Less than three months before the election, with incumbent Rick Perry leading challenger Bill White 49 to 41 percent in the race for governor of Texas, Democrats have taken off their gloves and aren’t holding back.
A Democratic political action committee, Back To Basics, is leading an anti-Perry campaign statewide, most recently running an advertisement calling Perry a coward. Perry, the longest serving governor in Texas history, refuses to debate his Democratic challenger Bill White, the former mayor of Houston.
“I think what they’re trying to do is jab the bear with a sharp stick to get it up on its hind legs,” said SMU political science professor Cal Jillson in an interview with KHOU-Houston. “They want Perry to say, ‘All right, I better debate this guy.’”
With White eight points behind so close to the end of the race, it might be a last-ditch effort on the part of his supporters, but many of them really do agree with the advertisement.
“His handlers don’t want him to debate,” White said in an interview with KHOU-Houston. “That’s why he won’t appear before editorial boards.”
Months ago, The Daily Cougar endorsed White for governor.
“Rick Perry is handing this state over to special interests and lobbyists,” one commentator said on KHOU’s website. “Bill White is the best man to clean up Perry’s mess and move Texas forward. Perry won’t debate White because then it will be obvious to everyone who is the better and brighter man.”
But then again, when we wrote a staff editorial endorsing White back in May, we received a few dissenting comments.
“Gov. Perry will steam roll your democrat wanna-be come December, and you know it,” another commentator said. “Last thing we need is a sanctuary city mayor running the whole state; No thank you.”
No matter how you feel, you have until October 23 to register to vote and tell the state how you feel. And every student on our campus should do just that.
If the two don’t go toe-to-toe, it will be the first time since 1990 that the leading candidates for governor didn’t debate.
