So many reasons, so little time — you can add your own y’all!
For starters, Texas Governor Rick Perry vetoed 49 bills passed in the 2007 legislative session, after the legislature went home, so he could not be overridden. Mr. Veto would probably argue that he restrained himself from the record he set in 2001, when he vetoed 82 bills, more than any governor in any single legislative session in Texas history since reconstruction. According to Paul Burka of the Texas Monthly, 17 of Perry’s 2007 vetoes were simply done to get back at legislators who crossed him on his precious mega-special interest driven Trans-Texas Corridor and HPV vaccine mandate on sixth grade school girls.
We’ve heard from legislators across the state, including those in the same Republican Party that Rick Perry belongs to, that they are often never told what he doesn’t like about their bills until it’s too late to override his veto. This is why many legislators supported a constitutional amendment that would allow them to override a gubernatorial veto by reconvening if necessary. Kay Bailey Hutchison has agreed to support such a bill.
Independents believe that the veto override reform is an important political reform. Furthermore, any reforms that this state is so desperately crying out for (whether they be political reforms or policy reforms such as in transportation, insurance, the home building industry, property tax and appraisal reform, education reform, criminal justice reform, property rights — need we go on?!) will be impossible with Rick Perry taking yet another term.
This begs the question as to whether any of the other candidates (in any of the political parties) will do Texas any better. We wish to clearly state — here and now — that the answer is an emphatic NO, unless Texans continue to organize themselves outside of both parties as a powerful swing vote to determine upcoming elections. You may agree or disagree with what just happened in Massachusetts, but the fact remains that independents (a third of whom are “conservative”, a third of whom are “moderates” and a third of them whom are “liberals to progressives”) are the new kid on the block. Well, maybe we’re not that new — we’ve been on the map since Perot won the largest independent vote for President in US history in 1992.
More reasons to give Perry a boot lashing….
- In 2003, Perry and then Texas Representative Mike Krusee (R-Round Rock) snookered their political colleagues by tossing a 300-page bill on their desks weeks before the end of the raucous 2003 Texas legislative session focused on redistricting. The bill, unbeknownst to the vast majority of legislators, would begin to implement the massive road and utility international trade Corridor, aka the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), together with a plan to privatize and convert Texas freeways to tollways. The Governor, Krusee, then Texas Transportation Commissioner, Ric Williamson (now deceased), and a few others continued to force what the public simply would not accept. Though the fight continues, the grand schemes have been scaled back considerably. Yeah for the people of Texas!
- The Governor has perfected a revolving door for lobbyists that is an embarrassment for all Texans. Our favorite example is Dan Shelley, a high-powered lobbyist for CINTRA (the Spanish toll road consortium pushing the TTC), who wound up working in the Governor’s office writing transportation legislation for the TTC/tollways, then returning to CINTRA later. Only Texas voters have the power to bust down the revolving door – for all politicians, starting with the guy currently in the Governor’s $9000 per month condo, since the Governor’s mansion burned down under his watch.
- In 2007, Rick Perry vetoed the first Corridor/Toll moratorium bill (HB 1892), then deformed the second moratorium bill (SB 792). Regardless, the fight continued and Texans – of all persuasions — gave the Governor the political hell-on-earth he so deserved to put a stop to this.
- In 2007, Rick Perry vetoed eminent domain reform designed to protect private property rights and to stop the taking of over 1 million acres of prime farm and ranchland — for the Trans-Texas Corridor — the largest land seizure in United States history. The Governor has tried to spin this fact by placing a very modest proposition on the ballot voters passed last November. This is why the Farm Bureau (which unfortunately endorsed Perry in 2006) finally kicked him to the curb and has endorsed Kay Bailey Hutchison. Senator Hutchison has pledged to help pass real eminent domain reform legislation. If she wins, we – independent voters – will work to hold her to it.
- In 2003, Perry called three special sessions on mid-census redistricting, disenfranchising not only Democratic voters, but the state’s growing numbers of independent voters whose voting power is diminished when “swing” districts are eliminated. The redistricting violated the Voting Rights Act, campaign finance laws and necessitated huge expenditures of taxpayer dollars in endless lawsuits and legal maneuvers. In the end, what did we get — the downfall of DeLay, the revolt against Speaker Craddick, and the people’s movement to Boot Perry! Meanwhile, we still have gerrymandered districts and Texas is set for another bloody battle between the two parties on redistricting following the 2010 census. While the two parties battle over the spoils, all ordinary Texans lose.
- Throughout his administration, Perry has been busy selling out consumer protection for homeowners. One example is his stacking of the Texas Residential Construction Commission with appointees from the construction industry. For example, in 2006 Perry took $690,000 from homebuilder Bob Perry of Perry Homes (and no relation) and appointed Perry Homes’ attorney, John Krush to the Commission. Then Comptroller Carole Strayhorn thought it was such a joke that she called for the abolition of the commission and welcomed a legal challenge by the Attorney General. Meanwhile, Texas homeowners are some of the least protected consumers in the nation.
- Least we forget, the Governor’s attempt to mandate Texas girls be vaccinated against the HPV virus, before entering the 6th grade was vigorously opposed even by his buds in the legislature. The legislature in 2007 gave the full Nelson on this one, pinning Perry to the mat, undoing this Merck Pharmaceuticals special interest driven deal! It turned out that Perry had received campaign money from Merck, as did much of the legislature, and his former chief of staff, Mike Toomey, is a lobbyist for Merck.
- A series of vetoes in 2007 put the Perry poison pen to bipartisan criminal justice reform that would slow the pace of incarceration and provide for alternative funding mechanisms. Meanwhile prison guards remain some of the worst paid workers in the state and, as a result, the state prisons are dangerously under-guarded and over-crowded. This is a tinder box waiting to explode and if it does, it will all be on Perry’s political head.
- Like we said, there is so much more to say about why Perry needs to get on down his toll roads, we’re going to have to rely on you to add more.