when a procurement officially ends," said Eric Noack, Alvarez & Marsal vice president.
The report has good news, too. The authority has a terrific record of building and maintaining roads in a timely manner, and it gets high satisfaction marks for programs such as cashless tolling and customer service.

But its many accomplishments have been overshadowed by a litany of organizational problems that have "contributed to frustration, poor morale and distrust," the report concludes.

Some staff and board members don't understand or agree with the tollway authority's priorities, and communication among board members and executive staff is weak, the report said. Last week, Executive Director Allen Clemson resigned in anticipation that he would be fired after the report was released.

When Clemson was hired in 2009, he was the fifth chief executive in five years.

"There is nothing wrong with the NTTA that can't be fixed," Orsini told the board. But he added: "Entities like the NTTA need the public to believe they are operating in an honest, ethical, efficient and effective manner."

Tollway board members offered few comments after the presentation Tuesday, saying they needed time to digest it.

But Barr, who has been chairman for about a month, said he believes that the board can make the necessary changes.

"I find it reassuring and challenging at the same time," he said. "I think we'll find some of these things are easy to implement, some will take some time and, in some cases, we may find there's a different strategy."

Gordon Dickson, 817-390-7796

© 2011 Fort Worth Star-Telegram: www.star-telegram.com

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"The Trans Texas Corridor is 'mostly dead'....We put the proponents in serious retreat, yet we will remain vigilant."

2011-10-17T18:24:00.005-05:00

Texans celebrate repeal of Trans Texas Corridor

10/16/11

Terri Hall
Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom
Copyright 2011

AUSTIN, TEXAS - For the first time since the 80th legislative session in 2007, all the grassroots groups that took on Texas Governor Rick Perry to stop the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) and place a moratorium on public private partnerships (or P3s) gathered at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center in Austin, Saturday, October 15, to celebrate their collective victory in finally achieving the complete repeal of the Trans Texas Corridor from state statute (Kolkhorst's HB 1201 was signed into law June 17, 2011).

Several current and former state representatives gave emotional acceptance speeches saying they were "honored" to received awards at TURF's 'Stars of Texas' award luncheon. The event recognized and celebrated the work of Texas State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst and former State Rep. David Leibowitz to repeal the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC), former State Rep. Jim Dunnam and Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson's efforts to keep tolls off existing roadways and stop the sale of Texas roads to private corporations, and Rep. David Simpson's work to rein-in invasive searches by the TSA that impede freedom to travel.

(left to right) Commissioner Tommy Adkisson, Rep. David Leibowitz, Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, Rep. Jim Dunnam, Rep. David Simpson

Rep. Kolkhorst has introduced legislation to repeal the TTC for the last three sessions. This year, it finally passed. The pie-in-the-sky, 4,000-mile, 1,200 foot wide network of toll roads, rail, utilities, telecommunications, etc. that would confiscate 580,000 acres and displace 1 million Texans on TTC-35 alone is DEAD. However, in SB 1420, 14 Texas road projects remain eligible for P3s that will cost urban commuters dearly, 75 cents per mile, and still pose sovereignty, eminent domain, and monopoly concerns.

Terri Hall, Founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF) noted, "So taking a line from the movie Princess Bride, the Trans Texas Corridor is 'mostly dead.' Regardless of the final status, the TTC has been officially repealed, which is cause for our celebration today. We put the proponents in serious retreat, yet we will remain vigilant."

Hall pointed out that by its own admission, the highway department (TxDOT) plans to break-up the TTC in smaller pieces and do the project using the original road or loop name like, SH 130, and Loop 9 around DFW. However, the size and scale will be greatly diminished, which Hall thinks is a tremendous victory for property rights and Texas landowners.

Kolkhorst teared up as she listened to Hall recount the stories that lead up to the repeal of the TTC. As she accepted her award she remarked, "How could we even think of selling off our infrastructure to foreign companies? Shame on us, shame on us for thinking about it. I will fight any Republican, any Democrat, anyone who wants to take our state from us."

"I don't know how you did it. The deck was so stacked against you...You inspire me, you will inspire other generations. God bless Texas and may it always stand as a free and sovereign nation," Kolkhorst concluded at the end of her emotional speech.

Simpson in typical form, brought a hush over the room as he spoke, "Civil government has destroyed many lives. What is fundamental to property or to working is the movement of our bodies, in a sense, transportation. I'm encouraged by the people who are waking up and listening who are holding coffees, holding town hall meetings, looking at voting records."

Simpson described the proper role of government, which should be limited to just two things: enforcing the rules between individuals and punishing the wrongdoer who harms his neighbor and beyond that, government should "get out of the way," a statement which drew hearty applause. "The role of force should be very limited. The role of force has not made Texas great, it has not made America great, freedom has made Texas great."

Leibowitz praised the grassroots who worked together toward a common goal to slay the TTC, "This really is a very special group you have put together. Many different political philosophies, different walks of life, urban, rural, people that have come together for a common cause. People that come forward and work together to get something accomplished, they do end up, in fact, literally moving mountains."

Then he noted that he was unusual in the legislature in that he didn't have a lot of photos of himself alongside notable figures hanging in his office, like the many dignitaries and celebrities that visit the Texas Legislature while its in session, but "I will in fact cherish this" (referring to his 'Star of Texas' Award).

Attendees roared after viewing a video clip of Dunnam's exchange with TxDOT's Phil Russell over private toll roads that could best be described as a body slam that left Russell reeling and ultimately killed the P3 re-authorization in the special session of July 2009 that lead to the expiration of P3s a month later.

Dunnam said the "danger we have today in all levels of our government is that certain people 'own' it...the people stood up and stopped these toll roads in my district. It was all about the money, all about money for private interests making money off the government."

He went on to assert that elected officials are afraid to stand up to the money, "but, fortunately, they're also afraid of y'all" (pointing to Hall).

In his usual style, Adkisson recounted the history of Bexar County from the Battle of Alazan to the Battle of the Alamo to express that they've never been a bunch to back away from a fight. Adkisson has been in a battle royale trying to stop tolls on existing roads in San Antonio for 6 years.

"We ran the king out of town in 1776 and established our freedom as Americans and then we proceeded to establish big, private money as a modern monarchy. They're at work on a regular basis, and your elected officials are constantly tugged at by these people and they're trying to figure out if they're going to agree with you or the big money boys. I salute you because the dream of American democracy and American freedom is one that's made possible by your daily efforts."

"Never ever believe there are just Republicans or Democrats in this process, there's a marbling of commonality that runs throughout our democracy. We are Americans today and we are Americans forever," Adkisson concluded and received a standing ovation. In fact, every elected official honored received rousing standing ovations throughout the awards ceremony.

David & Linda Stahl
with Terri Hall (center)

David and Linda Stall, founders of Corridor Watch and the couple that ignited the firestorm of opposition to the TTC, gave impassioned speeches about what motivated them to continue on in the face of great odds against them. "We could move somewhere else and do our jobs, but the neighbors I could see out of every window made their living off the land and this corridor would have not only taken their land, it would have destroyed their livelihoods," Linda Stall acknowledged.

In addition to paying tribute to a roomful of honorees, Hall was sure to give credit to Austin Toll Party and Texas Toll Party Founder Sal Costello for the movement's success.

Hall said Costello had a knack for marketing, he was edgy, and one of the most effective advocates against the toll roads and TTC in the state. He used the online petition to gather his email list that not only riled politicians but grew his army to over 50,000. Costello mastered how to use alternative media, like blogging, before blogging gained legitimacy.

"I stand on his shoulders. The information and techniques I learned from him were absolutely invaluable, though he moved on and lives in Illinois, I know he's here in spirit today," Hall remarked.

TURF Founder Terri Hall with Truth Be Tolled filmmaker William Molina

Award-winning filmmaker William Molina, also an honoree, condensed footage from his four films in the Truth Be Tolled series to share with those gathered as a finale -- bringing attendees through the full gamut of emotions, anger, tears, and even laughter as the film montage ended to the tune Trans Texas Corridor Blues.

Complete list of honorees below.

The 'Stars of Texas' Honorees:

The Honorable Texas State Representative Lois Kolkhorst, Brenham
The Honorable Former Texas State Representative David Leibowitz, San Antonio
The Honorable Former Texas State Representative Jim Dunnam, Waco
The Honorable Texas State Representative David Simpson, Longview
The Honorable Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Adkisson, San Antonio

Hank Gilbert, Co-founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom
David & Linda Stall, Founders, Corridor Watch
William Molina, Filmmaker, Storm Pictures
Ralph & Marcia Snyder, Eastern Central Texas Sub-Regional Planning Commission (ECTSRPC)
(Also accepting awards on behalf of the Honorable Mae Smith, Mayor of Holland, TX, President of ECTSRPC & Dan & Margaret Byfield, American Stewards of Liberty)
David Van Os, Attorney, Advocate
Melissa Cubria, Texas Public Interest Research Group
Agnes Voges, Blacklands Coalition (Also, accepting an award on behalf of Chris Hammel, Blacklands Coalition)
Trey & Jennifer Duhon, Citizens for a Better Waller County
Linda Curtis, Independent Texans
Martha Estes, Working for Accountable Government
Judith McGeary, Farm & Ranch Freedom Alliance
Don Dixon, Citizen Advocate
Gina Parker Ford, TURF Board Member, Eagle Forum, Advocate

© 2011 TURF: www.texasturf.org

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To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

"Too often, the public's business becomes private business."

2011-10-17T08:36:00.001-05:00

Potential conflicts of interest at North Texas Tollway Authority examined

10/17/11

By Steve Miller
Texas Watchdog
Copyright 2011

"Too often, the public's business becomes private business," state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, says in a weekend story about the North Texas Tollway Authority in the Fort Worth Star –Telegram.

He's stating the obvious, but is anyone paying attention?

The context is the tollway authority and its heretofore ability to escape public scrutiny of its cozy relationships with vendors and consultants.

There have been issues raised for a while. For starters, as pointed out in the Star-Telegram:

This year, before being appointed chairman of the North Texas Tollway Authority, former Fort Worth Mayor Kenneth Barr disclosed that his brother worked for the Locke Lord law firm, which provides much of the authority's legal services.

Other board members wondered if there was a conflict of interest. Barr explained that he had already sought an opinion from the authority's legal counsel -- who also works for Locke Lord -- and together they had determined it was ethically safe for him to vote on issues involving the firm.

Board member David Denison has a financial interest in a company that owns land in the path of tollway growth. But it’s OK, he said.

Denison wrote in a Feb. 11 memorandum to fellow board members and tollway staff: "There is no scenario under which that acquisition can result in any economic benefit to me."

In the next year, tollway authority revenue is expected to hit $480 million with debt of $9 billion. That’s plenty of authority.

