News
Dear Friends,
Please join us on October 27th, 2012 for the First Annual Pull for Perry Trap and Skeet Shoot.
View the invite here: Pull for Perry Trap & Skeet Invite
Register online here: https://adobeformscentral.com/?f=pZ9%2AF4tsEdOMq1PCat0cCw
Please contact Catherine Rodman at 806-281-0649 or cat.rodman@gmail.com with any questions.
We look forward to seeing you on the 27th!
Dear Friends,
As we approach the end of Early Voting and Election Day, I cannot impress upon you enough the importance of going to the polls and voting. Every vote cast in this election will determine the future of our state and nation. Now more than ever it is imperative to stay involved and ensure that true conservative leaders are elected to office.
Below I have listed some of the endorsements and awards I have been fortunate to receive since the end of session. It is always nice to be recognized for ones accomplishments, but more importantly, these serve as a reminder of my core values. Activist groups tend to pride themselves on holding legislators accountable. They only grant their endorsements and awards to those legislators that have held true to their core values when votes were made. I never made a vote with a “recognition” or “punishment” in mind from any group, rather I chose to think about what was best for my constituents and the great State of Texas. However, these acknowledgements recognize my core beliefs of less government, pro-business, pro-life, pro-family, and individual responsibility.
Endorsements for the 2012 Primary Election
Recognitions for my voting record during the 82nd Session
I was ranked the 3rd most conservative member in the Texas House because I stood for fiscal responsibility, limited government, and the common sense, conservative, Christian values that still prevail in West Texas. I want to leave you with a quote on our obligation as voters:
“When you become entitled to exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers, “just men who will rule in the fear of God.” The preservation of [our] government depends on the faithful discharge of this Duty; if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded. If [our] government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine Commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the Laws.” -Noah Webster
Please share this message with your family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. Most importantly, make sure you cast your vote in the 2012 Primary Election on Tuesday, May 29th. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me, more information is available on my website www.CharlesPerryForTexas.com.
Best wishes to you and your family for a safe and blessed Memorial Day!
Sincerely yours,
State Representative — House District 83
This week is the last week of early voting! Below are the locations and times of the early voting locations in Borden, Gaines, Lubbock, Lynn, Mitchell, Scurry, and Terry Counties. I am asking for your prayers and your vote, as always do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or if I can provide any additional information. May God continue to bless you and the great State of Texas!
BORDEN COUNTY
Monday, May 21st through Friday, May 25th from 8:00 AM till 12:00 PM & 1:00 PM till 5:00 PM
Borden County Courthouse
1171 E. Wassom
Gail, Texas 79738
GAINES COUNTY
County Clerk’s Office
101 S. Main, Room 107
Seminole, Texas 79360
Seagraves Community Building
512 14th
Seagraves, Texas 79359
LUBBOCK COUNTY
Monday, May 21st through Friday, May 25th from 8:00 AM till 8:00 PM
United Supermarkets:
Elections Office, 1308 Crickets Ave
Slaton ISD Administration Bldg, 140 E Panhandle, Slaton
Roosevelt Clubhouse, 1400 CR 3300
Shallowater Community Center, 902 Avenue H, Shallowater
Idalou Clubhouse, 202 W 7th St, Idalou
Cardinal’s Sport Center, 6524 Slide Rd
Monday, May 21st through Friday, May 25th from 8:00 AM till 7:00 PM
Texas Tech University, Rec Center, Hartford & Main St
LYNN COUNTY
Monday, May 21st through Friday, May 25th from 8:00 AM till 5:00 PM
Lynn County Courthouse
County Clerk’s Office, 1st Floor
South 1st & Main Street
Tahoka, Texas 79373
MITCHELL COUNTY
Monday, May 21st through Thursday, May 24th from 8:00 AM till 5:00 PM & Friday, May 25th from 8:o0 AM till 7:00 PM
Mitchell County Courthouse Lobby
349 Oak Street
Colorado City, Texas 79512
(Enter through front or side doors)
SCURRY COUNTY
Scurry County Courthouse
1806 25th Street
Snyder, Texas 79549
TERRY COUNTY
County Clerk’s Office in the American Legion Building
1021 S. 8th
Brownfield, Texas 79316
Please see the attached invitation from the Charles Perry for State Representative Campaign. On May 8th, Texas Governor Rick Perry will be in Lubbock promoting his Texas Budget Compact, I hope that you will be able to come and hear this important message, joining us will be Michael Quinn Sullivan of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility.
