Changes at the Top
June 22nd, 2007 at 11:59 am
Over the last week and a half, Gov. Perry has been busy exercising the few concrete powers granted to him by the state’s constitution: appointments and vetoes. The deadline for vetoes was last Sunday, with special projects at community colleges the most visible losers. A full list of vetoes is on Perry’s site, and here’s one newspaper rundown of the highlights.
As for executive branch staffing, Perry shuffled two long-time allies into two important slots. First he appointed Phil Wilson the new Secretary of State. Wilson, who at the time was the governor’s deputy chief of staff, replaces the outgoing Roger Williams. Days later, Perry also announced the resignation of his current chief of staff, Deidre Delisi, who is the daughter-in-law of State Rep. Dianne White Delisi (R-Temple) and, perhaps more relevant to her departure, the mother of recently born twins. Perry appointed his general counsel, Brian Newby, to replace Delisi.
Neither Wilson or Newby are yet household names, perhaps even among those who closely follow politics. Wilson, much like the outgoing Williams, has a background vested more in business than conducting fair elections. Wilson has plenty of “economic development” bonafides, and as SOS, he’ll still be Perry’s designee on hundreds of millions in the Emerging Technology and Texas Enterprise Funds.
More disturbing is his role as point man on the seemingly out-of-nowhere scheme to sell the Texas Lottery. As described in a Statesman editorial:
Gov. Rick Perry’s proposal to sell the state lottery is so entangled with political insiders and its projected payoff so iffy that the idea has to be examined skeptically. …
It’s being pushed by former U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, a Republican mentor of Perry’s who is vice president of UBS, a financial services firm hoping to broker the sale of the lottery. Gramm’s political action committee once gave $610,000 to Perry’s campaign.
UBS also hired Perry’s son, Griffin, 23, last month to work in its Dallas office. Former Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan is a lobbyist for UBS, and Perry’s deputy chief of staff, Phil Wilson, spent most of the 1990s working for Gramm.
It’s mere coincidence, say all involved, and has nothing to do with Perry’s proposal, since neither Griffin Perry nor Sullivan are working on lottery sales issues. But it only makes sense to give them jobs with appropriate cover, since UBS stands to make $30 million or more if it brokers the sale.
As for Newby, who now holds an ostensibly less partisan role, his record of public deeds is shorter. He was, though, one of only two staffers who accompanied the governor on a trip to Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Qatar in March. The Chron reported (subscription only):
Spokesman Robert Black said he didn’t know yet how much the trip will cost but that it is being financed through TexasOne, a privately financed program controlled by the governor’s office to bring more business to the state.
Some of the biggest contributors to TexasOne - $25,000 to $50,000 a year - include AT&T, Verizon, the Vinson & Elkins law firm, the Associated General Contractors of Texas, CenterPoint Energy, TXU, the BNSF Railway and Williams Brothers Construction Co.
Sounds like he’s familiar with the game.