A report commissioned by county judges in Tarrant, Denton, Dallas and Collin counties, set to be released Tuesday, may shine some light on this operation (which has at times displayed transparency). The report could even bring some reform of a board that has grown in both scope and taxpayer spending, although it's important to understand that the judges requesting the audit are the same ones who select board members for the tollway authority.

Other reform efforts have gone nowhere.

The state legislature in this past session considered a bill that would subject the tollway authority to a sunset review. It failed, as did another bill that would have required tollway authorities to undergo an annual financial audit by the state auditor.

On Friday, the authority’s fifth CEO in five years resigned, claiming he couldn’t get along with the board. Allen Clemson has a deal under which he gets 90 days of severance, but he could request to be paid through the end of his contract, which is May.

***

Contact Steve Miller at 832-303-9420 or stevemiller@texaswatchdog.org.

© 2011 Texas Watchdog: www.texaswatchdog.org

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North Texas Tollway Authority's no bid contracts with a select group of legal and engineering firms come under scrutiny

2011-10-15T08:37:00.000-05:00

Tollway authority's way of doing business comes under scrutiny

10/16/11

By Gordon Dickson
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Copyright 2011

gdickson@star-telegram.com

PLANO -- This year, before being appointed chairman of the North Texas Tollway Authority, former Fort Worth Mayor Kenneth Barr disclosed that his brother worked for the Locke Lord law firm, which provides much of the authority's legal services.

Other board members wondered if there was a conflict of interest. Barr explained that he had already sought an opinion from the authority's legal counsel -- who also works for Locke Lord -- and together they had determined it was ethically safe for him to vote on issues involving the firm.

"My brother has never done anything related to NTTA and not benefited in any way," Barr said later in an interview. Barr explained that his brother, Andrew Barr, has a background in a entirely different area of business and criminal law.

But as the tollway authority, once a niche agency that managed a handful of toll projects in the Dallas area, has evolved into a major player throughout North Texas, the manner in which it conducts its business is being placed under a microscope.

An audit-style report scheduled to be made public Tuesday is expected to offer a scathing review of how the tollway authority handles its financial and organizational affairs.

It will likely look into what some area officials say is the authority's far too cozy relationship with a handful of legal, engineering and other firms that are paid tens of millions of dollars per year for their services without putting the work up for bid.

The authority's inability to hold onto a chief executive will also likely be explored in the report, commissioned by county judges in Tarrant, Denton, Dallas and Collin counties. NTTA Executive Director Allen Clemson, hired in mid-2009, sought to move swiftly to bring in new blood for engineering, legal and other contracts. But last week, Clemson abruptly resigned on the eve of the report being issued, saying he was doing so because the board was so unhappy with his performance that he expected to be fired.

The report also may talk about how board members should report conflicts of interest. County commissions in those four counties appoint eight NTTA tollway board members -- two each -- and a ninth member is appointed by the governor.

Barr's brother, Andrew Barr, stressed in an e-mail last week that he is "of counsel" with Locke Lord, meaning he isn't a partner and doesn't participate in the firm's profits. "Nor can any single client somehow indirectly influence what I'm paid," Andrew Barr said, noting that he is just one of about 660 attorneys with Locke Lord.

Kenneth Barr also has prior relationships with the Fort Worth lawyers hired to handle the right of way acquisitions for the Chisholm Trail Parkway, another NTTA project. Another board member, David Denison, has acknowledged having a financial stake in a firm with land in the parkway's path.

Many critics, including elected leaders, say the agency ought to be subject to a periodic state audit known as a sunset review to ensure that the motoring public's dollars and trust have not been compromised. During the next year, tollway authority officials estimate that their revenue will increase to $480 million and their debt to $9 billion.

"Too often, the public's business becomes private business," said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth. "Sunset is a way for citizens to hold their agencies accountable."

Other state lawmakers say such a review could flag issues leading to the constant turnover in upper management.

"I'm looking for an analysis of their governance that helps explain why they've had five CEOs in five years," said state Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, who serves on the Sunset Advisory Commission. "That speaks to a government entity with an institutional problem."

Cozy relationships

Officials who know what is included in the county judges' report, which is being paid for by the NTTA, are tight-lipped about its contents. The study, which includes one-on-one interviews with tollway board members and executive staff, is being prepared by Alvarez and Marsal, a corporate problem-solving firm.Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley declined to discuss the report, saying he hadn't seen the final version, though he said the consultants had done a good job.

This month, Barr told fellow board members to be prepared to discuss the report at the authority's Plano headquarters Tuesday.

One of the areas the report may examine is how the tollway authority could save money -- perhaps millions of dollars a year -- by hiring its own engineers, lawyers and other professional staff, rather than relying on the handful of firms with which it has close ties.

For example, one of the relationships likely to be examined is with the HNTB engineering firm.

The firm shares a campus with the authority in Plano, and employees of either organization who want to confer about a project need only walk across the parking lot. HNTB is being paid about $15 million this year under the firm's contract with the tollway authority.

Another association likely to come under review is the authority's link to Locke Lord, which is being paid about $6.9 million this year for providing the agency with legal advice, according to tollway records.

Some recent changes at NTTA have created new layers of controversy. For example, tollway board members talked about the need to hire more minority-owned contractors, and took a step in that direction this year in hiring the law firm Newby Davis to provide legal services for right of way purchase on the Chisholm Trail Parkway project.

Newby Davis is a partnership between Brian Newby, an African-American lawyer who is Gov. Rick Perry's former chief of staff, and state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth. Newby and Davis are both lawyers with Fort Worth's Cantey Hanger firm.

Kenneth Barr keeps an office in Cantey Hanger's building on the west side of downtown Fort Worth.

In 2009, Barr, Newby and Cantey Hanger attorney David Chappell formed a partnership named Barr Newby Chappell Consulting, according to records at the secretary of state's office. Nearly two years later, when the tollway board voted unanimously to hire Newby Davis, Barr said it was an oversight that he didn't ask the tollway authority's legal counsel whether he should abstain because of his past relationship with Newby and Chappell.

He said he had forgotten about the 2009 partnership, which had been for a business opportunity that never materialized and was dissolved.

Davis, for her part, said she sees no conflict in doing legal work for the tollway authority, even though as a state senator she may be called upon to vote on matters where a connection -- however loose -- could be perceived. For example, the Legislature approves the budget for the Texas Department of Transportation, which is partnering with the tollway authority on the Chisholm Trail Parkway project and has committed $147 million to the project for connections to Interstate 30 in southwest Fort Worth and U.S. 67 in Cleburne.

"So long as the work is not related to any decisions I make in the Senate, there is no conflict," Davis said. "Together with the NTTA's goal of spreading work around Dallas-Fort Worth, and using minority-owned firms, Brian and I created a minority-owned law firm. There's absolutely no conflict whatsoever."

Land purchase

Another tollway board member, David Denison of Lewisville, came forward with a potential conflict issue in February. After the Star-Telegram reported the sale of a 625-acre tract of land straddling the planned Chisholm Trail Parkway right of way, the retired real estate investor disclosed that he had worked as an independent consultant and investor with one of the partners in the purchase, Stratford Land.

Stratford and Legacy Capital Partners bought the McPherson Ranch property, about five miles south of Hulen Mall, near where McPherson Boulevard is expected to intersect with the new toll road. Part of the property will be set aside for single-family homes, although retailers will likely also be drawn to the area once the toll road provides easy access, a Stratford official has said.

But, Denison wrote in a Feb. 11 memorandum to fellow board members and tollway staff: "There is no scenario under which that acquisition can result in any economic benefit to me."

Denison went on to explain that Stratford has several funds, each of which is managed independently, and that although he was an investor in three such funds, he had no involvement in the fund near Chisholm Trail Parkway.

Frank Stevenson, a Locke Lord attorney who has served as the tollway authority's chief legal counsel for many years, said the Denison situation proves that the tollway authority's internal conflict-of-interest rules can work.

"I'm at a loss as to what we should have done differently," he said, noting that Denison quickly brought the issue to the board and executive staff's attention and got a ruling before a potential conflict could arise. "It seems clear to me that, legally, this was the right answer."

Several other officials noted that other state commissions handle ethics differently by requiring officials to fill out annual financial disclosure forms so that staff members can help flag potential conflicts for appointees.

"I am by law and rule required to disclose a great deal," said Bill Meadows of Fort Worth, a Texas Transportation Commission member who also previously served on the tollway authority board. "This is a much more open agency than NTTA, in terms of what officials are required to disclose. We have an annual financial disclosure that covers real estate, relationships, employment and equity."

Barr cautioned board members not to expect the report to bring closure to the issues. Instead, he said it will be a starting point for the board members, who must figure out themselves how to rebuild the authority's management.

"This is not a road map. It's not so much telling us how to run NTTA as much as they'll be giving us suggestions," he said. "We will take those recommendations very seriously. We will not focus on the finger-pointing, but how to look forward to the future."

© 2011 Fort Worth Star-Telegram: www.star-telegram.com

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Wall Street 'to the rescue' with toll road infrastructure bank

2011-10-14T19:46:00.000-05:00

US House Committee Blasts National Toll Road Bank Proposal

Presidential toll road bank hits roadblock in US House committee of jurisdiction.

10/14/11

TheNewspaper.com
Copyright 2011

A top congressional leader on Wednesday made clear his opposition to President Obama's idea of spending $10 billion to create a national infrastructure bank (view details). The bank, part of the White House jobs bill, would offer public subsidy for the financing of "public private partnerships" -- which most often would take the form of a toll road. The chairman of the US House Transportation Committee said at a hearing the president's plan would not advance.

"A national infrastructure bank is dead on arrival in the House of Representatives," Chairman John Mica (R-Florida) said. "If you want a recipe to put off job creation, adopt that national infrastructure bank proposal."

Opponents called the proposal a "distraction" from the issue of a long-term highway program reauthorization bill which would include funding for state-level toll road banks. Already, thirty-two states have their own infrastructure banks which have financed $6.3 billion in loan agreements along the same lines as the proposed federal bank.

"Many people are skeptical that bureaucrats in Washington would have any idea which transportation projects are most deserving of receiving a federal loan," Highways and Transit subcommittee Chairman John J. Duncan, Jr (R-Tennessee) said. "This skepticism is why Congress has already established the state infrastructure bank program in SAFETEA-LU."

In addition, the US Department of Transportation already provides federal credit for transportation projects under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA), which has offered $8.4 billion in project finance. Dozens of other financing mechanisms are offered by the Federal Highway Administration.

"Why build one when you could build two for twice the price?" Representative Howard Coble (R-North Carolina) said sarcastically.

Democrats offered the only backing for the bank idea.

