It may be hard to believe now, but Gov. Rick Perry got his start in politics as a Democrat, representing Haskell in the Texas House from 1985-1991. Photos in the slideshow below include Perry with other members who became long-time friends, including Ric Williamson of Weatherford, Cliff Johnson of Palestine, Gwyn Shea of Irving and Mike McKinny of Centerville.
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Comments (12)
Joe The Plebeian
Great Job! This was linked to by Drudge. Thats a prophetic pic of Sharp and Perry.
John James via Texas Tribune on Facebook
That dang hair.... Don't get me started!
Ishanee Parikh via Texas Tribune on Facebook
the captions aren't showing up. is it just my browser?
Philip Tramdack
I commend you on the reporting for this article. The slideshow as linked to the blogs (this is national) have a very pathetic three second glimpse at each picture with a paragraph of information in an unwieldy video mode. I don't like it and I wish you would package your content in a more user-friendly way. On the other hand, I just bookmarked the TT and obviously signed up for comments.
I lived in San Antonio from 76 to 84. What an amazing state. The greatest extremes in weather AND politics. Several time four inches of rain in an hour, and the most liberal as well as the most conservative people I have ever met. The nicest people in the world. In 1980 I was stopped at mid-day in July by the Alamo Hts Police with a beer can on my dashboard. After a brief explanation of my errands for the afternoon, and my thirst, I was sent on my way with the admonition to Drive Safe!! That IS civilization. Pennsylvania, where I live now, would have charged me $10.000 for the privilege and taken my license for six months no doubt. Yet now, I feel PA is more civilized than Texas, because of the moronic antics of Governor Perry, who, from the perspective of Pennsylvania, impresses as a rogue, a scoundrel, an un-reconstructed Confederate (they were gone by the 60s), a zealot, a bigot, a mystic, and somebody who is WAY too pixcher-purfeck to be taken seriously. Where is Molly Ivens when we need her? Molly-- please mind meld with some Texas journalist now so we can understand better the curious phenomenon of "Rick Perry". PJTramdack New Castle, PA
Zach Vaughn via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Nice to see Robert Earley getting some love. Glad he was teaching at St. Ed's when I was there.
Debra Haas via Texas Tribune on Facebook
This should come in handy when Perry starts talking about Democratic "flip flops". Bless you TT.
Tim ThèRockstâr via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Is it just me or has EVERYONE in this STATE forgotten everyone flip-flopped in the early/mid 90's. Even Texans seem to forget that Texas has historically been a Democrat State until the Left's moved so far left most non-crazies jumped ship and went to the Republican Party. How soon we forget LBJ. It really was not that far back folks.
Leo Tynan via Texas Tribune on Facebook
See? Now we all have good reason to distrust Perry! Democrats and Republicans alike .Cumbaya y''all.
Texascattleco
I didn't leave the Democratic Party and it didn't leave me. Perry left it with the rise of the Bush family and when it became apparent that L.B.J.'s voting rights legislation from years before was sending whites that should have stayed with the Democrats for their own economic interests to the Republican Party's Southern Strategy. Based on division, playing and preying on racial distrust Perry has reached the top of the Texas food chain. That is higher than he should have reached already.
Matthew Whitt via Texas Tribune on Facebook
@Tim- I agree, Ralph Hall and other Democrats did switch but they were conservative full time while Democrats. Rick Perry was not and even as a Republican he has not been that conservative despite what he says.
Leo Aguirre via Texas Tribune on Facebook
He was a good Dem during that time because he had the best desk mate anyone could ask for! Lena Guerrero!! and yes of course i say that cause shes my mom lol. RIP love her.
crack man
Perry is a Teabagger Bagger Fraud. He believes in nothing other than himself and enriching his friends. The State of Texas
• Ranks #1 in population living below the poverty line ( 17.2 % )
• Ranks # 1 in those making below minimum wage
• Ranks 49th in Teacher Pay
• Ranks # 1 (26.5%) who lack health insurance
• Ranks # 1 (20.3%) of children who lack health insurance
• Ranks # 50th in $ spent for Medicaid for the poor and children
• Where 500,000 children are uninsured but where 50% are eligible for Medicaid or Scrip but Texas has inadequate staffing so they don’t have to pay
• Ranks 50th ( dead last ) in $ spent on its citizens
• Ranks 50th ( dead last ) in $ providing prenatal care to expectant mothers
• Ranks # 1 in the # of food insecure children. Every 5th child in Texas is in a food insecure household. Every 4th child in Dallas county lives in poverty and every 3rd child in the city of Dallas lives in poverty.
• Ranks 2nd to Mississippi in food insecurity where 1.4 million Texas households face imminent hunger
• Ranks #1 in the smallest amount of payments paid to the unemployed
• Ranks #1 in illiteracy
• Ranks #1 with the highest real estate taxes per $1,000 value of a home in the United States
• Ranks #1 with the highest overall pollution rate
• Ranks #1 with the highest interest rates “pay day” companies can charge
• Ranks 49th ( the 2nd lowest ) in Medicaid $ given to nursing homes
• Ranks 2nd highest in teen births
• Ranks #2 with the highest home insurance rates
• Ranks #2 with the highest sales tax
• Ranks 49th in $ funded for the mentally ill
• Where 10% of the population (2.3 million) have outstanding warrants
• Ranks #1 in toxic waste, carbon footprint, CO2 emissions, greenhouse & hazardous waste dispersed due to more oil refineries, chemical plants and coal-fired power plants than any state in USA
• Ranks #1 in adults ( 1 of 22 or 780,000 ) under correctional control.
• Ranks #1 in adults under probation ( 436,000 )
Operates a “debtors prison”- an enslavement of its citizens