Quick Take: Perry woos religious, conservative voters
April 23, 2009
Gov. Rick Perry is playing politics behind closed doors this week but the message is clear: He's doing all he can to wrap up religious, conservative voters in his face-off with Kay Bailey Hutchison, the senator who plans to come back and run for governor.
Written by Wayne Slater, The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry is playing politics behind closed doors this week but the message is clear: He's doing all he can to wrap up religious, conservative voters in his face-off with Kay Bailey Hutchison, the senator who plans to come back and run for governor.
On Wednesday, Perry attended a fundraiser for Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal in Austin, strengthening ties with one of the Republican Party's conservative stars. The event, closed to the public, was designed to give Republican money-types a chance to spend private time with Jindal and Perry.
The Louisiana governor is a favorite of the party's social conservatives, as is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who has endorsed Perry's re-election.
Today, Perry will continue his appeal to evangelicals at a closed-door session with Texas pastors in Austin. That event is being sponsored by the US Pastor Council, which wants to get preachers more involved in politics.
Headlining the event will be East Texas evangelist Rick Scarborough, an outspoken opponent of gay marriage and abortion. Scarborough is backing Perry and has denounced Hutchison, who supports the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
It's exactly the kind of group that Perry has been trying to woo in advance of next year's GOP primary. Four years ago, when Hutchison was making noise about challenging him, Perry actively helped the Texas Restoration Project, another network of evangelical ministers that the governor's political team saw as potentially helpful. After Hutchison chose not to run, Perry's involvement lessened.
David Welch of the US Pastor Council said that only invited pastors will be allowed to attend the session today with the governor, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Attorney General Greg Abbott.
Welch, notably, was one of the religious leaders who spoke out against Perry's 2007 proposal to require that schoolgirls be vaccinated against a virus that can cause cervical cancer. Perry has been seeking to mend fences with social conservatives since then.
Fair Use Notice
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond "fair use", you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.