"Before Wall Street destroyed the economy, I had said, 'Well, I really don't see the need for an infrastructure bank -- most of the states have good credit and they can go out and borrow on their own at very good rates," said subcommittee Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon). "But that isn't the case any more. The states need guarantees, they need help, many are against their borrowing limits, and most of the banks generously bailed out by Congress -- not by me, I didn't vote for it -- aren't lending. Credit and bond markets are tight."

DeFazio only supports the use of the bank only for water, sewer and energy projects. He does not support tolls on existing interstates.

© 2011 TheNewspaper.com: www.thenewspaper.com

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Rick Perry's Texas: State of Denial and Kremlin-style censorship

2011-10-14T19:17:00.001-05:00

Rick Perry officials spark revolt after doctoring environment report

Scientists ask for names to be removed after mentions of climate change and sea-level rise taken out by Texas officials

10/14/11

Suzanne Goldenberg
The Guardian
Copyright 2011

Officials in Rick Perry's home state of Texas have set off a scientists' revolt after purging mentions of climate change and sea-level rise from what was supposed to be a landmark environmental report. The scientists said they were disowning the report on the state of Galveston Bay because of political interference and censorship from Perry appointees at the state's environmental agency.

By academic standards, the protest amounts to the beginnings of a rebellion: every single scientist associated with the 200-page report has demanded their names be struck from the document. "None of us can be party to scientific censorship so we would all have our names removed," said Jim Lester, a co-author of the report and vice-president of the Houston Advanced Research Centre.

"To me it is simply a question of maintaining scientific credibility. This is simply antithetical to what a scientist does," Lester said. "We can't be censored." Scientists see Texas as at high risk because of climate change, from the increased exposure to hurricanes and extreme weather on its long coastline to this summer's season of wildfires and drought.

However, Perry, in his run for the Republican nomination, has elevated denial of science, from climate change to evolution, to an art form. He opposes any regulation of industry, and has repeatedly challenged the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Texas is the only state to refuse to sign on to the federal government's new regulations on greenhouse gas emissions. "I like to tell people we live in a state of denial in the state of Texas," said John Anderson, an oceanography at Rice University, and author of the chapter targeted by the government censors.

That state of denial percolated down to the leadership of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The agency chief, who was appointed by Perry, is known to doubt the science of climate change. "The current chair of the commission, Bryan Shaw, commonly talks about how human-induced climate change is a hoax," said Anderson.

But scientists said they still hoped to avoid a clash by simply avoiding direct reference to human causes of climate change and by sticking to materials from peer-reviewed journals. However, that plan began to unravel when officials from the agency made numerous unauthorised changes to Anderson's chapter, deleting references to climate change, sea-level rise and wetlands destruction.

"It is basically saying that the state of Texas doesn't accept science results published in Science magazine," Anderson said. "That's going pretty far."

Officials even deleted a reference to the sea level at Galveston Bay rising five times faster than the long-term average – 3mm a year compared to .5mm a year – which Anderson noted was a scientific fact. "They just simply went through and summarily struck out any reference to climate change, any reference to sea level rise, any reference to human influence – it was edited or eliminated," said Anderson. "That's not scientific review that's just straight forward censorship."

Mother Jones has tracked the changes. The agency has defended its actions. "It would be irresponsible to take whatever is sent to us and publish it," Andrea Morrow, a spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. "Information was included in a report that we disagree with."

She said Anderson's report had been "inconsistent with current agency policy", and that he had refused to change it. She refused to answer any questions. Campaigners said the censorship by the Texas state authorities was a throwback to the George Bush era when White House officials also interfered with scientific reports on climate change.

In the last few years, however, such politicisation of science has spread to the states. In the most notorious case, Virginia's attorney general Ken Cuccinelli, who is a professed doubter of climate science, has spent a year investigating grants made to a prominent climate scientist Michael Mann, when he was at a state university in Virginia.

Several courts have rejected Cuccinelli's demands for a subpoena for the emails. In Utah, meanwhile, Mike Noel, a Republican member of the Utah state legislature called on the state university to sack a physicist who had criticised climate science doubters.

The university rejected Noel's demand, but the physicist, Robert Davies said such actions had had a chilling effect on the state of climate science. "We do have very accomplished scientists in this state who are quite fearful of retribution from lawmakers, and who consequently refuse to speak up on this very important topic. And the loser is the public," Davies said in an email.

"By employing these intimidation tactics, these policymakers are, in fact, successful in censoring the message coming from the very institutions whose expertise we need."

© 2011 The Guardian: www.guardian.co.uk

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"Full of ego, light on the facts. That’s a good summation of Perry’s campaign."

2011-10-13T19:34:00.001-05:00

Is letting Perry be Perry such a good idea?

10/13/11

By Jennifer Rubin
The Washington Post
Copyright 2011

The virtual unanimous opinion of media, Republican operatives and donors of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s performance in the last debate was that he looked alternatively annoyed, uncomfortable and tired. His confession that debates aren’t his “strong suit” suggested a sense of grim recognition has set in: Perry can’t win the voters over on policy or presentation.

Self-pity seems to have overtaken the Perry camp. Anita Perry complains, “We are being brutalized by our opponents and our own party.” Are these folks ready for the onslaught from President Obama? Plainly not, especially since almost all of her husband’s problems have been self-inflicted. But the thin-skinnedness is perhaps explainable if you think God has tapped you on the shoulder.

She adds, “So much of that is, I think they look at him, because of his faith. He is the only true conservative — well, there are some true conservatives. And they’re there for good reasons. And they may feel like God called them, too. But I truly feel like we are here for that purpose.”

Those poor benighted fools don’t know God selected him, not them! Does she really believe that Rick Santorum and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) are attacking him because of his faith?

And don’t think I’m picking on Mrs. Perry. Perry himself has repeatedly explained that he’s been tapped as well. Maybe he should have listened to his own counsel. At one point he explained to Neil Cavuto, “A prophet is generally not loved in their [sic] hometown.” Perhaps his prophesy doesn’t go down elsewhere either.

It is ironic Perry’s wife should be whining about religious prejudice, given her husband's refusal to denounce the overt bigotry of Pastor Robert Jeffress.

Self-pity soon degenerates into anger. Perry is reportedly mounting a negative ad campaign against Mitt Romney. This, of course, misses the point that Herman Cain (who also thinks he’s been called to run) would be the beneficiary. Romney senior adviser Stuart Stevens replied matter-of-factly when I asked about the expected onslaught. “Rick Perry has a Rick Perry problem, not a Mitt Romney or Herman Cain problem,” he said.

Stevens is happy to point out that a ultra-negative ad campaign has its drawbacks. “At some point, donors and others need to start asking Governor Perry’s campaign if they are more interested in defeating Obama or going down a destructive path cheered by the White House.” More to the point, Perry has never launched a positive message; voters may come away with the impression that he is simply a bitter, panicky pol.

All of this must certainly be a shock to Perry. His record was never scrutinized to this extent in Texas. He never faced debate after debate against skilled opponents. Governors are in many states the king of the mountain. People grovel and flatter them. They go speak to friendly crowds day after day. And they get all the trappings of power — limos, helicopters, security entourages.

On that score, a staffer from an opposing camp after the debate told me: “He had seven Texas Rangers in the hallway of the Hanover Inn in Dartmouth. He took four with him in the walk-through. He had a motorcade of five SUVs to go to a frat house, where he declared the War of Independence was in the 16th century.” Full of ego, light on the facts. Come to think of it, that’s a good summation of Perry’s campaign.

© 2011 Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com

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NTTA chief bails after ruffling the crony connections of HNTB, Locke Lord and other 'legacy' firms with 'no bid' contracts

2011-10-13T08:33:00.001-05:00

Under fire, Tollway chief resigns today

10/13/11

By Gordon Dickson
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Copyright 2011

Under fire for trying to reform agency operations too quickly, North Texas Tollway Authority Executive Director Allen Clemson resigned today.

In private meetings this week with an unidentified board member, it was made clear to Clemson that the board had enough votes to fire him Wednesday. So, instead, he resigned effective Friday.

Clemson must still negotiate a severance and, although his contract only calls for 90 days of pay, it is believed that he will receive his salary through the end of his contract term in May.

Reached by telephone Thursday afternoon, Clemson did not want to elaborate on his job status until after talking with tollway board members. But Clemson did say that he expected to be fired during a tollway board meeting Wednesday.

"I don't have any indication that a majority of the board's opinion has changed," he said.

Clemson was nearly fired during the summer after most of the tollway board's nine members said they didn't like the manner in which he was trying to bring in new firms to handle the agency's legal, engineering and other professional services. But under then-Chairman Victor Vandergriff of Arlington, a Clemson supporter, the tollway board opted to instead begin a 90-day review of Clemson's job performance.

The source with knowledge of Clemson's termination asked not to be identified because the source was not authorized to discuss the situation but said Clemson was preparing to leave today.

Clemson came to the Plano-based tollway authority in June 2009 after a lengthy stint as the Dallas County administrator. He stepped into a position known as a hot seat -- the agency had had five executive directors in five years. Not long after he arrived, Clemson sought to change the tollway authority's culture of relying on engineering firm HNTB, legal firm Locke Lord and a handful of other companies for tens of millions of dollars per year in tollway work.

But beginning last year, he came under fire for seeking change too swiftly, as some board members sought to ensure that the quality of work of several ongoing big-dollar projects wasn't hurt during the transition. That spat let to the ouster of Vandergriff as chairman. He was replaced by former Fort Worth Mayor Kenneth Barr, who became tollway board chairman last month.

"I think a lot of things he could have done differently, and it probably would have prevented some of the angst out there, but I certainly appreciate the job he has done," Vandergriff said of Clemson. Vandergriff, who was reached by phone Thursday afternoon, said he had not been told of Clemson's departure.

© 2011 Fort Worth Star-Telegram: www.star-telegram.com

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Rick Perry's pipe dreams: More land grabs for Big Oil & Gas campaign donors

2011-10-12T19:02:00.003-05:00

Perry banking on pro-drilling energy plan

10/12/11

By Christy Hoppe and Elizabeth Souder
The Dallas Morning News
Copyright 2011

DALLAS — Rick Perry, looking to take the offensive on job creation and revive his struggling campaign, is poised to advance a “drill here, drill now” initiative with a heavy reliance on environmental deregulation and new pipelines.

Perry has been under pressure to release an economic blueprint and his campaign will fully unveil the energy plan Friday in Pennsylvania. He touted it in Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate, without many details, as a way to create 1.2 million jobs and free the country from its foreign oil dependence.

Critics are already dismissing the underpinnings of the plan, saying that any president would lack the authority to implement it, that Perry underestimates the country’s affinity for environmental protections and that he will face the kind of fierce resistance to oil pipelines that dismantled his Trans Texas Corridor.

