So as you know, there was a story last month about Rick Perry’s swanky and expensive rental mansion, which he and his wife have been using while the Governor’s Mansion is undergoing repairs. Turns out that the rather lavish lifestyle he’s enjoyed while directing everybody else in the state to cut their budgets has dogged him a bit. He was asked about it in an interview with KENS-TV in San Antonio, and he gave a fascinating answer. BOR has a transcription:
Vaughn: Governor, I know that you’re tied into social media. I follow you on twitter and Facebook, so I went to my Facebook followers and asked them if they had some questions for you. You call yourself a fiscal conservative. You know that the mansion burned down. You are spending your time in a rental mansion. Tell me if I’m wrong or right. $10,000 a month for rent. So far that’s 600,000 dollars. This person says, “Governor is that necessary to spend that much money?”
Perry: I think it’s like 9000 dollars a month, but the fact is, the dollar amount is not what’s important here. I wish the mansion hadn’t burned down. When we were asked to move out of the Governor’s mansion downtown, Anita and I said look whatever we need to do, and then the detail, the governor’s protective detail, those are the individuals that make the decision about where we are going to live. There’s requirements about where we live, and they made those decisions.
Vaughn: Couldn’t you live in a smaller place, less expensive.
Perry: That’s up to them. If we moved closer into town — We’re 14 mi out of town because that’s the closest place they were able to find that had the requirements. You have a substantial number of people on the detail that actually take up the bulk of that room. We’re going to live wherever the Legislature and Department of Public Safety direct us to live. So hopefully we’ll get the mansion back in shape very soon and this issue won’t be on the table.
Vaughn: How do you respond to your challenger Bill White? He says he would live in a really nice apartment.
Perry: I say, let’s get focused on what’s really important.
So Perry says he doesn’t have a choice, he’s just living where the Lege and the DPS told him to live. In response, Jim Dunnam, who is a member of the legislature, sent Perry a letter asking him a few questions about that, since doesn’t remember the Lege doing anything like that. Go read it and see what he has to say. But don’t hold your breath waiting for an answer.
great, with all that is happening in Texas and all the important stuff that is going to happen over the next several year this is the best question they could come up with from facebook? obviously where the governor and his family lives has to be safe and allow for the security detail to manage security, do I think that means they told Perry he had to live in this rental mansion, no way. But I also don’t believe for a second that if White was governor for years and the mansion burned down he would be living in an apartment with his family. And what would a “nice apartment” cost if he did? Probably at least $5000 per month, and if then governor white had an opponent, wouldn’t that opponent be saying he would be living in a $1500 per month town home or something? It’s gotcha politics meant to gin up the dumb masses and distract anyone from asking hard questions of both candidates.
Pingback: What Becky Moeller says – Off the Kuff