Rick Perry to Campaign for Romney in Nevada

Rick Perry Poses with Teen for “Guitar Hero” Photo

Feb 262013

Toni Sandys/The Washington Post(NEW YORK) — Is Texas Gov. Rick Perry a Guitar Hero fan?

Buzzfeed first unearthed a photo from a Tumblr account showing Perry holding a guitar for the popular video game Guitar Hero with what appeared to be a teenage girl.

A spokeswoman for Perry said the photo was taken at a next-door neighbor’s house when the Perrys lived at a temporary mansion in Austin, Texas. Perry was visiting at the home for an event, and the girl was his neighbor’s daughter.

The spokeswoman said Perry posed for the photo, but it was unclear if he actually played the video game.

Rick Perry Invites Gun Manufacturers to Set Up Shop in Texas

Feb 222013

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(AUSTIN, Texas) — Texas Governor Rick Perry is sending a recruitment message to gun and ammunition manufacturers — set up shop in Texas.

Perry sent letters to 26 gun and ammunition manufacturers earlier this month inviting them to consider a move to Texas if the states they currently operate in impose “restrictive laws” on their industry, according to a copy of the letter and a list of the manufacturers provided to ABC News by the governor’s office.

“A number of states in the United States are seriously considering restrictive laws impacting firearms manufacturers. While I support the efforts of law enforcement to identify, apprehend, prosecute and punish criminals who use firearms in the commission of their crimes, I do not believe that imposing additional requirements or restrictions on businesses is the correct approach,” Perry wrote in the letter, which was dated Feb. 7.

“As you consider your options for responding to unwarranted government intrusion into your business, you may choose to consider relocating your manufacturing operations to a state that is more business-friendly. There is no other state that fits the definition of business-friendly like Texas,” Perry wrote, pointing out financial incentives the state offers companies.

Perry sent the letter to such firearms manufacturers as Bushmaster Firearms International LLC, Glock, Inc., Sig Sauer Inc. and Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation.

Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives Philip Gunn made a similar overture Thursday, inviting 14 gun manufacturers to his state. He said, “Gun manufacturers are under attack in anti-Second Amendment states.”

One manufacturer which both Perry and Gunn reached out to is Magpul Industries Corp., based in Erie, Colo. Magpul, which the Denver Post reported was “Colorado’s largest and most profitable manufacturer of high-capacity ammunition magazines,” has said it might move its shop to another state if Colorado enacts four new gun bills which passed the Colorado House of Representatives earlier this week. Vice President Joe Biden phoned Colorado lawmakers last week, encouraging them to vote for the four bills, a White House aide confirmed.

Magpul placed a full-page ad in the Denver Post on Sunday. “A magazine ban will do more than hurt public safety in a free Colorado. It will force a Colorado company to leave the state,” the ad read.

ABC News reached out to Magpul for comment on the overtures made by other states, but a spokesman did not immediately respond. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, the company said it’s still considering its options as the Colorado gun control bill heads to the state Senate for a vote.

“It appears that someone has posted or sent out some sort of notice that we are moving to a specific location. We can assure you that no decision has been made about location, and that we are still fighting this battle,” Magpul wrote on Facebook. “We are, however, assembling our requirements and looking at various areas that would be suitable for our new home, should it come to that. We appreciate all the offers, and we will begin talking to various entities about those shortly.”

Perry has made no secret of his desire to lure businesses to Texas. Earlier this month, he conducted a recruiting tour in California, sparring with California Gov. Jerry Brown and Lieutenant Gov. Gavin Newsom. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott ran advertisements in New York last month inviting New Yorkers to move to Texas after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo started a new gun-control push.

Perry Calls for Broader Transparency on Tax Returns, College Transcripts

Jul 172012

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(AUSTIN, Texas) — Texas Gov. Rick Perry called for people seeking higher elected office to be as transparent as possible when it comes to releasing information like tax returns.