The Event will be held at the 50 Yard Line Steakhouse (2549 S. Loop 289, Lubbock) from 2:00 to 3:30 PM. The program will begin at approximately 2:15 PM and following there will be a casual reception with light refreshments. I will also be available for Q&A and interviews.
The press and public are invited to attend. There is no cost but please let us know if you will be able to attend (cat.rodman@gmail.com or 806-281-0649).
Download a pdf of the invite here.
Among the core functions of Texas government is to secure the state’s international border with Mexico. I am pleased to report that I joined with other conservative Texas lawmakers during the regular and first called sessions of the 82nd Texas Legislature in passing strong legislation to give law enforcement officers the tools they need to secure the state’s southern border against illegal immigration, and the social and financial burdens that it engenders.
Prior to the start of the regular session, I was one of 79 state legislators, along with Governor Rick Perry and Comptroller Susan Combs, who signed the conservative legislative agenda of the Texas Conservative Coalition (TCC), called the “Pledge with Texans.” The pledge, which was developed in 2009 and 2010 with significant input and feedback from Texans across the state, was intended to serve as a foundation for conservatives’ long-term goals for Texas. In committing to the pledge, we promised to support and advance all of its planks during the 82nd Texas Legislature. We kept our word, particularly as it relates to securing the border.
The fifth plank of TCC’s Pledge with Texans obligated signers “to advance, support and vote for legislation that lawfully protects Texas and Texans from the fiscal and social costs of illegal immigration.” My fellow pledge signatories and I followed through, passing three significant bills.
In House Bill 1we devoted $87.8 million to fund border and homeland security initiatives. This appropriation includes more than $50 million for capital equipment items such as border security vehicles and fiber optic scopes that will help law enforcement agents secure the 1200-mile border between Texas and Mexico, which presents abundant opportunities for crimes such as trafficking of persons and drugs to occur. Law enforcement efforts along the border have been shown to decrease border crime by one-third in periods of less than a month.
During the first called session, we passed Senate Bill 1, which requires applicants for new, renewal or duplicate driver licenses to prove either U.S. citizenship or legal immigration. This bill also links the expiration of legal immigrants’ driver licenses, provisional licenses or occupational licenses to the expiration date of their legal immigration status. These changes will prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining driver licenses.
Finally, we passed Senate Bill 1009 to amend the Texas Education Code to require public institutions of higher education to notify United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) through its Student Exchange and Visitor Information System (SEVIS) when certain foreign students on certain education visas withdraw or are dismissed from their course of study. In many cases, enrollment in such a course is the basis for a foreign student’s being admitted to the United States. Therefore, it is vital that ICE be aware whenever a foreign student leaves a course, as this may invalidate his visa.
These three measures will help to protect Texas citizens and taxpayers against the social and fiscal costs of illegal immigration. I am proud that my fellow TCC members and I courageously and decisively upheld our pledge to secure Texas’ borders.
Opinion Editorial
Representative Charles Perry
3/12/2012
Contact: Charles Perry
806-281-0649
It’s Time for Obama’s DOJ to Stand Down on Voter ID
In the 2011 Legislative Session, I was one of many co-authors of the Photo Voter ID Legislation to curve voter fraud. Currently, you don’t have to show an ID to vote. This means our elections are not secure and left wide open to fraud. It also means that illegal immigrants and non-citizens can vote, and there are even incidences of legal citizens voting multiple times.
The Democrat Party has long stated that it doesn’t believe ID’s should be necessary to vote and that there is little proof of actual voter fraud, despite widely distributed news reports, and testimony, showing otherwise. They go further to claim that voter ID laws are a political tactic to prevent minorities, college students, and seniors from voting because they believe these groups are the least likely to have an ID. To help ease their concerns, though they seemed more political than legitimate, we voted to direct the Department of Public Safety to issue free ID’s.
Meanwhile, polls have consistently shown that Republicans, Democrats, and independents overwhelmingly support showing an ID to vote. So, why is the Democrat Party so out of touch with its members?
Most seasoned and first time voters naturally show their ID when voting, unaware it’s not required. Those looking to vote illegally take advantage of our current laws by simply telling the election worker a name and showing a non-photo ID and then proceeding to vote for that person. This is one reason we find out post-election that deceased people showed up to vote.
As the New York Times reported in February, we have 1.8 million dead people listed as active voters in the United States, and some 2.8 million voters have active registrations in multiple states.
