Thread: TX: Perry, White joust over land deals, but both agree the f

Perry, White joust over land deals, but both agree the feds are mishandling border security
Posted Monday, Jul. 26, 2010

By Anna M. Tinsley


FORT WORTH -- Texas' gubernatorial candidates agreed Monday that the Texas-Mexico border isn't secure -- and took swipes at each other over a land deal and gun rights -- as they spoke to about 500 Texas law enforcers.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White and Republican Gov. Rick Perry told the Sheriffs Association of Texas of the need for more border security, even though President Barack Obama is sending 1,200 National Guard troops to border states beginning Sunday. Of those, 250 will come to Texas.

"We've got 64 percent of the border and we are getting 20 percent of the troops," Perry said during the meeting at the Fort Worth Convention Center. "Even my Aggie math can figure that out. We're getting shorted."

He said he's asked Obama to sit down with him when the president visits Austin for an Aug. 9 fundraiser. "We can show him how to secure the border of Texas with Mexico," Perry said. But White, a former Houston mayor, said it's not the president's fault that the Texas-Mexico border isn't secure.

"For 91/2 years, Rick Perry has had an opportunity to come through with more police and sheriffs," White said. "He has not been effective in delivering what we need to secure the border."

White also criticized Perry for questions about a property deal in 2007 that turned Perry into a millionaire, saying that "if there was a sheriff [tied to the same land deal], there would be federal investigators over all that."

A report by The Dallas Morning News raised questions about whether Perry bought property in Horseshoe Bay below market value and sold it for higher than market value, in effect benefiting "from favoritism, backroom dealing and influence-buying."

Perry paid about $300,000 for the lot in 2000 and sold it for more than $1.1 million in 2007.

"It raises questions about someone becoming a millionaire when they've been a state employee for 25 years," White said.

Perry said that the deal was "open and honest" and that anyone involved in land deals in the Hill Country from 2000 to 2007 likely showed a profit. "We bought a piece of property, the property appreciated and we sold it," he said. "We've gone through this with great detail."

Perry said that even better than his releasing ethics advisories regarding the land deal would be for White to "release his income tax records from when he served on Bill Clinton's Cabinet."

"He refuses to let people see how he was making money when he was working for the American people," Perry said.

Perry also questioned White's past involvement in Mayors Against Illegal Guns, from which White quit his membership last year. "Why would you join a group that is an anti-Second Amendment group?"

White, who said he supports the Second Amendment, said he joined to try to help counter the problem of stolen weapons.

Both candidates released lists of sheriffs who support their candidacy. Perry's included sheriffs from Terrell, Jeff Davis, Pecos, Culberson, Hudspeth, Zapata, Zavala and Presidio counties. White's list included 23 sheriffs, including those from Dallas and Travis counties.

Both candidates included endorsements from Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. and Zavala County Sheriff Eusevio Salinas Jr. Perry's office released written endorsements signed by Gonzalez and Salinas on Monday afternoon. White's staff was checking into the matter and had not commented on the conflicting information by late Monday.

www.star-telegram.com

Originally Posted by jean

But White, a former Houston mayor, said it's not the president's fault that the Texas-Mexico border isn't secure.

"For 91/2 years, Rick Perry has had an opportunity to come through with more police and sheriffs," White said. "He has not been effective in delivering what we need to secure the border."

You are right Bill White, but then can we depend on you to do any better? You couldn't even provide the Houston Police Department with what they needed to effectively secure Houston. How do you plan of giving Texas police and sheriffs what they need to secure the state?

Getting bogged down on who owns what land and how much money they
made off of this and that instead of getting dirty over the real issues.

Bill White's idea of border securtiy involves a welcome mat and a fruit
basket.

Def