AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Details of a new television campaign ad from Republican candidate for governor, Kay Bailey Hutchison:
TITLE: "New One."
LENGTH: 30 seconds.
AIRING: Started airing Thursday statewide.
SCRIPT:
Male Narrator: Perry names lobbyist as chief of staff.
Female Narrator: Former chief of staff becomes HPV lobbyist.
Male narrator: Shroud of secrecy descends on governor's office.
Female Narrator: Lobbyists in and out of Perry's staff.
Male Narrator: Companies that gave to Perry get road contract.
Female Narrator: Perry shakes down special interests.
Male Narrator: Perry's top donors get business.
Female Narrator: There are two ways to get things done in Austin.
Male narrator: Hire a lobbyist and donate to this governor. Or elect a new one.
KEY IMAGES: A translucent, black and white photo of Gov. Rick Perry serves as the background while headlines, being read by the narrators, flash over his half-smiling face.
ANALYSIS: Perry has had a cozy relationship with Austin lobbyists, but Hutchison has also had staff who worked as lobbyists.
After winning election in 2002, he raised some eyebrows by hiring lobbyist and former lawmaker Mike Toomey as his chief of staff. Toomey's lengthy client list had included AT&T, Phillip Morris and Merck & Co.
Toomey left Perry's office in 2004 and quickly re-established his lobby business, recapturing clients such as Merck & Co., the manufacturer of a vaccine against a sexually transmitted cervical-cancer causing virus. In 2007, less than four months after a Merck political action committee made a $5,000 contribution to Perry's re-election campaign, the governor issued an executive order mandating the vaccine for schoolgirls. The measure, which could have raked in millions for Merck, was later rejected by the Legislature.
In the aftermath of the executive order, which angered social conservatives, Perry defended his decision.
"When a company comes to me and says we have a cure for cancer, for me not to say, 'Please come into my office and let's hear your story for the people of the state of Texas, for young ladies who are dying of cancer,' would be the height of irresponsibility," Perry told The Associated Press after issuing the order.
Perry has personal experience with the devastation cancer can cause. He has said his father had prostate cancer, his mother had colon cancer and his sister had bladder cancer. His father-in-law also had cancer.
Perry also faced ethics questions when Dan Shelley, a former consultant for the Spanish company that eventually won the multi-billion dollar state contract to develop the now-defunct Trans-Texas Corridor, was hired as a top Perry aide in 2004. Shelley worked for the firm, Cintra, as a consultant just before he went to the governor's office.
Shelley resigned his state job in September of 2006 and became a lobbyist for Cintra.
Several other lobbyists have come in and out of Perry's office since he became governor in 2000.
Perry's office policy prohibits former staffers from lobbying his office for one year and one legislative session after they leave.
In Hutchison's office, Dick Ribbentrop was a lobbyist for the New York Stock Exchange before becoming the senator's chief of staff. Later, he lobbied for a $700 billion Wall Street bailout on behalf of UBS Americas, Inc., an investment bank. Hutchison voted for the bailout.
The claim that Perry shakes down special interests is a reference to a 2000 fundraising letter from the campaign of then-Lt. Gov. Perry to elected officials, lobbyists and other potential supporters. According to a report in the Houston Chronicle, the letter invited recipients to an Austin reception. Tickets to the reception were $1,000 per person, but "host committee" donation categories of $5,000, $10,000 and $25,000 also were enumerated in the letter.
The response page listed lobbyists' clients and asked them to pledge on their own behalf and for their clients.
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Analysis by April Castro, Associated Press Writer.
