The Texan has created one million jobs but has also forced deep cuts in public education, writes SHEILA McNULTYin Houston
THE RACE for US president invites national scrutiny of a man who has for years promoted a hardline conservative agenda that alienated much of his Texas electorate.
In the past year, the Texas governor has provoked controversy by forcing deep cuts in public education and sacking thousands of state workers instead of using $6 billion in state “rainy day funds” to plug a budget deficit.
He has signed into law a requirement that women receive sonograms and be shown the babies growing inside them before waiting 24 hours for an abortion.
And he gathered 30,000 evangelical Christians to pray for the nation, excluding Jews, Muslims, atheists and other voters. After backing policies favourable to Latinos, he has recently angered the nation’s fastest-growing electorate by advocating tougher border scrutiny and tightening voter requirements.
“Rick Perry is not afraid of people disliking him,” said Mark Jones, political scientist at Rice University.
His willingness to put principles above all else is a trait that wins him plaudits from conservative Republicans. Perry won the support of 718 voters as a write-in candidate in the Ames Straw Poll on Saturday – well behind Michele Bachmann but ahead of Mitt Romney, who has been a leader in the Republican race.
Romney did not compete in the poll, but his name was on the ballot.
Perry has never lost an election and now, in his third term, is the longest continuously serving governor in the US. But his victories have not always been decisive. He won 57.8 per cent in 2002; 39.02 per cent in 2006; and 54.97 per cent in 2010. Part of his success has been credited to a splintered or weak opposition.
Perry’s biggest draw is Texas’s economic success, which he played up in announcing his candidacy. “It is time to get America working again,” he said.
He boasts of adding more than one million net jobs during his decade in office, adding more than 40 per cent of all new jobs in the US since June 2009, and attracting business to the state, which has no income tax.
Andy Puzder, chief executive of CKE Restaurants, is planning to relocate to Texas from California, where he says it takes up to two years to get permission to build a restaurant against 1½ months in Texas.
Critics note that Perry did not craft Texas’s business-friendly policies – he upheld and branded them. And unemployment in the state is still 8.2 per cent, which puts it 26th in the nation. Many of the state’s high-level jobs are in the energy industry.
They also note that the state ties with Mississippi in leading the US in minimum-wage jobs. Texas has more people without health insurance than any other US state.
In 2009, according to the US Census Bureau, 17.1 per cent of the population of Texas was living below the poverty level. The budget cuts Perry oversaw this past legislative session will aggravate conditions.
The average salary of Texas public school teachers is 39th among states, with state and local expenditures per capita in public schools 44th.
Perry opposes gay marriage, supports the death penalty and dismisses the theory that global warming is caused by humans.
By 2011, he had used his veto 273 times – more than any other Texas governor.
This record touches more of the Republican voter base than that of any rival, says Bruce Buchanan, political scientist at the University of Texas. “In almost any area you can name, Perry has credentials. No other Republican candidate has credentials in all those areas.” The question is whether this tough line has broader appeal. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011)