Severe Partisanship: Perry Turns Hurricane Response Into Political Opportunity For Endangered GOP Incumbents

About 2 p.m. CST, Texas Governor Rick Perry, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, and emergency management officials held a press conference to address the damage done by Hurricane Ike last night (and, in fact, continuing through Saturday as the storm headed through East Texas).

Instead of making today’s press conference about the business at hand and keeping Texans safe, Perry turned the media event into an opportunity to showcase an endangered incumbent Republican state senator.

In spite of the fact that areas in the state hit hard by Hurricane Ike are represented by no less than four separate state senators, at least five members Congress, and likely two dozen state representatives, only one elected official other than Lt. Governor David Dewhurst appeared with Perry at the press conference: State Sen. Mike Jackson (R-La Porte).

It just so happens that Jackson is the most endangered incumbent Republican in the Texas Senate, and that he’s up for re-election this November.

Coincidence or a pure political ploy? Most likely the latter. Jackson, known as “Toxic Mike” because he has the worst environmental record of any state senator in Texas isn’t exactly the kind of legislator you’d expect to show up for something like this (and, to a degree, one wonders what lobby junket he had to cancel to just to make it).

This is all part of the Republican Party’s penchant for disaster politics—using ordinary people’s tragedies to further their partisan agenda. In this case, Perry and Jackson have used Hurricane Ike and the human tragedy in its wake to help boost Jackson’s profile in advance of his re-election. (It is particularly interesting to note that Jackson was front and center given that his November opponent actually coordinated relief efforts in Galveston for Hurricane Rita.)

While Perry could have asked any number of the at least 30 state-level elected officials to be in front of TV cameras from around the nation and the world, the only one standing there that he introduced to millions of viewers was endangered State Senator Mike Jackson.

No one dispute’s Jackson’s right–or that of any elected official–to be present with Perry at the response center. But Perry’s decision to prop Jackson up in front of the cameras and introduce him was nothing more than partisanship–severe partisanship.

Worse than that, Mike Jackson has consistently done more to help the insurance industry than people when it comes to floods, hurricanes, and the like. Look for Jackson, if re-elected, to sponsor legislation to “ease the unfair financial burden” on insurance companies who “have been so hard hit  by Ike” and other natural disasters.  This is part of a Republican “shock doctrine” that sees them use the temporary climate created by wars or terrorist attacks or natural disaster to push through economic policies that would be unpopular at any other time.

Tweet This Post   Ping This Post

Technorati Tags Congress, David Dewhurst, Hurricane Ike, Hurricane Rita, insurance, insurance industry, Joe Jaworski, Mike Jackson, Republican Party, Rick Perry, Sen. Mike Jackson, Texas, Texas Elections, Texas Senate

Bookmark It