Perry Releases Candid E-Mails, Heated Exchanges

AUSTIN (AP) – Here are some e-mails released by Governor Rick Perry’s office to an open-government activist and obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

— One e-mail from ex-Secretary of State Jack Rains sparked a heated discussion about the possibility that former Representative Ron Wilson of Houston — a Democrat — could be appointed by Perry to a high-level state post.

“I cannot imagine a worse Republican appointment,” Rains wrote Perry’s office November 2nd. “I would hope every Republican will urge the governor to never consider this racist for any office.” Wilson is black.

Last May, he briefly served as House deputy parliamentarian under Republican Speaker Tom Craddick.

After receiving a copy of the e-mail, Perry appointments secretary Ken Anderson wrote back that Rains, a veteran power broker in Texas Republican circles, had been drinking when he wrote the message.

“Ron might be called many things, but racist is NOT one of them,” Anderson wrote. “Jack must have written that late in the afternoon after coming back from one of his long liquid lunches.”

Rains told the Star-Telegram he wants an apology from Anderson. “I don’t know Mr. Anderson. I don’t drink at lunch, and he doesn’t know me very well or he wouldn’t say something stupid like that. You may quote me on that,” Rains said. ………

— In one series of e-mail exchanges, aides passed around a news article about state Senator Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo.

In the Texas Weekly article, one of Zaffirini’s opponents, former Webb County Judge Louis Bruni, calls the longtime senator an “evil, vindictive, mean woman.” “Can you believe this quote?”

Kathy Walt, Perry’s deputy chief of staff, wrote in an e-mail to fellow top aides. “Truth can be mean,” Robert Black responded.

Zaffirini called Black’s comments “outrageous” and suggested he was angry that she helped lead a successful drive to restore community college funding that Perry had vetoed last year.

Black declined to discuss the specifics of the exchanges or to say whether apologies would be forthcoming. ……..

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)