How Quickly Strayhorn, Perry Forget
By Vince Leibowitz on Oct 19, 2006 in 2006 Texas Elections
John O’Quinn this week has helped Chris Bell get another $1.5 million, this time through a bank loan. It’s a heroic measure for O’Quinn, putting his money where his mouth is in that fashion.
However, Carole Keeton Strayhorn and Rick Perry are running around in complaining about it:
“You’ve got one individual single-handedly putting $3.5 million into a person’s campaign for governor,” said Strayhorn spokesman Mark Sanders. “That itself has got to turn people’s stomachs.”
and
“Chris Bell’s entire campaign is being paid for by one person. Texans should be really alarmed by that,” Black said.
These two Republicans are total hypocrites. It seems as though they have forgotten very quickly that they have found themselves in similar positions previously. Rick Perry, in fact, can thank his win as Lt. Governor in 1998 to a loan from billionaire voucher advocate James Leininger.
Although Strayhorn and Perry’s camps are quick to condemn Bell because of O’Quinn’s money, let’s take a look at some of the massive contributions received by those two.
At various times, how much have those two received from
The Texas Home School Coalition, Texans for Justice, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the Texas Justice Foundation, Children’s Economic Opportunity Foundation, Texans for Governmental Integrity, the A PAC for Parental School Choice, and other fly-by-night, single-cycle James Leininger PACs that seem to pop up every election year?
And, how about single donations from Bob Perry and Leininger? Leininger was Perry’s single largest donor in 1998, giving him $500,000. And, don’t forget that Perry also earned a good chunck of money in the 1990s by trading stock in Kinetic Concepts, Inc., Leninger’s company. And, Leininger and his brother Peter bought a half-million dollar airplane that was partially owned by Perry’s campaign.
Don’t forget that, in 1998, he also co-signed two last minute loans: one for Carole Keeton Rylander Strayhorn ($950,000) and another of $1.1 million for Texas Governor Rick Perry.
The Houston Chronicle endorsement really says it all.
The Houston Chronicle probably knows the top three candidates better than any major paper in Texas. They have likely sat down with Perry, Strayhorn and Bell on many different occasions. Chris Bell served on the Houston City Council. He was also a Congressman from Houston. Perry and Strayhorn have long records that the paper has covered, and each has met with the board many times.
This is an endorsement that should carry some weight, given the fact that they know each candidate so well and that they carefully looked at the agendas and records of each, including sitting down with each and asking the substantive questions that matter.
This gives Strayhorn some good momentum heading into the home-stretch. You gotta know that Perry must be really miffed.