The problem with prosecuting those engaged in voter fraud is once they have voted, there is no evidence that they actually cast the particular ballot. Since we do not identify ourselves on ballots, there is no record of the actual person who voted because they don’t have to show an ID to receive a ballot.
President Obama’s Department of Justice is now challenging Texas’ Voter ID Law, and hopes to prevent similar laws from around the nation from being enacted. Fortunately for us, the United State Supreme Court used common sense when already ruling in favor of a similar law passed in Indiana.
A cornerstone of democracy is that our elections are secure. A legitimate government can only be maintained by secure elections, which in turns helps provide economic and civil stability. Even our neighbor Mexico requires an ID to vote, and in turn has a much higher turnout rate than U.S. elections.
It’s time to secure our elections once and for all. I urge the Obama Administration to no longer stand in the way of the will of Texans and the Texas Legislature. Showing an ID to vote is pure common sense and Texans of all political backgrounds overwhelmingly support this policy.
State Representative Charles Perry (Republican) was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2010. He is a resident of Lubbock and a practicing CPA.
Increasing personal freedom, encouraging competition in the free market, and cutting taxes: these are all basic tenets of the conservative philosophy of government. During the regular and first called sessions of the 82nd Texas Legislature, I consistently supported legislation to uphold these conservative principles, including passing crucial “loser pays” legislation to protect individuals and businesses from bearing the costs of meritless lawsuits.
Fulfilling these promises was an important goal of the Texas Conservative Coalition’s “Pledge with Texans,” a conservative reform agenda I signed last fall, along with 78 other lawmakers, Governor Rick Perry and Texas Comptroller Susan Combs. The pledge, which was developed in 2009 and 2010 with significant input and feedback from Texans across the state, was intended to serve as a foundation for conservatives’ long-term goals for Texas. In committing to the pledge, I promised to support and advance all of its tenets during the 82nd Texas Legislature.
The fourth plank of TCC’s Pledge with Texans obligated signers to advance, support and vote for legislation that increases personal freedom and encourages the free market by lowering taxes; reforms and reduces property taxes and property tax appraisals; and cuts business tax rates, lowers businesses’ tax burden, increases competition in all areas of the economy, and encourages private sector job growth.
By far the most significant legislative victory in this category was House Bill 274, the “loser pays” tort reform legislation signed into law by the governor. This bill reforms the Texas civil justice system so cases without merit may be dismissed, and courts can award equitable and just court costs and reasonable and necessary attorney’s fees to the prevailing party. This bill will protect innocent parties from the costs of protracted, meritless lawsuits and strengthen the free market in Texas by reducing the cost of doing business in the state. In turn, this will encourage entrepreneurs and businesses to invest capital in Texas with the knowledge that the state has a fair, equitable legal climate.
My conservative colleagues and I also passed legislation to: improve oversight and auditing of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA), which provides basic wind and hail insurance coverage for Gulf Coast property owners who might otherwise be left uninsured (HB 3, first called session); equalize regulatory treatment of competing cable service providers and video service providers (SB 1087); ensure private telecommunications utilities cannot be subjected to more burdensome regulations than public utilities (SB 980); create a framework that allows the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) to implement periodic rate adjustments to expedite recovery of certain distribution infrastructure costs (SB 1693); provide an affirmative legal defense for individuals or businesses who have satisfied government environmental regulations (SB 875); and make changes to construction law dealing with retainage to reduce the number of liens filed and ensure subcontractors are paid for their work, without creating a significant burden on owners (HB 1390). All of these measures have been signed by the governor. Perhaps most importantly, SB 1 (first called session) extends small business franchise tax relief for another two years, through December 2013.
Texas’ robust business climate and superior job creation are the result of conservatives’ staunch support for free market principles. I am proud that my fellow TCC members and I joined together during the recent legislative sessions to pass significant measures to curb lawsuit abuse and affirm the role of the free market in Texas.
Safeguarding election integrity is one of the core functions of state government. During the regular and first called sessions of the 82nd Texas Legislature, my conservative colleagues and I passed several significant measures to improve election integrity and safeguard against election fraud.
Improving election integrity was Plank #3 of the Texas Conservative Coalition’s “Pledge with Texans,” a conservative reform agenda I signed – along with 78 other Texas lawmakers, Governor Perry and Comptroller Susan Combs – prior to the start of the regular session last January. The pledge, which was developed in 2009 and 2010 with significant input and feedback from Texans across the state, was intended to serve as a foundation for conservatives’ long-term goals for Texas. In committing to the pledge, we promised to support and advance all of its planks during the 82nd Texas Legislature.
