Guv candidates each spend an hour in the hot seat
It wasn't quite a debate, though Gov. Rick Perry and Democratic nominee Bill White each sat under the bright lights last week and aired claims that have already faced the Truth-O-Meter.
It wasn't quite a debate, though Gov. Rick Perry and Democratic nominee Bill White each sat under the bright lights last week and aired claims that have already faced the Truth-O-Meter.
An $18 billion budget shortfall plus $1.7 billion in operating losses plus 850,000 jobs adds up to fodder for the Truth-O-Meter.
In a fresh video advertisement from the Back to Basics political action committee, a folksy-sounding narrator depicts Texas Gov. Rick Perry as inconsisent about what the governor often characterizes as bad ol' Washington. The ad brings up what we've written about before — that in 2009, Perry asked President Barack Obama to forward congressionally-approved economic stimulus money.
Jason Isaac of Dripping Springs, the Republican challenging Democratic state Rep. Patrick Rose, calls the incumbent a "liberal thorn" in a video advertisement posted online this week. In the spot, Isaac levels charges we have not reviewed plus one we found very familiar about the "largest tax increase" in Texas history.
Bill White, the most interesting man in the world?
That's not quite Gov. Rick Perry's take in a video ad we've also heard on the radio. Playing on the jaunty Dos Equis ad campaign, Perry closes a list of recycled claims with a final jab about White not making public his tax returns from years he was deputy U.S. energy secretary: "When you run for governor, hide your tax releases, my friends."
And it targets the guv with some old ammo.
In case Texans were forlorn about missing out on TV ad wars raging in other states, GOP Gov. Rick Perry popped three new 30-second spots this week painting his Democratic opponent, Bill White, as having been a spendthrift, even unethical mayor of Houston. We've confirmed that one of them has run in Austin; we're not sure if or where (or how often) the ads are running otherwise.
Filling the airwaves or not, the ads float new charges we have not reviewed and hammer a few criticisms PolitiFact Texas has heard before...
PolitiFact Texas, launched six months ago, has fans and objectors--the latter including
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst who told NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik: "This is regrettably a new low for the Austin American-Statesman and for this particular group. It shouldn't be in the newspaper. It should be on the editorial page. I mean, for heaven's sakes."
Folkenflik's report aired this week, touching off reaction across the land.
What keeps Gov. Rick Perry from committing to debate Democratic challenger Bill White? That's none of PolitiFact's business, actually.
Yet we were struck by a White shot at Perry tucked into an Austin American-Statesman editorial published Monday. Perry, White said, "doesn’t want to talk about how he’s nearly doubled state spending, doubled state debt and how Texas is facing an $18 billion shortfall."
We can't judge if Perry doesn't want to chat about all that. But...
Readers call us out; PolitiFact Texas, get a grip!