Builder's $8 million tops GOP donor list

[Judi Lynn]

Oct. 17, 2006, 1:18AM
CAMPAIGN 2006
Builder's $8 million tops GOP donor list
Bob Perry is financing House races nationwide, but not in state

By KRISTEN MACK
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, the state's top Republican donor, is venturing again into national politics, putting more than $8 million into the GOP's effort to maintain control of Congress.

Congressional Quarterly's PoliticalMoneyLine, which tracks how money is spent in politics, ranks Perry as the No. 1 donor this year.

Perry has given $2 million to Americans for Honesty on Issues, a new group that is buying television ads aimed at helping Republicans facing tight House races in Iowa, Colorado, Indiana, Arizona, North Carolina, Kentucky and New Mexico, according to the group's latest report to the Federal Election Commission.

Houston political consultant and fund-raiser Sue Walden is president of the group, but so far it isn't working in Texas races.

Most notably absent is Shelley Sekula-Gibbs' write-in bid for former Rep. Tom DeLay's seat — perhaps more evidence that the GOP considers holding that suburban Houston seat a long shot and is putting its bets on more promising races.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4264077.html

[Warpy]

1. Perry's whole thing is tort "reform."

He's a home builder in Texas who gets sued a lot for substandard construction that falls apart before the ink has dried on the mortgage agreement, probably because he goes with the lowest bidder on each subcontracted job.

Take tort "reform" off the table, and Perry's money will go to a numbered account in the Caymans, and he'll go bankrupt like all the other sleazes before him.

[Ezlivin]

3. "Substandard construction" = The way we did it back in Mexico

I know first-hand the joy of working with a builder who hired Mexican brick-layers (I don't think you'd ever call them masons). The lack of quality is astonishing.

Every morning in front of the local Home Depots you can find men milling about hoping to be hired for any job. Contractors roll up in their pickups and ask if anyone knows how to FILL_IN_THE_BLANK. Naturally lots of hands go up and the bed of the pickup truck rapidly fills. Do these men know how to do the job they've just volunteered for? Do they even know what they raised their hand for other than "It'll get me working today"?

If they ever successfully stemmed the flood of immigrants who've entered illegally the building boom in Texas would utterly collapse.

[underpants]

2. THE main "Swift boat" funder

not that this or the White House counsel who was caught working for both should indicate any kind of cooperation or involvement oh no not at all.