Texas Gov. Rick Perry lures businesses from Maryland, takes shot at Gov. O’Malley

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By Lucy Westcott
Capital News Service

Govs O'Malley and Perry at a Politico forum

Gov. Martin O’Malley and Texas Gov. Rick Perry debated at a Politico forum in February 2011.

Maryland is the latest target of Texas Gov. Rick Perry in a new radio spot that criticizes Gov. Martin O’Malley and the state’s high taxes.

Perry knocks Maryland for high taxes on businesses and families, comparing it to his state’s low taxes, “fair” legal system and limited government, in a commercial from Texas Wide Open for Business, part of the Texas Economic Development Division within the Office of the Governor.

“When you grow tired of Maryland taxes squeezing every dime out of your business, think Texas, where we’ve created more jobs than all the other states combined,” Perry says in the advertisement.

In the ad, which WTOP first reported about on Wednesday, Perry says that businesses should seek to call the Lone Star State home, not the Old Line State.

O’Malley is given a special mention, accused of making Maryland a “tax and fee state” and implementing a “rain tax” on some property owners, “a tax even New York doesn’t have,” Perry says.

In a statement, O’Malley called the ad a public relations stunt and praised Maryland’s high-ranking public schools, support for innovation and entrepreneurship and low cost of college tuition.

O’Malley invites Perry to visit Maryland

“Gov. Perry should come to Maryland to see firsthand the better choices that have led to these better results,” O’Malley said in the statement.
Perry has directed ads towards five other states in recent months, including Illinois, Missouri and New York.

Capital News Service made several calls to Perry’s Austin office and to the offices of Texas Wide Open for Business, but was not able to reach anyone for comment.

As the 2014 primary election season looms, the business-centric ads give Perry a chance to campaign on pocketbook issues, where Republicans tend to do well, instead of social issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, said Benjamin Bates, associate professor of communication studies at Ohio University.

“It’s a pretty thick field right now, and Rick Perry is a Tea Party darling … the Tea Party right listen to people like Rick Perry,” Bates said.
Perry may also be laying the groundwork for another run at president in 2016, Bates said.

“Perry is starting the conversation, that he maybe wants to be compared with other potential candidates,” Bates said.

About The Author

Len Lazarick

len@marylandreporter.com

Len Lazarick was the founding editor and publisher of MarylandReporter.com and is currently the president of its nonprofit corporation and chairman of its board He was formerly the State House bureau chief of the daily Baltimore Examiner from its start in April 2006 to its demise in February 2009. He was a copy editor on the national desk of the Washington Post for eight years before that, and has spent decades covering Maryland politics and government.

8 Comments

  1. Robb

    Living in Maryland is the equivalent of financial slavery…can you believe they’ve jacked up gas taxes again and have the gall to charge 5 cents for plastic bags here at grocery stores. Red light and speed cameras monitor our every move and serve to rape citizens here alive of our hard earned income generating more revenue for the state. The question is WHO is watching those at the top??? Thank God Rick Perry is bringing light to this nonsense.

  2. boomlikethat

    Go Perry! Show the rest of the country what an absolute FRAUD that is Owe Malley. We lost 25% of millionaires since his efforts to make things “fair”. The gas tax (which many of us fought for 3 years) will increase the price of gas to at least .30/gallon. This is not including the increases later tagged to the price index.

  3. Ravcolt

    MD educates ’em and Texas employs ’em.

    • boomlikethat

      Not very well….

  4. InGodWeTrust

    I called Rick Perry’s office and THANKED him for running the ad and encouraged him to run it repeatedly, so more and more people know that O’Malley is the LAST person we will ever want for president, because he has done a HORRIBLE job and has ruined the state of Maryland.

  5. joe

    Republican Rick Perry for Maryland’s governor in 2014!

  6. bob

    Sometimes, the TRUTH hurts …

  7. abby_adams

    Gotta love that O’Malley is still pushing the “We’re #1 in education” bit. What he doesn’t tell the sheeple is that we are #1 in school spending, not in overall student outcome. Texas may not be the niravana that Perry presents, but to a struggling small business owner who can relocate, he sure presents a way out of MD’s deepening tax grab.

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