The plan, as previewed in a column Perry wrote this week in the New Hampshire Union Leader, would ostensibly require no congressional action and would include boosts for renewable energy. The emphasis is on opening oil and gas shale formations to drilling in the Alaska Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, offshore and throughout the continental U.S.

At the same time, Perry would shut off any new federal regulations on hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” or on drilling and toxic emissions, which he calls “job-killers.”

Jim Marston, director of the state’s Environmental Defense Fund, said most voters won’t want to replicate Perry’s Texas record.

“I don’t think Texans want us to be this dirty, and I’m very comfortable that the rest of the nation does not want to surpass us,” Marston said.

The Perry campaign declined to provide any further details of the plan, but many of the jobs Perry cited presumably would come from projected boosts in manufacturing and purchased goods from reduced energy costs.

“Economic growth and security should not be pit against environmental stewardship,” Perry wrote, saying he would create high-paying jobs at the same time continuing to protect the environment.

Texas Railroad Commissioner Barry Smitherman, who helped the governor craft the new energy policies, told The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday that new Environmental Protection Agency regulations on endangered species and drilling techniques create uncertainty for the industry and slow production.

He called for a “moratorium on new EPA regulations in traditional drilling areas.”

The drilling component doesn’t differ much from President Barack Obama’s decisions in office, said University of Texas professor Michael Webber.

“Perry wants to do the same thing Obama did, only he wants to do it dirtier,” said Webber, associate director for the university’s Center for International Energy&Environmental Policy. He pointed out that U.S. oil production has grown under Obama after decades of contraction.

Smitherman said new pipelines are key to Perry’s energy plan.

“It’s not just drill, drill, drill, because we’re drilling a lot now,” Smitherman said.

He pointed out that consumers are buying high-cost international oil because the country lacks the pipelines to bring U.S. oil to major refineries.

New lines almost always spark protests. Already, more than 800 have been arrested around the country over the massive 1,700-mile Canada-to-Texas proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

The high-pressure, underground pipeline, a $7 billion project that could produce thousands of jobs, is fraught with environmental risk, from extracting tar sand oil — one of the dirtiest sources of energy — to the pipeline crossing private property, aquifers and large populations.

The same private-property right groups that helped upend Perry’s signature transportation idea, the Trans Texas Corridor, have joined with environmentalists in Texas to fight the proposal.

Dave Carney, Perry’s chief political consultant, cast the governor’s plan as a bold one that he could act on immediately as president.

“His energy plan/jobs plan — this sort of a Declaration of Independence — is not just about foreign oil; it’s not just about American production,” said Dave Carney, Perry’s chief political consultant. “It’s things that the president can do in dealing with regulation.”

Marston, the Texas environmentalist, disagreed, noting that the federal lands in Alaska are protected by an act of Congress and can only be changed by Congress. Some of the mandates on lowering emissions have come from recent court orders, including a U.S. Supreme Court decision that says carbon dioxide regulation falls under the Clean Air Act.

“I’m sorry but we’re a country of laws, not one man,” Marston said.

Polls also show there is little public sentiment for rolling back environmental regulations.

And other experts challenge one of the underlying premises of Perry’s plan: the contention that pollution controls cost American jobs.

Bruce Bartlett, a former senior official with the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, has noted that according to federal statistics, just 2,971 jobs were lost in 2010 because of government regulations. Overall, the country lost 1.3 million jobs that year.

“Regulatory uncertainty is a canard invented by Republicans that allows them to use current economic problems to pursue an agenda supported by the business community,” Bartlett wrote this month in The New York Times.

———

(Staff writer Todd J. Gillman in Hanover, N.H., contributed to this report.)

© 2011 The Dallas Morning News: www.dallasnews.com

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"With a Perry crony now on the commission, it created an opportunity for the crony currently chairing the commission to resign."

2011-10-11T08:17:00.001-05:00

Crony in, crony out at TxDOT

10/11/11

Eye on Williamson
Copyrigh 2011

Not even two weeks ago energy company lobbyist and former aide to Gov. Rick Perry was chosen as the new Executive Director of the Texas Transportation Commission, Tolls, tolls, tolls – former Perry aide/lobbyist appointed to head Texas Transportation Commission. With a Perry crony now on the commission, it created an opportunity for the crony currently chairing the commission to resign. Late last week we learned that Deirdre Delisi, was resigning as chair of the commission to go to work of the Governor’s presidential campaign.

Delisi is being replaced by Ted Houghton who is currently a member of the commission.

“I’d like to thank Governor Perry for his trust in me to continue TxDOT down a path of responsiveness, change and modernization. I look forward to leading the department as it becomes a better TxDOT, living up to the expectations of the Governor, the Legislature and our stakeholders.

“Texas is a national leader in infrastructure and transportation system development, and I intend to reaffirm our place among the best, strongest and most innovative states as TxDOT delivers the projects the Legislature, our local partners and Texas motorists expect.”

Houghton was first appointed to the Texas Transportation Commission in 2003 by Governor Rick Perry, and was reappointed in 2009. A native of El Paso, Houghton is self-employed in the financial services industry. He is the first resident of El Paso to serve on the Commission.

I’m sure his “unique” experience in the financial services industry will come in handy building roads. Terri Hall has more, Houghton will continue Williamson era at TxDOT.

News coverage of Houghton’s appointment affirms that he sees his primary mission as handing Texas public roads over to private toll operators in sweetheart P3 contracts, despite the years of public opposition [...]. Status quo for sure, a thumb in the public’s eye most certainly, and it affirms Perry’s determination to continue the Williamson era of division, controversy, and strife in the midst of his struggling presidential campaign with charges of crony capitalism flying. Makes one shake one’s head in stunned amazement.

Nothing will change regarding transportation in Texas, until we change our state government.

© 2011 Eye on Williamson: www.eyeonwilliamson.org

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Rick Perry Finds His Mojo

2011-10-07T20:36:00.002-05:00

Rick Perry's address to Values Voters Summit

IndyAmericans Dish 'Poop' on Rick Perry

2011-10-07T19:18:00.009-05:00

Perry’s Real Problem - American Independents

Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor is now a story in play, but what's been left out is the independent voter back story.

Perry Poop: "Arming the American Eagle to Defeat Rick Perry"

10/7/11

Linda Curtis
IndyAmericans.com
(PRWEB)
Copyright 2011

Bastrop, TX-It wasn’t just that Rick Perry tried to conduct the largest land grab in Texas history for a massive foreign-owned toll road and utility-trade corridor called the Trans-Texas Corridor. And it wasn’t just that both parties opposed it, as reported in Politico this week. It was the exodus from the Republican Party of a major state official, Carole Strayhorn, then Texas Comptroller, to run as an independent against Perry in 2006. The revolt by the independent electorate resulted in 1.3 million independent votes in 2006.

Independent Texan activist, Linda Curtis, who lives 500 feet from where a wildfire ravaged Bastrop last month, said, "What the press has missed so far is the fact that Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor transgressions sparked a bonafide grassroots trans-partisan movement of ordinary Texans, with legs in both major parties, but led by Texas independents. He barely squeaked by in 2006 with just 39% of the vote."

Curtis of Independent Texans, who helped build the urban anti-toll movement in Austin with marketing wiz, Sal Costello, brought the rural anti-TTC and urban anti-toll coalition together behind Strayhorn. Curtis, a staunch progressive independent, and Marie Day, a Central Texas rancher and staunch conservative, have now launched IndyAmericans.com, a federal citizen’s super PAC for independent voters. The IndyAmericans.com website entitled, “Perry Poop,” has a hilarious picture of Rick Perry on the home page that is bound to attract lots of visitors – hopefully independent-voting visitors. (See the “About” section at IndyAmericans.com for more on Curtis and Day.)

If Perry becomes the nominee of the Republican Party, will this lead to another independent voter revolt across the country? "It will, if this new super PAC for independent voters, IndyAmericans.com, has anything to say about it," said co-founder Marie Day. What’s more, the site is a real pleaser for those political junkies – and ordinary voters – who like to hear from real people engaged in battles launched from the grassroots.

The in-depth story of the trans-partisan independent movement that took the TTC down, and almost took Perry with it, can be viewed on the site, IndyAmericans.com, under “Texas Independent Revolt.” Curtis and Day are available for interviews.

http://indyamericans.com/

© 2011 IndyAmericans.com: www.IndyAmericans.com

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Grassroots? "Rick Perry doesn't know a grass root from a railroad tie."

2011-10-05T21:25:00.005-05:00

Rick Perry Says He's Mr. Grassroots, But His Trans-Texas Flop Suggests Otherwise

10/5/11

By Jim Schutze
The Dallas Observer
Copyright 2011

Tea Party people say they hate Washington and its top-down style of governance. They're the political version of eat-local. Everything should be grassroots.

Here in Texas the Tea Party loves Governor Rick Perry, but if you talk to people who've gone up against Perry on local issues, they will tell you that grassroots is one word the man cannot even find in the dictionary.

I ran into this particular Perry disconnect when I was doing the reporting for a story on Perry in this week's newspaper. One of the little sagas we had to trim back for space had to do with his attempt to build the Trans-Texas Corridor, a proposed but now defunct 4,000-mile-long high-tech transportation right-of-way, four football fields wide, from Mexico to Oklahoma.

Talk about top-down. Perry got beat badly on the TTC because he acted like he didn't even know local communities existed. The local communities that probably had more to do with beating him were our own town, Dallas, and Fort Worth.

For that part of my Perry story, I hardly talked to any progressive anti-highway Democrats at all. The people who fought Perry on it and beat him were mostly conservative-leaning pro-road-building Republicans. They all told me they liked Perry's basic idea but just couldn't reason with the man because of his autocratic style.

The TTC was the brainchild of an oil and gas millionaire pal of Perry's from back in the day, the late Ric Williamson, whom Perry had appointed chair of the state's Transportation Commission. The idea is dead now, shot many times over in the head by the Legislature. In fact, even though it had already been dead four years, the most recent Legislature dragged out the corpse and shot it again just to make sure, passing new legislation to curb the state's use of eminent domain.

One of the first people I interviewed for my piece was Republican State Senator Florence Shapiro of Plano. She said rural dwellers in the proposed path of the TTC learned the details from local newspapers and blogs, not Perry.

"Think if you're living in one of these communities. You've had farm land for three generations, and one day you read in the paper that this mammoth, behemoth, much larger than necessary thing is going to condemn most of your property. They were livid and rightfully so."

But so were the cities. Dallas and Fort Worth at the time were pouring hundreds of millions in infrastructure dollars into our two competing "logistics centers" -- rail and freeway hubs with gargantuan automated warehouses to handle Pacific Rim trade coming up from deep-water ports in Houston, Mexico and Southern California. The TTC would have stepped around both centers, carrying all of that lucrative trade instead out into hinterlands where people didn't want it.

