Mending Fences
Gov. Perry was in Washington today on a hush-hush visit to congressional Democrats. Yes, Democrats.
Our own Todd J. Gillman snooped the story out and was there alone. The host was the dean of the Texas delegation, Solomon Ortiz of Corpus Christi. In the photo above, he's arriving with Dem Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas.
Todd says Mr. Perry got an earful. You can bet he heard a lot about redistricting and the state's payments to Republican-connected lobbyists.
Now that Democrats run things in D.C., Mr. Perry wanted to stress that it's time to smooth things over and work together for better highway funding and other needs.
Here's an early copy of his story for tomorrow's paper.
In other news, the governor's peeps announced they have dumped the forementioned Republican-connected lobbyists. Read the jump for Todd's account of that.
Here's a piece of the release just out from Texas House Dems leader Jim Dunnam:
"Well, it's about time. House Democrats have been calling on Governor Perry, Speaker Craddick and Lt. Governor Dewhurst to cancel these exorbitant and unnecessary lobby contracts since 2003, when we first offered legislation to stop wasting more than $1.1 million state taxpayer dollars on two Abramoff/DeLay cronies."
By TODD J. GILLMAN
Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Gov. Rick Perry has canceled a pair of controversial state contracts with GOP lobbyists, bowing to the realities of a Democrat-controlled Congress.
Texas Democrats had long complained about the contracts with the Federalist Group and Cassidy & Associates, which were hired to push Texas legislative priorities and purportedly to work with the state’s entire congressional delegation. Both firms were hired for their ties to GOP leadership, though, and when Congress changed hands in the November elections, that no longer seemed like much of a selling point.
The chief lobbyist on the Federalist contract was Drew Maloney, former chief of staff to Tom DeLay - long the nemesis of Texas Democrats as the architect of a mid-decade redistricting that tipped a half-dozen House seats into the hands of Republicans. At Cassidy, the principal lobbyist for Texas has been Todd Boulanger, who worked with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff - a close DeLay ally - and reportedly touted his ties to Bush adviser Karl Rove in pitching the contract to the governor’s office three years ago.
During the 2006 campaigns, even as he accepted Texas taxpayers’ money purportedly to work with the entire Texas delegation, Mr. Maloney actively raised money to defeat two senior Democratic House members, Martin Frost of Dallas and Charlie Stenholm of Abilene.
Cassidy’s contract is worth $15,000 per month. The Federalist Group gets $10,000 per month. Combined they have collected about $900,000 from the state.
Perry spokesman Robert Black said Friday that the firms were told in a Jan. 12 letter that their contracts were being terminated. Democratic members of the Texas congressional delegation learned of the move Thursday night, and were pleased.
“We recognize that Congress has changed and we’re going to look for other avenues where we can have an effective voice for Texas up there, in addition to our elected officials,” Mr. Black said.
E-mail tgillman@dallasnews.com