http://www.opinionjournal.com/cc/?id=110006797
Godly Governor
Texas' Rick Perry gears up for one bodacious primary.
BY J.R. LABBE
Thursday, June 9, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
FORT WORTH, Texas--The Texas Legislature said amen to its 79th biennial session without addressing the one issue that many lawmakers said was the priority for 2005: school finance reform.
Gov. Rick Perry would rather focus on a few of this term's political accomplishments--those issues topping the social agendas of many religious conservatives. With an eye to '06, Gov. Perry has signed, and sought publicity for, two items in particular: a law that requires written parental consent for minors seeking abortions; and a joint resolution calling for a constitutional amendment that, if approved by voters in November, will ban gay marriage in the state.
Such social issues are more appealing to the governor than thorny problems like this term's lack of education reform. The failure of reform might point to Gov. Perry's own failed leadership, or worse. Quality of education was never the stumbling block in Austin; it was how to pay for the learning the kids do receive, which means uttering the word that dare not cross the lips of a Texas Republican if he or she wants to get re-elected in '06: TAXES.
Gov. Perry can't afford to be vulnerable this time around. Several formidable Republicans are eyeing the 2006 governor's race. Gov. Perry, a former Democrat who once served as lieutenant governor under Gov. George W. Bush, will take a page from his predecessor and play this Texas race safe.
That means values issues will be at the heart of Gov. Perry's re-election campaign in '06. After all, they are close to the hearts of many on the religious right--and without those votes, Gov. Perry won't be the person on the ballot with an "R" after his name in the November gubernatorial election.
Six days after the 140-day legislative session adjourned, Gov. Perry was in Fort Worth to engage in political theatrics that may become all too common in these parts. His campaign people picked Calvary Christian Academy as the backdrop for a bill-signing ceremony for two initiatives guaranteed to appeal to Tarrant County's socially conservative voters.
Never mind that the gay marriage resolution didn't even require the governor's John Hancock in order to move on to the ballot and the voters. According to the Texas Legislative Manual, joint resolutions, once they are passed and signed by the leaders of the House and Senate, are filed directly with the secretary of state, who oversees elections.
And the parental consent bill could have been signed at the governor's mansion any day of the week, but where's the photo-op in that when you can get 1,000 evangelicals to pack a church school gym on a Sunday afternoon?
These issues are important to many Christian conservatives, but people of faith should not blind themselves to the political motivations of Gov. Perry's visit to Cowtown on Sunday.
That visit was just one of the three he has made to Tarrant County in the span of a week. On June 1, he signed a new workers' compensation law while surrounded by the employees of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth. And on Tuesday, he traveled to Arlington to sign a bill that updates that state's protective services statutes.
This area of North Texas is expected to be ground zero for one bodacious primary fight should U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison announce that, for now, she's breathed enough inside-the-Beltway air and wants to come home to run for governor. After all, the road to the White House in the past four elections passed through a Southern governor's mansion.
Sen. Hutchison's power base is Dallas, where her husband, Ray, is an attorney and a former state representative. Meanwhile, Gov. Perry has Houston Republicans in his camp. And Republican state Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who's also eyeing the state's top elected spot, is a former Austin mayor whose perpetual badmouthing of Gov. Perry's performance will make her a noisy nuisance.
All of that puts Tarrant County, plus surrounding Johnson, Parker and Denton counties--which happen to be in the same media market and in no candidate's home territory--up for grabs.
Gov. Perry's Tarrant County appearance at a church school was not without its detractors. About 300 protesters picketed outside the academy, which is affiliated with Calvary Cathedral International. Charlie Prior, the cathedral's business administrator, said the church was contacted by the governor's reps about staging the bill-signing ceremony there. Wanting to accommodate the "biblical values" represented by Gov. Perry and the legislation, church officials agreed to stage the event in the school gymnasium.
But those same church officials worked like the devil to distance the church from the school once the media grabbed hold of the story. Who cares that it's only a literal wall that separates the classrooms from the sanctuary. In the eyes of Mr. Prior, the church and the school are separate.
It's a distinction without much difference. The school's own Web site says it receives leadership and guidance from Pastor Bob Nichols and the board of directors at Calvary Cathedral International.
Right or wrong, American politicians of all stripes have held campaign events on church property--many in sanctuaries during Sunday services--without consequence to the religious group's tax-exempt status or the politician's chances at election. For a nation in which almost 80% of the population self-identifies as believing in God, the blending of religion and politics is not all that troubling to Jane and Joe Q. Public.
That is particularly true in Texas, often referred to as the buckle of the Bible Belt.
But the community of faith, even in the Lone Star State, is not a monolith. Plenty of Texan Christians were put off by what they perceived as Gov. Perry's use of religion as a theatrical prop. Witnessing oneself as a godly governor might be more effectively demonstrated if religion weren't turned into a sideshow.
Ms. Labbe is senior editorial writer and columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
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