Bill Blaydes, then the Dallas City Council member in charge of our "inland port" project, says he, like Shapiro, thought the TTC idea had merit. He says it could have been married to Dallas' project, as well as to Fort Worth's Alliance Logistics Center, had Perry merely been willing to deal.

"It was a magnificent idea, had he been willing to work with the metropolitan areas and not try to bypass something that we had been working very hard to promote," Blaydes says. "We probably would not have fought it as hard as we did, but we fought it all the way to Washington."

In several years of trying, Blaydes said he was never able to find an inch of common ground with Perry or his friend Williamson. "They were headstrong and hard-headed. They could not and would not revise their vision," he says.

Sandy Greyson was the Dallas City Council member responsible for long-range transportation planning policy. She says when Dallas realized Perry wouldn't negotiate, the city mobilized quickly, hiring David Dean, a transportation lobbyist with strong ties to the Legislature.

Before Dean ever approached the capital, Greyson says, he ventured into the boondocks and did the grassroots work Perry and Williamson had failed to do, knitting together a coalition of every town council, aggrieved rancher and outlet mall he could find along the proposed route. By the time Dean took his "River of Trade" coalition to Austin, the TTC was a dead letter.

Greyson calls Williamson "a brilliant man" and mourns for the better parts of his concept. But, she says, "The fatal flaw in the whole thing was that it seemed to be a very top-down plan that would be imposed on people and cities and counties."

Shapiro says of the plan now, "It's gone." She says Perry could have pulled it off, had he been willing or able to work the grassroots.

"The idea should have been from the bottom up rather than from the top down. You would talk about it," Shapiro says. "You would have discussions about why we need this kind of infrastructure, so it comes from the grass roots, from the community leaders, from the people who own the land, not the government here telling you what to do."

Toss in Perry's decision to order HPV vaccinations for Texas girls and the way he handled the education budget in this recent legislative session: You have a man here who doesn't know a grass root from a railroad tie.

Given his campaign ads and his promises on the stump to put power back in the hands of states and local communities, there is enormous irony in how he really governs. But if something happened to Romney, Perry got the GOP nod and beat Obama ... well, that situation would go way beyond irony.

© 2011 The Dallas Observer: www.dallasobserver.com

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"If corporations are people — like the Supreme Court seems to think — then HNTB and Perry are BFFs."

2011-10-04T23:57:00.002-05:00

Perry's Homegrown Disaster Capitalism

Perry's not a racist; he's a crony capitalist who rarely passes up an opportunity to help his friends.

Related Link: HNTB is lead consultant for Trans-Texas Corridor

10/4/11

by Forrest Wilder
The Texas Observer
Copyright 2011

This story certainly doesn't have the panache of, say, a racist hunting camp name but it probably says a lot more about the governor's raison d'etre. Perry's not a racist; he's a crony capitalist who rarely passes up an opportunity to help his friends.

Case in point: The Austin American-Statesman reported yesterday that an engineering firm connected to Perry has botched a portion of the state's $3.1 billion disaster recovery program meant to help people and communities hammered by hurricanes Ike and Dolly over three years ago.

The upshot of the story is that the company, HNTB, has barely made a dent in rebuilding infrastructure in storm-battered areas, instead squandering 92 percent of the first round of money on administrative costs. Worse, it's unclear how the company, which has numerous ties to Perry, got the contract in the first place. The feds are pissed and the General Land Office, which recently took over from the woefully unequipped and now-defunct Texas Department of Rural Affairs, has yanked HNTB's contract.

If corporations are people — like the Supreme Court seems to think — then HNTB and Perry are BFFs.

Almost all of the firm's business is with public agencies, said Wendorf, and during Perry's administration its presence in Austin has grown.

[HNTB] was the principal consultant for Perry's first — and largest — pet project as governor, the proposed $184 billion Trans-Texas Corridor, which succumbed to widespread public opposition in 2010. Since 2008, the Texas Department of Transportation has paid HNTB $109 million for engineering consulting services, according to records with the state comptroller. Ray Sullivan, communications director for Perry's presidential campaign, has been a lobbyist for HNTB.

The firm is one of 139 major "crossover donors" identified by Texans for Public Justice who have contributed substantial sums to Perry and the Republican Governors Association, which Perry has twice chaired. According to campaignmoney.com, HNTB and its executives have given more than $500,000 to the association, which has sent $4 million to Perry's political campaigns.

[...]

Exactly how HNTB was chosen is not clear; because its contract was for professional services, it was not subject to a bid process. State records show the firm was paid $45 million under the contract before it was canceled.

Counting a $3 million contract with the land office for post-Ike debris removal and an earlier $8 million contract with the Department of Rural Affairs for assessment of hurricane damage, HNTB has earned $56 million for its hurricane-related services to the state in the past three years.

The Statesman story actually just grazes the surface of how dysfunctional and politicized hurricane recovery has been during the Perry administration. I've been following the story since Hurricane Rita ravaged southeast Texas in 2005. For some of the victims, the endless delays, red tape, misallocation of funds and Rube Goldberg-like recovery process has been a bigger disaster than the destruction wreaked by the storms.

The cardinal sin of Perry's approach to hurricanes Ike and Dolly recovery was putting the tiny, now-defunct Texas Department of Rural Affairs and HNTB in charge of the process, critics have said for years. But there was of course a political upside for Perry. As I wrote for an Observer cover story in February:

Though Ike hit coastal urban and semi-urban areas the hardest, Perry put the relatively obscure Texas Department of Rural Affairs in charge of the $3.1 billion in federal aid, an amount more than 25 times its annual budget. Created in 2001 by the Texas Legislature, the agency’s primary function is directing federal grants to rural communities. Just five years after its creation, the Sunset Advisory Commission recommended abolishing the agency and transferring its duties to the state Department of Agriculture. The rural affairs agency had failed to “meet many of the Legislature’s expectations to help strengthen and coordinate services to rural Texas,” the commission said. Now it was being given a huge, expensive and complicated task.

Rural Affairs initially proposed to base the distribution of funds not on actual, on-the-ground damage assessments performed by FEMA inspectors, but rather on weather data—wind speeds, for instance, and high-water maps. No other state had ever done this. And for good reason: Weather data can’t accurately tell you where the most damage occurred. “You’re essentially weighing damage to an empty field in the same way as damage to a block and a neighborhood,” says Madison Sloan, an attorney with Texas Appleseed, an Austin-based advocacy group.

The result was a massive shift of money away from the densely populated Houston-Galveston area to rural East Texas, which suffered much less damage from Ike.

This system had a political upside for Perry. The program “insulates the governor from making any politically sensitive decisions,” Henneberger told the Observer in an interview last year. “He can simply point to the locals and say we gave them the money, blame them. ... This is all about dodging responsibility.”

Critics also accuse Rural Affairs of shortchanging low- and moderate-income folks in favor of expensive infrastructure projects desired by local politicians. “It’s hard to get away from the fact that the weather model spread the wealth considerably more than if you looked at where the actual damage occurred,” says Joe Higgs, an organizer with Gulf Coast Interfaith. “Nothing wrong with that if it’s a stimulus program or it’s a general renewal Texas program, but the money wasn’t given to Texas for that. It was given to help people recover from the devastating events of hurricanes Dolly and Ike.”

The last time I checked, in July, just 300 homes had been rebuilt or fixed up since Ike — a measly 9 percent of the goal for Round 1 of the program. And, remember, three years have passed since Ike and Dolly made landfall.

The problem with disaster capitalism, other than the general rankness of profiting from people's suffering, is that it simply doesn't work well. Earlier this year, I spent 3-4 days in Galveston and Bolivar Peninsula talking to people about the painfully slow pace of recovery. For some, hope for community survival was slipping away as government and corporate bureaucracies failed. One woman, a proud Bolivarian, described it this way:

“What will be eliminated is those of us at the bottom who were barely able to be property owners, who worked our whole lives for that dream of living on the coast—that’s who’s going to be eliminated.”

© 2011 The Texas Observer: www.www.texasobserver.org

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To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

"Rick Perry’s 'small-government' record has yet another blot.... It’s called the Trans-Texas Corridor."

2011-10-04T23:20:00.001-05:00

Rick Perry's campaign may be sidetracked by the Trans-Texas Corridor

10/4/11

By KENDRA MARR
Politico
Copyright 2011

Rick Perry’s small-government record has yet another blot.

It’s called the Trans-Texas Corridor.

The governor’s 2012 rivals have latched onto his executive order mandating the HPV vaccine and his advocacy for in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, while little has been said about his unrealized 1,200-foot-wide toll road project that would have swallowed more than 500,000 acres of Texas farmland and wildlife habitats. But as the focus of debates increasingly turn toward President Barack Obama’s jobs agenda — a plan calling for a heavy dose of infrastructure investment — that may change.
“Pay to play, cronyism — all those charges can be found right here in the Trans-Texas Corridor,” said Terri Hall, founder and director of Texans United for Reform and Freedom, a group that fought the project. “We had a Texas-sized uprising.”

In 2002, Perry unveiled his $175 billion blueprint for Texas transportation, calling for 4,000 miles of new toll roads, high-speed rail lines and pipelines “as big as Texas and as ambitious as our people.” Not unlike Obama, Perry envisioned a government role in cultivating private-sector investment in infrastructure.

But awarding new toll development to a Spanish company stoked nativist fears — and questions about a revolving door to the governor’s office. His massive land grab through eminent domain, the practice of government seizing private property for public use, incurred the wrath of farmers, environmentalists and members of his own party.

Nearly 10 years later, Perry signed the death certificate for his brainchild, scrubbing all references of the corridor project from state statutes during the most recent Texas legislative session.

“I supported the ban of ever making a taxpayer-paid road a toll road. You cannot do that in the state of Texas,” he said in an August interview with Des Moines-based WHO Radio, stressing that tolling alternatives are raising taxes, asking Washington for money or waiting for the “asphalt fairy.”

Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan said the failed initiative ultimately fostered conversations about how to fund road projects without increased taxes or relying on the Federal Highway Trust Fund.

“We would describe it as one starting a very important, robust public debate and discussion of financing and developing transportation infrastructure,” he said. “While the corridor concept is dead, the debate has resulted in more transportation funding options and high-priority projects going forward with some private financing and strong state and local cooperation.”

Tolling and public-private partnerships have helped the state’s infrastructure keep up with the big influx of people moving to the state, Sullivan said, adding that the debate had evolved in such a “positive way,” the governor “could agree with the legislature that the corridor was no longer the right approach for the state.”

It’s clear that Texas needs to do something about its crumbling and aging transportation network. The state added 4 million people over the past decade, and its population explosion isn’t expected to slow down. Nearly half of the state’s major highways are congested, and one-third of its major roads are in poor or mediocre condition, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.
At the same time, the state has borrowed heavily to fund its road projects since 2003 and will owe $17.3 billion by the end of next year.

