Retiring Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, is keeping Florida in his sights as he contemplates a second bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
Perry has been here before and Florida was not exactly kind to his presidential ambitions. The Texas governor entered the 2012 Republican presidential contest late but he quickly rocketed to the top of the polls. A series of bad debate performances haunted him and he soon lost momentum, including being upset by businessman Herman Cain at the Republican Party of Floridas (RPOF) Presidency 5 straw poll. After taking 10 percent in Iowa and 1 percent in New Hampshire, Perry dropped out of the race.
Since then, Perry has been active trying to bring businesses from other states to Texas, highlighting the Lone Star States low taxes. Perry, the longest serving governor in Texas history, did not seek re-election last year
Perry has actively contemplated a second presidential bid and was active in Florida during his ally Gov. Rick Scotts, R-Fla., bid for re-election last year. On Tuesday, Perry was on the dias as Scott was sworn in for a second term -- and the Lone Star State was on the Florida governors mind.
Texas is our No. 1 competitor for jobs but we will unseat Texas within the next four years for this top spot and we will compete globally for business investment, Scott said with an amused Perry looking on. I will admit to you that our new goal of unseating Texas and becoming the global leader in job creation is ... ambitious.
Scott is not the only Florida Republican Perry showed support for on Tuesday. The Texas governor announced he was endorsing former RPOF Chairman Lenny Curry over Democrat incumbent Alvin Brown in the Jacksonville mayoral race.
"In Texas, and as I travel the United States, I meet people who understand what it takes to transform communities and bring more opportunity for economic growth," Perry said in a statement on Tuesday. By electing Lenny Curry, Jacksonville can have exactly that type of transformational leader in City Hall."
But as he goes around the nation mulling over running for president again, Perry is not escaping the notice of Democrats. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) fired away at Perry on Tuesday insisting Perrys states fiscal mess has ... worsened, with Texas debt increasing about 170 percent and its local borrowing growing by 145 percent from 2000 to 2012 and looking to portray the governors economic record as weak.
Whats worse is that Perrys economic record is a tale of two Texases one for the well-off and well-connected, and one for everyone else, the DNC claimed on Tuesday. Despite Perry claiming that Texas didnt grapple with income inequality, a study found that the state actually ranks fifth among all states in income inequality. Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Census Bureau has noted a sharp rise in income inequality in Texas while Texas has also been on the higher end of the wealth-gap spectrum for years. Under Perry, Texas also has the 13th highest poverty rate in the nation, the highest percentage of uninsured in the country, and ranks first in the nation in the number of workers earning the minimum wage or less at 400,000 a statistic that has quadrupled between 2008 and 2013.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
