August, 22 2011, 09:29am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
The Rick Perry Model
WASHINGTON
ABBY RAPOPORT, rapoport at texasobserver.org
Rapoport is a reporter with the Texas Observer. She said today: "Don't assume a gaffe or two means Rick Perry doesn't have an excellent campaign strategy. The Texas governor rewrote the playbook on political organizing back in 2010, when he created an expansive grassroots network. No mailers, no yard signs, few television ads. His only request to supporters: recruit 12 Perry voters from friends and family and get them to the polls. The Republican primary campaign--against the popular and very well-funded Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison--defied all expectations. Unprecedented turnout gave Perry the victory. The strategy has particular advantages in Iowa and New Hampshire, where small town relationships can help swing support. So why are no other GOP candidates giving it a try?"
See Rapoport's article.
JOSHUA HOLLAND, joshua.holland at alternet.org
Holland is a senior writer at AlterNet and the author of "The Fifteen Biggest Lies About the Economy (and Everything Else the Right Doesn't Want you to Know About Taxes, Jobs and Corporate America)." He said today: "Rick Perry is absolutely, 100 percent correct when he said that Texas was a model for conservative governance. He slashed taxes to the bone, handing out credits to his political cronies like they were candy. He decried the evils of 'Big Government' while hypocritically using federal stimulus funds to help close Texas' budget gap in the short term, and now he's using the state's longer term fiscal disaster -- one of his own creation -- as a premise for destroying an already threadbare social safety net serving the neediest Texans. As a result of immigration and other external factors, his state's added a lot of low-paying poverty jobs, but he's added very little in the way of 'prosperity.'"
See Holland's recent piece: "Rick Perry's Campaign Strategy? Distorting His Abysmal Economic Record"
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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Dr. Mehmet Oz, the "former daytime television fixture" who U.S. President-elect Donald Trump picked to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, reported "up to $56 million in investments in three companies" with direct CMS interests, the watchdog Accountable.US highlighted Friday.
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In a first of its kind report, our Gaza based partner Community Training Centre for Crisis Management asked injured, separated and disabled children and their caregivers about the toll of the ongoing war on their lives. Their answers are devastating but sadly not a surprise. 1/5
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— War Child UK ( @warchilduk.bsky.social) December 12, 2024 at 3:31 AM
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