12 things to know about Rick Perry
Republican Rick Perry was the longest-serving governor in Texas history, which means he knows how to raise money.
That wasn’t enough to rescue his 2012 presidential bid, which fell apart in the wake of verbal stumbles that cast the onetime Air Force pilot as unprepared and unpresidential.
This time, the former governor who decided against running for re-election in 2014, starts as an underdog. His status as the only potential candidate currently under indictment won’t help, though his supporters dismiss the charges against him as purely political. The case stems from Perry’s threats to veto money for a statewide public integrity unit unless the prosecutor leading it stepped down after being arrested for drunk driving.
Perry is also facing a fight for the Texas contributors who have long lined up to support him. Rivals with their own Texas ties include former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who can draw on the Bush family’s long association with the Lone Star State; Texas Sen. Ted Cruz; and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, whose father, former Rep. Ron Paul, was a member of the Texas congressional delegation.
Here’s more on Perry’s political and financial history:
Related: More information about presidential candidates
Click here to read this story at the Center for Public Integrity
This story is part of Primary Source. Primary Source keeps you up-to-date on developments in the post-Citizens United world of money in politics. Click here to read more stories in this blog.
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Copyright 2014 The Center for Public Integrity. This story was published by The Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C.
