Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Rick wooing the African American vote?

Last week, Rick raised a hundred grand for the United Negro College Fund... aka the UNCF... in Houston (link). He has a video on his YouTube site about it and has it posted on RickPerry.org as well...



According to the Houston Chronicle article, Rick has raised more than 600 thousand dollars for the UNCF. $600,000 is a lot of money.

Rick is also winning points with African Americans by indicating that he will sign a bill to compensate wrongly convicted people (link). Excerpt follows...
Tim Cole of Fort Worth, who was wrongfully convicted of the rape of a Texas Tech student, died in 1999 in prison. A bill named in his honor would increase the compensation that wrongfully imprisoned former inmates receive upon exoneration. Included in the bill is an increase from $50,000 to $80,000 received for each year spent in prison, 120 hours of paid tuition at a college or career center, and other transitional services.

Having made it through the state senate, the bill is headed to Governor Rick Perry's desk. The governor has indicated that he will likely sign it into law.
The Star Telegram has more to this story (link).

I doubt the African American vote will be that huge in the GOP primary in 2010, but this does seem to indicate that there is more going on under the surface than the pundits are proclaiming. Rick is not just angrily ripping Obama and going to anti tax tea parties and pro life events. Sure yeah he is doing that. He is also reaching out to African Americans and who knows what other groups more under the radar.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Hey now, campaign characters. Be nice. I know a lot of you on both sides, so I don't want any overly foul language, personal attacks on anyone other than the candidates themselves, or other party fouls. I will moderate the heck out of you if you start breaking the bounds of civility.