Perry’s Trans-Texas Corridor proposal — launched during his first gubernatorial campaign — would have run from the Mexico border to Oklahoma. It was the answer to the challenges of a growing state that was expecting increased international traffic under the North American Free Trade Agreement. Perry envisioned separate lanes for cars and trucks, as well as a rail system. The project was also slated to carry water pipes and utility lines. It was the “largest engineering project ever proposed for Texas,” according to one transportation department report, promising to reduce congestion, cut pollution, improve safety and speed up trade routes.
Given the state’s budget difficulties, Perry’s financing schemes included public and private money, including some toll roads. Republicans took control of the state Legislature in 2003, pushing the Trans-Texas Corridor project through both chambers as part of an omnibus transportation bill. But evidently, few lawmakers knew what the bill contained. When the state Transportation Department began holding public meetings about the project in early 2004, voters were fuming at the possibility that private corporations — particularly foreign ones — might exercise eminent domain to build massive amounts of infrastructure for profit.

“His plan was meant to be bold, get one’s imagination working, and it turned out to look scary to people,” said Matt Dellinger, author of “Interstate 69,” which details the fight over the Trans-Texas Corridor. County toll authorities in Dallas and Houston complained the state was forcing them into contracts with private companies, while voters began calling their legislators to repeal the law. David and Linda Stall, a Republican couple from Fayetteville, Texas, formed a group called CorridorWatch.org, which held meetings across the state about the details of the plan and whipped up outrage.
Environmental groups objected to the wildlife being lost, and farmers turned on the former state agriculture commissioner, calling it an abuse of eminent domain.
“It would have claimed a lot of farm and ranch ground — some of the best in farm and ranch country in the entire state,” said Jim Sartwelle, director of public policy for the Texas Farm Bureau.
Perry’s decision to award development rights to a Spanish company, Cintra, only tapped into anxieties about immigration, free trade and border security. Conspiracy theorists dubbed it the “NAFTA Superhighway” and protested the alleged plot to dissolve the nation’s borders.
And voters cried foul when it came out that one of Perry’s top aides, Dan Shelley, worked for Cintra until three months before the company was selected for the state road project. When Shelley left the governor’s office, he signed a lucrative lobbying contract with Cintra. But the Perry administration held its ground. Texas Transportation Commissioner Ric Williamson, one of Perry’s closest advisers and friends, frequently intoned, “There is no road fairy.” “We either build toll roads, slow roads or no roads,” Perry said in 2007.

Ultimately, the uproar forced state officials to scale back the proposal. In 2007, the Legislature dealt a blow to the main tenant of the corridor by placing a moratorium on public-private toll partnerships. In 2009, Perry’s Transportation Department officially killed it off with a “no build” recommendation on the corridor’s first segment, which was being handled by Cintra.
It was one of the most controversial issues of Perry’s gubernatorial career — yet he emerged from the fight relatively unscathed.
During his 2006 reelection, there wasn’t a strong Republican challenger to bring up the Trans-Texas Corridor. Perry, who continued to support the corridor, won the four-way general election with 39 percent of the vote.

During his 2010 gubernatorial fight, Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison aired a biting attack ad accusing Perry of tolling roads for the benefit of foreign companies. Hutchison lost, and while the Democratic nominee, then-Houston Mayor Bill White, also ran an attack ad on the project, Perry won easily.
By the recent midterm election, the issue was too old to cause much damage. Yet tea party activists were still vocally hesitant at what they viewed as the government’s big private-land grab.

Will it damage Perry’s national ambitions?
“Rick Perry talks a good game about getting government out of your life, but if there’s any utility at all for him to put government in your life, you’ve got government in your life,” said Leland Beatty, who worked for Perry’s agriculture predecessor Jim Hightower. Hall fumes that some public-private partnerships are still alive and well in Texas — even if the corridor project is dead. “There are all these sweetheart deals for all his corporate cronies,” she said.

Meanwhile, others have forgiven.

“Were there disagreements in the middle of the process? Certainly,” said Sartwelle. “But it never happened. The bottom line is it never happened.”

Kirby Brown of the Texas Wildlife Association insisted that “the governor got bad advice.” But he admitted, “There’s no question, we have members who are still mad about it, and they didn’t like the way it played out.”

Dellinger offered this defense: “I could see Perry’s eventual answer being like his HPV response: ‘My heart was in right place, but I went about it all wrong.’”

© 2011 Politico: www.politico.com

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

More tax dollars wasted by HNTB, courtesy of Rick Perry's political patronage machine

2011-10-04T22:25:00.013-05:00

State outsourced allocation of federal disaster recovery funds to firm with ties to Perry

Related Link: HNTB is lead consultant for Trans-Texas Corridor

10/4/11

By Brenda Bell
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2011

The state of Texas has quietly outsourced the management of more than $1 billion in federal disaster recovery funds to an engineering firm with close ties to Gov. Rick Perry's administration, paying the Kansas City, Mo. -based firm HNTB $45 million so far to process infrastructure grants for communities damaged by Hurricanes Dolly and Ike.

The company's billings threaten to exhaust the amount budgeted for administrative and planning costs, while only 20 percent of the first round of money released to Texas to aid disaster recovery grants has been spent three years after the storms. Based on the state's original timeline, at least half those projects should have been completed by now, federal officials say.

The problems have caused officials with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to voice alarm and begin quarterly reviews in an attempt to get the program back on track.

Hiring a private firm to handle what has been termed the largest public works project in the state's history is unusual, federal officials say.

Weeks ago, the Texas General Land Office cancelled HNTB's contract, which had ballooned from $69 million to $144 million as the firm assumed more responsibility for disaster grants during a downsizing of state government. But HNTB continues to run the infrastructure program on a temporary basis at its downtown Austin offices, where about a dozen state employees also working on the program have been relocated.

Congress appropriated $3.1 billion to help Texans recover from the hurricanes that struck the Gulf coast in 2008. Fifty-five percent of the money ($1.7 billion) is for housing, and 45 percent ($1.4 billion) for nonhousing projects — everything from emergency generators to new water and sewage treatment facilities. Of the total $3.1 billion, $1.3 billion was released in the first round of funding.

Most media attention has focused on problems with post-hurricane housing assistance, which has been managed by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

In Houston, the first new homes to replace those destroyed by Hurricane Ike were only recently completed. In Galveston, where 75 percent of the island's structures were damaged in the 2008 storm, the initial $259 million phase of rebuilding has been plagued with local delays, dissent and complaints about padded costs and inadequate inspections of rebuilt homes.

The role played by HNTB in managing grants for nonhousing infrastructure — originally the responsibility of the now-defunct Texas Department of Rural Affairs — has largely escaped public attention, but not the federal government's.

In a May letter to state officials obtained by the American-Statesman, Stanley Gimont , director of block grant assistance for the U.S. Housing and Urban Development, said that using HNTB "to administer virtually all aspects" of the state agency's work on the community development block grants "presents significant cause for concern." Gimont said that as an engineering firm, HNTB lacked experience with community development block grant programs — the funding vehicle for Ike and Dolly disaster relief.

"There are fundamental responsibilities that must not be ceded by the state to a third-party contractor," he wrote. Those responsibilities include "proper monitoring" of local grants and policy and program guidance on the proper use of community development funds, he wrote.

The letter, which also cited a half-dozen deficiencies in the housing portion of the disaster program, raised questions about the state's oversight of HNTB, including:

• The department of rural affairs was in disarray, its disaster recovery staff had been reduced from 42 employees to 10, and it had "no procedures or policies in place to oversee" HNTB's work.

• The state's contract with HNTB lacked performance measures and carried the potential for "considerable cost increases."

In June, HUD warned that the rate of spending on administrative expenses, which as of Aug. 31 totaled 92 percent of what's been budgeted, could jeopardize the processing of construction projects in the second round of funding.

On July 1, Perry moved oversight of disaster recovery to an elected official, General Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, "to provide more accountability." About a dozen employees of the department of rural affairs, which the Legislature abolished at Perry's request, and 51 from the department of housing and community affairs — all working on disaster recovery projects for those agencies — were transferred to the land office's payroll.

"I'm taking a hard look at the whole program," said Gary Hagood , deputy commissioner of financial management at the land office. "I look at every dollar that goes out of here."

His priority, he said, "is to get stuff done in a timely manner. Every contract will have timelines. They had no timelines before — they just set it on the back burner."

Hagood canceled HNTB's contract as of Aug. 31, four years before it was to expire, and split the disaster recovery work into two parts, engineering services and grant management. The land office posted a request for companies to submit their qualifications to finish the job. Hagood said 10 to 12 firms have responded, including HNTB, and that future work might be contracted out to several vendors in coming weeks.

For now, HNTB continues to run the program. Tom Wendorf , HNTB vice president in San Antonio, said that with some adjustments to the scope of work and the new oversight under the land office, "we fully expect to continue to work toward completion of the infrastructure projects" in 2015. State officials originally expected to have the entire $3.1 billion in federal funds spent by 2013.

Long ties to Perry

According to its website, HNTB was founded in 1914 as a railroad bridge design firm and has designed "a significant portion" of the interstate highway system. Its headquarters are in Kansas City, Mo.

Almost all of the firm's business is with public agencies, said Wendorf, and during Perry's administration its presence in Austin has grown.

It was the principal consultant for Perry's first — and largest — pet project as governor, the proposed $184 billion Trans-Texas Corridor, which succumbed to widespread public opposition in 2010. Since 2008, the Texas Department of Transportation has paid HNTB $109 million for engineering consulting services, according to records with the state comptroller. Ray Sullivan, communications director for Perry's presidential campaign, has been a lobbyist for HNTB.

The firm is one of 139 major "crossover donors" identified by Texans for Public Justice who have contributed substantial sums to Perry and the Republican Governors Association, which Perry has twice chaired. According to campaignmoney.com, HNTB and its executives have given more than $500,000 to the association, which has sent $4 million to Perry's political campaigns.

By most accounts, the Department of Rural Affairs — a 70-employee agency that normally dispensed less than $100 million in grants to rural communities each year — was overwhelmed in 2009 when it got the job of managing $1.4 billion in disaster-related public works projects. The department hired 40 new employees, expanded its offices and turned to HNTB to manage the anticipated deluge of 6,000 community development block grants.

Exactly how HNTB was chosen is not clear; because its contract was for professional services, it was not subject to a bid process. State records show the firm was paid $45 million under the contract before it was canceled.

Counting a $3 million contract with the land office for post-Ike debris removal and an earlier $8 million contract with the Department of Rural Affairs for assessment of hurricane damage, HNTB has earned $56 million for its hurricane-related services to the state in the past three years.

