Perry wants your ideas--really! And 39% is a great victory!

The Statesman's W. Gardner Selby has reported that Perry wants help from YOU to launch his 2010 gubernatorial campaign.

To see this version of the old gambit to make the hoi polloi think that the governor cares what they think, go to

http://www.rickperry.org/campaign-kickoff

Help Governor Perry Kickoff His Campaign This Summer with Your Ideas

Sure--that's why he's paying gazillions to consultants, so he can use free ideas from you the people.

It's going to be hard to beat the slogan from last time: "I'm proud of Texas. How 'bout you?"

Here's one: "Help Gov. 39% get to 40."

In the Statesman today, Jason Embry has some entertaining excerpts on the legislative blog from depositions in Chris Bell's case against Perry's campaign from 2006. In "Perry tried to prop up Bell,"

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/firstreading/index.html

If you have time, read the whole thing to get some behind-the-scenes goings on. For instance, Perry consultant Dave Carney says,

"So the theory would be that if Kinky collapsed, all that vote would go to Carole, and it’s very difficult to stop an independent candidate, you know, in that her resources to money was pretty significant as being the comptroller and some of her deep-pocket supporters. So we had a strategy to pump up Bell."

As a volunteer who gathered petition signatures to help Strayhorn get on the ballot, I thought at the time that she was the one with the best chance to raise enough money to challenge Perry in advertising and other communication, as opposed to Bell and Kinky. Evidently, Perry's campaign saw this too, and took steps to change the equation, as much as they could.

The Statesman article (for which his blog entry is extra background) is "Governor's race lawsuit back in court,"

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/04/06/0406perryrga.html

I do question one of its statements:

"Rick Perry eventually got $1 million from the governors on his way to a rather easy re-election win. A year later, Bell sued Perry and the association, alleging that the governor kept the public from fully knowing the source of the money."

I guess you could call it a "rather easy re-election win," but you can also call him Gov. 39%.