Bill White, Rick Perry troll for votes in upscale areas of Texas

SUGAR LAND, Texas — Gov. Rick Perry scoured for support Sunday in Houston’s vote-rich suburbs as Democratic rival Bill White looked to the World Series to jump-start his behind-in-the-polls campaign. Both candidates used their final weekend of politicking to target upscale communities, especially those where Barack Obama ran well in 2008 and helped bring Democrats to power in Congress. Discontent with the economy, health care and other issues have swung the pendulum the other way in Sugar Land, and a rally crowd of about 150 people greeted Perry with hearty applause.

Kim: http://dallasne.ws/bwjTYD

Texas governor candidates take day at different speeds

Bill White showed up Saturday morning at his Houston campaign headquarters in jeans, a lavender shirt and chocolate-colored ostrich boots, ready to knock on doors and ask for votes. Rick Perry just knocked off. He canceled a tentatively set foray into East Texas and instead went to College Station to watch the Aggies play the Red Raiders. Both candidates for governor said the race is yet to be won, but there were telling signs that the polls might be right and that Perry, the Republican, has an insurmountable lead that will take him to an unprecedented third full term.



Slater and Hoppe trace the candidates' last days of campaigning: http://dallasne.ws/bTRZcy

Poll shows Rick Perry with 12-point lead over Bill White in Texas governor's race

AUSTIN – Defying the anti-incumbent mood across much of the country, Republican Rick Perry holds a double-digit lead over Democratic challenger Bill White and appears headed to a record third full term as Texas governor. With just days to go before the election, White has been unable to close the gap with Perry, whose anti-Washington message and appeal to an energized tea party movement has paid dividends.

http://dallasne.ws/beWdMW

Texas governor candidates Bill White, Rick Perry clash over schools

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry says Texas' public schools are good and getting better. His Democratic challenger, Bill White, says schools have suffered at the hands of the Republican incumbent for a decade and need help from new leadership.
http://dallasne.ws/b7GmiD

Texas Gov. Rick Perry raises $8.4 million, challenger Bill White raises $3.7 million in latest reporting period

AUSTIN — Texas Gov. Rick Perry spent $15 million on television ads in a blistering spending spree in the final weeks of the Republican’s campaign against Democratic challenger Bill White.

The governor tapped a handful of reliable big-dollar donors to finance the late-campaign push, including Houston homebuilder Bob Perry (no relation), who gave $600,000 directly and another $3 million through a GOP governors group backing Perry.

The latest report, covering four weeks of fundraising through Oct. 23, means Perry has raised at least $36.6 million to win re-election.

White collected $3.7 million in the latest period, bringing to $25 million the amount he has raised to unseat the 10-year incumbent. He spent $6 million during the period, leaving him with $487,000 in the bank.


http://dallasne.ws/94KiVX

Perry, White take shots at each other over immigration

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry and challenger Bill White swapped charges over immigration Monday, each accusing the other of failing to keep Texans safe from illegal immigrants and sex offenders crossing the porous border from Mexico.

Slater: http://dallasne.ws/d5iX3B

Bill White says Rick Perry's donors got special treatment in Teacher Retirement System investments

AUSTIN – Democrat Bill White said Tuesday that Gov. Rick Perry's appointees have pressured managers of the Teacher Retirement System to invest in companies benefiting the governor's political donors. White circulated a whistle-blower's memo that alleges insider deals and special treatment for Perry allies in the way teacher retirement money has been invested.  
Slater: http://dallasne.ws/ct8fhR

During Texas gubernatorial debate, opponents pile it on no-show Rick Perry

AUSTIN – Democrat Bill White debated the governor who wasn't there Tuesday, accusing Rick Perry of enriching his political friends and leaving the state in fiscal trouble.

Slater reports: http://dallasne.ws/dtsa7o

Perry plays it safe, does little talking, while White takes aim at rival

Many believe Perry's campaign is playing it safe. He has eschewed editorial boards and is refusing to debate. His campaign is limited to a few stops a day, mostly for positive, staged announcements or small gatherings of supporters. No fatigue-fueled mistakes.

