The Statesman moves the ball forward on the Emerging Technology Fund story and Governor Perry’s self-appropriation of its funds. Two points from the story stand out to me.
Gov. Rick Perry and the state’s legislative leaders awarded a $4.5 million grant to a cancer treatment company launched by David Nance, a close Perry friend and campaign donor, after the company sidestepped two review committees, including a statewide board created specifically to evaluate and make recommendations on life-science companies.
In August, Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus gave Nance’s company the second-largest grant ever from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.
Perry has yet to announce the award or explain what the company, Convergen LifeSciences Inc., will be doing, although it has started drawing down the money. By comparison, Perry has announced four other awards in the recent days as he campaigned across the state.
The award was given in August, yet the biggest glory hound in the state had nothing to say about it? I’m sure that if you could get your hands on a copy of Perry’s super secret calendar, you would see the announcement scheduled for some time after the election, because somewhere deep down, he knows what he did was wrong. Well, he knows that some annoying voters might think it was wrong, so naturally he didn’t want them to know about it until after he’d been safely re-elected. That’s as close to an admission of guilt as you’ll ever get from him on anything.
Dewhurst and Straus said their offices begin considering applications only after they have been recommended by Perry and the state board.
Dewhurst said he’s not sure that he knew that Nance’s application didn’t clear all the lower review boards but that he relies only on the state board’s recommendations.
“I never met or laid eyes on Nance,” Dewhurst added.
That’s David Dewhurst, slowly backing away. You think he recognizes this for what it is?
This video from the White campaign could use a little editing, but it captures the basic outline of the story:
Cut that down to 30 seconds and run it on TV, I say.