Rice University expert available to comment on Rove

Franz Brotzen
713-348-6775
franz.brotzen@rice.edu

Rice University expert available to comment on Rove’s critique of Perry

Rice University political scientist Mark Jones is available to speak about the recent comments by Republican strategist Karl Rove on Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential candidacy.

This week Perry called Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke “almost treasonous,” which prompted Rove to say, “Gov. Perry is going to have to fight the impression that he’s a cowboy from Texas. This simply added to it.”

The Perry/Rove dispute goes back to the 1998 general election, when the respective campaign teams of then-Gov. George W. Bush and Perry, then the Texas agriculture commissioner who was running for lieutenant governor, quarreled over campaign tactics.

“The dispute also reflects a longstanding battle within the Texas Republican Party between the conservative, yet pragmatic, establishment faction of the party (with a strong base of support in the state’s economic elite) and the party’s social conservative wing,” Jones said. “During the Bush era, the former was the dominant faction within the party, while under Perry the latter has ascended to become the dominant force. One of the more recent examples of this battle was the 2010 Republican primary, in which much of the Republican Party establishment (including President George H.W. Bush and former George W. Bush team members such as Karl Rove and Karen Hughes) backed Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in her challenge against Gov. Perry.”

Jones is Rice’s Joseph D. Jamail Chair in Latin American Studies, professor and chair of political science and fellow in political science at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy. He can conduct the interview in English or Spanish and may be reached at mpjones@rice.edu or 832-466-6535.