Bill White's campaign is about fixing a target on Perry while rolling down the aisles of state problems – dropouts, higher education costs, border security. He wants to engage voters on how to fix Texas and has attacked his opponent for promoting himself and helping his friends.
http://dallasne.ws/9QC2bU

White challenges Perry's motives

White questioned Perry's ethics Monday in front of the Texas Ethics Commission and during a speech to the Dallas Democratic Forum.
http://dallasne.ws/c3rIVD

On the road with Perry and White: Washington, education, football and lots of jabs

For Rick Perry and Bill White, it's the near-end of a long race that has cost $50 million so far and taken them to the farthest precincts of Texas – from small-town squares to urban centers, burgeoning suburbs to the flat high plains
Hoppe and Slater on the campaign trail: http://dallasne.ws/bdFW8V

Media awash in nasty ads from Texas governor candidates Perry and White

AUSTIN – From newspapers to radio, from TV to online, the political ad blitz is reaching a feverish pitch in Texas. And, unlike earlier spots filled with smiling faces and courtly comments, the new ones are awash in nasty, finger-pointing charges.

Christy Hoppe and Wayne Slater report:
http://dallasne.ws/cYiqI2

Perry taps big-dollar donors; White's cash comes from unions, lawyers

AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry tapped scores of big-dollar donors – including some who have business before the state or have benefited from taxpayer subsidies – to raise $8 million in the last three months for his re-election race. The fundraising blitz leaves Perry with $10 million in the bank going into the final weeks of the campaign. Democratic challenger Bill White collected $4.7 million in the latest period and has $2.75 million in cash on hand. White got sizable donations from labor unions, trial lawyers and the Democratic Governors Association, which has invested heavily in the race amid party hopes the 10-year incumbent governor might be vulnerable.

Slater reports: http://dallasne.ws/aqJiBO

In tight race for Texas governor, a few voting blocs stand out

Texans are bucking tradition in the matchup between Republican Rick Perry and Democrat Bill White. Women, Hispanics, young urbanites and upbeat voters are highly sought-after in elections, and most tend to lean Democratic.

Kim and Meyers have the story: http://dallasne.ws/a1Hjwo

Minor-party hopefuls get Texas gubernatorial debate invitations

Unlikely to get a one-on-one exchange between Republican Gov. Rick Perry and Democratic challenger Bill White, the state's largest newspapers today will invite two minor-party candidates to a planned debate next month.
http://dallasne.ws/9DTekh

Rick Perry, Bill White clash in separate interviews

Texas voters may not have a face-to-face governor's debate between Rick Perry and Bill White this fall. But they got the next best thing Thursday. In consecutive but separate TV interviews in Dallas, the two rivals scuffled over how best to tackle Texas' budget hole, immigration, insurance regulation and other hot topics. Jeffers and Kim report: http://dallasne.ws/9dk0bO

Trial lawyers heavily support Bill White for governor

AUSTIN – For the first time in more than a decade, trial lawyers – a key source of campaign cash for Democrats – are betting big on the party's candidate for governor. Plaintiffs attorneys gave more than $1.9 million through June, the most recent figures available, to Democrat Bill White's campaign. And a Houston lawyer is bankrolling a political committee with $3 million to help beat incumbent Republican Rick Perry. http://dallasne.ws/bpyESl

Bill White says releasing tax returns for debate would set 'bad precedent'

Rusak:
Bill White gave perhaps his clearest answer yet on the debate about debates today, telling WBAP-AM's Mark Davis that the reason he won't release certain tax returns to meet Rick Perry's demand for a debate is that it would set a bad precedent. "I don't think it's right for one candidate to impose some kind of condition like this on the other for them to attend a debate," the Democratic candidate for governor said. "That's just not right."
http://dallasne.ws/bBRliz

Rick Perry still won't debate Bill White until tax records are released

Rick Perry reaffirmed Tuesday that he won't debate rival Bill White unless the Democratic nominee for governor publicly releases income taxes from his years as deputy U.S. energy secretary. "I'm pretty much set on doing what I said I would do," Perry said in a Dallas visit. "He needs to come clean with the people of this state. There's obviously something in those tax returns, or he would have released them by now."  http://dallasne.ws/aIKTpX

Gromer Jeffers reports:

White might trim but wouldn't eliminate Texas tourism ads, aide says

AUSTIN – Bill White's campaign, under fire from the hospitality industry, now says the Democrat doesn't want to get rid of state-paid ads wooing tourists if he's elected governor. "He's saying it's a candidate for cuts, not that he would zero it out," White spokeswoman Katy Bacon said Tuesday, referring to a tourism ad campaign controlled by the governor's office. Garrett reports: http://dallasne.ws/b19JKJ