http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20082696-503544.html">CBS News 7/25/11
The skeletons in Rick Perry's closet(snip)
That fact was highlighted last Thursday, when former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee took a very pointed shot at Perry. "For all his new found commitment to hyper-conservatism," said the former GOP presidential candidate, "he'll get to explain why he supported pro-abortion, pro-same sex marriage Rudy Guiliani last time."
Perry's support for Giuliani - whose moderation on social issues alienated social conservatives and contributed to his dramatic flameout in the 2008 presidential race - isn't his only potentially problematic endorsement. He doesn't much like to talk about it these days, but Perry was actually a Democrat until 1989; the year before he converted to the GOP, he served as Texas chairman for then-presidential candidate (and current target of conservative disdain) Al Gore.
Then there are the issues, chief among them immigration. Perry, who presides over a state with a large and growing Hispanic population. has been criticized by Texas Tea Party groups for not pushing hard enough to pass a "sanctuary city" ban and other hard-line immigration legislation. In 2001, he signed the Texas version of the DREAM Act allowing children of illegal immigrants access to in-state college tuition. As Arizona Sen. John McCain's reelection campaign illustrated last year, any perceived softness on immigration issues can become a major headache in a Republican primary.
There are niche issues that could hurt Perry, like his support for the (never-created) Trans-Texas Corridor, a toll-road despised by small-government types that would have meant the appropriation of an estimated 81,000 acres of rural land. Or the executive order he signed in 2007 requiring that Texas sixth-grade girls be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus, a sexually transmitted disease that causes cervical cancer. (The order was ultimately blocked, but the order outraged many conservatives.)
And then there's the elephant in the room: Texas' debt problem. In the 2010 governor's race, Democrat Bill White pointed out that Texas' debt has doubled under Perry. Since 2001, according to the Star-Telegram's Mitchell Schnurman, Texas' debt has grown at a faster rate than that of the U.S. government. Perry assumed office in December 2000.