Former Gov. Rick Perry on new advisory role with Speaker Phelan | Texas: The Issue Is

Rudy Koski

AUSTIN, Texas - With the start of the Texas legislative session in January, Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan is still trying to rally from that political primary blitz that he survived this past spring.

To help with that, he's putting former Governor Rick Perry back into the game. Perry left the governor's mansion back in 2015, but he still knows a thing or two about rebounding from a hard political hit.

FOX 7 Austin's Rudy Koski spoke to Perry about his new role as a senior adviser to the embattled House speaker.

RICK PERRY: The speaker's race is kind of the, the focal point at this particular point in time. I see a lot of members, I talk to a lot of members as I go and as I travel, and the speaker's race is over with.

RUDY KOSKI: You say the speaker race is over, and yet there was a group of Republicans who recently met together to select their anointed individual, Representative [David Cook, R-Mansfield]. What do you say to them?

RICK PERRY: You can say what you want to say. The proof is in the pudding. And Dade Phelan has the votes to be the next speaker.

RUDY KOSKI: You know, I was trying to look back and say, what is this period comparable to? And I guess it's back to speaker Tom Craddick back in 2007, when the session was coming to an end. Things got contentious.

RICK PERRY: You know, it was a great, a great example in this Ronald Reagan documentary that's just come on where Tip O'Neill literally goes to Reagan's bedside. These guys just were, you know, formidable opponents on legislative issues. But when Reagan got shot, Tip O'Neill went and literally said the rosary at his bedside. That's the type of Judeo-Christian values that I like to see out of all people. And I hope we all can exhibit that going forward, and battle greatly on the, you know, on the floor of the House, on the Senate, out of the governor's office about the things that we care about. But when it's over with, go have a beer together.

RUDY KOSKI: It's saying that, that is the criticism against Speaker Phelan is that he reaches across the aisle, works with Democrats, and there are members of the GOP that don't like that and have made that an issue, saying it should be just us.

RICK PERRY: You know, this idea that we don't work with the Democrats is a bad idea in my opinion. That's not what representative government is all about. Go make your best arguments and then make the best deal that you can and then go forward with it.

RUDY KOSKI: What's your advice coming out of what could be a very contentious November, moving into January as the session starts?

RICK PERRY: I've never gotten everything I wanted. You know, school choice, a great example. I'm going to continue to work towards that, but I'm not going to pull a hand grenade out of my pocket and pull the pin and roll it into the House and blow it up, because I didn't get that issue done.

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RUDY KOSKI: So, in a way, are you a fence mender?

RICK PERRY: I certainly will wear that title, if I can, can help bring folks together. And I'm going to try to help the speaker. From the standpoint of giving him good ideas about, you know, here's how you address this school choice issue.

RUDY KOSKI: Do you think you convinced the speaker to kind of find a way to get school choice across the finish line?

RICK PERRY: Well, I've laid out a new idea that I'm not going to share with you at this particular point in time. That gives some…well, let's just call it, give some comfort to members who may think that school choice, the whole voucher concept, some, you know, public money is going to private schools, is a bad idea. If the people of your district basically say it's not such a bad idea, then giving folks a little bit of protection, so to speak, so that they don't feel like they're exposed, might be a concept that's time has come. We're going to throw a lot of Jell-O at the wall, so to speak, here, Rudy.

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