In 2010, the Obama administration began looking closely at overhead expenses for community development block grants nationwide and found that Texas was rapidly spending down the money budgeted for administrative and planning costs for disaster-related infrastructure grants. Federal guidelines set a limit on such expenditures.

In February, rural affairs Director Charlie Stone laid off a number of upper-echelon employees and assigned more responsibilities to HNTB. That raised concerns on the part of federal officials that the result was "a significant gap in the agency's ability to interpret, understand and comply with" federal grant requirements.

Critics have questioned whether some projects approved in the first round of funding met the federal criteria of serving areas with the greatest unmet need and replacing infrastructure that was damaged or functioned inadequately as a result of the storms.

Many infrastructure grants were made to buy emergency generators. Lufkin, unharmed by the storms, is doubling the size of its civic center, which served as a temporary shelter for Ike and Rita evacuees.

And in other East Texas counties far from the coast, new roads, water lines and community centers are planned.

bbell@statesman.com; 445-3634

© 2011 Austin American-Statesman: www.statesman.com

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

"Governor Perry's office tried to 'strong-arm' TRS staff members to support risky deals involving Trans-Texas Corridor infrastructure projects."

2011-10-02T21:11:00.001-05:00

Critics question Perry's handling of pension, healthcare funds in Texas

10/2/11

By Yamil Berard
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Copyright 2011

Gov. Rick Perry is making headlines with his attacks on Social Security and Medicare, blasting their fiscal stability, likening them to Ponzi schemes and calling them a "monstrous lie to our kids."

But the tables are being turned on the Republican presidential contender as scrutiny increases of his handling of Texas' public pension funds and the $1 billion healthcare fund for Texas teachers.

Those public pensions have a combined unfunded liability of $41 billion, and a half-dozen funds, including the state's two largest, have promised benefits that they will never be able to pay under current financing models, according to records compiled by the Texas Pension Review Board.

What's more, the $1 billion supplemental healthcare fund for Texas teachers is predicted to go bankrupt by 2014.

Critics say Perry has not made a priority of improving the solvency of the funds. Instead, he removed a state official who was alerting the public to the growing obligations and appointed to the board of the state's largest pension his campaign donors and other political allies. The governor also pushed controversial investments.

"You shouldn't play politics with other people's retirement," former Texas Pension Review Board Chairman Shad Rowe said in a recent interview.

Perry says Texas pension funds are in better shape than most public pensions nationwide. State law sets operational standards for such systems as the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, said Lucy Nashed, a Perry spokeswoman.

The governor did not answer a question from the Star-Telegram about recommendations to improve state pensions' financial outlooks.

Texas is better off because the state clamped down on cost-of-living adjustments and unsustainable benefit structures for pensions of state workers and teachers, said Craig Hester, vice chairman of the board of the Employees Retirement System of Texas, the state's second-largest public pension fund.

"The governor's absolutely correct in that," Hester said. "The Legislature has been good, and I think these [pension] boards have been good about doing what we can to protect the liability side of the balance sheet."

Political meddling?

Accusations of political meddling have centered on the board of the $111 billion Teacher Retirement System, the state's largest public pension system, with more than 1 million active and retired members.

At the TRS, the governor appoints three board members who are investment professionals and chooses the other six members from among slates submitted by groups including the State Board of Education, active TRS members, retirees and public higher education officials.

Nashed said the governor selects members based on qualifications and desire to serve. Keith Brainard, director of research for the National Association of State Retirement Administrators, said Perry's appointments have been solid.

Critics say the governor's appointments reflected his political agenda.

"The governor tried several times to get control of the board," said Linus Wright, an undersecretary of education in the Reagan administration and former Dallas schools superintendent.

Wright, who served on the board for 12 years, remembers when the governor pushed to have the TRS invest in state toll roads. The word was that an official from the governor's office tried to "strong-arm" TRS staff members to support risky deals involving Trans-Texas Corridor infrastructure projects.

"I had a real problem with that," said Bill Barnes, Fort Worth chairman of the 20-member legislative committee for the Texas Retired Teachers Association. "I don't think toll roads make the best investments."

Wright said the 2008 effort was defeated, although others say deals related to toll roads were later done in the guise of real estate investments.

A year later, a TRS employee said, millions of dollars in investments favored by Perry appointees had been approved. The whistle-blower said "political influences" had marred the decisions. A second TRS employee independently raised concerns.

An outside legal firm was chosen to examine the allegations. Its investigation uncovered no definitive evidence that any trustee improperly influenced investment decisions. But the credibility of the investigation was called into question: It was conducted by a former SEC commissioner whose law firm, some legislators said, could have had conflicts of interest because the firm may have had the same clients that were seeking TRS business.

Then, the TRS lost millions on derivatives investments, and a teachers group said Perry's fingerprints were all over the deals. The group sued the TRS, but a judge dismissed the suit in July 2009.

Perry's influence

Moves into alternative investments such as hedge funds and private equity were among teachers' concerns. In 2004, the TRS had committed more than $3.3 billion to such investments. Today, almost one-fourth of its portfolio is dedicated to alternatives.

Among those pushing early moves into the investments was Perry appointee and Houston investor Jim Lee, then chairman of the TRS board.

Teachers groups again were distrustful and felt Lee was too heavily influenced by the governor, Wright said.

Lee resigned in January 2009 after questions were raised about $100,000 in gambling debts at a Las Vegas hotel casino. He said publicly at the time that he was leaving to start a business.

Lee did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Perry immediately appointed Wright chairman. His appointment calmed choppy waters, and some teachers said they felt they had an advocate.

But less than a year later, Perry replaced Wright with R. David Kelly, a Dallas real estate investor.

"I was disappointed," Barnes said of Wright's removal. "He represented us well."

Both Kelly and Lee have been on finance teams for Perry's re-election campaigns; Lee is one of Perry's statewide campaign finance chairmen. The governor recently appointed Lee to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Kelly could not be reached for comment.

Wright said he felt the governor had yanked him as chairman because of his longtime support of TRS Executive Director Ronnie Jung.

"He has been wanting to eliminate Ronnie Jung as executive director five or six years now," Wright said. "He felt Ronnie was in the way of blocking his recommendations."

But Wright said Perry's influence seldom held sway. "The rest of the board has always been able to vote [Perry appointees] down," he said.

Also in 2009, retired teachers, fed up with the political board battles and a decade without cost-of-living adjustments, pushed for legislation to add another retiree to the TRS board. But the governor vetoed House Bill 2656, saying it would "dilute" the board's financial expertise.

The governor disappointed retired educators again during the 2011 legislative session. Some blame him for not doing enough to keep their supplemental healthcare fund in the black.

More than 250,000 retired teachers participate in TRS-Care, a $1.3 billion, pay-as-you-go trust fund managed by the TRS. It is expected to use up its $900 million cash reserve this coming year. TRS-Care could be in the red by more than $580 million by 2014, "worst-case" projections show.

"It would have been best if we could have maintained full funding for this plan if we would have had gubernatorial support on that issue," Retired Teachers Association Executive Director Tim Lee said.This year, the TRS board replaced Jung. The new leader, Brian Guthrie, was a Perry budget aide.

'Ticking time bomb'

The governor also appoints seven of the nine members to the state's pension overseer, the Texas Pension Review Board, which keeps data for 188 defined-benefit pension systems with about $200 billion in assets. The board is authorized only to alert pensions to problems and has no enforcement authority.

Rowe, a Dallas money manager first appointed to the board in 1997, worked to create greater accountability and transparency in public pensions.

He was first appointed chairman by Gov. George W. Bush in 1999. Perry reappointed him in 2004.

As chairman, Rowe criticized pensions that were late in filing financial reports and scolded those that used what he called "overly aggressive" assumed rates of return that gave a false impression of their finances.

Concerned about unfunded liabilities, Rowe told the public that pension systems were "a ticking time bomb." He pushed the board to create an "alarm system" that could pinpoint when systems were veering into trouble.

Rowe also criticized the TRS' foray into hedge funds and alternative investments, saying that they lacked transparency and that most boards would be ill-equipped to unravel their complexity.

"I just don't think you should be making wild bets with other people's money," he said.

With lobbying from Rowe and the help of state Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, the review board got more money to hire staff members, including an actuary to analyze pensions' underfunding status, said Chris Hanson, the agency's executive director.

In 2007, Rowe called on the attorney general's office to help examine the Employees' Retirement Fund of Fort Worth after a city auditor's report showed several problems, including excessive fees and employees spiking their pensions by loading up on overtime in their final years of work.

Perry removed Rowe as chairman in June 2008, a year before his term was to expire. Rowe left the board in 2009 and was not reappointed.

Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said the governor thinks board leaders should pursue the best interests of the state "and not pursue their own personal agenda." Castle did not elaborate.

In a Sept. 26 e-mail to the Star-Telegram, Nashed wrote that Rowe was replaced because his term had expired, "as is routine."

This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.

© 2011 Fort Worth Star-Telegram: www.star-telegram.com

To search TTC News Archives click HERE

To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click HERE

Perry's Transportation Commissioner, Deirdre Delisi, made false statements under oath.

2011-10-01T20:41:00.017-05:00

"Two top Perry aides gave false testimony under oath in campaign case"

9/29/11

By Gaius Publius
AMERICAblog
Copyright 2011

So it begins. Rick Perry may be a fundamentalist Christian (of the New Apostolic Reformation variety), and eager executioner, and possible ground-breaking Republican candidate — but by all accounts he also deeply corrupt, a crony of the first water.

So this one could have legs. As the article notes, the aides involved are Deidre Delisi and David Carney. The former is a former chief of staff and current senior policy advisor; the later is a long-time strategist. (That's Deidre Delisi pictured in the linked story.)

Murray Waas and Peter Henderson, writing in Reuters (my emphasis):

In a civil suit later filed by Chris Bell, Perry's Democratic challenger in that race, the testimony of aides David Carney and Deirdre Delisi was directly contradicted by a sworn statement from Perry's own gubernatorial campaign committee.

At issue were the circumstances surrounding a $1 million contribution to the campaign, and whether the Republican Governors' Association, which paid out the funds, was used as a conduit to camouflage their true origin. The lawsuit alleged that the actual donor was Texas multi-millionaire Bob Perry, a long-time supporter of Rick Perry (no relation) better known for bankrolling the Swift Boat campaign that torpedoed Senator John Kerry's presidential bid.

Carney has long been the Texas governor's closest political strategist. Delisi was formerly Governor Perry's chief of staff and now serves as a senior policy advisor to his presidential campaign.

The current Perry campaign won't comment, and for an interesting reason. That earlier case was settled out of court, note the authors, in "a 2010 settlement, which required Perry to pay $427,000 to Bell's campaign, [and] barred either side from saying anything further."

