I may be wrong, but I can’t recall a time when the Republican Governors Association was so visibly in support of a governor dealing with a contentious local issue. Fair enough, the question of public unions, their benefits and collective bargaining isn’t entirely local — it’s an issue to one extent or another in dozens of states. But most of the nation’s focus on this issue now is on Wisconsin, and it’s to Gov. Walker’s aid that the RGA rides with a new web site — here — and a new web ad, below.
RGA chairman, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, has a quote up on the site that frames RGA’s reasons for pitching in to help:
“Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is in the middle of what will be a defining moment for our country and the conservative movement. It is essential that we stand with Governor Walker and show political leaders throughout the country that America is ready to take on its toughest political challenges.”
Perry’s outspokenness on the issue has attracted criticism from the usual suspects back home in Texas, with the AFL-CIO and the party they control hitting Perry by accusing him of using the RGA and Wisconsin to boost his own national profile. That the AFL-CIO doesn’t like Perry isn’t news. That union is so out-of-touch with Texas that they held pro-ObamaCare rallies at the height of that debate. But Perry dealt with runaway Democrats himself in 2003, so he’s uniquely mindful of the bizarre situation Gov. Walker finds himself in now. To not show support via the RGA probably never occurred to Perry, and wouldn’t have made much sense.
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