Home builder bankrolls Kerry critics

By Scott Gold
Los Angeles Times

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A home builder who lives lakeside in this Houston suburb, Perry has helped bankroll the widespread success of Republican candidates in Texas, has long-standing ties to many close associates of President Bush and has contributed to four Bush campaigns. According to interviews and campaign documents, he has given a total of more than $5 million to scores of candidates.

"And the vast majority of those people have never laid eyes on him," said Court Koenning, executive director of the Republican Party in Harris County.

Despite the enormous influence of his money, Perry, 71, is reticent and guarded, and remains something of a mystery in Texas. But his largess has crept onto the national stage.

A $100,000 check that Perry wrote this year represented about two-thirds of the money in Swift Boat Veterans for Truth accounts as of June 30, according to financial documents. He since has given another $100,000 to the organization, according to reports this week.

The Bush campaign says it has no ties to the group.

The group's television advertisements, running in closely contested Wisconsin, Ohio and West Virginia, and a book written by one of the group's leaders, Houston lawyer John O'Neill, are part of an orchestrated campaign questioning Kerry's fitness as a leader and commander in chief.

"Bob Perry is a very generous guy with his political donations," Koenning said. "His primary interest is good government. ... Everybody agrees that John Kerry's service to this country is admirable. But if he lied about it, that speaks to his character."

McCain condemns ads

None of the veterans featured in the advertisements served on the river patrol boats Kerry commanded during Vietnam. Several crewmates and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have condemned the advertisements.

"Bob Perry pulls the strings and never gets his hands dirty. But even by his standards, this latest deal is just over the top," said Charles Soechting, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party.
 
Perry declined to comment through his spokesman, Bill Miller, an Austin political consultant.

Perry has been a political donor for years, working with White House political director Karl Rove during Rove's Texas years, contributing to Texas Gov. Rick Perry's rise in politics and giving $20,000 to Bush's two campaigns for governor in the 1990s.

But Perry, no relation to the governor, began increasing his donations in 2000. Campaign documents and his representatives confirm he has given more money to campaigns and political organizations in the past four years than any other Texan. Most contributions have gone to Republicans and conservative causes. He provided about $700,000 for the GOP's 2002 effort to dominate Texas politics. That included $165,000 given to Texans for a Republican Majority, an offshoot of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority, formed to help conservatives get elected.

The election that year of a slate of DeLay-backed Republicans — all supported by Perry — gave the GOP control of the state House for the first time in 130 years. That paved the way for passage of a host of conservative measures, such as abortion restrictions and limits on medical-malpractice cases. The GOP also redrew congressional maps for Texas, a move designed to shore up Republican control of Congress.

Perry largely is unknown outside campaign-finance databases and a small group of political leaders, shunning social activities often embraced by major donors. Many politicians who have received Perry's money say they never have met him.

Perry taught high school

Born in a tiny ranching community in Bosque County, Perry attended Baylor University and taught high school for a while, like his father before him. He started a home-building business in Houston in 1968.

Like many prominent building companies, Perry Homes has been sued dozens of times. Perry last year was among several developers watching as the Legislature imposed strict limits on civil lawsuits, particularly claims brought by homeowners alleging shoddy construction. Critics called the seats where he and other builders watched the legislative debate the "owner's box." During that debate, the governor put a Perry Homes executive on a panel established to put in place new restrictions on claims against builders.

"I think he fancies himself as a person who can manipulate politics for his own gain," Soechting said. "Politics and money are one and the same to him."