Texas Gov. Rick Perry is taking fire from a PAC that supports Rep. Michele Bachmann, in what could be the first hard attack on his front-runner status for the Republican presidential nomination, according to an article by Chicago Tribune writer James Oliphant.
Writing in today’s newspaper, Oliphant said a television ad sponsored by Keep Americans United running in South Carolina suggests that Perry “doesn’t merit the support of the tea-party movement” because of reports that he escalated state spending and the legislature was forced to close a $27 billion budget deficit.
Story continues below video.
South Carolina holds an early primary and is considered a key battleground for both Bachmann and Perry, who are trying to win over the state’s religious conservatives and tea-party activists.
Oliphant writes that the ads running on local CNN, Fox News, and CNBC stations in the state hammer away at Perry on his 11-year track record as governor of Texas and cites a Wall Street Journal report last month that said the state offered nearly $10 billion in short-term bonds to prop up its general revenue fund.
The 30-second spot accuses Perry — who has made his economic record as governor the centerpiece of his campaign — of “covering his deficits with record borrowing.”
“And he’s supposed to be the tea-party guy?” a narrator says as newspaper headlines about spending and borrowing flash on the screen. “There is an honest conservative, and she’s not Rick Perry.”
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.