“I’m a big believer that no matter who you are or what office you are running for, you should be as transparent as you can be with your tax returns and other aspects of your life so that people have the appropriate ability to judge your background and what have you,” Perry said Tuesday at the Texas State Capitol. “I certainly think it is inappropriate for the president of the United States to not keep his college transcript and his law school transcripts public, that he should make those available. I’m all about transparency.”

In his broad transparency call, Perry made no direct reference to presidential candidate Mitt Romney, whose unwillingness to release more than two years of tax returns has come under scrutiny recently.

Asked if he thought Romney should release more, Perry avoided the subject and turned the conversation to President Obama, who famously has refused to reveal who paid for his education, nor any of his grades or papers while he was enrolled in higher education.

“I think the president ought to release all of his transcripts, yes sir, I think anyone running for office if they get asked, within reason, to give people background about what they have been doing, including tax returns, should do that,” Perry said. “That’s my feel on it. There are places that require it to be completely transparent. I think it is odd that the president of the United States refuses to allow his transcript.”

Perry was among the first presidential candidates to call on Romney to release his tax returns last October and again in a debate in January, when Romney had yet to release his tax documents to the public.

The Texas governor, who has released 20 years of his own tax returns, also refused to debate his 2010 gubernatorial candidate Bill White unless he released his tax returns, which he did not.

Rick Perry Demands that Obama Apologize

Jul 172012

Richard Ellis/Getty Images(AUSTIN, Texas) — The Republican governor of Texas today welcomed President Obama to the Lone Star State by asking him to distance himself from comments made by Attorney General Eric Holder comparing the state’s 2011 voter identification law to a “poll tax,” the Jim Crow-era laws that were declared unconstitutional in 1937.

“Perhaps while the President is visiting Texas, he can take a break from big-dollar fundraisers to disavow his Attorney General’s offensive and incendiary comments regarding our common-sense voter identification law,” Gov. Rick Perry said in a statement. “In labeling the Texas voter ID law as a ‘poll tax,’ Eric Holder purposefully used language designed to inflame passions and incite racial tension. It was not only inappropriate, but simply incorrect on its face. The president should apologize for Holder’s imprudent remarks and for his insulting lawsuit against the people of Texas.”

In a speech to the NAACP one week ago, Holder said that under Texas’s law “many of those without IDs would have to travel great distances to get them and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them. We call those poll taxes.”

Last week, a three-judge panel in U.S. District Court in Washington. D.C. heard arguments in the stand-off between the Obama administration and the state of Texas over the law. While the voter ID itself is free, the documentation required to obtain an ID – a birth certificate, a Social Security card – is not.

In his remarks, the attorney general specifically said that the Texas law would be “harmful to minority voters” because 25 percent of African Americans lack the required identification needed to obtain a voter I.D., as opposed to eight percent of whites.

“Especially in recent months, Texas has – in many ways – been at the center of our national debate about voting rights issues,” Holder said. “Let me be clear: we will not allow political pretexts to disenfranchise American citizens of their most precious right.”

Rick Perry to Campaign for Romney in Nevada

Jul 122012

Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Texas Gov. Rick Perry will make his first campaign appearance on behalf of Mitt Romney Friday in Nevada, ABC News has learned.

Perry will appear at the opening of the Romney campaign’s field office in Elko, Nev. Romney will not be in attendance.

Perry, who dropped his own presidential bid and threw his initial backing behind Newt Gingrich just two days before the South Carolina primary, endorsed Romney in late April, but has yet to publicly campaign for his one-time rival.

In late May, Perry and Romney held a joint conference call with the Texas governor’s top donors, urging his network to raise money for the former Massachusetts governor. First lady of Texas Anita Perry attended a fundraiser with Ann Romney in Texas in May as well.

Nevada was home to one of Perry and Romney’s most heated exchanges last fall. During a CNN debate in Las Vegas in October, Perry accused Romney of hiring illegal immigrants to landscape his home, and Romney claimed that illegal immigration had increased 60 percent in Texas.

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