The most significant legislation we passed relating to election integrity was Senate Bill 14, which requires individuals to show photo identification before voting. This bill names several forms of government-issued photo identification to be accepted at polling places, including an election identification certificate; personal identification card issued to the voter by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS); military identification card that contains the voter’s photograph; United States Citizenship certificate that contains the voter’s photograph; United States passport; and license to carry a concealed handgun issued by the DPS. The bill also provides reasonable exceptions to the photo ID requirement for indigent, elderly and disabled voters and allows individuals not carrying photo ID to vote provisionally, as long as they provide verification of their identity within six days of the election.
We also passed House Bill 2449, which makes mail-in balloting more secure by addressing a shortcoming in existing law under which a vote harvester would have to be caught in possession of at least 20 ballots to be charged with a felony. Under the new law, when official ballots or carrier envelopes are obtained in violation of current law pursuant to one continuing course of conduct, the illegal conduct could be considered as a single offense and the number of ballots or carrier envelopes aggregated in determining the grade of the offense.
My fellow conservatives and I also passed House Bill 174, which will enhance the integrity of voter registration rolls by ensuring that they are accurate and up-to-date. The bill creates a mechanism through which voters who have died and non-citizens who have illegally registered to vote are removed from voter rolls immediately.
Finally, during the first called session this summer, we passed Senate Bill 1, a measure that requires verification of citizenship or residency status for new or renewal driver licenses.
Eliminating voter fraud is an essential part of protecting voters’ rights because every fraudulent vote cancels out a legitimate vote. Governor Perry designated Voter ID an emergency item when the legislature convened in January. With passage of this legislation, my fellow conservative Texas lawmakers and I have improved the integrity of elections in our state.
Last fall, prior to the convening of the 82nd Texas Legislature, I was one of 79 conservative Texas lawmakers who signed a conservative legislative agenda that included a promise to support legislation to limit federal intrusion on states’ rights. I am pleased to say we held fast to our promises, pushing through several significant measures to limit federal intrusion into the state’s authority and responsibility.
Specifically, we pledged to advance, support and vote for legislation that reasserts the limited role of the federal government and those rights guaranteed to Texas in the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; reject new federal funds with strings attached as an enticement to create new programs; and support health care freedom legislation that guarantees the right of Texans to make their own health care choices. We also promised to support a balanced budget agreement to the U.S. Constitution that would apply in the absence of a national emergency.
These promises were embodied in the second plank of the Texas Conservative Coalition’s “Pledge with Texans,” which was developed in 2009 and 2010 with significant input and feedback from Texans across the state. Governor Perry and Texas Comptroller Susan Combs also signed the pledge.
In the First Called Session of the 82nd Legislature, my conservative colleagues and I passed Senate Bill 7, a particularly strong, conservative health care reform bill proposing that Texas join an interstate health care compact, which is a constitutional vehicle to free the state from prescriptive federal health care mandates and a substantive response to the challenge of the federal government’s increasing disregard for states’ constitutional authority and prerogatives.
We also passed House Concurrent Resolution 18, calling for a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution. While Texas operates within a spending limit contained in the Texas Constitution, the absence of a constitutional requirement to balance the federal budget has allowed the federal government to engage in deficit spending, resulting in the record levels of debt U.S. taxpayers must eventually repay. With the recent extension of the debt limit, and with more protracted debates over spending looming, a balanced budget amendment is an immediate priority to stop our nation’s self-defeating cycle of debt.
Finally, we passed House Bill 2510, which exempts incandescent light bulbs from federal regulation. In 2007, Congress passed a law outlawing certain incandescent light bulbs beginning in 2012. It is my strong feeling that the state should have the authority to regulate products within its borders when such products are not used in interstate commerce. This bill requires the Texas Attorney General to defend a citizen of Texas who is prosecuted for a violation of a federal law concerning an incandescent light bulb manufactured and retained in Texas.
Federal intrusion against our state prerogatives and authority is a significant threat to the constitutional rights of Texans, and to the State of Texas. I believe every encroachment of the federal government on state sovereignty is a step away from individual liberty and toward centralized and ineffective government. That’s why I am proud my fellow TCC members and I passed bold legislation this year to uphold the liberty of all Texans.