So the original case was possibly corrupt to begin with (unless Perry settled and was innocent), and now we find his top aides could well have lied in giving testimony. There's certainly enough prima facie evidence to warrant an investigation.

The story is beautifully researched, and has all the mustered details we associate with the excellent Murray Waas. Please do read.

This is one to watch, not just for campaign adventure (who's leading in the back stretch, "Mittens" or "Crotch") — but also for meta reasons:

■ Will the mainstream media give him a pass, or really cover this? If so, does it mean they are on board with sinking the Perry campaign, like they did the Gore campaign?

■ Will Karl Rove & Co weigh in (they hate Perry)? If so, will that get big or small coverage?

■ Finally, if Rove does weigh in, does that drive a larger MSM coverage (because, well "1 Live Crew" and all)?

Will John and Marsha (sorry, Rick and Karl) ever find true happiness? Stay tuned.

© 2011 AMERICAblog: http://www.americablog.com/2011/09/perry-corruption-scandals-start-reuters.html
m

Did Rick Perry aides give misleading testimony?

9/28/11

By Brian Montopoli
CBS News
Copyright 2011

A Reuters report out Wednesday is raising questions about whether aides to Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry - among them his political guru, David Carney - made false or misleading statements under oath.

The charge is grounded in alleged contradictions found in sworn statements by Perry's aides and a statement from Perry's gubernatorial campaign committee.

Here are the basics, according to the Reuters report: After Perry was re-elected Texas governor in 2006, his Democratic challenger, Chris Bell, filed a civil suit tied to a $1 million contribution to the Perry campaign. Bell alleged, among other things, that the Republican Governors' Association was used to hide the fact that the money came from Texas multimillionaire Bob Perry, a longtime supporter of Perry, in violation of state campaign finance law. (The two men are not related.)

In 2010, the Perry team settled the case, paying $427,000 to the Bell campaign. The settlement barred the parties from discussing the case publicly. But depositions from the lawsuit reportedly show that while Carney and Perry's former chief of staff Deirdre Delisi - who is now a senior adviser to his presidential campaign - testified they had virtually no contact with the Republican Governors Association over fundraising during the 2006 campaign. Perry's campaign committee, however, swore in a statement that the two aides met with Mitt Romney - then the head of the RGA - in October 2006 to discuss a late contribution to Perry's campaign.

Evidence in the lawsuit suggests that Carney and Delisi met with Romney on October 4. Two days later, Bob Perry donated $1 million to the RGA. Then, on October 27, the RGA cut the first of a pair of checks to the Rick Perry campaign. Bob Perry would go on to donate another $500,000 to the RGA on October 30th, and the RGA would give Perry a check for that amount two days later. The late infusion of cash shortly before Election Day was credited with helping Perry fend off a late challenge from Bell.

Bell also sued the RGA, and was awarded $2 million for campaign finance violations - though the award was not specifically tied to the alleged use of the RGA to illegally funnel a $1 million contribution from Bob Kerry. The RGA is currently appealing the ruling.

Perry's campaign isn't commenting on the matter, pointing the fact that the settlement barred further discussion of the case.

© 2011 CBS News: www.cbsnews.com

Perry aides told different stories in lawsuit

Dave Carney

9/28/11

By Murray Waas and Peter Henderson
Reuters
Copyright 2011

Contradictions in sworn statements about Rick Perry's fundraising for his 2006 reelection bid raise questions about whether aides to the Texas governor, who is now running for president, gave false or misleading testimony under oath.

In a civil suit later filed by Chris Bell, Perry's Democratic challenger in that race, the testimony of aides David Carney and Deirdre Delisi was directly contradicted by a sworn statement from Perry's own gubernatorial campaign committee.

At issue were the circumstances surrounding a $1 million contribution to the campaign, and whether the Republican Governors' Association, which paid out the funds, was used as a conduit to camouflage their true origin. The lawsuit alleged that the actual donor was Texas multi-millionaire Bob Perry, a long-time supporter of Rick Perry (no relation) better known for bankrolling the Swift Boat campaign that torpedoed Senator John Kerry's presidential bid.

Carney has long been the Texas governor's closest political strategist. Delisi was formerly Governor Perry's chief of staff and now serves as a senior policy advisor to his presidential campaign.

Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner declined to comment on anything regarding the legal case, saying that a 2010 settlement, which required Perry to pay $427,000 to Bell's campaign, barred either side from saying anything further. It also diminished the chance of any further legal action against Carney and Delisi if, in fact, they gave false or misleading testimony in the case.

Prior to the case being settled, only a few pages of the aides' testimony had been entered into the trial court record. The complete depositions have since been seen by Reuters.

A LAST MINUTE PLEA FOR CASH

Bell's lawsuit alleged that Perry and the Republican Governors Association (RGA) violated the state's campaign finance laws. Discovery in the civil action examined the circumstances under which the RGA gave a last-minute $1 million contribution to Perry as the race suddenly tightened. Bell alleged the governor's reelection campaign, Texans for Perry (TFP), and the RGA collaborated to disguise the fact that this donation came from Bob Perry. Bell also asserted that this arrangement was discussed in an October meeting between Carney, Delisi and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. At the time Romney, who is now Perry's rival for the presidential nomination, was chairman of the RGA.

Delisi testified that she had no contact with the RGA about fundraising during the 2006 campaign. Carney testified about only one pitch for money from the RGA and made no mention of the meeting with Romney.

But the sworn statement by Perry's own campaign committee said that Delisi and Carney met with Romney in Washington D.C. on October 4, 2006, to discuss a last-minute contribution. Governor Romney was never deposed and did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

Texans for Rick Perry opted last year to settle the case. The RGA refused to settle, and on August 31, 2010, Texas state judge John K. Dietz of Travis County awarded Bell $2 million, ruling that the RGA had violated state campaign finance law by failing to register as a political committee and not reporting the Perry contribution until after the election. A spokesman for the RGA, Mike Schrimpf, told Reuters: "The RGA is appealing the decision."

The Texas court did not rule on whether the $1 million RGA gave to Rick Perry's campaign was a disguised contribution from Bob Perry. TRP and the RGA denied that this was the case in statements to the court. Bob Perry said in sworn testimony that he had not spoken with Rick Perry's campaign staff.

A LOYAL DONOR

Over the years Bob Perry and his wife have given more than $2.5 million to Rick Perry's various campaign.

Another large, direct contribution to the governor's reelection bid would not have been illegal - Texas campaign laws put no limit on individual donations - but it might have looked unseemly at a time when Rick Perry was lambasting Bell for taking $1 million from a single wealthy donor.

Documents and testimony from the lawsuit established the following:

* On October 4, 2006, Carney and Delisi met with RGA chairman Mitt Romney in Washington about the need for campaign cash, according to the Perry campaign statement.

* On October 6 of that year Bob Perry made a $1 million contribution to the RGA.

* On October 27 the RGA cut the first of two $500,000 checks to Texans for Perry.

* On October 30 Bob Perry donated another $500,000 to the RGA, and another $50,000 the next day.

* On November 1 Phil Musser, executive director of the RGA, personally handed over a second $500,000 check to Rick Perry in the RGA's Washington offices.

* On Nov 2, Rick Perry defeated Bell and two independent candidates, winning reelection with 39 percent of the vote.

The campaign's statement to the court said that when Delisi and Carney met with Mitt Romney on October 4 they were told that the RGA was about to receive $1 million from a Texas donor. "Gov. Romney did not identify who the individual was, and TRP had no knowledge prior to that time that any individual was planning to contribute $1 million to the RGA," the statement said. According to this document, it was only later that "Delisi connected with Bob Perry's attorney Buddy Jones to ask whether Mr. Perry had contributed money to the RGA." When Jones confirmed it, the statement continued, "Delisi asked Mr. Jones to encourage the RGA to make some contributions in Texas since the RGA raised such significant funds in Texas."

Mr. Jones declined to comment.

The statement also said that Carney had multiple conversations with the RGA, requesting $1 million and then a second $1 million. "Toward the end of the campaign, Mr. Carney asked the RGA if it would contribute an additional $1 million for a total of $2 million," it said.

These statements contradict Delisi's and Carney's own testimony.

WHAT THE AIDES SAID

"When you were performing some campaign activities for the 2006 Perry campaign, did you interact in any way with the Republican Governors' Association?" Delisi was asked in her January 8, 2009 deposition.

"No," she answered, then added that she had been in contact with the RGA over scheduling some events.

"Were you involved in any way with soliciting any contributions made totaling a million dollars?" the lawyer added.

"No," Delisi replied.

Delisi was then asked: "Are you familiar with anyone - do you know anyone who - that was involved in soliciting contributions from RGA to the Perry campaign in 2006, in - excuse me, in October 2006?"

"Yes. Toward the end of the campaign Dave Carney had conversations with the RGA about financial support as had been previously discussed earlier in the year."

Delisi said she didn't know whether anyone else in the campaign had contacts with the RGA.

Carney's January 28, 2009 deposition painted a more muddled picture of the campaign's interactions with the RGA. When he first asked the RGA for money, he said, "they laughed," because Governor Perry appeared to be holding a comfortable lead. Carney described an early-race strategy of asking for funds just in case the RGA ended up with extra cash, but he did not recall the date of the conversation and said it could have been as late as October, the month before the vote.

"(D)id you follow up on your request to the RGA after you asked them for the $2 million?" he was asked later in the deposition.

"I don't think so," Carney responded.

Asked about his knowledge of the late, $1 million contribution, Carney claimed ignorance.

"Did you ever know what they committed to give?"

The RGA's executive director, Phil Musser "told me they were going to give us a million dollars," Carney said, adding later that he learned of the contribution by seeing $1 million show up in campaign cash reports, rather than hearing at the time about the two $500,000 checks.

Asked when he became aware of those payments, Carney said, "I'm not sure. I honestly don't know when it was."

And Perry's settling the lawsuit before launching his presidential bid will likely forestall any further investigation of the matter.

(Editing by Lee Aitken and Michael Williams)

© 2011 Reuters: www.reuters.com

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2011-09-30T16:39:00.000-05:00

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Trans-Texas Corridor Timeline
--Big Money Paves the Way
--Perry's Patrons hit Paydirt
--'Under the Radar' Scheme
--Texans voted for the TTC?
--Cintra's Inside Man
--Highwaymen call the shots
--Toll Road Rebellion Builds
--Toll Roads Unnecessary
--Rick's Way or the Highway
--TxDOT Cooks the Books
--The so-called 'moratorium'
--Texas Guv backs land grabs
--Hoodwinked Again
--The Propaganda Machine
--Texans rip TTC-35 & TTC-69
--Rocks for the Goliath Road
--TTC 'born again' & renamed
--Trans Texas Corruption
--Super Highway Standstill
--Hix Nix Rick's Tricks
--TTC: "Mostly Dead."

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